Rigging with Bones in Toon Boom Essentials

Time for a good old Toon Boom tutorial
Animating with Bones:
• Animating With Bones i...
• Animating With Bones i...
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[@Charlielavoy]

Wow, five years later and you just saved my life. Had to adjust for the new version at a few points, but this got me there. As opposed to Toon Boom's learn portal where they try and teach you everything else other than what you need to get a basic character walking. Thanks!

[@williamsanders504]

I woke up this morning pretty convinced I was too dumb to work out toon boom, not for lack of trying. I did your tutorial, and it all fell apart and went south. I deleted everything, started over again, and low and behold, it's working and it's almost time for dinner. But I am animating with toon boom now officially. Very easy to follow too, which is absurdly rare in the realm of toon boom tutorials. Very good video, thank you thank you.

[@playtheboom1770]

For those who have this problem in the Premium version: "when moving the 2 arms up 1 bone, both arms disappear." Right-click the deformation folder and then click Ungroup, you should now be able to do exactly like in the video

[@7janick7]

You are a life saver man!

[@cinnamon_shakes]

Further clarification: Ungroup the torso deformation folder

[@jerrythompson9656]

thank you I couldn't figure that out.

[@beeequirky4460]

Where is the deformation folder? I can't find it

[@Prof.Garcia]

@@cinnamon_shakes This finished the idea. Thanks.

[@thomasjeffrey9907]

Wow you're the best teacher on here! Thank you for not wasting time, and having a good speaking voice

[@OnionSkin]

This is the most motivating comment ever. It's been a long time since this one so I'll have to see it again but I do prefer to get to the point when possible. Thanks!

[@AK-og6hn]

Agree, brilliantly made a tutorial. Straight to the point no fluff and most importantly easy to understand for a noob like me. Turning something complicated and boring as rigging into a short and fun video, definitely deserve a sub and thumbs up. Kisses :)

[@tonicooreidonorte7871]

Just met your channel, I was terrified by a cutscene I had to make in my Animation classes in University. The teacher just showed us that bones existed, but didn't teach us how to use them, you literally saved me, man. thank you so much, an greetings from a new follower from Brazil!

[@yokobluu]

bro I am in the same situation (also in brazil) we have to make a 30 second short using cutout with either toon boom or animate but its like I dont know shit. I deeply regret choosing toon boom for this...

[@dalek2122]

@@yokobluu It seems that the same video still helping us from brazil even after this whole time 😂

[@7870JAKE]

Finally a tutorial that isn't insanely complicated. Thank you!

[@macsenlawlor5779]

Awesome tutorial, man! I've never seen a rigging tutorial this concise and efficient before!

[@merlinisland8133]

You created the coolest character with a full backstory in like 30 seconds lol this is great

[@mrtutus23able]

I low-key thought he was rigging Gru in the thumbnail.

[@41-siddharthabehera6]

Same here

[@angelaplays]

Same

[@orangeblanket7181]

Me too

[@kixviz]

Thanks for the awesome tutorial! I've been wanting to get into rigging but haven't started. This gives me a place to begin :D

[@hellspawnstudios]

I've been considering using rig-based animation (or a mix of rig-based and frame-by frame) for my current project, and now I'm starting to feel grateful for the fact that I like putting characters in longcoats and frilly dresses and suchlike, rather than dreading having to animate complicated designs frame-by-frame.

[@bentasticplays]

Holy smokes this was so much easier to follow along with and makes a lot of sense!! Thanks for the straightforward tutorial! This is going to save me a lot of headache now 😂

[@PolyesterGiant]

I'm quite glad that you added so many nose bones. Thanks, chum!

[@AwesomeNumber5]

Thank you for this tutorial. Most toon boom videos I find, are not beginner friendly and assume we understand the node view. I was only taught Flash in school, so opening up program is overwhelming.

