Grouping Rules for a Hierarchical Prop (New for v4.1)

You can combine parts or sprites into one single prop, and then arrange their layer orders to create animatable hierarchical objects. By following the intuitive PSD layer naming rules, you can set object hierarchy for structured animation.

Take the following PSD project as an example. It is a robot composed of several image layers, such as Hip, Eye, Right Arm, Left Arm, Right Foot, Left Foot, and so on.

After the PSD file is imported to Cartoon Animator, you can check the object list in the Scene Manager.
You will find that the PSD file is converted into one object named Robot under the Prop type.

Select the prop object and enter the Composer mode, you will further find that the PSD layers are converted into hierarchical Sprite images in the Scene Manager as shown below:

  • 1st Level (Root): Hip
  • 2nd Level: Eye, RArm, MArm, LArm, RThigh, and LThigh
  • 3rd Level: RForearm, MForearm, LForearm, RShank, and LShank
  • 4th Level: RHand1, RHand2, MHand1, MHand2, LHand1, LHand2, RFoot, and LFoot

To build such a hierarchy of Sprite images for a prop, you have to follow the Reallusion grouping rules.

ClosedNaming the group layers

In your PSD project file, create two group layers with the standard names - RL_Pivot and RL_Image.

  • RL_Pivot: This group will be used to set up the pivot of the corresponding image layers.
  • RL_Image: This group will be used to house all image layers that compose a prop.

ClosedPlacing the images

After the name of the group layers are defined, start to design all images which make up the prop and place them into the RL_Image group as shown below.

ClosedSetting the image pivots

Inside the RL_Pivot group, create a new image layer and rename it as ObjectPivot. Add any image representing the pivot into it. The center of the image in the layer will be taken as the pivot of the entire prop.

Create another image layer. Add any image representing the pivot into it. Rename the layer to the one for which you want to set the center, in this case, the Eye (identical with the image layer name under the RL_Image group). The center of the image in this layer will be taken as the center of the component (Sprite).

Create the rest of the corresponding image layers for all the prop Sprites. In this case, the pivot serves as the joints of the robot as shown below.

ClosedBuilding the hierarchy

After the image pivots are assigned, you can organize prop sprites with a child-parent hierarchy by renaming these image layers in certain formations.

  1. First define the root layer of the prop (in this case, Hip) for the 1st level.
  2. Assign the image layers that connect to the root (in this case, Eye, RArm, MArm, LArm, RThigh, and LThigh) for the 2nd level.
    Prefix these image layers so that the root layer name is followed by a ">" sign. For example: Hip>Eye.
  3. Assign the image layers that connect to the ones of the 2nd level.
    Prefix these image layers so that the 2nd level layer name is followed by a ">" sign. For example: RArm>RForearm.
  4. Assign the image layers that connect to the ones of the 3rd level.
    Prefix these image layers so that the 3rd level layer name is followed by a ">" sign. For example: RForearm>RHand1.
  5. A hierarchy of up to four levels for the prop is structured, as the one you can see in the Scene Manager of the Composer mode after the PSD file is converted to a prop in Cartoon Animator.

After dragging the PSD file into Cartoon Animator, you can animate the multi-parts prop with the Prop Key Editor. Assign each sprite part with unique animations, and sequence their playback time.

You can refer to the following sections for more information: