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Limber 1 User Guide
Limber 1 User Guide
  • Welcome
  • Introduction
  • Installation
  • Limber Lite
  • The Limber Panel
  • Getting started
    • A note about expressions
    • Limb anatomy
    • Controllers and limb layers
    • Default and custom limbs
    • Naming Limbs
    • Settings Panel
    • Limb properties
  • Managing Limbs
    • Duplicating, copying and pasting Limbs
    • Replacing Limbs
    • Orphaned Limb Layers
  • Animating with Limber
    • Forward Kinematics
    • Adding controllers
    • Managing controllers
    • Scaling and 3D Space
  • Custom Limbs
    • Rigging and posing limbs
    • The Limb Library
    • Path to Bone
  • FAQ
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  1. Getting started

Limb anatomy

PreviousA note about expressionsNextControllers and limb layers

Last updated 2 years ago

It can be helpful to think of Limber's limbs as having two aspects:

  • The underlying skeleton or geometry that provides animation features like separate lengths and FK blending.

  • The way that we set up the limb layers on top of that geometry, with colors and shapes.

The limb layer is kind of like putting flesh and clothing on an invisible skeleton. There are an infinite number of ways we could do that, so we settled on a few options that work for a wide range of situations. These are the types of limb that Limber stores in it's own code, and can generate when you click the New button, and we call them default limbs.

Bones are a super-simple path with a stroke applied and so they preview and render very fast. Bones can be altered by adjusting Stroke properties in the limb layer, just like any other shape layer.

Legacy Tapers look identical to Tapers but are constructed a little differently - the way we used to do it before v1.6. They are included to support some older rigging methods that some people still use.

Taper limbs are based around three connected circles that you can change the sizes of. The middle circle is where the elbow or knee bends; so the joint always looks good, whatever angle you make it. Tapers can be split into different colors at two points along the length of the limb, and those splits also respond to so that they can have a sense of volume and perspective.

Three Circle limbs are designed specifically for . In many cases, when you use your own artwork you don't need a full-blown Taper limb underneath, but using Three Circles will give you that perfect rotation around the joints.

rigging your own artwork
faux-3D
rounding controls