Rigging properties

The rigging family: an artwork layer's binding influences - position, rotation and scale in percent (0..100) - addressed by rigging item id - and (RIG-W2 CONTROL) an artwork constraint's leaves: influence (percent), distance (px, the distance kind) and path_distance (percent of the path length, which may exceed 100 - the path kind). RIG-W4 POSE adds a weighted or mesh binding's corrective influences (percent, addressed by corrective id) and a rigid binding's target hold - rigging.<item_id>.target, a {kind, id} reference that reads and keyframes (hold keys switch the parent over time) but never drives. Every other pattern reads, keyframes AND drives: a script fading an influence from 100 to 0 releases the artwork from its bone over time.

Every pattern below is readable from scripts through prop() and layer.prop(); ids in a pattern (like <effect_id>) stand for the entity's real id. Patterns marked drive set are the ones scripts may WRITE (every animatable pattern); the rest are statics that change through commands, and a write to one refuses with the typed type_mismatch ("the property is static").

Worked examples#

The rigging family: an artwork layer's binding influences - position, rotation and scale in percent (0..100) - addressed by rigging item id - and (RIG-W2 CONTROL) an artwork constraint's leaves: influence (percent), distance (px, the distance kind) and path_distance (percent of the path length, which may exceed 100 - the path kind). Every pattern reads, keyframes AND drives: a script fading an influence from 100 to 0 releases the artwork from its bone over time, a script ramping a path distance runs the artwork along its track.

Worked example: Run the track#

The scene. A Stage comp with an open Track path (a rise from (80, 260) over (320, 100) down to (560, 260)) and a Runner solid whose rigging stack carries one path constraint onto the Track, offsets off - the Runner's anchor sits on the path wherever its path distance says.

• The comp Stage: 640 by 360 at 25 fps, 100 frames (4 seconds).
• Track: a path layer, filled #2a3140.
• Runner: a solid layer, at [80, 260], 40 by 40, filled #e0a34d.
  • The rigging stack: rigging_1 - a path constraint onto the Track layer, offsets off.

The script. Add a project script named Run the track and paste:

export const outputs = ["layer_2:rigging.rigging_1.path_distance"];

export function frame() {
  return linear(time, 0, 4, 0, 100);
}

Line by line:

• Line 1: One output: the PATH DISTANCE of the Runner's path constraint (the one item on its rigging stack, targeting the Track path). rigging.<item_id>.path_distance is a percent of the path's length - 0 is the track's start, 100 its end, and it may exceed 100 (the item's flags decide whether the artwork keeps running along the tangent or stops).
• Line 4: linear() maps the first four seconds onto 0 to 100 and holds 100 after that: the Runner's anchor travels the whole track in four seconds - up the rise to the crest at 50 and down the far side - and rests at the end. With Orient on the item would also turn the Runner along the track's tangent; here it keeps its own rotation.

What you see. The Runner sets off from the track's start, climbs to the crest at two seconds and reaches the far end at four, then holds there - at one second its path distance reads 25, at two seconds 50.