A Couple Of Questions

Yosemite Sam · Post by **Yosemite Sam** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 4:56 pm

Hello,

I try and figure things out on my own before I come here to bug you guys, but I really need help on a couple of things.

First, I rendered a scene just to see how everything looked and I noticed that a "Crime Stoppers" image in a window is shaking. I have no idea why. I never animated it.

Here's a sample. It's not actually animated yet, I just moved things around to see how it would render.

http://www.mediafire.com/?5c91685rigut697

My second question is, I was wondering if someone could help me adjust some address numbers that need to adhere to the perspective of an apartment wall. I've tried all the shearing tools, etc., but I just can't seem to make it look normal.

Here's the file:

http://www.mediafire.com/?spqrq55iafeke7f

It's the "420" address on the sidewall. Also, there's a layer with perspective lines to use as a guide if needed.

Please, anyone that can find the time to help me with these two issues it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

ruscular3d · Post by **ruscular3d** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 11:30 pm

Is the crime stopper a image and possibly be a render artifact dancing ?

It would be nice if the program had push and pull brush like in photoshop to fix perspective on address number!

Yosemite Sam · Post by **Yosemite Sam** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 4:38 am

Yes, the crime stoppers sign is an image. How do you overcome an artifact issue like this?

The push/pull of photoshop sounds cool. Is there no way to adjust the perspective of the address in Anime Studio?

Yosemite Sam · Post by **Yosemite Sam** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 12:19 pm

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 12:53 pm

If the numbers are vectors, there's a perspective point tool.

Erase that sign and import it new. Be careful to stay in frame #0 when placing it. It shouldn't move after that.

Yosemite Sam · Post by **Yosemite Sam** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 1:14 pm

Thank you for a response slowtiger, but I'm going to need more details.

I tried the perspective points tool, but can't seem to get it to line up with the perspective of the wall. I spent a few hours trying everything and no matter what I do it just doesn't align right. Very annoying.

Did you look at the file? If you get the chance, could you? Pretty please?

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:16 pm

Can't - wrong version.

Part of the problem is that you're using completely straight lines for the scenery as if your character lives in a CAD world. There's a reason why only very few animation shows use this style: because of it's accuracy, any flaws or mistakes are easily to spot. And it lacks atmosphere.

That's why I usually prefer a more painterly, loose style: I don't have to bother about accuracy - if it looks good, it's OK. Additionally I can have any amount of shadow and texture and random brush strokes which all add to the haptic quality I like.

This gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. Rough strokes, visible brushes, fast work. More contrast: it's a night scene, after all.

Yosemite Sam · Post by **Yosemite Sam** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:41 pm

I absolutely LOVE that!

I agree with you on everything. I just figured it would be quicker to do everything in simple perspective, but it's taken an extremely long time just to create one freaking background.

By the way, what did you use to create that background? And so fast.

Please share your techniques because I'm going to have to rethink my strategy here. I need a quicker, looser, more atmospheric method.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:49 pm

Did this in TVPaint, but you should be able to get a similar result in your bitmap program of choice: Photoshop, Painter, Dabbler, Gimp, whatever. When I have time enough I even prefer to do textures with brush on paper and scan them in, it just takes longer.

Have a look at Iwaxana's work: viewtopic.php?t=20577, especially his use of non-central perspective. Tip: there's thousands of websites with screenshots from movies. Just grab the ones you find useful and trace what you need. Much easier and faster than trying to construct all perspective by yourself.

You may not believe me, but I suffer from the same problem as you: I get distracted by details very easily and waste time to get them right, instead of looking at the Big Picture. I really have to remind me every day to just sketch loosely and work out the main idea instead of neatly close all lines and color shapes.

Yosemite Sam · Post by **Yosemite Sam** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 3:26 pm

Awesome stuff, thanks a lot.

I just figured since South Park, Family Guy, the Simpsons all use perspective it would be the logical choice for constructing my backgrounds. But it's a lot of work and the final result is rather dull.

I checked out that video, nice work.

I have TVPaint and Photoshop. Just need to learn how to use one of them. Just enough so I can create backgrounds would be great. I also have a wacom tablet, though I hardly use it.

Great tip on using movie shots. Any particular sites you recommend, or just googling?

Yeah, I hate how tedious I am over every detail. Been like that my whole life. And what for? Half the stuff I labor over will go unnoticed by virtually everyone once they're absorbed in the story of the cartoon.

Yosemite Sam · Post by **Yosemite Sam** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 5:33 pm

Slowtiger,

I pm'd you

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 5:39 pm

Many of the users here on the forum do their backgrounds right with the animation, which sometimes is OK, but more often a mistake. A professional storyboard/layout artist would start with the whole film in mind (or even the whole series) and plan ahead a a lot.

What's the story? What's the mood? What is happening, and why? Once we decide about the importance of a shot story-wise, we can see how much work we may spend on the background. Something which is only shown in a short scene may be done in the simplest fashion possible, or not at all. Have a look at series and see how often characters act just in front of a colour card - it's still good enough.

Only establishing shots and backgrounds which are used often enough will contain all the details. Layout artist and background painter will start with these, to establish mood and colour scheme, then derive all BGs for close-ups and different angles from that.

*

You already have TVPaint? Great. Don't expect to get perfect results immediately, this program needs time to get used to. But it's worth the time, for painting I prefer it over Photoshop now. (Also you should join the TVP forum.)

Movie shots: no special sites, sometimes I just google a film's title and find a lot. You can also just take screenshots from a video.

Yosemite Sam · Post by **Yosemite Sam** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 5:53 pm

I understand exactly what you're saying. I actually work in film. Been screenwriting since the 90's. I have the script for my first episode written. I have visualized it over and over again.

Now I haven't story-boarded it, mainly because it will be very simple shots and scenes. It will rely more on the comedy. I figured I'd do a good master background for each scene, than rearrange, zoom, pan, etc., to create close-ups, mid-shots etc..

I will def join the tvpaint forum. Thanks for that.

Also, did you get my pm?