Skeleton Deformation Layer¶

About Skeleton Deformation Layers¶

Skeleton Deformation Layer is for raster deformation (pixel level) and can be used to image layers or whatever is in the context of the skeleton deformation layer (the rendered result of what’s below it).

Skeleton Deformation acts like a normal “raster” layer (i.e. Blur, Warp), it is a raster deformation.

The Skeleton Distortion layer allows to set the distortion area and mesh resolution.

The Layers Panel’s Show/Hide checkbox of the Skeleton Deformation Layer activate/deactivate the deformation and the visibility of the distortion area.

Parameters of Skeleton Deformation Layers¶

The parameters of the Skeleton Deformation Layers are:

Name	Value	Type
Z Depth Parameter	0.000000	real
Opacity	1.000000	real
Blend Method	Composite	integer
Blur Layer	Fast Gaussian Blur	integer
Bones		list
Point 1		vector
Point 2		vector
Horizontal subdivisions	32	integer
Vertical subdivisions	32	integer

Usage of the Skeleton Deformation Layer¶

Set the distortion area¶

The Skeleton Deformation Layer’s bound rectangle define the distortion area. You can modify it by dragging the handles of the first and second corners (Point 1 up left and Point 2 down right).

Build the skeleton¶

To setup the bones of the Skeleton Deformation Layer, first, deactivate the deformation unchecking the Show checkbox of from the Layers Panel. Now you can move the first bone using its Origin handle, change its orientation with the Angle handle and its length using the Local Length Scale handle. Right click in any handle of bones and choose Create Child Bone to create another bone and adjust it with its handles. Any child bones will follow recursively his parents position.

Once setup the armature, control the influence. Enable Width Handle (Alt+5) and set the influence area for each bone.

Reset the Pose¶

Once you have terminated to setup the bones of your skeleton, from the Layers Panel, right click on the Skeleton Deformation Layer and from the contextual menu choose Reset Pose to create the initial pose (without deformation) of the skeleton.

Now you can animate your skeleton !

Video Howto¶

Bone-driven Image Distortion (part 4)

Why using skeleton deformation layer parts of the image are disappearing?¶

If parts of the image are disappearing when you enable the Skeleton Deformation Layer (and have checked that you don’t have Cairo rendering ([Setup_Dialog#Render_Tab]) enabled), is’t surely because the image is cropped by bone influence area. You need to turn off bone distortion layer (from the Layers Panel, select it, enable width handles (Alt+5) and set the influence area for each bone.

Specific parameters for Skeleton Deformation Layers¶

Some of the parameters of Skeleton Deformation Layers are common parameter that are shared for several types of Layers. Click on the links to see their definitions. Only the particular parameters for the Skeleton Deformation Layers are described here.

Bones¶

The Bones parameter is a list of Bone elements.

The parameters of a Bone are:

Name	Value	Type
Name	Bone 1	string
Parent	No Parent	bone_valuenode
Origin	0.00000, 0.00000	vector
Angle	0.00°	angle
Local Length Scale	1.00000	real
Bone Width	0.10000	real
Recursive Length Scale	1.00000	real
Tip Width	0.10000	real
Z Depth	0.00000	real
Length Setup	1.00000	real

Name¶

Parent¶

Origin¶

Coordinate of the Origin of the Bone.

Angle¶

Angle of the Bone.

Local Length Scale¶

Bone Width¶

Recursive Length Scale¶

Tip Width¶

Z Depth¶

This parameter can be used to change the ‘depth’ (order) of a Bone in a Skeleton Layer.

Length Setup¶

Point 1¶

The parameter Point 1 is a Vector point defining the upper left corner of the distortion area.

Point 2¶

The parameter Point 2 is a Vector point defining the bottom right corner of the distortion area.

Horizontal Subdivisions¶

Horizontal definition of the meshes. This integer value affect the distortion quality.

Vertical Subdivisions¶

Vertical definition of the meshes. This integer value affect the distortion quality.