Outline & Rendering Problems

molaconola · Post by **molaconola** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:34 pm

Hi! I have been having a quirky thing happen with some of the mouth shapes for my characters coming out inconsistently - some are rendering with white outlines, even when I have repeatedly changed them (even supposedly globally, at frame 0, thru a created Style). I have followed the tutorial directions exactly (At frame zero, I choose the Create Shape tool to select shape, drag around it, press the space bar, choose the fill & line colors [and this is where it gets quirky, too...will explain] and then render to see how it has come out at a frame where that mouth shape is used in the switch layer). The quirky thing about selecting the fill & line colors is that once I've pressed the space bar, colors used long ago pop up and change things, I have to then manually go and select the proper colors, just used in the previous change, then look @ "Applied Styles" which again are from an old choice (the other character's spec's), switch those to the one I'm working on, then again choose the proper Style in the Style menu...this is like a 10-step process, and then it still doesn't render properly, after saving, to reflect all those changes! I am still getting unwanted white outlines on a few of the mouth shapes after changing them ALL consistently, and several times over. What's up with this????

In other segments of my animation, some of my mouth shapes have rendered a little transparent. Again, it does not reflect this when I choose the shape and look at its spec's in the menu (I haven't created any transparent or partially transparent shapes). Again, has anybody else had this strange experience?

I am using a Mac G5 and am wondering if this, like the stuttering sound, is a strange quirk of doing it in Mac and if I should switch to using my daughter's PC laptop for doing this? Do you think that would fix this quirkiness?

BTW, I can't get these files to render more than a few frames on my Mac G5 without it shutting the program down unexpectedly. Again, is this a Mac G5 problem, and does anybody know what to do about it except switching to a PC for the rendering stage?

Thanks for any help. You all are great!

:)Molly

mkelley · Post by **mkelley** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 6:59 pm

The white outlines thing is most likely the bug in AS that occurs when you have multiple shapes within a single object with different fills and then try and hide the edges of one shape. If in your mouth object you are hiding edges (and if you have multiple fills of more than one color) the only way to solve this is to completely recreate the object and draw the hidden edge side first (or not have multiple fills in that object -- use more than one shape).

If this even sounds slightly like your situation you might want to search the forum for "white outline" and see the possible remedies.

molaconola · Post by **molaconola** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:24 pm

I will look that up, but my shape is one simple shape, with no hidden edges, no multiple fills...just one basic outline and one fill, which I want to both be the same color. I have a feeling your "drawing it over again" solution may be the only one, but I'd like to figure out "the bug" if I can before having to resort to that!

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:29 pm

At frame zero, I choose the Create Shape tool to select shape, drag around it, press the space bar, choose the fill & line colors

Applied styles stay applied until you remove them. So these are just still there from your earlier use. If you make sure there are no styles applied before creating the shape, you won't have this trouble.

I tend to do all of my color/style selections before I create the shape. In other words, I select the shape, pick my colors, and then confirm by hitting the space bar. But having an earlier style still applied can still catch me every once in a while.

...then again choose the proper Style in the Style menu

The only time you want to select the style from the style menu is when you want to change that style. If you are just applying styles and filling shapes, you should always have 'none' selected from the syles menu. Saved styles can only be used as applied.

Those white lines are caused by two filled shapes that share the same edge (usually from the same side, meaning they overlap). There is a small bug that makes the shape just under the top one slightly bigger, and it is this, second shape, that you are seeing poking out as a white outline.

I'd suggest everyone get the modified shape selection tool. It shows you where in the order the selected shape is.

As far as the crashing, there is a bug fix for Mac that may help. Search the forum for it and that shape selection tool. Someone else may know off hand where that bug fix is.

molaconola · Post by **molaconola** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 11:09 pm

Thanks for your reply...I want to clarify. The mouth shapes I am having a problem with have no overlapping or other shapes touching them. They are in mid-air, on top of a .mov layer which has the characters' bodies and movements in it. The layers for all the facial features are above this background. All features are a simple outline with a fill color (I want both to match). My daughter did the artwork for the shapes, and I am now working with it and making sure it's all consistent. I continue to have a problem with the outlines not changing (if I can see they are different). So, do you mean that since they were created a certain way that I am not going to be ever allowed to change them? I have tried creating new Styles to make sure everything is changing the same way. Some seem to change all right, and others don't, though I'm consistently following the same procedure and proper directions each time (and have tried these problem ones multiple times). I appreciate your work-flow suggestion of choosing colors for each ahead of time, but we're way beyond that now, and I have MANY that would have to be re-drawn and, of course, a deadline. Freakishly, these oddities do not seem to correlate from AS document to document, though I have used the same "library" of shapes to start each segment of the project (choosing SAVE AS before importing the background movie, soundtrack, papagayo mouth movement files, etc.). It seems like, somehow, these outlines have gotten ingrained in certain shapes, and they are refusing to be changed, no matter what! It is so frustrating! And, like I say, not consistent, which is at once puzzling and problematic for the final outcome. And, I promise you, it has nothing to do with hidden edges or any other shape touching it...they're completely isolated, simple outlines with a single fill color. Any more ideas? I appreciate them all!

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 11:21 pm

Check the key frames of your styles or shape fills/strokes. This sounds like you inadvertently added key frames past frame 0 for the shapes or styles. Even if you change them again on frame 0 the keys are still there.

If you added keys for a style you need to select the style to check for keys. You also need to make sure the time line settings has fill and stroke channels turned on so you can see if there are keys.

Often when creating a new shape on a frame other than 0 the default is going to be white which could have been "keyed" during editiing... just guessing.

-vern

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 11:25 pm

Sounds like bad shape creation practices, to me. If you can share an example AS file with these problems, I could fix them and then be able to explain exactly what was going wrong.

It sounds like you are having too many problems to sort out from your explaination. Feel free to PM me if you don't want to share the file openly.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 12:00 am

Everyone should install the modified select shape tool if this kind of thing gives them trouble, or just because it's a great tool.

http://www.mediafire.com/?1dbfjfdye4z

Greysnarthur · Post by **Greysnarthur** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 3:45 am

This man be too late for your problem but I've had something similar with a shape I had created large then scaled down to the size I wanted.

I have just redrawn the shape at the smaller size and there are no while edges! I have no idea why this should be but it seems to have worked for me. It might of course be pure coincidence but then again…

Graysnarthur