[@cinnamon_shakes]

I'm so excited about trying this

[@sastranoor9059]

Easy to comprehend, dude. Thanks for this! Gonna execute!!

[@ZkoyllarTube]

Awesome way to explain everything, thank you!!!

[@JustMeMorgane]

Love how fast this was! Took me roughly two hours to follow along (because I had to redo some steps + my design was a little more complex) Now I have some basic knowledge and I'll be able to make some cool animations soon ~

[@martsuha]

This was such a helpful tutorial!! Thank you!!

[@mrshroude12]

this has helped me SO MANY TIMES ugh

[@callsigncustard6419]

MY RIGGING TEACHER IS LIKE NO DONT USE THOSE HE DOESNT KNOW HOW TO USE THESE THIS IS LIFECHANGING

[@newm1ke]

Awesome tutorial!

[@graceschwander2908]

Super helpful tutorial! That being said, I am terrified of Nose Guy's sneezing/crying backstory

[@angelaplays]

Thank you! This is so helpful!

[@LittleRoseDark]

When I move the hand into the Group for the arm image either disappears or doesn't link up to the arm

[@Esterfox1987]

the best tutorial ive ever found!

[@smashedkey]

Insanely helpful video. Thank you!

[@imtonyteach]

Dude! I loved this! Made me rethink my rigging - just gave you a shout-out on my rigging tut!!!

[@OnionSkin]

oh cheers man! Is it out yet?

[@GreenFogg]

Ive watched this video countless times. Tried building a rig today. Gave up n reverted back to this video. I forgot kinematic outputs T.T thanks for the node free tutorial

[@amaia7045]

this was so helpful!! thanks so much!

[@ronaldolara7853]

In my setup, I can´t fix de feet on the ground, like the After effects does with the puppet tool. When i mov the pelvis, and he is the main in the entire chain, everything moves. Looking for answers, i discover that the premium version has a mechanism to do that. Then, the question is: Can i solve this with the advanced version?

[@tproust11]

Very helpful!! Cheers mate!

[@NARUHOTEL]

Oh, man. This video is a game changer!

[@ivansivakART]

Thank you very much for this video!

[@philthepanic]

Great video! Can you answer a question please? I have created a character, added a pivot to each limb, I can only rotate the limbs with animation mode (the little man) turned off? Why is that? Also if I copied the character and put him on a different frame, (hit alt Shift 5 so I am not exactly copying) and adjust him, the my original frame is also adjusted! What am I doing wrong?

[@chidori7tobi]

My arms disappear when I move up the hierarchy, any clue why? I'm new at this program and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong :(

[@sunnywiz9593]

Same

[@leftclot]

Check Teddy McPipy's explanation above! "For those who have this problem in the Premium version: "when moving the 2 arms up 1 bone, both arms disappear." Right-click the deformation folder and then click Ungroup, you should now be able to do exactly like in the video"

[@klem142]

Rigging is not the hard part with toon boon, it's animating the rig. A walk cycle in full deformers is a nightmare, i will be glad if you know a technique to animate a walk cycle with deformer.

[@Casdix]

it´s not a nightmare in fact y very easy, I have been animating in ToonBoom for 5 years now and I can´t see me working without the deformers.

[@klem142]

I am curious to see a good walk cycle with deformer, without feet hovering the floor, or hips doing wierd thing, i almost became bald scratching my head trying to find a good workflow for deformers walk cycles

[@klem142]

what's your show ?

[@juancarlosgzrz]

Any helpful links?

[@NivekProAnimations]

@@klem142 Wouldn't this method solve the floating floor problem?

[@yagattackkakadu4528]

Best Harmony teachig video seen yet

[@pedrocdp]

incredible!!!

