Inserting a Pose Scope node in your skin geometry network will allow you to set up the pose_scope attribute so that you can pose geometry in the viewport without using handles. You can create groups of geometry, which you can assign channels to using Pose Scope, then click directly in the viewport and drag to pose.

This improves workflow and makes character animation easier by removing clutter from the viewport. Complicated rigs can have hundred of controllers, which can make animating quite difficult. Hiding these controls and using invisible rigs allows you to click and drag parts of the character in the viewport, which makes animating feel more like working with a stop motion puppet.

The following example uses the Simple Female shelf tool.

1. Click the Simple Female tool on the Characters shelf.

2. Navigate to the Display tab and turn off Show Controls.

   

3. the simplefemale1 node in the network editor, and select Allow Editing of Contents.

4. Double-click to dive inside the simplefemale1 node and then double-click the geo_skin node to dive inside that network.

   Note

   If you click the File node, you will see that this character already has the pose_scope attribute. However, for the sake of this example we will pretend that she doesn’t.

5. Insert a Group SOP above the last Deform SOP.

6. Give the group a name, for example l_hand, click the selection button in the Base Group parameter, select the left hand geometry in the viewport, and press Enter.

   

7. Insert a Pose Scope SOP between the Group SOP you just created and the last Deform SOP.

8. Select the Group you just created (l_hand) from the drop down menu. You can create groups for all body parts.

   Note

   You can create groups directly in the pose scope tool, but the recommended workflow is to create separate group nodes. This will make the parameters easier to read, since you will see the names of groups as opposed to a long string of numbers. You can also list multiple groups in this parameter.

9. Use the node chooser menu to select channels to apply to the group. For this example, we chose the translate and rotate channels.

10. Navigate back to the object level, and click the Pose tool in the Toolbox menu to pose your character interactively in the viewport. Selecting the geometry will pop-up a wheel which will allow you to easily switch between the channels you assigned.

    

    If the group has more than one channel, a pop-up wheel will allow you to easily toggle between the channels. For example, the simple female character has both translate and rotate abilities on her hand.