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title: "Area Tools"
canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/ANIMA/125108506/Area%20Tools"
format: markdown
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This page provides information about the Area tool in Anima.
## **What is Area**
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## **Create Area**
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## **Edit the Shape**
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## **Add Actors in Area**
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## **Area Used by Characters on a Walkway**
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## **Distribution of Actors Using Grid**
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## **Distribution of Actors Using Point Markers**
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## **The Direction Actors are Facing**
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## **Randomize Motion Clip Phase**
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## **Assign Different Motion Categories to an Area**
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## **Create an Area on a Background Model**
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## **Create Seated Characters on a Background Model**
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### **Properties**
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**Position Shuffle / Cluster Inner/Outer Radius **–** **Add a random radial translation to characters after they have been placed**. **When using Object Points these values define the inner and outer radius within which actors can be placed. In order for Actor Cluster mode to be activated **Enable Placement Grid **must be set to **Off**.
**Motion Clip Category **–** **Used to assign a Motion Clip or Motion Category to the area..
**Socialize Timer** –** **The time measured in seconds that socialising characters will spend on the area before returning to the walkway.
**Turn Around After Socialising** –** **If this is set to On, the actor will turn around when finished socialising. If this is set to Off the actor will walk forwards. This can be useful if you need to stop actors walking through an object around which they are clustered.
**Enable Placement Grid **–** **Toggles between Grid Placement mode and Cluster mode. In the Grid Placement mode actors are placed in squares created using a grid defined by the Cell Size, Cell Ratio and Grid rotation properties. IF this is off actors cluster around points created using the Object Point tool.
**Rotate Placement Grid **–** **Rotate the placement grid. Note that the placement grid is rotated inside of the area shape.
**Cell Size Placement Grid **–** **Set the cell size of the placement grid. Use this value to increase and decrease the size of the squares.
**Cell Size Ratio Placement Grid** –** **Sets the cell’s aspect ratio for the placement grid. A value of 1 is square, values greater than one stretch the cell vertically and values less than 1 stretch the cell horizontally.
**Focus Mode **–** **Allows you to choose a mode to set the rotation of actors. You have 3 choices. In** Focus** mode the actors rotate to face the nearest Object point; in **Grid** mode actors are aligned to the orientation of the grid, this is marked by arrows; finally in **Random** mode actors are randomly rotated.
**Social Actor Placement **–** **These options determine what part of an area actors walk to when leaving a walkway. If this is set to **Nearest** the actor will go to the closest empty part of the area, if the parameter is set the **Furthest** the character will continue to an empty part of the area that’s most distant from them in the direction they are walking.
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## **Avoiding Areas**
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### **Obstacle on a Walkway**
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### Properties
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