Artwork

Artwork that is added to limbs is embedded inside the limb layer. It will stretch and compress between the pivot points when the limb changes length, and it will change width if you alter the Width Scale property.

You can add artwork into any limb when you make it with the New Limb panel. For Path, Taper and Circle limbs, that's optional. Shape and Precomp limbs require art to be added to every section of the limb. Puppet limbs require a single art layer which is turned into the limb itself.

If you select the art layers before you click New, they'll be automatically pre-filled for you in the dropdowns.

When you add artwork, the original art layers will either be turned off or deleted, depending on your settings.

Adding Art vs Parenting Art

As well as adding art into limbs, it's sometimes better to parent an art layer to a limb. Read more.

Adding art to existing limbs

All limbs apart from Puppet limbs can have art added to them after they've been made. Adding art to existing limbs is one of Limber's simplest features. Just select a limber layer and one or more art layers, click the Add Art button - and all the art will be added to the limb's Lower section. If you hold Option / Alt when you click, it goes in the Upper section. For 3-bone limbs, hold Shift to add art to the MIddle section.

If the limb is a shape layer limb, the art layers must also be shape layers.

Adding Art to Shape Layer limbs embeds the artwork inside the limb layer itself.

Artwork by Dan Woodger

Adding Gradients

Adobe doesn't provide developers with any access to the properties of Shape Layer Gradient colors. If you add artwork with Gradient Fills or Strokes to a Shape Layer Limb, they will lose the color and opacity stops and be reset to a default black and white gradient.

In this situation, you have three options: you could manually replace the default gradient by copying the gradient Colors property from your art layer and pasting it to your limb (you'll probably need to uncheck the Delete Artwork after rigging setting first). Or, you could use a Precomp Limb, where the layers will be embedded as they are. Or, you could parent the art layer to a locator instead of embedding it in the limb.

Flipping Art

On every End Controller there is a pseudo effect with a Flip Art checkbox which, when enabled, will flip the art left-to-right across the limb. This is often what you'll need if you have a front-facing character with symmetrical limbs, or if you scale an entire character to [-100%, 100%] with a single parent layer. Check out the video on this page to see it in action.

Flip Art works for Precomp limbs as well as all shape layer limbs but unfortunately, it's not possible to make it work with Puppet limbs.

Art, Lengths and Reset

When you first add art to a limb, the current Length value is stored in the limb layer, and you can reset the Length to that value by holding Shift and clicking the Reset button. This is useful if you add artwork, stretch or shorten the limb, and then need to add more artwork at the same 'unstretched' Length that the first art was added at.

Each section (Upper, Middle or Lower) stores it's own Length value independently. If one section has never had art added to it, it's Length will not be stored, and so it will not be reset. The Reset button resets the lengths of all the sections it can, at once. Lengths are stored if you add art when you make a new limb.