Feature summary | Animate (Oct 2022 release)

The new Envelope deformer enables a given vector or bitmap to deform around its edges using the Bezier handles. This opens up the possibility of creating unique poses really quickly, which otherwise is a very tedious process. 

The new Envelop deformer

• Eases the process of creating complex poses 
• Provides complete control over pose creation 
• Saves time

Flexi bone is a new type of bone added to the Asset Warp tool. With the Flexi bone, one can draw the bone accurately over the existing pose and go about deforming it to create the next pose. The Flexi bone uses the familiar Bezier handles to draw and deform the poses with ease. 

• Comes in handy in character animation and casual animation creation 
• Productivity enhancement

Introducing a new Rig Edit Mode that enables add or modify the rig structure on a base shape without actually deforming the shape or bitmap and mapping the changes back on the deformed poses across keyframes.

• The new mode exclusively focuses on the rig structure and changes done in the edit mode only get applied at the time of exiting the mode thus providing flexibility to experiment with the rig structure without actually deforming it 
• The active, hover bone colors are different from the Main timeline.

Warped objects are now available in the Library panel and one can easily identify, rename, move around and sort based on their type. Both Warped shape and Warped bitmap types are now getting listed in the Library panel. This makes the organization of assets easier and enables better production control.

• Double click a warped shape or warped bitmap to get it into a base shape edit mode and this mode supports essential workflows like color changes and minor shape or bitmap editing to create quick variations
• Library conflicts between warped objects can now be avoided or managed well.

For more details, see Modern Rigging