Moho Forum

Hey guys, i'm doing a minecraft animation and i'm having a little trouble with the shadow of the character.
I need to make my character jump and when he jumps, the shadow must remain on the ground and i can do that by draging the shadow down the same time the character goes up but the problem is, i can't match exactly the shadow position after the jump with the one before. I tried something with bones and it kind of worked but not realy how i want it.
Do you guys know a good metod o doing this?

One way would be to create the shadow as a separate shape.Use no stroke, the soft edge effect applied, and set the alpha of the shape to something like 125.

That is what i did, it's just a circle with soft edges and the opacity at 18.

You could have the shadow bound to a bone connected to the character so it walks with him. At the jump, do 1 key before the jump, then use bone translate to keep it in place, then copy that first key when he's back on the ground. I would reduce the shadow's size during the jump.

I thought you might be using layer shadow. Yes slowtiger, that would be an easy way to do this and the tip about scaling the shape down and then back again would be a nice touch.

Great idea.
I already have the shadow in the bone layer so it follows the character but i didn't though of copying the position of the shadow to put it after or during the jump, also making the shadow a little small when he jumps is a great idea.
Thank you.

Hi,

also, take a look also at viewtopic.php?p=108243&highlight=#108243

the key is that the shadow is the shape of the body as would be seen from the POV of the light source as then projected onto the surface.

here's a simple file that shows the principle for an overhead light.
http://www.mediafire.com/?twlw38kclc9101e



I haven't done the bone-bind that SlowTiger suggests - but that's a great idea - bind the mask to the character... but (also as ST says) you'll need to work to keep the mask in the right place during the jump.

Thanks, i knew that technique but i need to keep the animation style as it is because this cartoon will be a parody about Minecraft and this is also the shadow that the game uses.

what I do is have the character in a group, then the shadow below the character group, and then the shadow and the character group in another group.

CHARACTER_H
- CHARACTER_V
- SHADOW

The main group is for horizontal (H) movement. When the character does vertical movement like a jump, I move the character_V group and the shadow stays under the character for horizontal movement but not for up and down movement. Works well for me, figured this out a while ago and been using it for years.

Mikdog: the same concept could be done with just bones - have a root bone as a handle for the character, another rooted bone for the shadow. Move horizontally with the whole layer, vertically with the bone translate on the character's handle.

I think the idea of nested groups for H and V movements separately came from a discussion long ago about better controls for camera movements?

what I do is have the character in a group, then the shadow below the character group, and then the shadow and the character group in another group.

Good simple ideea, it worked just fine.
http://www.mikescartoons.com/Minecraft-2.mov