Moho Forum

I've been working on converting a character that I made for comics, a long time ago, into an animated character. It's a composite character, so I can just change the hair and shirt to get a new character (ie I never have much time, so I created the character with reuse in mind )

Here I'm not really wanting to animate the character much, but rather focusing on a slow head turn. Ultimately I want to create characters which can display subtle and serious emotions rather than more cartoon, funny emotions, so I'm just playing around with things.

Just sharing, but if anyone has thoughts or suggestions please share.

Hi Strider,
Generally not bad at all, I just find the nose flip jarring. This is a tough one to handle - but what might be required is a few more 'transitional frames' for the front view where the center view is a little line under the nose perhaps? the jump is too great as-is imho, the nose moves too big a step it too short a time compared to the rest.
Hope this helps!

funksmaname wrote: I just find the nose flip jarring.

Yeah, me too I originally tried exactly what you're suggesting, but it didn't wind up like I hoped. It looked kind of like a snake crawling it's way from one side of the face/nose to the other I think the fact that it's a manga style nose, rather than a more realistic one, with fuller dimension, causes part of the problem. I've had more luck with more realistic noses.

In any case, I'll just have to try different things 'til I get it right, but that's exactly what I was seeing in this test as well. The slower movement of the head being smooth in general, really makes the flipping of the nose blare at you Oh well, that's what a test and learning is all about

Thanks for the feedback.

If you pause the video, you can see both the left and right nose appear at the same time. You can get away with this with fast turns (typically with smears and multiple images), but it looks odd in slow turns. Avoid turning the head in a straight line and with even timing. It makes the turn look mechanical and floaty. Also work in some stretch-n-squash, anticipation, and a hold frame or two, to give more life to the turn.

Here's an example that's not anime style, but illustrates what I mean:


As a further refinement, remember to sell the emotion with strong body poses.

Good luck!

I don't know if this will work or look weird, but maybe part of the problem is the nose shape doesn't change at all while the face turns, it doesn't become more pronounced at the 3/4 views or less so near the middle, so (especially with such a slow transition) it looks like it's just floating across the face in 2D then flipping... try curving the sharp tip and straightening the line towards the center, and then as it's in the middle you introduce the opposing side, again almost flat but with a rounded bump transitioning back into the sharp triangle?

It looks as if the nose switch layer wasn't set to interpolate, if there is a center nose position, the line width could be minimized to zero as well for the straight on position

Thanks for the feedback. Definitely some things to think about and try.

Little Yamori wrote:It looks as if the nose switch layer wasn't set to interpolate,

For my rig I actually didn't use switch layers. I created one that kind of looks like the on neeters_guy did, but with sharper angles. When he faces forward you would see a left, bottom and right side. I just altered line width as the head turns. Initially I created a head turn where the nose did almost exactly what neeters_guy's head does. That turned out looking like a line crawling from one side of the face to another. Neeters_guy, is that what yours looks like if you turn the head slowly and smoothly? I didn't add the animation techniques, so I definitely get your point of using animation techniques to address these types of issues and give more life. Here I'm trying to see what I can do within the character construction itself. (Trying to think through techniques for a more realistic animation with slower movement.)

neeters_guy wrote:If you pause the video, you can see both the left and right nose appear at the same time.

That was my attempt to show a more realistic nose in the front view. It looked ok when I scrubbed the time line, but not so much in the time line. I think the bottom line didn't show up as long as it needed to and didn't have enough thickness.

funksmaname wrote:what might be required is a few more 'transitional frames'

funksmaname wrote:maybe part of the problem is the nose shape doesn't change at all while the face turns,

Based on all the feedback, I think I'll go back to my initial idea and add more transitional points and carefully check the line thickness rather than just allowing ASP to interpolate. I'll probably need to dig out some Disney style animations and study them some. I'll get it to hopefully an acceptable level and then test two turns. One similar to what I've already done and one with the animation techniques to add more life, energy and hide problems.

Thanks again for all the ideas

I think I'm starting to catch a cold but I just had to try to improve that nose

Here it is


I'm much happier with the results Basically needed to think a little. It's an up turned nose, so show shading. (I haven't done that with my characters much yet). Also, this is the first time I actually imported the character by reference. I updated my character in the library and my project is updated. Sweet

Let me know your thoughts (yes, next step is to add real life, but I just had to try to fix that silly nose )

By the way, if you look really close at a full screen image you'll see some artifacts during the playback. Little spots. I can get rid of it by rendering as uncompressed avi, but the file is 3000 times larger Does anyone know how to get rid of that without blowing up the file size (I typically like to render as mp4). I tried changing a number of options, but haven't figured out yet. It's not too noticeable, especially if the screen is small, but I'm sure everyone knows you always notice the problems with your own videos.

Thanks for the insights. Now for some rest.

This is definitely looking much better! I think the line could be totally gone before it is straight down the middle, the shadow is doing the heavy lifting...

Get some rest, hope you feel better soon.
D.

Thanks funksmaname. I'll have the width go to zero sooner. On my next post I'll keep the old, but compare it with real animation like neeters_guy suggests

Feeling better today, but still not sure I'm out of the woods yet, so I'll take it a little easy Thanks for the well wishes.

Agree with Funks, looks much better. That shadow really helps guide where the line should be.

Ok. Here's a quick two part. The first part fixes the nose (per funksmaname) and the second part adds some life (per neeters_guy).

nailed it!

Cool. Thanks for your help

Wow, this animation is a real hit. I don't think my stuff will ever get to this level!