Animating Warped Objects Using Armatures

Before we begin building armatures with the Asset Warp tool, you’ll likely be wondering how this type of armature differs from the Inverse Kinematics (IK) and layer parenting rigs we explored in previous chapters.

Rigging with Inverse Kinematics (IK) and the Bone tool is meant to be very physics-based but still quite precise as everything conforms to the IK bones that are established as part of the rig. The largest obstacle here is that IK is a more advanced type of rigging that takes a while to do correctly because you have so many options with each bone and joint.

Rigging through Layer Parenting is unique again, in that it affords a simpler mechanism for tweening layer content through the use of familiar workflows possible with the Selection tool and Free Transform tool. Layer parenting is simple to pick up for those who are already familiar with basic tweening workflows, but the motion generated can be very mechanical and stiff...