DK Simple head turns part 3

DarthFurby · Post by **DarthFurby** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 6:15 am

I would like to see if it's possible to engineer a better mouth rig, but the one you have works very well for that character design, and overall this is an amazingly versatile puppet.

DK · Post by DK » Mon Dec 31, 2007 6:29 am

Hi Darth. There are a couple of bugs to be ironed out yet.

1. The sleeve mask is not valid for all arm positions.

2. There is a gap in the chest line that needs to be addressed too.

I am currently applying this method to a completely different character shape to see if everything holds up and try to correct all the faults along the way.

D.K

DK · Post by DK » Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:29 am

Here's one of my own characters I have set up in a 180 deg turn using bone scale modeling and bone scale rotate.

Here is a mov file. Due to masks for the hair I cannot post a swf file.
http://www.wienertoonz.com/SURFER.mov

Conclusion. This took me the same amount of time it would take to make a full 3D model and was very intense due to the hair overlapping both the head and body layers. I can't reccomend this technique for complicated character models unless you're prepared to put in the time but it's wondefull for simple shapes. Sorry but I can't share this anme file as I am using the character in a series. I will however keep working on the technique and sharing the files, results as they develop.

Cheers
DK

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:13 pm

Interesting result. I think he would look better without the hair, because of its design it looks flatter than the head. So I see a 3D head amidst some 2D hair layers ...

DK · Post by DK » Wed Jan 02, 2008 1:07 pm

Thanks for the feedback slowtiger. You're right. The hair needs some more work. The lower two tufts seem to work ok as they seperate. Maybe I need to incorporate this concept into the rest of the hair tufts to make it more realistic.

D.K

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 1:43 pm

I think the problem occurs because the front view of the hair is too much alike the side view: same number and size of strands. Since I worked with TV series, I know that a lot of model sheets make this mistake. It is not so obvious because most slow head turns only span about 30°, all bigger turns are done so fast that it doesn't matter. (It helps to do a construction drawing from the top to calculate the turns.)

My teacher would advise me to 1. make the hair not symetrically, not the same on both sides (he's an untidy character, so why should he have tidy hair), 2. don't make the tips evenly spaced. Something like this:

DK · Post by DK » Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:41 pm

Thanks slowtiger! I really like your hair design!!! Ever considered becoming a hairstylist?

I will do some more experiments based on your suggestions tomorrow.

EDIT: I gues this is turning out to be a hair study using this technique. The body and head were no problem to create following the last models structure....The hair is going to be the next step.

D.K

rplate · Post by **rplate** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:07 pm

DK wrote: Conclusion. This took me the same amount of time it would take to make a full 3D model and was very intense due to the hair overlapping both the head and body layers. I can't reccomend this technique for complicated character models unless you're prepared to put in the time but it's wondefull for simple shapes.
Cheers
DK

D.K.
You have me hooked on trying bones vs point animation. I played (worked)

at it for hours New Years day. Trying to replicate Vern's head that I did with :GROUP" point animation. So far it's been a lot of fun to see the comparisons between the two. Understanding "Bone Constraint" settings is the biggest hurdle for me. What do bigger numbers do?
Why do you use vertical bones along with horizontal bones?
What effect does the direction of the bones have on the point binding?
Does a negative "constraint" number negate the direction of the bone?

I certainly see the power of using "BONES" but for complicated figures pulling and scaling point "GROUPS" so far seems better control.
However, I am having a blast playing with bones and amazed at the similarities. I'll post my final "BONES" head turn whenever I get it right.

Hey Vern, Can you believe I'm doing bones?

.
Bob P

rplate · Post by **rplate** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:27 pm

D.K.

If it hadn'nt been for you I would not have had the inspiration to start this in the first place. Bones are not hard things to use. I used to be a points only animator till I started getting sick of dragging tha same points around time after time. There's always actions I guess but I just like the hands on feeling that bones give you....kinda like puppetry.

Cheers
D.K

Well I finally did it. Thanks to D.K. and all on the forum. I made a turning bone head.

I used a few more bones because I split the eyes, nose, mouth, etc up just as I did for the point animation.

Click here for a bone head movie I didn't mean Vern.

Here's the ASP file:
.
.Bob P

DK · Post by DK » Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:54 pm

Hey well done!
rplate wrote:

Why do you use vertical bones along with horizontal bones?
What effect does the direction of the bones have on the point binding?
Does a negative "constraint" number negate the direction of the bone?

The main verticle bone is used as the root bone and can be used to parent the group or more importantly rotate the entire head structure clockwise.

Some bones are placed horizontally with smaller parented bones at the end to give greater movement along the x axis to points.

Yes, negative constraint numbers move the bone in the opposite direction.

Cheers
D.K

DK · Post by DK » Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:22 am

OMG!!!!....All these hours on AS playing with hair layers have really payed off!. I have just stumbled on a simple masking technique that allows you to morph an outling without manipulating points.

Double Shape Masking!
I Created two overlapping outlined hair shapes on seperate layers and Rig them to bones that have different scaling speeds so they pass over each other diagonally as if the head is turnng. I Copied the back shape and pasted it to the front layer and just resized it ever so slightly so it did'nt interfere with the line work of the duplicated back shape. As the shapes cross they perfectly mask out each others lines as if they were morphing!!! Viola....perfect 3 simulated hair!!!!!

I need a BEER!

EDIT: SWF file updated.
http://www.wienertoonz.com/SURFER.swf

http://www.wienertoonz.com/DKhmsk.anme

D.K

human · Post by **human** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:05 am

Wow, this is coming along so nicely.

Wish I could contribute something to your effort, but I'm still not skilled in Anime Studio.

The best I could do is work up an alternate color set for your character...

...it's not better, just different.

DK · Post by DK » Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:10 am

Hey Human that's FUNKY

Are those colours from the palette in AS?

D.K

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 11:37 am

Hey DK! The effect is so cool but, why do you want the hair locks to be hidden?
I woud like that the lateral hair lock visible in the front view were visible too in the side or 3/4 view but morphed and displaced. Also a read hair lock substitute the translated one in the profile of the hair. IMHO it would give more 3D looking.
Anyway, excellent job!

-G

DK · Post by DK » Thu Jan 03, 2008 2:15 pm

Genete wrote:

Hey DK! The effect is so cool but, why do you want the hair locks to be hidden?

What was confounding me was morphing the outline profile so that the shape could alter from one to another without using a traditional mask which cannot be output as swf.,....now that this has been solved, the tufts or locks of hair you suggest can easily be put in place. Next thing to do when I awake

Was hthis the effect you meant Genete?
http://www.wienertoonz.com/SURFER2.swf

Cheers
D.K