Puppeteering

Puppeteering means making changes to controls during playback. You can do this with any kind of manipulator: control sliders, the viewport, or a 3D manipulator. Using a manipulator while playback is running automatically records your modifications into the floating modification layer.

To puppeteer an animation:

1. Select the control(s) that you want to puppeteer.
2. If you want the new animation to start at the beginning of the shot, press ↑ to move the playhead there.
3. With the screen manipulator, set the control's rotation the way you want it for the beginning of the shot.
4. Press and hold the left mouse button inside the screen manipulator.
5. Without releasing the button, press Spacebar. The shot will start playing back.
6. Drag to create the real-time movement you want. When you're done, press Spacebar again to stop the playback.

Now that you have puppeteered an animation, you can adjust and manipulate that animation as you would any other in the Motion Editor or the Graph Editor.

You can repeat the puppeteering process as many times as you like.

Tip:Because puppeteering is recorded via mouse movement, it can be low-resolution and a little jerky. You can smooth it out with the Smooth preset.

See also

• Manipulating objects overview