Resizing characters with Line Fill Actions

DK · Post by DK » Sun Sep 21, 2008 5:33 am

Hi.

Thought I better start this as a seperate thread.

You can use line fill actions instead of AS lines to resize your character and it's line work will look perfect at any size.

Benefits: You get perfect linework that will export to swf without using the Var linewidth checkbox. Also line fills can be shape adjusted for areas like the mouth etc.

1. In this picture the first character is the original character with linework as I want it to look when enlarged. The second character (small) is the character as I want it to look as a thumbnail with shape fills adjusted. The third character is an enlargement of the small character after the line fills have been adjusted.

Steps:
1. Create a character with line fills.

2.Copy and Shrink your orig character down to a thumbnail size and then begin to resize and adjust the line fills while it is small. Work small. You get a better idea of what it's going to look like at a thumbnail size.

3. Copy and Resize the character to it's orginal size.

4. Using the re-sized version as a reference, scale up and adjust the line fills on your original character to match as actions.

Your character will scale and export to swf perfectly without any interference from AS auto adjustments.

http://www.wienertoonz.com/linefillactions2.swf

Cheers
D.K

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 6:07 am

I like your character DK, it's turtley awesome.

Isn't reduced enlargement a turtology?

DK · Post by DK » Sun Sep 21, 2008 6:17 am

Hehe.....I better add a credit to you for this idea Chucky

....I was starting to get too excited for the other thread and forgot that it was synthsin75's ....I really like using the fills as opposed to the lines. I think it was mentioned by Darthfurby somewhere on the forum. h...and the Turtle is a little character I'm working on at the moment.

Cheers
D.K

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 7:11 am

DK, did you match up your line resizing with your camera zoom in the same action? If not, I'd assume you'd need the whole line size range animated in the action so that you could always keyframe somewhere along the tween as needed.

Like you said, probably won't work as well with more realistic styles, but I did a test to see how my method worked for swf output.

SWF file here.

It would need some adjustments for swf, but I think it would also work. Perhaps easier?

DK · Post by DK » Sun Sep 21, 2008 10:58 am

That's great! But... I did noticec 3 slight changes in the character as it zoomed in and out. They appear as very slight flashes. I'm not sure why.....would this be due to something in AS's auto correction coding?

EDIT. I did not change any camera settings or match them when I adjusted my outline fills. Just used the point scale tool to resizet the main character then adjust the outline fills.

D.K

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 6:17 pm

Yeah DK, that was a quick test. Here's a better one that doesn't use scale compensation. I assume that was what caused those little flickers.

SWF example here.

So how would you go about doing camera zooms on your turtle? Do you have to manually match up any scene zooms with the turtle's action scaling?

DK · Post by DK » Sun Sep 21, 2008 11:16 pm

Hi sythsin75.

I guess the thing would be to work backwards and create another set of actions for camera zooms, which would have to be matched manually. Funny, I have been using point scaling rather than using the camera zoom for all this...hehe. You have probably been using the camera zoom right? I don't think it really matters iether way, as long as you get the results.

Cheers
D.K

DK · Post by DK » Sun Sep 21, 2008 11:58 pm

Hi.

I just tried rescaling a shape filled realistic character I created. When reduced to a thumbnail size all the facial details completely dropped out.

The image of the smallest character below shows the it after adjustments. The medium sized character has outline fills thickened only. The large image is the original image.

For the thumnail I had to resize the eyes, mouth, ears and hair then also dramatically thicken the outline shape fills to get any level of detail to show up at all. These can be done by actions as Chucky suggested and are not as painfull as I had thought they might be. If you follow the steps I outlined above it does'nt take long at all. The image below is a resize of the thumnail.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 4:42 am

I like the results you're getting DK. If I wasn't wanting to use very dynamic camera movements, I'd be apt to use this method. It is a bit 'cleaner' looking.

Nice character, BTW!

DK · Post by DK » Fri Sep 26, 2008 5:42 am

Oh no....now you've got me thinking about a solution to this problem.
Goodbye sleep

D.K

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 5:44 am

DK I really like the thick line on this character even in close up, it looks cool

DK · Post by DK » Fri Sep 26, 2008 6:38 am

Funny you should say that Chucky.....by reducing the character, resizing the lines and then resizing it back to the original I've found that I'm likeing it too

D.K

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 9:13 am

synthsin75 wrote:Yeah DK, that was a quick test. Here's a better one that doesn't use scale compensation. I assume that was what caused those little flickers.

I think your line color is being animated somewhere. The stroke isn't just scaling it is also changing color.

This is a WICKED COOL TECHNIQUE! It solves so many problems and really looks fantastic. Line width consistency is a real pain in the arse. The subtle scaling is almost impercetable in my opinion. Your eye is not drawn to the change in line thickness. It's subtle but very effective.

I love this.

p.s. This should somehow be an option in the "scale compensation" check box for a vector. A new feature. Instead of "on" or "off" there could be a PERCENTAGE of scale compensation to automate this type of stroke width change. You follow? This would make a good feature request.

I may even look into possibly scripting this somehow. Of course it would rely on "real strokes" rather than filled strokes. Is that what you guys are doing? Using filled shapes behind the color to "fake" a stroke? To maintain compatibility with Flash?

-vern

DK · Post by DK » Fri Sep 26, 2008 10:00 am

Hi Vern.
If someone could script a selective line scaling feature it would be fantastic! Personally I think it really gives you grief when preping a character for multiple camera shots in AS. My example is using shape fills and actions only as another option to AS lines as per synthsin75's girl.
Chucky came up with the idea o using actions for scaling lines which is a geat idea and also works. Line fills do give you a slight advantage in that you can tweak the line ends to give a rounded or slashed look. They also give the image a sharper look and you get more control over your swf Flash export as a bonus...but...characters would be WAY easier to animate if you could leave the AS lines intact and use a script to control line widths.

Cheers
D.K

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 10:19 am

Hey guys, I'm not sure what you are talking about when you talk of the line scale or the line fill, what is line fill?
I was talking about the line width tool which looks like a little black ramp

I find the numeric line width quite bizarre as it greys out immediately any variation is put into the line.
Another weirdness is the line style when copied and used on new shapes makes the line thicker than the source so I don't use that either.