More tutorials

[Tel750]

Greetings to all Moho-nians,
I had such a fun time doing the tutorials I was wondering where I might find some more. I have printed out Myles's tips, thanks Myles they are great. I have been to Steve Ryans site but I can't download the tutorials there so I can take them home. So are there any others buried some where. I did a search of the forum but I didn't find anything. Also could anyone recommend a good digital animation book which would be a good reference for expressions and action poses as well as character development. Thanking you in advance.
p.s. LM the software is great the 3d enhancements are brilliant. I saw that function on very expensive 2d program a few years ago and now Moho has it for a very resonable price. Now I will be able to use my 3d software for something. I have only one small gripe, the location of the playback controls, I have to keep moving the timeline up when I need to add a keyframe or tween as the dialog box is below the screen and then when I want to playback I have to move it out of the way again. Is there a reason why it is not actually on the timeline window? Maybe I have to invest in a larger monitor mine is only 17 inch. The only other thing is a few unexplained crashes. I am on a Mac 867mhz dual processor which I have just upgraded from OS 10.2 to OS 10.3. Not sure why and playback can be slow at times.

Cheers

Terry

[myles]

Hello Terry,

I have printed out Myles's tips

Most of them are seriously out-of-date, so don't be surprised if something doesn't work the same, or if a new feature makes some of the techniques obsolete.

Also could anyone recommend a good digital animation book which would be a good reference for expressions and action poses as well as character development.

Don't restrict yourself to digital books, a lot of traditional artistic, cartooning, and animation references are just as good (if not better).

Facial expression books possibly worth a look :

• The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression, by Gary Faigin is a classic often referred to.
  Emotions Revealed by Paul Ekman was recently recommended by one person on another forum.
  Facial Expressions: A Visual Reference For Artists by Mark Simon might be worth a look when it comes out.
  Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right by Jason Osipa is a fairly recent book with a focus on 3D.
  Animating Facial Features and Expressions by Bill Fleming, Darris Dobbs is a somewhat older 3D book, mainly focusing on how to rig a 3D face for animation (morph targets and whatnot).

Anyone want to chime in on books covering action poses ? I've avoided looking through things like the Marvel and DC style how-to books, so I can only speak about the really cartoony kids stuff - things like books by Preston Blair, Bruce Blitz, and Chris Hart - I'll have a look through those tonight to see if there's much useful for action poses.

A recent book, Action! Cartooning by Ben Caldwell is probably worth a look in this regard.

I have only one small gripe, the location of the playback controls, I have to keep moving the timeline up when I need to add a keyframe or tween as the dialog box is below the screen and then when I want to playback I have to move it out of the way again.

If you are unable to change your screen resolution (I assume Macs allow this ?), and unwilling to decrease the size of your workspace or timeline windows, and Window; Arrange doesn't work for you, another possible workaround is to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+[ to toggle the visibility of the timeline.

Regards, Myles.

[Lost Marble]

As far as the window issues go, I would definitely recommend using the Window->Arrange menu command. Maximizing the main window so that it gets partially covered up by the other windows really doesn't buy you anything - it covers up the playback buttons as you've seen, you can't see all the artwork visible in the editing view, and it makes playback slower (a bigger window to redraw, even if you can't see all of it).

[Tel750]

Thanks I will try it tonight. Myles thanks for all that information. My preference in animation is the "Mr Hell" "Ren & Stimpy" "Corniel & Bernie" style of drawing, mostly cause with some basic skills (and beleive me my skills are basic) you can make some half decent looking animations. What I meant in action posing was not the "marvel " style rather body positions for different actions. I have a couple of books from the library on cartooning which are useful, I thought there might be the definitive cartooning bible for quick reference that I could purchase via amazon.

[myles]

I'm a Mr Hell fan too - very inspiring stuff.
Barry Baker, who posts some excellent information in the Moho forums, was apparently involved in Mr Hell, at least as far as character design - see his web site. However, I don't think they used Moho, although when I first saw it I thought "Ooh - that sort of thing could be done in Moho".

What I meant in action posing was not the "marvel " style rather body positions for different actions.

I also meant not so much the actual style of drawing, but that the superhero styles tend to have some fairly strong action posing (although not necessarily humorous posing).

I assume you're talking about this sort of thing, from the book Cartooning Basics by by Duane Barnhart, Angie Barnhart (I don't know if the book has much more in this line apart from these examples). Credits to this thread by bupaje for the link to the stick figures.

I know Bruce Blitz has a page or two of these types of stick figures in his books - I'll have a look tonight to see if there's any of relevance, and a couple of other books I have.

I thought there might be the definitive cartooning bible for quick reference that I could purchase via amazon.

Not that I know of - but I'd be delighted to hear one exists.

Regards, Myles.

[myles]

could anyone recommend a [...] good reference for [...] action posing [...] body positions for different actions

Well, I had a look through several books last night - several of the cartooning books had poses (stick figures and cartooned figures) for various actions, but usually not more than 2 or 3 pages worth per book, and often scattered in single figures over several pages - none of them worth buying for this aspect alone. Most of the posess look good as a static cartoon, but wouldn't necessarily animate well.

Ben Caldwell's Action! Cartooning, as mentioned above, has a fair number of pages developing from the stick figure to the full character, mostly in a super-hero style with serious and fighting poses. Again, while the drawings are excellent, the poses wouldn't necessarily translate well to Moho animation.

