Using Pins

While the bone is used to bend or distort the object in the image, the pin is used to keep the object from being driven to animate. It is very useful when you wish to have specific areas of the object to be fixed.

ClosedUsing Pins for Static Areas of the Image

The basic idea of using pins is to fix up desired areas of the image from being driven by any bone.

  1. Click the Create Free Bone button on the Toolbar.

  2. Load an image. Cartoon Animator will automatically switch to the bone-adding mode in the Composer.

  3. Add bones.

  4. Press down the Preview button and view the animation result with the IK or FK methods.

    You will see that the entire image is driven to animate.
  5. Press up the Preview button and deselect the bone.
    ClosedNote:

    Because the image is attached to the Bone Root, deselect any bone to make sure that the pins are attached to the Bone Root.

  6. Open the Bone Editor panel and press down the Add Pin button.
  7. Click on the image to add pin to keep the pinned part fixed.

  8. Preview again. You will see that most images are kept static.

    The images that are close to the bone can still move a little (in this case, the side of the cat's face and ear).
  9. Open the Mask Editor and filter off the unnecessary part of the image.

  10. Leave the Mask Editor and preview the animating result again.
ClosedUsing Pins for Animating Areas of Image

The advanced use of pins allow specific parts of the image to be driven by specific bones.

  1. Click the Create Free Bone button on the Toolbar.

  2. Load an image. Cartoon Animator will automatically switch to the Bone-adding mode in the Composer.

  3. Create a free bone character in the Composer Mode.

  4. Open the Bone Editor panel and press down the Add Pin button.
  5. Select one of the bones.
  6. Click on the image to determine the parts that will be driven by the bone.
  7. Press down the Preview button.
  8. Use IK or FK method to animate the bone string. The parts with pins will be driven to move as well.

    ClosedNote:

    Because the pins are attached to the bone selected in Step 5, when the bone string is animated, the bone and the attached pins will be animated as well.