Instruction Manual

Chapter 10 Rigs and widgets 371
How rigging works
Rigging works through the use of snapshots. A snapshot is a record of the current state of
selected parameters in your project. Widgets let you switch between or even interpolate
between stored snapshots. For example, you can create a snapshot where a text object features
black type with a white shadow, and another snapshot where the same text object features
white text with a black shadow. A checkbox widget in a rig toggles between the two states.
A checkbox widget that toggles between two states is the simplest rigging control. Slightly
more complex is the pop-up menu widget, which lets you select between multiple parameter
states. The slider widget oers even more advanced control over multiple parameter states.
For example, a slider widget lets you make gradual changes from one state to another or even
use keyframes to control how the slider widget changes. You can choose which parameters
are modied in the snapshot in a number of ways (described in more detail in Snapshots
overview on page 378).
After you assign a parameter to a widget, changes you make to that parameter update the active
snapshot in that widget. For example, if the parameter is assigned to a pop-up menu widget, the
change is applied to the selected menu item.
Each parameter in a project can be assigned to only one widget at a time. However, you can
store many values for that parameter as dierent snapshots that can be accessed using a pop-up
menu or slider widget. (As previously noted, checkbox widgets can only save two snapshots.)
Because a parameter cannot be controlled simultaneously by two widgets, you cannot duplicate
(or cut/copy and paste) a rig or widget object. Similarly, if you duplicate or copy and paste an
object with rigged parameters, the new object’s parameters are not rigged.
Further, if a parameter is assigned to a widget, that parameter cannot be modied while you are
recording a dierent widget’s snapshot. For example, if you have a slider widget controlling a
shape object’s color, and you begin recording a snapshot for a dierent widget, the shape’s color
is not modiable.
Some parameter types cannot be rigged. Some parameters that use the mini-curve editor
to aect an object over a range (such as the various “over stroke” parameters in the Shape
inspector) cannot be added to a rig or modied while recording a snapshot. If you modify a
parameter that cannot be rigged in edit mode, the change is applied globally—aecting all
snapshots containing that object.
Add a rig to a project
A rig is a container for widgets. Adding a rig has no eect until you begin to add widgets and
create snapshots for the widgets to control. A project can have an unlimited number of rigs, and
each rig can have an unlimited number of widgets.
Add a rig to a project
Do one of the following:
m Choose Object > New Rig (or press Control-Command-R).
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