Working on tests for Webcomic Anim+Music video

Yamino · Post by **Yamino** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 3:13 pm

This is the first animation I ever made with AS 6. I was trying to animate a character from my webcomic, Sister Claire.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoNKre9nJT8

Next I tried to animate more details, by putting a bone structure in the hair. This is a test for animating the character from my band Freen In Green (which is going to be animated, like the Gorillaz):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6TStzfMWuM

And this is the first time I've tried any lip-synch. I followed a tutorial that showed how to use bones outside the face to manipulate facial expressions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd5wzmu7TtU

I've looked through the tutorials on the Anime Studio site, and I can't find anything that explains how to make a character turn in a 3D-like way. I've noticed that all the characters that come with the program have front, 3/4, side, and back rotation poses, but how would you make them turn smoothly from one to the other?

Is there a way to set up characters so you can automate a rotation left or light? As you can tell, I'm brand-new to this, but I was given the software for free to test and I really want to make an in-depth review. I'm just a bit overwhelmed and don't know where to start, lol.

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 4:23 pm

The audio for your sync test is funny. :D And the character's expression punctuates it nicely. Just briefly checked out your webcomic, too. Your artwork is awesome! I can't wait to see more of your work in Anime Studio.

Rotating a character 360 degrees is one of the toughest things you can do, especially if you want Anime Studio to interpolate between poses. If you have the pro version, you can use actions and blend morphing for head/body turns. I haven't had a chance to explore blend morphing yet, but Selgin has posted a great tutorial on it.

If you are using the debut version, you'll want to use switch layers. Setting up switch layers for interpolation can be quite complicated because in order to get AS to interpolate for you, you need to have the same number of corresponding points in the vector drawings you're switching between. Here is an explanation and workaround.

For most situations, I think Amigaman's method is the most practical. Here is the tutorial. You basically create the character at 8 different angles using switch layers. These are angles you'll probably want to use in your series anyway. Then when you want to animate a rotation, you use the rigs you've already created, and pose them for the specific animation you're doing. Using only 8 different angles, Amigaman got this fantastic result: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEz9Fm9CJJE

This is a topic that people obsess over so you'll find lots of info in the forums. :D

Yamino · Post by **Yamino** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 4:51 pm

lwaxana wrote:The audio for your sync test is funny. And the character's expression punctuates it nicely. Just briefly checked out your webcomic, too. Your artwork is awesome! I can't wait to see more of your work in Anime Studio.

Thanks! I think my art style translates well to animation. I studied storyboarding too, so I know how to direct animations all right. It's the technical aspect of learning a totally new kind of program that's tripping me up, lol.

lwaxana wrote:Rotating a character 360 degrees is one of the toughest things you can do, especially if you want Anime Studio to interpolate between poses. If you have the pro version, you can use actions and blend morphing for head/body turns. I haven't had a chance to explore blend morphing yet, but Selgin has posted a great tutorial on it.

That looks like a great tutorial! I haven't even tried actions yet, so I'm not really sure how that works, but it looks like you basically take one image and move the shapes to change it to different views. Which works fine if you keep all the same lines, but what if you have to hide some things?

I've seen a few tutorials here on head turns that talk about making objects invisible and stuff, I assume that's what one would do to move a face from head-on to profile. =)

lwaxana wrote:If you are using the debut version, you'll want to use switch layers. Setting up switch layers for interpolation can be quite complicated because in order to get AS to interpolate for you, you need to have the same number of corresponding points in the vector drawings you're switching between. Here is an explanation and workaround.

I'm using the Pro version, does that mean I'd use a totally different method?

lwaxana wrote:For most situations, I think Amigaman's method is the most practical. Here is the tutorial. You basically create the character at 8 different angles using switch layers. These are angles you'll probably want to use in your series anyway. Then when you want to animate a rotation, you use the rigs you've already created, and pose them for the specific animation you're doing. Using only 8 different angles, Amigaman got this fantastic result: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEz9Fm9CJJE

Yeah, this is one of the first examples I ever saw, it blew me away! I guess I need to find out what switch layers and actions are before I can get started on this challenge. =)

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 5:01 pm

You can use actions/blend morphing and switch layers with pro. It's just with debut that you can't use actions/blend morphing.

Amigaman's setup should work in any version. :D

Imago · Post by **Imago** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 7:33 pm

Yamino, your avatar are SO CHARMING!

Yamino · Post by **Yamino** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 7:43 pm

Imago wrote:Yamino, your avatar are SO CHARMING!

Grazie! (You're Italian, right?) ;D

It comes from this illustration I did for one of my band's interviews:

Imago · Post by **Imago** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:05 pm

Wow, another italian!
But here we have to talk english...

Great drawing!
It's all members of your production studio?

neeters_guy · Post by **neeters_guy** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:59 pm

Christ, you're good! There's a lot stuff to look at, but the composition holds it all together pretty well. I can't wait to see your animations.