Using the Puppet Tool to bring our characters to life
In this short article, let’s take a look at how we can bring a static character to life using a minimal, easily applicable animation technique.
21-11-25
Tamás Bötkös, Lead animator, 3D artist
Puppet Tools
Our tool of choice: Puppet Tools. The goal is to apply a small breathing effect that adds a bit of motion and activity to the scene. We need to make sure the movement is neither too frequent nor too slow, taking into account the scene, the character, and the environment.
With the Puppet Tool, we create points on the character. The main consideration here is to achieve the most lifelike result using as few points as possible. For an average, simple character, 6–7 points may be enough.
The generated mesh doesn’t need to be too dense, so a density value of 4 is sufficient, and the expansion value—except in special cases (e.g., shadows)—can stay around 3.
Breathing some life
For the breathing motion, we leave the leg points static. At the stomach/groin area, we raise the point very slightly. Then at the shoulders/neck, we move the points a little at first, and then move the shoulder points a bit more—imitating how the shoulders rise more during breathing than the neck/head.
We can also animate the point at the top of the head slightly sideways, as if the head subtly tilts with the rhythm of the breathing. Finally, we “loop” the animation using a loop expression.
This simple animation can “bring to life” the static character—as long as we don’t overdo either the movement or the speed. (The latter typically falls somewhere between 40–50 frames.)
