Votes
0
Product:
Cartoon Animator 4
Version:
4.11
Status:
Released in 4.4
Issue 6861
Improvement for Remove Motion feature when modifying template animation
When you need to modify a template animation, e.g. a cat sitting down, Remove Motion feature seems like a great idea. Problem is, removing it one by one the way it is today is a very tedious and obscure process. Obscure because 1) you are not always clear which part of the animation you need to remove, so you are sorta shooting in the dark hoping that you get the right part; and 2) it is not entirely obvious which motions you have removed and which you haven't; you simply have a list of bodyparts (see screenshot attached) and there is no indicator of any sort, motions from which part have been removed and which haven't, so if you were to re-do the same process, let's say for character B, you can't tell by looking at character A which motions you need to remove.

It would have been great to have a list with checkboxes (much like what you have for Scene Manager) with parts that do not have motions or have them removed appearing unchecked, while the other ones - checked. This way when you uncheck the motion, it will remove it from the animation. Likewise, if you check it again, it will turn it back on. You could make it even better, if you greyed out the checkboxes for the parts that are not involved in the animation so users are clear which parts are involved.

You could go even further and introduce an Animation Editor (similar to 2D Motion Key Editor or 360 Head Editor) where you would have a window showing a visual image for the start and end pose of the animation as well as bodyparts involved. User could preview the movement and adjust it as needed using nice visuals. And to really put some icing on the cake, you could even introduce motion intensity slider where you could, for instance, make the wagging tail move with decreased amplitude.

Customizing a template animation, let's face it, can be a pretty agonizing experience the way it is, so this improvement would certainly get my vote.

EDIT (May 14, 2020): the 4.2 version has just been released and I noticed that it does have a multiselect option for the Remove Motion, which is an improvement. However, it still only addresses one part of the issue, as it still remains unclear to the user which bodypart motions can be removed, which ones have already been removed and which ones have not.
OS: Mac OS 10.15
Attachment:
  • Screen Shot 2020-05-13 at 7.23.49 PM.png
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Submitted bycandlelight2007
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