Fixed data point and bone shapes

[matt]

Great software! Here are a couple of suggestions for new features

1. Fixed data point - It would be nice to be able to fix a data point on a key frame so that it doesn't move around during the tween. An example of this would be when animating a tail and you want the end that is attached to the body to stay still.

2. The ability to use simple shapes (eclipses and rectangles) with the bone tool as well as a straight lines to help control the volume of objects that are tweened.

[matt]

I have been experimenting a little further and it appears the bone tool doesn't work like I expected, as it only works on groups. So I would like to see the bone tool working independently of groups like the ones in toon boom/flash/animestudio etc?

[matt]

After some more experimenting I've managed to solve the problems I was having with bones. I'll post an image when I get the time as it may be of help to other users

[matt]

I was trying to animate a dinosaur swinging its neck downwards in an arc. The pictures show a simplified version made up of three different groups and bones. The head is bound to the neck, the neck is bound to the body.

If the bones aren't bound or you only have bones in the head and neck you get breaks at the joins. However by binding the body to the neck it starts to move about, you can stop this by turning off maintain bone length and having the other end of bone end at the same point on both keys.

This is a real breakthrough for me, as this kind of fluid motion of 'soft' limbs like necks and tails has only been possible from very tedious rigging animation software like Harmony and AnimeStudio or drawing the inbetweens by hand.

Horrah for Cacani!!