Hello there. I have made a mockup for the idea, that I constantly thinking of while working in Spine. When I plan a rig, I keep forgetting that there's is no possibility to link parameters of transform channels, yet. And I thought for a quite a long time, that this feature would be a great addition to those were added recently. So I suggest to add another section to transform constraint properties rollout. That will enable to remap transforms from one channel to another. For example Translate constrains rotation, or Rotation constrains scale etc. I think you know how it suppose to work, since many animation programs has this feature. And I thought Spine might have it too. Please tell me what you think about this idea. Cheers
Channel mapping for transform constraint
The idea of remapping transforms from one channel to another within transform constraints is indeed a compelling suggestion for Spine. While your specific request for a new section in the transform constraint properties to facilitate this kind of channel mapping is not currently available in Spine, the concept of customizing constraints to achieve advanced rigging effects, including manipulating transform properties in various ways, is a topic of ongoing discussion and development within the Spine community.
There have been several feature requests and discussions around enhancing the flexibility of transform constraints, including controlling transform properties separately, applying constraints with more granularity, and even linking different types of transformations (e.g., translating affecting rotation or scale). These discussions indicate a strong interest in expanding the capabilities of Spine's rigging and animation tools to include more sophisticated and nuanced control mechanisms, such as the one you've proposed.
Your idea aligns with the general direction of making Spine's rigging system more powerful and versatile. While there's no direct mention of implementing exactly the feature you've described, the ongoing discussions and feature requests suggest that the Spine development team is open to exploring ways to enhance the functionality of transform constraints and other rigging tools. It would be beneficial to keep an eye on official updates and feature releases from Esoteric Software for any developments in this area.
We definitely want to do this, and relatively soon.
I like the connection lines in your mockup! That's a nice way to visualize it. Providing the values like that is also a nice and concise UI. You even have an extrapolate checkbox!
Two shear channels isn't needed, since transform constraint only works with shear Y.
If we allow mapping multiple channels to a single channel, as you have shown rotation and scale Y both mapped to scale X, what is the expected result? Eg, if rotation wants 0.5 and scale Y wants 0.1, what is the resulting scale X? It could be an average, but maybe it'd be better to restrict the channel mapping to 1:1. You could use multiple constraints to map multiple to one.
Oh, multiple souce channels controlling single target channel, that's just a mockup inaccuracy. Its not intended feature. I was so excited to make a pretty design quickly, I overlooked it