style animation with smart bones
Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 1:26 pm
How do smart bone actions interact with animated fill colors of styles? It isn't behaving as I would hope.
I'm trying to create a project in which a smart bone acts as a control to transition my drawing of a cityscape from day coloring to night, for use as a stage backdrop. I will then animate the smart bone as needed for a recording of the production, and I can control the lighting manually in a live setting by turning the bone. I have been able to get the effect I want by using the smart bone action to animate the fill color of each different shape in my drawing. But what I really want to do is have the action control the fill colors of a set of styles, and then apply the styles to the shapes. For instance, the "window pane" style would be tan in the day time, and change to yellow at night. The style would be applied to each window pane individually. Then, if I change my mind about what color night windows should be, I can just change the style, rather than each window pane individually.
It seems like you can animate styles. I don't see the fill color animation keyframes on the timeline, so it's hard to tell what's going on (am I missing something?), but at least it works. But I can't figure out how to animate the style fill color from the smart bone action. I selected the action and changed the style fill color, then returned to the main timeline. When I manipulate the bone manually, the shapes with directly animated colors work properly, but those using the animated style do not change (nor does the fill color swatch in the style's definition). On the other hand, when I animate the control bone and play the animation, the window panes with the animated style immediately turn yellow (night color), without any transition. So the program obviously knows it's supposed to do something, but it doesn't make the transition properly, as it does when I animate the fill colors directly.
Is this just a limitation of the program's capabilities, or is there a way to get this scheme to work? Thanks.
I'm trying to create a project in which a smart bone acts as a control to transition my drawing of a cityscape from day coloring to night, for use as a stage backdrop. I will then animate the smart bone as needed for a recording of the production, and I can control the lighting manually in a live setting by turning the bone. I have been able to get the effect I want by using the smart bone action to animate the fill color of each different shape in my drawing. But what I really want to do is have the action control the fill colors of a set of styles, and then apply the styles to the shapes. For instance, the "window pane" style would be tan in the day time, and change to yellow at night. The style would be applied to each window pane individually. Then, if I change my mind about what color night windows should be, I can just change the style, rather than each window pane individually.
It seems like you can animate styles. I don't see the fill color animation keyframes on the timeline, so it's hard to tell what's going on (am I missing something?), but at least it works. But I can't figure out how to animate the style fill color from the smart bone action. I selected the action and changed the style fill color, then returned to the main timeline. When I manipulate the bone manually, the shapes with directly animated colors work properly, but those using the animated style do not change (nor does the fill color swatch in the style's definition). On the other hand, when I animate the control bone and play the animation, the window panes with the animated style immediately turn yellow (night color), without any transition. So the program obviously knows it's supposed to do something, but it doesn't make the transition properly, as it does when I animate the fill colors directly.
Is this just a limitation of the program's capabilities, or is there a way to get this scheme to work? Thanks.