FreeStyle Rigging (SMR Tool)

Functionality

FreeStyle Rigging ToolAn interactive tool for creating Smart Magnet Rig ™ hierarchies.

FreeStyle Rigging (SMR Tool) is usually grouped with KineFlex (SMR Tool).

It can be chosen by long-clicking the KineFlex icon and then choosing from the drop-down or by using the FreeStyle Rigging (SMR Tool) command or pressing F4. The cursor becomes a +.
In Animate 2020 and newer, click on the at the bottom of the toolbar, find the tool’s icon in the pool of tools and drag it to a desired location in toolbar. (Click for details…)

Rigging is done in direction from ‘parent’ to ‘child’.
Best practice would be to start from the Master Parent and branch out from there according to a FK logic.

Clicking on a Symbol instance and dragging in the direction of another Symbol instance will draw bounding boxes around the source and the target instance and will show a dynamic arrow pointing from the source to the target. Upon mouse-release the target symbol will become a child of the source symbol. If Magnet Target is not present in the parent symbol it will be added automatically and so will be a Center Marker in the child symbol.

Suggested use

Smart Magnet Rigging
Read more…

Where does it work?

Stage, Current Keyframe

EDAP Tools shortcut

F4 (FreeStyle Rigging Tool becomes the active tool); Shift+F4settings in Animate (Quick Settings, Animate only)

Notes

FreeStyle Rigging (SMR Tool) will not work if the current frame is not a Keyframe.

FreeStyle Rigging (SMR Tool) will not work on Parented Layers (PL).
(To convert Parented Layers to a Smart Magnet Rig, use SMRize Parented in the SMR Helpers panel.)

Known issues

Plugin tool script error in method mouseUp: If you see this message in Output, that means that the JSFL engine has crashed the tool. You need to restart Flash / Animate to be able to continue using it.

System Clipboard interference
A known issue with all versions of Flash and Animate is that data stored temporarily in the System Clipboard can be exposed to interference by other programs running at the same time as Flash/Animate. This can cause an error during EDAPT Object creation or insertion.

If you see any error messages or if you experience problems during FreeStyle Rigging, please, follow this link.

Video demonstration



All our videos are 1080p. If for some reason full HD is not available here, try watching them on youtube.

This tool is part of the Flanimate Power Tools package. Download the latest version from the Downloads page.
 
Comments

I just experimented with the ‘make Edatptable’ and the FreeStyle Rigging tools. WOW!! Can this toolset get any better? Is there a way to expose the Smart Magnet Rig and make manual adjustments to it?

Hi Law,

Just load the rig in the SMR Panel and edit it the way you would any other rig.
You can move/edit the MTs, just the way you would if you had rigged it manually.
There is no difference between a SMR rigged with the FreeStyle Rigging tool and any of the other methods.

Hagos T Negusse

Thank you, Nick! I have been using Macromedia Flash and now animate cc and found the EDAP tools very helpful. Recently I have purchased a onetime subscription (EDAP premium). Will keep on studying your tutorials.
Thanks,
Hagos

Thank you very much for the kind words, Hagos!
We’re very glad to hear you’re finding the tools helpful!

Good luck with your projects!
Nick

ps. We’ll be releasing a fix for that button issue in the next 48 hours, so please, keep an eye on our news feed or Facebook to know when it is available to download and update.

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