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PSD Rigging

SkelForm supports importing and extracing Photoshop Document (PSD) files. The file is expected to have a specific structure, which will then be used to form a rig.

Table of Contents

Sample File

A sample PSD file may be downloaded to be kept as a reference, and will automatically form a proper rig when imported in SkelForm.

sample_psd

Main Structure

Bones are made out of groups, and all layers of a group will be merged to form it's texture:

group

Pivots

By default, bones created from groups will not have a dedicated pivot parent, and will be centered.

To add a dedicated pivot, create a layer specifically named $pivot, and make it a child of the group in question. The pivot's position will be based on the top-left corner of the layer:

pivot

Although this layer will be invisible in the rig, you may need to draw on it to be able to position it in your art program.

When importing the PSD, that group should now be comprised of 2 bones: the main bone (pivot), and the texture. From here on out, it is recommended to only edit the main bone.