Maybe you were on the right line with your reference to digital books - I think I'll check out a couple of the Flash cartoon animation books next time I'm in a large bookstore.

Regards, Myles.

[Tel750]

Hi Myles,
Also did some reading and scanning images into the computer as model sheets. Yes it seems any one cartooning book has around to to three pages to action poses then thats it. They also talk alot about the importance of angle in the cartoon and this does also relate to animation. I watch a couple of animations a day when I can and they all seem to use angle and camera alot to reduce the amount of actual movement of character. I guess that learning to use the camera skillfully with Moho is something a budding animator needs to learn.
I would be interested to know if anyone has read these books and what they think, they seem to be highly recommended. The Illusion of Life - by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, The Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles, and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion, and Internet Animators - by Richard Williams

Cheers

Terry

[pixelwks]

I'm reading The Animator's Survival Kit right now.

It contains a huge amount of collected wisdom from the great animators. Whenever I feel smug about my skills I go to it and feel humbled.

Highly reccommended. So many things I would have never thought of.

[kdiddy13]

Another simple solution:

A mirror. A full length (5ft) mirror goes for about $5-$10. Infinite reference material. You could also get a cheap web cam and record actions from numerous angles for easy playback.

Most animators make heavy use of mirrors. They'll act out facial expressions and the movement of the character and then draw it. There's a reason that places like Pixar and Industrial Light and Magic offer acting classes to their animators. It really helps to draw a pose if you've "felt" it yourself.

Go sit in a busy park, bus/train station, and do quick gesture drawings of people walking by. It hurts at first, but if you keep up with it, you'll start to be able to capture the attitude of different people. Keep a journal of interesting walks, poses, attitudes.

Also, if you have a DVD player (VHS will work, but not as nicely), pause on a frame of action you like and draw it.

Good reference books are worth their weight in gold (check out the Muybridge collection for some very good reference on simple movement), but they'll never cover everything that you need to draw. You're best off figuring out a way to collect reference for yourself.
________
Sexual Health Advice

[jahnocli]

I don't know about animation books, but a couple of good books for posing, drawing and composition are "Comics and Sequential Art", by Will Eisner, and "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way", by Stan Lee nad John Buscema.
They're very different in approach, but both inspirational in different ways.

J

[ian]

Just thought I'd share that I have recently bought the Animators Survival Kit and it is outstanding. I think it kinda throws you in a little at the deep end and a lot of the techniques are way beyond me right now - but I am at least thinking ahead and planning out my work in advance of the day when it all falls into place (yeah, right). It's not only a great resource but it's a good read too.

I'm a relative beginner at animating and I want to create some set pieces for my voiceover showreel (that's what I do). I have free access to an IT company here in the UK that has it's own graphics department and they let me play with their toys - one of which is Moho. I have only just started with it and am working my way through the tutorials but already I can see this is going to be PRECISELY what I need. So much so that I will be buying my own copy as soon as I get paid for my next job!

Some other worthwhile books I have read include Cracking Animation by the team that created Wallace & Grommit (sorry, not at home now so I can't check the authors). I know that claymation isn't what Moho is about but it gives some interesting insight into character creation.

The other book worthy of note (for newbies like me) is The Complete Guide to Animation (again, sorry but I don't have the authors details). I'll dig them out and repost tomorrow. This book is a great grounding in various styles and techniques and although I wouldn't really call it a Complete Guide it makes for a very useful and readable introduction. Interestingly, I don't recall seeing mention of Moho although there is much about Animo, Toon Boom and the other more expensive software available.

Can I finish with a question please? I have used (Sony) Vegas as a NLE for several years now and I would like to export Moho-animated characters into Vegas for compositing with other material. I am sure I could achieve similar results in Moho but I would prefer to stick with Vegas. How are other users integrating with NLE's? I haven't worked it out yet but I am sure there must be a way to generate a character with an alpha layer as the background. In my first attempt with Moho I just changed the background to green and keyed it out but there has to be a better way! Any advice and general guidance on 3rd party app integration would be most welcome!

Well, it's nice to know that you guys are here with your experience and expertise. I'm sure I'll be back.

[bupaje]

Well if you want to add one more little tidbit to your list. http://www.draw3d.com/ This guy is on PBS and he has an series of online cartooning lessons. It is aimed at kids but it covers the ABC's very well and for $29 a year access might be worth a look. I did the few freebies with my 6 year old son and my twin 6 year old nieces who live with me and all were captivated. The explanations about foreshortening, shading, perspective etc are all on a kids level so perfect for someone like me whose only cartooning experience comes from drawing on napkins from time to time.

[nobudget]

"there must be a way to generate a character with an alpha layer as the background"

Render in Quicktime with Millions+ colors and you get animaton with Alpha. But not every program will import the Alpha channel. You can also export the animation as an PNG or TGA image sequence with Alpha and import that. Hopefully your NLE supports image sequences.

Good luck,

Reindert.
www.nobudgetvideo.com

[Tel750]

Thanks to all, bupaje checked out the 3d draw website its great, my 7 year old will have lots of fun with it and I can sneak some lessons too. I took delivery, via Amazon, of 'the Animators survival guide' and 'the illusion of life ' they certainly are jam packed and I will pour through them over the next few weeks, Another website that seems cool for ideas which was posted else where is http://www.seventhsanctum.com/.
Cheers
Terry