Position Puppetry

Puppeting by X- and Y-axis

1. Create an object for puppetry.
   
2. Select the target object and enter the Motion Pilot mode.
3. Drag the X and Y sliders to adjust the puppet sensitivity. The greater the values, the farther the object is compelled to move when puppeting begins.
   
4. Click the Preview button and press the Spacebar to start previewing.
   
5. Preview or record the puppet animations.
   
6. By using the Z setting, the object can be driven to move in the entire 3D space. Refer to the next section for more information about Puppeteering by Z Axis.
   

Puppeting by Z-axis

Puppeting by Z-axis is somewhat different because the mouse cursor trajectory only moves in the XY plane. Therefore, the depth of the object must be driven by either X- or Y-axis movements of the cursor.

1. Create a scene with an object for puppeting.
   
2. Adjust the object's depth by the Z-axis.
   
3. Select the target object and enter the Motion Pilot mode.
4. Set the X, Y, Z sliders to 0.0, 1.0, and 10.0 respectively to determine the sensitivity for puppeting vertical and depth animations.
   
5. At the right end of the Z slider, click the Move Z Input Axis drop-down list to choose the axis of movements for the mouse cursor to the depth of the object.
   
   In this case, Y is chosen.
   
   Depth Puppeting

   • The cursor moves up to push the object away and down to pull it near.
     
   • Also playback the following videos to check out the effect of the Move Z Input Axis setting.
     • X (move cursor right to push object away)
       
     • -X (move cursor left to push object away)
       
     • Y (move cursor up to push object away)
       
     • -Y (move cursor down to push object away)
       
6. You can then start to preview or record the animation of the object, now with depth variations.