Jumpy switch layer...Help

3deeguy · Post by **3deeguy** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 4:35 am

I made two separate switch mouth layers for my two main characters. One of them works fine. The other has so many bugs that I want to start over. I want to know if anyone has an idea why one switch layer is so unstable. I tested the dialogue in papagayo where the mouth worked fine.

By the way. The switch layer that works fine was built in a separate file then added to the library.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 9:28 am

Which kind of bugs? Drawing glitches? Doesn't switch? Other?

3deeguy · Post by **3deeguy** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 3:06 pm

The 'muzzle' changes location on the face or randomly disappears then reappears. Layer translation looks unstable. I was going to say layer invisibility but when I zoomed out I saw that the switch layer was jumping to places outside the scene.
The offending switch layer is nested inside a character's bone layer. That bone layer is nested inside a second character's group layer. Finally, I used point motion for the mouth shapes.

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 3:11 pm

If we don't see the anme file we only can try to guess. I think the problem could be you accidentally added noise to some keyframe. Check that.

3deeguy · Post by **3deeguy** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 3:46 pm

I zipped the file but I don't how to upload it. I could post a clip to YouTube but that won't show why I have glitches.

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 3:50 pm

Create an account on mediafire, dropbox or similar. Then upload your anme file and share the public link here.

jonbo · Post by **jonbo** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 3:51 pm

Larry, you can use a file sharing site. I use mediafire, its free and you can upload files up to 200 mb.

3deeguy · Post by **3deeguy** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 4:03 pm

Thanks. Mediafire it is. My mornings are free so I'll get an account tomorrow.

3deeguy · Post by **3deeguy** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 6:17 am

The file shows my first try at papagayo so everything is in rough form but my error is there.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/l2xmce6bq ... 0layer.rar

jonbo · Post by **jonbo** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 1:14 pm

I don't know why it's happening, but if you take off the interpolate sub-layer option, the switch works fine. Maybe there is a oddball vector point in one of the sub-layers that's messing up the interpolation.

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 2:47 pm

Ok, thanks to Jonbo's comment I finally understood the problem.
It was very tricky and I finally fixed it (but now, re-reading Jonbo's comment I understood why it was fixed).

I couldn't find any problem with your layers, after several minutes investigating, everything looked fine. Finally, exasperated to not see a problem or solution, I decided to create a new file and start the switch layer all again.
I created a new switch layer and new vector layers for each phoneme. Then I imported your switch layer and start to copy and paste the points of each phoneme into the new ones.
The pasted phonemes appeared very far away to the output workspace, many of them on aleatory positions, some of them up of the screen, some down, left, etc. I had to zoom out a lot to find each one.
So, I took the points of each vector layer and aligned them to avoid that position mess, thinking that (for some ignored reason) could solve the problem.
Fortunately, that fixed the problem, so I was to post the fixed anme file and tell you your old switch layer was corrupted or something like that.
Now, re-reading Jonbo's comment, I figured it out. The file is not corrupted, AS is only making the job. AS is interpolating the vectors, but as the vectors' positions are technically very far away each other, the interpolation appears in a very different position we could normally expect. That's why the problem disappeared if you turned off the interpolation.

Ok, it's a very difficult to explain idea (more if I have to explain it in english), but I hope to be clear enough.

Now, as advice, try to work "cleaner". If you are working with a switch, try to make all the vector layers be in the same position and scale before drawing the mouths, that way you will never see a problem like this again.

Phew, that was a long post. If you got to read up here, you won the fixed anme file

:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/54411/AS7/Jumpy ... selgin.rar

jonbo · Post by **jonbo** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:28 pm

Nice one Selgin, I couldn't for the life of me figure this out( hadn't had my coffee yet

). I didn't see how you got all that out of my comment till I remembered that ENGLISH isn't you first language and that "oddball" might translate differently to SPANISH. I meant it to mean " not being part of a group" but it also means eccentric, out of place, or off center which fits your explanation. Funny how language is.

3deeguy · Post by **3deeguy** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 6:55 pm

Thanks! I can't get over how people in this forum reach out to help. I have to give my absolute best.

3deeguy · Post by **3deeguy** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 5:07 pm

This is what I learned: Rule#1 Draw your vectors inside the switch layer

I was rebuilding the switch layer a fourth time before it finally 'clicked'. I was pasting vectors from a different group or bone layer. Clearing animation from the layer does not clear size and position. The problem showed up when I clicked "interpolate".