Vector leg shape loses filled color when crossing other leg

nma · Post by **nma** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 2:42 pm

Hi
Anime Studio Pro is fantastic.
Process: I make a single vector shape character on one layer and fill it with color.
Create walk cycle by moving points.
Problem: When one leg crosses over the other leg in walkcycle the filled color dissappears from overlapping areas.

Is there some setting I am overlooking?

I realize that going to seperate body part shapes would eliminate the loss of color but for me animating one shape would be terrific.

I did a search for "transparency" and "opacity" but the results did not address this problem.

Thank You

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 2:52 pm

It will not work, in no vector program.

Basically any vector application fills shapes like this: scan the image horizontally until you cross a line. Colour any pixel after the first line until you cross a second one. Repeat.

This is called the "even-odd fill rule" and was, I believe, introduced with PostScript. Since it works nicely for combined separate shapes and shapes with holes, they stuck to that.

Here (http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4970) is solution to work with several shapes which look like one. You can easily adapt it to your style and skip the whole bone issue.

nma · Post by **nma** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 3:18 pm

Thanks for the rapid reply and links slowtiger. I did suspect that the loss of fill color was a characteristic of vector formats but was hoping it not to be the case. The lossless appeal of vectors is offset by difficulty in manipulating the components of the medium.Anime Studio has a great artist friendly implementation and the animation results are great.
Thanks again!