With CAT, you can save and load poses and animation from individual body parts to entire rigs. You can save clip files from any body part; select and then right-click a rig part such as a finger or facial bone and save the animation. During loading, you can mirror, transform, and swap poses and animation.
CATRigs or Components
You can save poses for whole CATRigs, hubs, arms and legs, hands and feet, fingers, toes, tails, and even sub-bone hieararchies. And you can reuse poses or animation from any body part.
Interactive Loading
When a pose or animation file is being loaded, all the load parameters are “live.” You can change the loaded file, the time of the load, or any of the parameters related to how the pose is loaded. As the artist, you can validate the loaded pose by scrubbing the time slider and view the results of the loaded pose or animation data before commiting to the result by clicking OK.
Transformations
During loading, the artist has full interactive control over the transformation and mirroring of the pose or animation during load.
Ghosting
To help validate the loaded pose, the CATRig displays a ghost of the currently loaded pose. This lets you see the result of the loaded file as you scrub the timeline.
Procedures
To save a full-rig pose:
- With Animation mode active,
select a hub in your rig, such as a pelvis, ribcage or head object. - Right-click the selected hub object or its gizmo, and choose Save Pose from the bottom-left quadrant.
This opens the Save Hub Pose dialog.
- On the Save Hub Pose dialog, turn on Save Whole Rig. Change the name if you like, and then click OK.
With a hub selected, you can save a pose for an entire rig.
To load a full-rig pose:
- With Animation mode active, select a hub in your rig, such as a pelvis, ribcage or head object.
- Right-click the selected hub object or its gizmo, and choose Load Pose from the bottom-left quadrant.
This opens the Load Hub Pose dialog.
The default pose-file name is that of the rig you saved most recently.
- Turn on Load Whole Rig, if necessary.
- To change the pose to load, click the
button to the right of the pose name and then choose a different pose from the list. - On the Save Hub Pose dialog, turn on Save Whole Rig. Change the name if you like, and then click OK.
- A ghost is displayed for the ghost at the time is it being loaded. Options include mirroring the pose, and you can use the Load Time setting to specify the time at which the pose is loaded. Also, if you turn on Transform Type-in, you can change any of the transformation options for the loaded file.
- Click Ok to load the pose.
With a hub selected, you can load a pose for an entire rig.
Interface
Save Pose dialog
The Save Pose dialog defines a file name and path. When using the copy and paste pose system, CAT saves pose files. The filename and location are generated automatically, but you can change these.
- [name field]
-
The name of the pose file to save. The name of the pose is generated from the name of the bodypart you are saving and the frame at which you save the file.
To change the name, edit the field, or to change the name and/or location, click the “b” button.
- b
-
Click to browse for a different save path, and optionally change the file name.
- Save Whole Rig
-
Available only when saving a pose from a hub. When on, the pose is saved for the entire rig rather than just the hub.
Load Pose dialog
Load Pose, like all dialogs in this feature, is non-modal. This means that you can rotate the viewport, scrub the time slider, and validate your results as you edit the parameters of the loaded pose. The only exception is that deselecting the selected bone cancels the load operation.
- [name field]
-
The name of the pose file to load.
By default, this is the most recently saved file, but you can choose a different one by clicking the
button. - >
-
Expands the dialog and opens a list that shows all saved poses in the default location. Choose a different pose from the list or navigate to another location by double-clicking the <..> entry at the top of the list.
- Load Time
-
The time at which the pose will be loaded. You can edit this value interactively to change the time the animation is loaded.
- Mirror
-
Toggles whether the pose is mirrored when loaded.
Mirroring is not available when loading limb, palm, or digit poses.
- Load Whole Rig
-
Toggles whether you are loading a rig or a body-part pose. Available only when loading a hub pose.
- Transform Type-in
-
Lets you apply a transformation to the loaded pose. Use the Pos(ition) and Rot(ation) Offset fields to enter values for the transformation of the pose data from the saved version. You can, for example, ensure that the pose is loaded in its exact original location for creating looped motions, or with a specific translation and rotation offset.
- Cancel
-
Cancels the load operation and closes the window.
If you deselect the selected CATBone, the load is automatically canceled.
- OK
-
Loads the pose using the current settings.
Animation
Saving and loading animation is similar to saving and loading poses.
Save Animation dialog
The Save Pose dialog defines a file name and path. When using the copy and paste anim system, CAT saves clip files.
- [name field]
-
The name of the animation file to save. The name of the file is generated from the name of the bodypart you are saving and the frame at which you save the file.
To change the name, edit the field, or to change the name and/or location, click the “b” button.
- b
-
Click to browse for a different save path, and optionally change the file name.
- Save Whole Rig
-
Available only when saving an animation from a hub. When on, the animation is saved for the entire rig rather than just the hub.
- Start Time
-
The first frame of the range to save.
- End Time
-
The last frame of the range to save.