[@kisslynjoseph3297]

this was great help except I got kinda loss when you got to kinematic output. I mean it's a super easy way (thank you) to rig it adding pegs etc from the timeline lol but I learned do add the KO and peg thru the node view, seeing the entire hierarchy branching off and seeing the parent child relationship between each layers and bones etc and placing them to their respective location in all this opened a new light makes it MUCH SIMPLE! I don't have to stress myself anymore with the node view ;-; good video

[@yokobluu]

YESS I learned it through the node view too but using the node view is SO confusing, it gives me a headache

[@Phreephur]

Great video! I'm having a problem with the deformation process; every time I make bones it creates a "deformation" folder above them. If I put the images (the drawing that I'm deforming) in this folder my drawing disappears. What am I doing wrong? Thank you!

[@unhommequicourt]

i have the same issue when i create bones a deformation folder is created instead of bones layers

[@unhommequicourt]

what you can do is create a new bone layer from your drawing layer, it will place a first bone you can move later. Then if you click with the hammer it will create other bones in other bone layers

[@chuckygt1]

you probably already figured it out but what I found is that you can right click the folder, and look for the expand all option

[@nicolassegarra513]

It's fine. You can click the "+" button in the deformation folder. And, if you don't want Toon Boom to automatically create a deformation folder, click the Rigging Tool, the one with the Hammer and Wrench, then at the Tool Properties tab, under Rigging Tool Options, uncheck the third icon which says "Automatically create a group when creating a deformation rig." I know, I'm late but if you haven't solved the problem yet, I'm glad I could help :)

[@AveryErein]

@@nicolassegarra513 maybe u didn't help phreephur, but u definetly saved MY day)

[@silvslivestreams5163]

Thank you, kind sir!!! You saved my life

[@Chellax]

You're saving my life!! Although, I'm curious to see what the nodeview looks like on this, do you never use it?

[@OnionSkin]

Most of my recent videos have been diving further into the node view, have a peek!

[@Chellax]

@@OnionSkin Thank you so much! You're a great help

[@Lizkretschmer]

Question, you put a peg on the Head group before adding it to the Kinematic Output, but not for the right arm or left arm... if you want to animate the arms don't they need a peg too? I was under the impression that all the assets or bones needed a peg... idk!!

[@SykkoCartoons]

How good is this? Do you save alot of time by animating with bones? I animate the traditional way, also when I watch animations I can always tell if it has bones because of how everything moves, it looks separated, can you animate as clean as traditional animation with this?

[@reneeheuvelmans8153]

Does the deform tool also work with the color on the art layer below the line layer?

[@tannermccausland8468]

Hey thank you for such an informative tutorial. Ive never done this before so im struggling a bit. After i color in each layer, when i turn the light table off, i cant get all the layers to show as one so i can begin rigging. When i select the "main drawing" it just shows the uncolored layer before i began adding color. What did i do wrong?

[@alpha8here]

THANKS FOR THIS, COLLINS.

[@stephystuff2955]

How to use this made puppet into another project? Or how to save it and use it into another project?

[@AntonioCorrenti]

Very nice tutorial there, but won't inverting the bone order on the leg cause issues for walking?

[@OnionSkin]

+Antonio Correnti oh you'll see ;)

[@AntonioCorrenti]

Aren't you saying that this video will have a sequel? :-D

[@keyframer.]

I have followed this tutorial a few times and keep getting stuck at the 10:45 mark when you move the 2 arms up 1 bone. When I do it (Premium Edition) both arms disappear. I have tried multiple different files with different character drawn from scratch. I simply am baffled. Also, when I create the bones for my character's body, I get 3 bones, not 4. I click exactly 5 times on my torso and still only get 3 bone layers in the timeline. Ugh.

[@OnionSkin]

Layer order tends to freak out a bit in the premium version because of nodes, open up the node view and tidy things up and see how things are connected together. Remember things plugged into the composite more to the left will appear higher in the layer order

[@keyframer.]

Thank you!

[@DavidJames-iz6el]

having the same issue here. node view was a complete mess originally but i have cleaned it up, played around and still no fix. The nodes for both the arms completely disappear aswell.

