The Beginner's Guide to Procreate Dreams

22 Character Rigging

A character rig is like a digital skeleton that helps make a character move, and can also include clothing, weapons, and whatever else is attached to a character. One big benefit is that it makes animation faster and easier. Instead of drawing each movement by hand, animators can move the rig, and the character moves with it. You can see how this “Machine Person” group contains the Head, Torso, Left Arm and other tracked body parts that are below the ones on screen.

In a rig, everything that moves independently on a character is on its own track, held together in groups that link together—think five tracks for five fingers, grouped along with a palm for a Hand group with the rotation point at the wrist. Each of these ...