Moho Forum

has anybody a good idea how to animate a 2d object (example a human body) in a 3d space? i mean its easy to do it by leaving the object go from left to right or vice verser but: i would like to have the object go towards or away from the camera - neither the bones nor single points can be moved in z depth. any suggestments?
thanks
dren

One thing that I have used a fair amount to suggest a part of a character is moving towards the character is Bone Scaling. For example, the character points an arm in the direction of the "camera". If you scale the arm bones to be shorter as the arm is supposed to be pointing at the camera, it gives you a good simulation of foreshortening if the character is set up for it. Another one is to scale the various leg and arm bones shorter and then back to normal during a walk cycle moving towards the camera. For a good practice, import a video of a person walking right at the camera and try to track their movements using mostly (not entirely, of course) bone scaling. It should give you a good feel for the technique.

--Brian

True the Bones cannot swivel in 3D depth, but look at whole layer rotations on the X and Y axes. You can combine these with the bone shortening that Brian referred to to make a convincing walk to camera. Make sure the leg layer pivots at the hip (by moving the layer centre) for it to work. Then move the whole character's group layer along the Z axis over a number of frames, tick the box that says "Always turn to face camera", and he/she can really walk up to the screen, even if your camera is moving around the scene.

thanks - i will try this out