Moho Forum

Here is a compilation of my 2d animations. All but two are made in AS. Mostly just testing rigs and stuff. I want to make a more "complete" little movie soon.
http://youtu.be/hgo7Sm89Y84

Nice animation! It's awesome that you're using such a variety of different techniques, too!

Great fluidity of movement.

they're all exquisitley executed! My favorite part are the birds xD

Thanks...I love experimenting and animation in general. I've been doing 3d for so long I forgot how much fun other mediums (and software) can be. I am pretty happy with AS, although I'd like to see a few more constraint options for the bones system, it does give an individual animator the tools to make nice traditional style animations without the huge overhead of manhours.

Very interesting and cool imagery. The characters are very original and creepy. The animation is pretty nice.

I have a general comment regarding the birds you animated, not that they are bad - in fact they are quite adequate as background elements, but the following is just in case you want to ramp it up a little, or try it on something else...

One thing I found out somewhat by accident with animating flying creatures is that their bodies tend to move up and down in reaction to the movement of their wings. So when the wings move down, the body gets a little bit of a lift, and subsequently as the wings move up, the body moves down a little.

So if you were to imagine a line from point A to point B describing the path of the bird, it would not be a straight line, but rather a wavy one. The wings would be down on the peaks, and the wings would be up on the valleys of the wavy line.

Also, you would have the wings linger a little on the downstroke, because the overall effort involved in flying with wings is in the downstroke. bringing up the wings takes less time, because it is the setup for the downstroke, which keeps the creature aloft.

Just my two cents - good work though!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P7Lei2ezzjg
Another character and rig test.
So, is there a way, once I get his whole body facing right, can I replace the bones to make a right facing rig? Or should i just flip the layer? What is a good way to handle this transition?

I'm still using an old debut version, but I'm assuming smart bone actions in your version should give you options for a smooth transition to the right, if not, depending on if you only have one bone for the body movement, you could try a switch layer.

LY

ShadowCory wrote:http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P7Lei2ezzjg
Another character and rig test.
So, is there a way, once I get his whole body facing right, can I replace the bones to make a right facing rig? Or should i just flip the layer? What is a good way to handle this transition?

I'm interested in the answers you'll get so I just want to follow the thread.

Nice Work!

3deeguy wrote:

ShadowCory wrote:http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P7Lei2ezzjg
Another character and rig test.
So, is there a way, once I get his whole body facing right, can I replace the bones to make a right facing rig? Or should i just flip the layer? What is a good way to handle this transition?

I'm interested in the answers you'll get so I just want to follow the thread.

So, I probably will move this over to the "How do I" section, but for right now, I copied the entire character folder, flipped it horizontally, and put both versions in a switch layer. May not be the best way, but it seems to do the job for now.

steveryan2 wrote:Nice Work!

Thanks! Going to make a little test animation soon. Well, a test that looks like a real animation, as opposed the the rig stretching exercise

ShadowCory, at the moment I'm working on a head that will be able to nod 'yes' or 'no'. I took five photos of someone's head: straight ahead, 3/4 up, 3/4 down, 3/4 left and 3/4 right. I did that to get the proportions right, not to copy the face. I control my head turns with SmartBones only. I only use one switch layer for phonemes because SB's can handle both head turns and lip sync. I have to point out that I typically use just one head bone as a 'skeleton' bone to bind all the head layers to the body. I rely mainly on SmartBone 'point translation' for head turns and lip syncing.
Full body turns using point translation is a different story. I probably would duplicate the character and use a switch layer. That's why I wanted to listen in.
Just my two cents.

Thanks Larry, I appreciate the response on your technique. I did the whole body, point translation deal, then matched the ending points to the beginning of the flipped version. It popped a little bit, but was fairly unnoticeable due to the wiggly line style. As for the head and phonemes, still working on those guys.

Here is a little bit more organized test animation. Still a rig test, but I am learning more about what I need to do to carry on.
http://youtu.be/QmYEqy5adGc

Cory

ShadowCory, you have talent. You have an interesting style. I'd like to see some more.
My focus is pretty limited. I'm interested in making animated video blogs where the character speaks to the camera. I'm still figuring out how to rig a front facing character which is why I said "Just my two cents".