Apple Motion 5.1.1 - Manual (Page 371)

Chapter 10 Rigs and widgets 371
How rigging works
Rigging works through the use of snapshots. A snapshot is a record of the current state of
selected parameters in your project. Widgets let you switch between or even interpolate
between stored snapshots. For example, you can create a snapshot where a text object features
black type with a white shadow, and another snapshot where the same text object features
white text with a black shadow. A checkbox widget in a rig toggles between the two states.
A checkbox widget that toggles between two states is the simplest rigging control. Slightly
more complex is the pop-up menu widget, which lets you select between multiple parameter
states. The slider widget offers even more advanced control over multiple parameter states.
For example, a slider widget lets you make gradual changes from one state to another or even
use keyframes to control how the slider widget changes. You can choose which parameters
are modified in the snapshot in a number of ways (described in more detail in
Snapshots
overview on page 378).
After you assign a parameter to a widget, changes you make to that parameter update the active
snapshot in that widget. For example, if the parameter is assigned to a pop-up menu widget, the
change is applied to the selected menu item.
Each parameter in a project can be assigned to only one widget at a time. However, you can
store many values for that parameter as different snapshots that can be accessed using a pop-up
menu or slider widget. (As previously noted, checkbox widgets can only save two snapshots.)
Because a parameter cannot be controlled simultaneously by two widgets, you cannot duplicate
(or cut/copy and paste) a rig or widget object. Similarly, if you duplicate or copy and paste an
object with rigged parameters, the new object’s parameters are not rigged.
Further, if a parameter is assigned to a widget, that parameter cannot be modified while you are
recording a different widget’s snapshot. For example, if you have a slider widget controlling a
shape object’s color, and you begin recording a snapshot for a different widget, the shape’s color
is not modifiable.
Some parameter types cannot be rigged. Some parameters that use the mini-curve editor
to affect an object over a range (such as the various “over stroke” parameters in the Shape
inspector) cannot be added to a rig or modified while recording a snapshot. If you modify a
parameter that cannot be rigged in edit mode, the change is applied globally—affecting all
snapshots containing that object.
Add a rig to a project
A rig is a container for widgets. Adding a rig has no effect until you begin to add widgets and
create snapshots for the widgets to control. A project can have an unlimited number of rigs, and
each rig can have an unlimited number of widgets.
Add a rig to a project
Do one of the following:
m Choose Object > New Rig (or press Control-Command-R).
67% resize factor