Prep your art for rigging
A rig is a puppet, and a puppet is made of separate parts. Before you can pose a character with bones, you prepare its art as pieces that can move independently: an upper arm, a forearm, a hand, a torso, a head. This page teaches that preparation from scratch: where to cut, how to overlap at joints so no gap shows, how to name parts, and how to get the whole thing rig-ready.
1Why a puppet is made of parts
A rig moves a character the way a marionette moves: each limb is a separate piece, and bones swing those pieces around joints. A character drawn as one flat picture cannot bend an elbow, because the elbow is baked into the drawing. So the point of prep is cutting your character into the pieces that need to move on their own: a bendy arm needs an upper arm and a forearm, a nodding head needs to be separate from the torso. Parts first, bones later.
2Draw the parts, or bring in flat art
You have two honest ways in. You can draw the character as separate parts from the start in the Creator Canvas, keeping each limb on its own layer so it is already a piece. Or you can bring in flat art you already have and cut it into parts. Both end in the same place: a set of separate pieces ready to become rows. Drawing fresh with rigging in mind is easier than surgery on a finished illustration, but either works.
3Plan the parts before you cut
Before any cutting, decide what pieces your character actually needs. A basic humanoid puppet is usually: head, torso, upper arm, forearm, hand, and matching leg pieces (thigh, shin, foot). More pieces means more possible movement but more to manage, so match the part count to how much this character needs to act. A background walker needs fewer parts than a hero who gestures a lot.
4Cut where the joint bends
The single most important rule of prep: cut each part where the joint bends, not in the middle of a limb. The upper arm and forearm separate at the elbow, the forearm and hand at the wrist, the head and torso at the neck. Cut at the joint and the pieces pivot naturally around it. Cut anywhere else and the limb will fold in a strange place and look broken. Follow the anatomy, and put every seam on a hinge.
5Overlap the pieces at the joint
To make a cutout puppet look whole instead of chopped, overlap the pieces at every joint. Draw each part so it extends a little past the cut line and under its neighbour, so when the limb bends there is always art covering the gap. If pieces just butt edge to edge, a bend opens an ugly slit at the joint. A generous overlap, a rounded end on the upper arm tucked under the forearm, hides the seam through the whole range of motion.
6Mind the stacking at each joint
Overlap only works if the right piece sits on top. At the elbow, the forearm usually reads best over the upper arm; at the shoulder, the arm sits over the torso or behind it depending on the pose. Since row order is front-to-back depth, plan which piece should be in front at each joint before you assemble. Getting the stacking right is half of why a good cutout puppet looks solid. The wrong order and a hand vanishes behind a sleeve.
7The torso is the anchor
The torso is the centre of the puppet, the piece everything else hangs off. Keep it as one solid, stable shape, because the arms, head, and legs will all attach around it. Draw the shoulders and hips generously so the limb pieces have somewhere to overlap onto. A strong, simple torso makes the whole rig calmer to work with, since it is the trunk that the branches move around. Do not over-cut the torso itself unless the character really bends at the waist.
8The head and neck
Separate the head from the torso at the neck so it can nod and turn. Give the neck a little overlap into the collar so a tilt does not reveal a gap under the chin. If the face itself needs to animate (a moving mouth, blinking eyes), those features are handled later with switching, so for now just prepare the head as a clean, separate piece with room to swivel. A head that pivots even slightly adds a lot of life.
9Hands, feet, and the little pieces
The hand and foot are small but they sell a pose, so give them their own pieces cut at the wrist and ankle. Hands are worth a moment of thought: a single relaxed hand shape covers a lot, and you can prepare a couple of alternate hand shapes (open, pointing, fist) to swap between later rather than rigging fingers. Feet usually just need to pivot at the ankle. Keep these small parts simple and readable, since they move fast and read at a glance.
10Fill behind the overlaps
When a limb bends to an extreme, it can reveal the edge of a piece that was tucked underneath, so paint each part fully, right up under where its neighbour covers it. Do not leave a piece half-drawn just because part of it is normally hidden, since a big swing can expose that hidden edge. Complete, closed shapes with a bit of extra art under every overlap keep the puppet looking solid at every angle. It is the same idea as painting the parts of a set the camera might catch.
11Name every part clearly
Name each part something honest and consistent before you assemble, because you will be hunting for these by name once there are a dozen of them. Use a scheme like left upper arm, left forearm, left hand, head, torso. Be consistent about which is left and right (from the character's point of view is the usual convention) so you do not mirror yourself into confusion. Good names now make the rigging step calm instead of a guessing game.
12How the parts become rows
In the studio, each prepared part becomes its own Image row. You bring a part in with Import image in the Image source panel, and you repeat that for every piece. There is no automatic layered-file import that turns a single stacked file into a ready-made rig, so you assemble the puppet from separate Image rows, one part per row. Once each part is a row, you order them front-to-back and you are ready to add bones.
13Assemble and test the stack
With every part imported as a row, arrange them into the character on the stage and order the rows so the overlaps sit right, forearm over upper arm, head over neck, and so on. Then nudge a piece by hand and watch the joint: does the overlap hold, or does a gap peek through? This is the moment to catch a seam that opens or a part that sits in the wrong depth, before any bones are involved. Fix the art or the order now while it is still easy.
14What rig-ready looks like
Your art is rig-ready when it passes a simple check: the character is split into the parts that need to move, every cut sits on a joint, every joint has a generous overlap that holds through a bend, each part is fully painted under its overlaps, the pieces are clearly named, and each one is its own Image row stacked in the right order. Hit all of that and adding bones next will feel smooth, because the hard, patient work is already done. Rushed prep is the number one cause of a fiddly rig.
Questions about prepping art
Because a rig moves parts around joints with bones, and a single flat drawing has no separate parts to move. Splitting the character into pieces like upper arm, forearm, and hand is what lets an elbow or a wrist actually bend.
On the joints, always: the elbow, wrist, neck, knee, and ankle. Cut at a joint and the piece pivots naturally. Cut through the middle of a limb and it will fold in the wrong place and look broken.
Overlap the pieces at the joint. Draw each part so it reaches a little past the cut and under its neighbour, with a rounded tucked end, so there is always art covering the joint through the whole bend.
Either works. Drawing the parts on separate layers in the Creator Canvas from the start is easier than slicing a finished single illustration, but bringing in flat art and cutting it into parts is perfectly fine too.
Yes, paint each part fully, including the bit that normally hides under an overlap. An extreme bend can expose that hidden edge, so complete, closed shapes keep the puppet looking solid at every angle.
Not yet. Automatic layered-file import into one rig is not present. Bring each part in as its own Image row using Import image in the Image source panel, and assemble the puppet from those separate rows.
Only as many as it needs to act. A basic humanoid is head, torso, upper arm, forearm, hand, and the matching leg pieces. Start minimal, since you can always split a piece further later, and fewer parts are easier to rig first.
Cut the hand at the wrist as its own piece, and prepare a few whole-hand shapes (open, pointing, fist) to swap between later rather than rigging individual fingers, which is a lot of work for little payoff in most shots.
It is split into moving parts, every cut is on a joint, every joint has a generous overlap that holds through a bend, each part is fully painted, the parts are clearly named, and each is its own Image row in the right stacking order.
Your puppet's pieces are ready
You have prepared a character the way a rig wants it: split into parts, cut on the joints, overlapped so bends stay seamless, fully painted, clearly named, and imported as separate Image rows. That patient work is exactly what makes the next step feel easy. Next, bring that art into the studio and get ready to add bones.