How Can I Effectively Teach My Students To Create A Believable Squash And Stretch Effect In Adobe Animate Using The New Rigging System, Specifically When Working With A Character Design That Has A Complex, Overlapping Limb Structure And A Non-traditional Proportions?

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To effectively teach your students to create a believable squash and stretch effect in Adobe Animate using the rigging system, especially with complex characters, follow this structured approach:

1. Understanding Squash and Stretch

  • Definition: Explain that squash and stretch is an animation principle where characters deform during movement for exaggerated effects.
  • Purpose: Highlight how it adds life and energy to animations through non-realistic movements.

2. Setting Up the Character Rig

  • Detailed Rigging: Instruct students to create a hierarchical rig using the Rigging panel, ensuring each limb and joint has its own bone for independent movement.
  • Handling Overlaps: Use separate bones or controls for overlapping limbs to manage independent movements.

3. Adjusting for Proportions

  • Custom Structures: Encourage custom bone structures for non-traditional proportions, adjusting the rig to accommodate unusual limb lengths.
  • Weight Painting: Teach students to refine weight painting to ensure natural deformations, spending extra time on complex characters.

4. Implementing Squash and Stretch

  • Secondary Controls: Add secondary bones or control handles near joints for scaling, allowing limbs to stretch or squash.
  • Constraints and Expressions: Use constraints or expressions to link scaling with movement, enhancing the effect.

5. Exaggeration and Timing

  • Exaggeration: Emphasize scaling beyond realistic limits for a cartoonish feel, testing different values.
  • Timing: Adjust animation timing to make squash and stretch quick, enhancing action emphasis.

6. Testing and Iteration

  • Test Animations: Have students animate simple actions (e.g., jumps) and apply squash and stretch, reviewing and tweaking as needed.
  • Feedback Loop: Encourage iterative testing to refine the rig and animation based on feedback.

7. Reference and Analysis

  • Reference Videos: Use classic and modern animations to study squash and stretch, noting timing and exaggeration.
  • Overlapping Action: Ensure limbs react appropriately during movement, possibly using advanced rigging techniques.

8. Organization and Workflow

  • Intuitive Controls: Stress the importance of logical rig organization with naming conventions and layers.
  • Workflow: Start with simple movements, progressing to complex actions, using each test to inform adjustments.

9. Physics and Deformation

  • Simulation: Allow slight overlaps during squash for natural compression, using constraints to simulate physics.

By breaking down the process into these steps, students can systematically approach creating a believable squash and stretch effect, even with complex characters.