Animation

Bones and inverse kinematics

An armature is a chain of bones inside a shape or between symbols. Drag the end of the chain and the joints bend to follow, which is called inverse kinematics (IK). Build armatures of symbols or bone a shape with the Bone tool, and pose and play them along with the armatures in FLA files.

Building an armature

Use the Bone tool (M) to join symbol instances with bones:

1. Drag from a point on one instance to a point on another. The bone runs from where you press to where you let go. Both instances must be on unlocked layers.
2. Phoenix puts both instances on a new armature layer, Armature_1, above the first one's layer. Each instance turns about its joint, which becomes its transformation point.
3. To grow the armature, drag from any instance already in it to another instance. The new bone starts at that instance's joint, so one instance can branch into several bones. Bones can be added at any time, on any frame of the span: in every other pose the new bone turns with the bone it hangs from. An instance can be in only one armature.

Each bone added is a single step to undo.

Bones inside a shape

The Bone tool also bones a shape, so its outline bends as the bones turn:

1. Drag inside a shape, a merged shape or a drawing object, from where the first bone starts to where it ends.
2. Phoenix moves the shape to a new armature layer, kept in a library symbol of its own, and binds each of its control points to the nearest bone. A point as near one bone as another, such as one beside the joint between them, follows both.
3. To grow the armature, drag from one of its joints. Every point is bound again to its nearest bone.

Binding points with the Bind tool

The Bind tool, in the Bone tool's slot, changes which bones a boned shape's control points follow. It shows the points of every boned shape on the stage: a square for a point that follows one bone, a triangle for one that follows several, and a red outline for one that follows none and so stays where it is.

1. Click a bone. The points that follow it turn yellow.
2. Click a point to bind it to the bone, as well as to any bones it already follows.
3. Shift-click a point to bind it, or to unbind it if it is already bound. Ctrl-click a point to unbind it.

A point bound to several bones follows them evenly. Every frame of the armature is bent again from its first frame by the new binding, and each change is a single step to undo.

Joint limits

Click a bone with the Bone tool, without dragging, to set how far the joint at its head may turn. In the Joint Rotation and Spring dialog, turn on Constrain and give the Min and Max angles, measured from the bone above. When you drag the armature into a pose, a limited joint stops at its limit and the other joints turn further to make up the difference.

Springs

The same dialog gives a bone a spring, for a tail, an antenna, ears or a ponytail that swings on its own. With Spring above None, the bone trails behind as the bones above it move and as its own poses change, swings past and settles back where its pose has it. A low spring swings wide and slow, a high one quick and small; Damping says how quickly the swinging dies away, from 0 (it goes on bouncing) to 100 (it settles at once). Springs move the instances of an armature of symbols, and bend a boned shape where its bones swing, the same every time it plays, on the stage, in Test Movie and in exports; the bones themselves show the pose.

Armature layers

Armatures live on their own layers, and their spans are drawn yellow-green in the timeline. A pose is a keyframe for the whole armature: Phoenix fills in the frames between poses, easing them the way the file says, when you play the document and when you export it. A shape bends from pose to pose, and the instances of a symbol armature turn and move with their joints.

Posing

Bones are drawn in the layer's color as slim shapes with round joints. Then, with the Selection tool:

1. Move the playhead to the frame you want to pose.
2. Drag a bone. Its tip follows the cursor and the bones above it in the chain bend to reach.

The frame becomes a pose if it wasn't one already, and the frames on either side of it ease into it. Each pose change is a single step to undo.

• Armatures between symbols carry their instances with them on every frame. Posing the first frame of a span moves the instances themselves; posing a later frame moves them only there and in the frames that ease toward it.
• Boned shapes bend the points of the shape, each with the bones it is bound to.
• Springs swing the bones on top of their poses: a boned shape bends where its sprung bones swing, and an armature of symbols carries its instances with them (see Springs).

Pose commands

Right-click a frame of an armature layer, or use Edit › Timeline › Pose, to work with poses directly:

Insert Pose

Makes the armature's look on that frame a pose, without moving it, so you can then change the motion from there.

Copy Pose

Remembers the armature's pose on that frame, whether or not a pose is there.

Paste Pose

Poses the armature on that frame as the copied pose, adding a pose there if there was none. It pastes onto an armature with the same bones, in the same document or another.

Clear Pose

Takes away the pose on that frame, so the armature tweens straight from the pose before to the pose after. The first pose stays.

Each is one step to undo; boned shapes bend and symbol instances move as they do when you pose by dragging.

Asset Warp

Asset Warp puppets, where artwork bends around pins, are drawn deformed by their pins, vector and bitmap art alike. A turned pin turns the art right round it, a frozen pin keeps the art round it at its own angle, and a bone between two pins keeps the art along it on the line between them.

Asset Warp tool

Use the Asset Warp tool (Shift+W) to make a puppet and bend it by its pins:

• Click a shape, a bitmap, a group or a graphic symbol instance to make it a puppet, with the first pin where you clicked. Its art goes into a graphic symbol (WarpedAsset_1) inside a puppet symbol (PuppetShape_1), both in the library, and the puppet takes its place. Movie clips and buttons cannot be warped.
• Click the puppet to show its pins. A click on the art where there is no pin adds one there.
• Drag a pin. The art bends around the other pins, which hold their places.
• Shift-drag a pin to turn it, and the art right round it, without moving it. A turned pin shows a tick the way it turned.
• Click a pin and press F to freeze it, or again to let it go: the art round a frozen pin keeps its angle while the pins about it move. A frozen pin is square.
• Click a pin, then Ctrl-click another to join them with a bone, or to take away the bone between them. The art along a bone stays on the line between its pins, like a stiff limb.
• Alt-click a pin, or click it and press Delete, to take it away.

Making a puppet, and each pin change, is a single step to undo. Pins are kept on each keyframe's instance, so a classic tween between two keyframes bends the art from one set of pins to the other. To bend art by handles without making it a puppet, use a deformer.

All armature and warp data is kept when you save, so saved FLA files keep them intact.