[@theALTF4]

i...i understand even less! WTF is that ramble of a Concept map? i understand every square is a layer, and things like bones or pegs are interconected... but still: what i'm supposed to do with that thing? how can i make my arms to not dissappear when i move them behind the body bone? what i need to modify in order to do the same as you here: ( 10:38 - 10:50) . do you have a tutorial iun how to understand this pukey mess of a layer, Onion skin? because OOOOF! i'm dumbfounded by whatever that is

[@STKLogic]

so I got to 10:52 and then the arms vanished, when i put them under bone _3 don't know what I am doing wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[@sunnywiz9593]

Help me tooo...

[@triddy3849]

Sunny Wiz for 20 clicking on the deformation tab changing that itself to kinematic output I was able to have it not disappear and have it grouped

[@sunnywiz9593]

@@triddy3849 thanks for helping buddy i figure it out alredy 😊

[@julyuki]

Hey, man! love you channel! Thanks for all. Cheers from Brazil! ___ You know many people call this software Harmony, righ. maybe you could add it on tha name or tags to reach more people. Keep up on moving!

[@tomo4977]

Hi! Thank you for the tutorial, I’m having an issue with rigging my own character in which it doesn’t recognise the different layers and only animates the one parent layer after adding bones . If I group them together, it will animate the whole thing and won’t recognise different layers for different objects. I exported this cutout as vectors from Illustrator if it helps, Any help I can get will be really appreciated, thank you!

[@OnionSkin]

Try giving each of those parts a parent peg each

[@tomo4977]

@@OnionSkin I've also ended up getting a pdf about rigging cause I knew less about pegs than I thought, I'm finally starting to understand Toonboom now, between that and your tutorials, thank you! 😅

[@Rabuco1]

This character design though, you're 6 days late for halloween XD. The bone system kind of reminds me of anime studio's bones, but more appealing with the circles to show the joints. I'm happy to see that you're making tutorials again. Please continue, I enjoy watching these videos and will eventually master these features.

[@ccs8m]

I thought you might want to know I am citing this video in the bibliography of my thesis (part of it was teaching myself how to animate). Currently, you being cited as Skin, Onion.

[@PieceFairy]

this was a huge help, thank you! There is only one thing that I couldn't keep up with: at 11:27 you move the hand inside the arm layer. When I am doing this, the hand disappears. Can you help me? Btw. I'm also using Essentials

[@Maxi_Vila_Animator]

maybe this helps someone in the future, i got the same problem and solve it going to the node view and right clicking on the torso, group, ungroup then i conected the arm to the second bone node as the tutorial does.

[@artofgiselle]

Hi there! I am having trouble making the bones. I select the drawing layer then use the little hammer (rigging) tool in the deformations panel but when I go to add the bones I get a little red circle with a line through it. Any ideas why this is?

[@roomymood1256]

Pretty sure it's when there is more than one (sub)bone in an editing mode? It becomes green once you use transform tool (shift+t)

[@bobi200samatar6]

The press alt and up trick isn't working. I'm on the newest version, harmony 20. The arm isn't moving behind the torso

[@alpha8here]

I'm kinda wondering how the character is gonna be animated, like for example character movement from a point to another

[@freshavocado6310]

Can you please try out Moho 12 and compare it to TB? :)

[@Syclopskitten]

I got Kinematic layer working. But I can't control or animate my bones (let alone view them)

[@Tatara_Arts]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong :'( I've trying to do like you did in this video but the bones wont make my drawings move....

[@yokobluu]

Ok so this has bee really helpful so far but now when I only want to move the face the eyes, mouth etc dont go with it and just stay in place. What can I do about this?? (im on harmony premium 17)

[@Softwarecrows]

when i drag m y rig into the library ,make a new project and take out my rig,all of the bones are gone, why?

