Key concepts
Plain-English glossary: rig, layer, bone, mocap clip, retarget, variant, anim-check, test-run.
A few terms appear over and over in the editor and these docs. Quick definitions so the rest of the guide reads cleanly.
| Term | What it means in Charios |
|---|---|
| Rig | The fixed humanoid skeleton every Charios character uses — 17 bones (arms, legs, head, spine, sword). You don't change the rig; you drop sprites onto it. |
| Bone | One segment of the rig. The rig has 17 of them. Each one has a fixed role: "left upper arm", "right thigh", "head", etc. |
| Layer (sprite) | One PNG attached to one bone. Your character is made of many layers stacked in a draw order. Layers move with their bone when the character animates. |
| Mocap clip | A motion-capture animation. Charios ships with 87 of them; you can bring your own .bvh / .fbx files too. |
| Retarget | Translating a mocap clip from its source rig onto Charios's rig. Charios does this automatically — you don't see this step. |
| Body shape | Multipliers that scale the whole rig: width and height. Use them to make a tall lanky character or a short stocky one without redrawing. |
| Bone proportions | Per-bone length and width. Stretch one bone (e.g. a long-armed character) without changing the others. |
| Variant | An AI-generated full-character restyle. Same silhouette, same animation, completely different look. |
| Anim-check | A mode where 9 mocap clips play simultaneously on your rig — the fastest way to spot a janky frame on Walk that's fine on Idle. |
| Test run | A built-in platformer mini-game. Bind your animations to states (Idle, Walk, Run, Jump, Attack), then drive your character with the keyboard. Closest thing to playing your real game. |
| Export | Producing a downloadable bundle in your engine's format — Unity prefab, Godot scene, UE5 actor, or animated GIF. |
See also
Understand layers & the bone rig goes deeper on how layers and bones interact. What Charios solves lays out the design philosophy behind why the rig is fixed.
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