Moho Forum

Hi
I'm doing some experiments with switch layer interpolation and bones and found this quite interesting.

Here is a simple character consisting of two sub layers under a main switch layer. A boned walk cycle in side view and a still frontal pose.
The still frontal pose layer has all points bound to a main body bone but the walk cycle layer has only the legs bound to the leg bones and body to a main body bone.

I can get perfect transtions in and out of the walk cycle including point binding usiing just interpolation between the layers. Watch the feet slowly transition in and out of the poses.

NOTE: In the AS file below the bones are placed on the switch layer not on the parent bone layer

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



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

Cheers
D.K

Nice tip DK!

That could save a lot of animation work. Instead of creating actions for specific transitional poses, you can let the switch layers do the heavy lifting. Still requires some planing, but good to know.

Hello all

I agree, nice trick, would be interesting to see with a more detailed character!

Nicelly done DK.

GC

Hi synthsin75 and GCharb.
Thanks for the comments....I was sick of creating creating characters that have multiple sub groups as they are a pain to animate so Im trying hard to create a simple no fuss character in AS with minimal layers that's easy to animate.

My main stumbling block now is the mouth. How do you create a switch layer within a switch layer that will stay visible but also stay connected to the character as it interpolates from front to side?

I'm working on a mouth made of multiple shapes that is controlled by bones living on the main switch layer? Not sure it will work....but it's worth experimenting.

Any other suggestions?

D.K

Thanks for anme file. But its walking in place only, how will it actually go ahead.

Highlight the main layer for character. Select the translate tool. Drag character to the right, completely off screen for frame 0...then drag the timeline to frame 45..... drag the character onto the middle of the screen ....click screen to create a keyframe.....leave him there and grag timeline to frame 65..click onscreen to create another keyframe........drag timeline to frame 100....drag character off screen to the left....press play.

EDIT: Here's a file of him walking as per instructions above.

http://www.wienertoonz.com/DKSWITCHWALK2.anme

EDIT2:Set your project settings end frame to 100 before pressing play.

Cheers
D.K

Is there any idea in AS Pro to make chacter walk like this video ( i have done in Blender ) so there should be no slipping foot.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... walk+cycle

DK,

You could use the lip-sync with actions menu script. You'd just need to run it for every layer in you switch and make sure the mouth is bound to one or more bones so it can be moved.

You could use the lip-sync with actions menu script.

Is that an actual script synthsin75 or do you mean just use actions for lips-sync?

Hi kkrawal.
You really ave to do everything by hand in Anime Studio. There are no walk cycle generators etc. All animations, including 4 legged animals, are made by moving points or moving points connected to bones.

Cheers
D.K

An actual script. It lays down action keys based on a selected .dat file, Just like switches except it keys phoneme named actions instead of phoneme switches.

Yes, switch layers with bones are VERY cool. I've know about this type of "blending" or interpolating of boned/switches but I've never used it like this. Very cool. There was a topic before using multiple sets of bones in a switch for layers that don't "match" up.

There is one huge drawback to using switch layers to do "too much". This is one big thing that has caused me to drift away from interpolated switch layers. Switch layer keys are linear only. They can't use smooth or ease key frame interpolation. this can seriously limit what is possible to do. It is also near to impossible to "line up" or match interpolated animation with any other bone or point animation without making everything "linear" key frames.

I use to be really hot on switch layer head turns and other tricks until I found out about the interpolation keys problem.

It could be I'm too critical about it. It's happened before.

-vern

Since we're at it (again), I'd like to add my view.

I'm always reading what "you guys" are able to achieve with rigging tricks, actions and scripts. But I'm not so convinced by the examples you give. They all have one thing in common: they are slow. Smooth, even technically perfect, but - slooow.

When it comes to head turns or hand movements, my eternal advice is "make it fast, because you don't ever need such slow movements".

Animation is much like a magician on stage: deceive the eye, hide the transitions with speed.

The more smooth CGI animation I see, the more I like to go back and enjoy Terry Gilliam, Jan Lenica, Walerian Borowczyk and the like. Animation where stuff happens in 1 frame, heads turn from left to right with no inbetween, movements are jerky and irregular. I like that. And I predicate that animation gets more interesting that way.

(End of rant, just to insert my minority report somewhere ...)

Slowtiger wrote:

They all have one thing in common: they are slow. Smooth, even technically perfect, but - slooow.

I do hope you do realise I slowed the demonstration down so you could see the transition. It can be sped up by simply dragging the keyframes closer together but point taken.
My 2 cents on this are that AS is CG Animation software and interpolation is part of it's core. We all must embrace AS as much as we all did years ago pens, paintbrushes and cameras.

As for rigging tricks....hehe, (hope no 3D animaors are reading this thread)...they are a staple tool of modern animators. Personally I like to try all sorts of animation techniques. You may recall ERECTUS, the short I did a while back. I tried to produce a 3 minute animation reminiscent of the old traditionally animated Warner bros Road Runner series using AS. It seemed to work. Most people got the message....but...what a DOG to animate in AS! At times I swear I wanted to just pick up a pencil and do it traditionally. Character groups with switch layers, etc are soo time consuming to work with and that experience has played on my mind so much so that I now want to try something different. I want to go with the flow of the software and keep it simple for a change even if it looks slow, i don't care...that's the way the software works for god sake!....I don't want a character that looks traditional anymore. I want to use AS the way it was originally written for us, as a digtal animation tool for a digital medium.

oops...sorry i've gone on a rant. Please don't take my comments personally slow....Nothing aimed at you. Just needed to get this off my chest.

Cheers
D.K

I'm kinda with slow on this one (despite the cool trick! ) - it's again the reason i dont bother trying to do a 'one rig to rule them all' for characters as you can't really tell everything you will want to do unless the animation is really well planned, at which point you wouldnt NEED a 'one rig to rule them all', i've used 1 or 2 frame inbetweens to 'hide' turns that are basically weird stretches that work fine... unless you are trying to do really detailed nuanced acting of a super realistic character reading shakespeare, you rarely need your cartoon characters to be so fluid, and often you get more life out of them when they're not...

It was me who proposed that trick long time ago:

viewtopic.php?t=6374&highlight=multiple+bones+switch


-G