[@hakanaydn3493]

Toon boom is king of rigging

[@RoseyRose20]

i'm new toon boom. i'm trying to use the rigging tool. i set up my deformation chain, i go to deform it but by second or third frame m drawing goes back to where it was before i just moved it and the only thing i can move is the chain. what's the problem?

[@delem463]

Onion Skin Why are the legs not pinned to the torso? Its difficult to animate the legs with the bones starting from ankle as well

[@ronniebingbong9849]

when I upload a picture of the top half of a body, if I put bones through an (outstretched) arm and move the arm/bones it drags the edge of the torso with. It, how do I make it move seperate to the body , it is a one layer pencil drawing that has been scanned and uploaded. I Would be massively grateful for a reply. What seems like such an easy fix I cannot work it out, thanks

[@savvyeyemedia]

wow, I am glad I found this video. I want to make a 2d animated music video but I have no idea how to draw or animate, and I have no time to do it. Is there anyone you could recommend to offer me this service? Thanks!

[@carmetorito]

Dont you have to parent the pegs first? In order to animate it later?

[@icecreamhero2375]

whst if i want rubbery legs and arms with no joints in my rig so it moves like a snake

[@CARTOONANDPROGRAMMING]

Save my life, thank you very much

[@50cent22]

Should take a look at Bill N Back, this thing got mad potential

[@bashirsambo8347]

Where to download this version

[@johanstone]

hi, im trying your method but my hand deforms with the bones... is there a way to have the hand being parented to the bone but not being deformed by it? thanks!

[@OnionSkin]

Kinematic Output Node

[@josephbrannigan7912]

the hammer spanner does not actually link to my drawn elements?

[@SkarisGaming]

Why can't my bone circle thingies resize? Im clicking it and dragging but its not enlarging

[@nimnum5205]

I get your content, but my Rigging system only has a white X when I place it over the selected item. Can you help me?

[@andersonjose7276]

O meu quando eu risco a tela a linha sai, depois desaparece, alguem sabe resolver?

[@letsplaynay9936]

When I move the arms, they detach from the body. Maybe I need to properly place the deformation points?

[@BDRAC24]

Drag your limbs/head/etc. peg layers underneath the body peg in Timeline. Then when you animate the body peg the arms and limbs will move with the body

[@subodhmahobe6913]

When I'm placing L or R_arm kinematic Output under the Torso bone, the kinematic output just disappearing and It's not working along with the torso. Please help me...

[@user-gw5kf8rd7d]

when I put all the different limbs in each leyer and I press the light bulb all the lims dont show up, its only the one I am on

[@abdihakimahmed2268]

how do you reset after testing and moving the character? instead of moving it back in position manually

[@howtodrawhd]

Undo (ctrl + Z)

[@yenotazbukeabcrosyjskidlaj9190]

Самое крутое видео по этой программе, спасибо за помощь!!!

[@VinoVenitas]

A little fast but very useful.Thank you

[@d.j.7454]

Hey, would you Color all the body parts before rigging everything or after ?

[@OnionSkin]

I usually colour first these days, because things often need to be split and filtered with sub layers and stuff

[@matthew0146]

@Onion Skin. Hi I was wondering if autopatch is available on toon boom essentials, or is it only available in the premium? Because my rig is bending the arm and I can see lines overlapping (or lines bending in a weird way). Would there be a way of solving this?

[@OnionSkin]

I believe it’s a premium thing I’m afraid. Using bones across a single piece arm should work a lot of the time though. Remember however that auto patch is just line art masking the colour art. So it may be possible to build your own auto patch from those components!

[@IamAboe3]

How one video can make it all so much clearer. If you can awnser this question I will for sure sub, because I have been struggeling a bit and cannot get any help from toon boom. I am working on a Character turnaround in TB advanced. Everything is all drawn, looking amazing and the facial features are already rigged and ready, the profile is fully rigged with bones and all. My question is, is it possible to create a bone system for each view? It can be done in premium, but it was also a part of advanced in the past. If not, do you know a way to rig a character in such a way. I tried cuttout style with rotation pivots, however the pivots are rememberd per art layer not per drawing substitution and it gets fully messed up :(

[@OnionSkin]

+IamAboe3 I do intend to have a video on it coming up, so maybe you will have to subscribe after all! Gasp!

