Bessie Coleman scarf wave. How do I do it?

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NealF
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Bessie Coleman scarf wave. How do I do it?

Post by NealF »

Hi.

Been trying to learn the various ways of making hair bounce or blow in the wind. I've did some studying of the Bessie Coleman animation but can't figure out how the scarf wave (or the others) works.

I see the points moving but there's a fine vertical line that connects upper points to the lower ones. Almost looks like there are several rectangles butted up against each other.

I'm not a total newbie, but have much to learn. This looks like a good way to do a wave. But if there's a better and easier one, I'd love to see that as well.

Thanks.
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synthsin75
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Re: Bessie Coleman scarf wave. How do I do it?

Post by synthsin75 »

The squares in the scarf are separate shapes so they can overlap each other without creating holes, like overlapping a single shape on itself does.
Each vertical line of points runs its own offset cycle.
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Greenlaw
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Re: Bessie Coleman scarf wave. How do I do it?

Post by Greenlaw »

The divided shape sections are as Wes says: they're made that way so the sections can overlap. Here's a quick demo example:

Image

The technique is also useful in limbs. For example, if you don't split a single shape for an arm at the elbow, the upper and lower parts will 'erase' where they overlap at the elbow. By dividing the arm into two shapes, the lower forearm can properly overlap the upper arm.

Image

When rigging and animating a waving bit of cloth or hair, I like to use at least one bone to move the points in an arc. This is a lot easier and quicker than animating the points alone. Think of the bone animation as broad strokes in a painting. Once you have that done, add some point animation for the details.

Here's a simple example:

Image

In this image, see how the rectangle is bound to the bone. The small bone at the end is an 'anchor' that holds the edge points in the rectangular 'flag'.

Image

The bone simply bends the rectangle up and down. In the duplicate setup beneath it, I've added point animation using the Magnet tool for the smaller details.

Here's the animation:

Image

You might be wondering why bother with the bone, why not animate only the points? While it would be possible to create this animation without the bone, it would take me a lot longer and require a lot more keyframes to get a smoothly flowing arc in the animation. The bone takes care of most of that for me with only three keyframes (up, down, and up again.)

Will this work with a longer 'scarf' animation? Sure, why not? It might even be more helpful to add a couple more bones and use the Sketch Bones tool to animate them.

(Edit: made a few corrections above.)
Last edited by Greenlaw on Mon Jul 16, 2018 3:27 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Greenlaw
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Re: Bessie Coleman scarf wave. How do I do it?

Post by Greenlaw »

Alternatively, you can use an animated curve to bend the 'scarf' shape.

Just attach the scarf layer to the curve using the Follow Path tool with the Alt-key (deform mode.) Then animate the curve. If you wish, you can add some point animation to the scarf for details, like in the above example using the bone.
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NealF
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Re: Bessie Coleman scarf wave. How do I do it?

Post by NealF »

Really cool. It'll take me a bit to totally understand it all, but it's a great effect.
Thanks.
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