[@IamAboe3]

Ok, because of the cleverness of your awnser I will. Good job on your part ;)

[@IamAboe3]

I am still subbed no worries ;) but can you tell me if what I describe above is possible at all??? Because if not I am switching to fbf annimation

[@OnionSkin]

+IamAboe3 it's something I believe can be done but unfortunately haven't been able to do enough research yet to give you a confident answer yet I'm afraid. =\

[@Sujalarkobita]

how to save only switch mouth Lear in moho library.....please reply me....please ....

[@shanimation]

Hey OnionSkin, I know this video is old and this comment is a bit of a long shot but I have followed your tutorial and it all works up until the head part. My problem is that instead of rotating the head as a whole peg (with the eyes/facial features moving as well as the ‘head’) it’s only moving the drawing layer? This is really confusing me as I can’t see where I am going wrong, if anyone could possible help it would be much appreciated, thank you!

[@OnionSkin]

Is everything attached properly? Perhaps even you're selecting the drawing itself rather than the peg above it? Use the transform tool and see if it highlights pink or yellow.

[@tirahtalib8230]

why is it when i do the 9:02 part, the rigging in the arm gone?

[@talitemjenimchen3048]

I added bones to separate objects but dragging one of them drags all. And this video is not explaining why.

[@drewlsy]

Could you do an overview comparison of the different versions of toonboom, say, from tb studio to tb animate to tb harmony? I currently have tb animate and have yet to upgrade to tb harmony although I haven't planned on upgrading anytime soon due to cost. But for what I'm planing on doing, Animate seems sufficient enough. I notice that all the tutorials focus on harmony mostly. I wish there could be more attention put towards Animate especially since Animate is pretty powerful in it's own right. One thing I notice about a comparison is that Animate doesn't have the deformation tool, whereas, Harmony does.

[@OnionSkin]

+Like Kane I've don't a bunch of comparisons I. The past. I try to use Essentials in my videos as often as possible. Which has a feature set very very similar to Animate.

[@drewlsy]

hi there, is essentials another version of tb? Can't say I've heard of it. Would it be too much to ask for a link to one of your past videos of what you are describing, so that I could search your catalog of other related tuts at around the same time-frame.

[@DeathByBarb]

If I bring in an illustrator vector character, will this still work?

[@ex-posertoons7338]

Rigged the bone structure but cant adjust the circles without it effecting the drawing, am I doing something wrong?

[@SpicyMelonYT]

Ex-Poser Toons yes you are changing the circles in transform mode. You should be in bone tool mode(hammer and wrench)

[@elliotstoons]

If i wanted to switch the hand from one drawing to another during the animation, would this let me do that? I'm considering switching from flash.

[@OnionSkin]

+Elliot's Toons indeed! You can swap drawings mid tween. I'll be demonstrating it in the follow up to this video

[@elliotstoons]

Nice! I'm looking forward to it!

[@milulou]

Thank you for the TUT. However, when I try to put body parts like arms into a bone of Torso, they're disappeared. I followed ur steps but cannot happen..

[@tendertoxin]

same for me to. would also like some help with this

[@nicolassegarra513]

What exactly do you mean? Maybe I could help.

[@quinwalker6469]

does toon boom allow you to add different symbols for closed and open hands?

[@nicolassegarra513]

That's called "Drawing Substitution". When creating the body parts, you can draw the close hand in the first frame, closed hand in the second frame, convert it to a symbol then go to library tab, you can find drawing substitution there. Sorry, I'm bad at explaining :D English isn't my first language.

[@vaalthaf]

When I click rigging tool..the mouse pointer changes to 🚫