My New Superhero cartoon!

[zagreusent]

wow............ keep it UP

[neeters_guy]

Thanks!
Testing a front view walk of the main hero.

[Singingmute]

That looks ace!

[slowtiger]

That logo needs to move with the chest.

[willf]

neetersguy,

when you do the animation on the feet in a forward facing walk cycle, do you use smart bones?

[strider2000]

I really dig your series so I thought I'd try my version of your Impact character.

Great work neeters_guy Could you share some tips on how you created the impact character? Based on your comments it seems like you did this very quickly and since the quality is so good I'd love to hear your approach.

Some of the question I have are:
1) How do you do the overlaps? Do you use patch layers? I notice the slight overlap at the joints and torso so I think you have separate upper and lower layers, with semi-circles on each end, but portions of the strokes hidden for the top layer. If that's what you're doing, how many points do you use at the joint? You do a really nice job on the overlap!
2) Do you use smart bones to control the minor overlap as the joint bends? Do you have any tricks to make it easy to match strokes when you don't want the overlap?
3) Do you construct the hair in more parts than front and back?
4) Do you use bones for the hair movement or just move the points, or something else?
5) Do you use switch layers for the hands? What about for eyes? I think you are for mouth.
6) On the kick are you using head and body turn or just standard views (ie switching from left 3/4 to right 3/4 or left 3/4 to front to right 3/4). My eye is not yet good enough to tell from the animation. From looking at the belt buckle it looks like it may just be the 3/4 views, but is looks so nice. Also, are you animating on 2's or 1's? Does that make a difference? The intuitive feel for what you can and cannot get away with and what gives the smooth motion is something I'm still trying to learn.

I apologize if that's too many questions, but I think you've done a great job and I'd like to learn from it. I'm sure others would be interested too! Thanks for any ideas you'd like to share.

[JohnJackson]

JUST a quick note here to say that Neeters and I are working together on the next Superhero cartoon....hence Neeters putting so much work into the characters rigging while I crack on with the backgrounds (and record the rest of the voices...a couple are already in the can, the others should be recorded on Sunday.)

[strider2000]

I'm looking forward to them

[neeters_guy]

That logo needs to move with the chest.

Ah, thanks. Duly noted.

when you do the animation on the feet in a forward facing walk cycle, do you use smart bones?

I used switches with interpolation in this case. I just make sure I use the same base points when I make the other views:

The interpolation doesn't always look correct during the transition, but usually it's fast enough you won't notice it.

Thanks for the comments everyone (I'm working on strider's questions ).

[neeters_guy]

1) How do you do the overlaps? Do you use patch layers? I notice the slight overlap at the joints and torso so I think you have separate upper and lower layers, with semi-circles on each end, but portions of the strokes hidden for the top layer. If that's what you're doing, how many points do you use at the joint? You do a really nice job on the overlap!

For that Impact rig, I used an old method called the mandcon rig. The nice thing is that with animated shape ordering, you can now animate how the lines appear at the joint:

For the version I'm working on now, I'm using patch layers as you described. It's easier to setup than the mandcon joint, but you can't animate the upper and lower shape. For the ends, I only use 1 point with high curvature value, like 0.65.

2) Do you use smart bones to control the minor overlap as the joint bends? Do you have any tricks to make it easy to match strokes when you don't want the overlap?

Elbows and knees set up with either the mandcon or patch is good enough without further tweaking with smart bones. I definitely use smart bones for the shoulders and hips though.

3) Do you construct the hair in more parts than front and back?

Yes, 5 in total here. The head layer contains 4:
-front
-sideburn right
-sideburn left
-back
Plus one more layer outside the head layer for hair that falls behind the body. The reason for the sideburn layers is because of animated layer ordering for the head turn.

4) Do you use bones for the hair movement or just move the points, or something else?

It's just one smart bone action that moves the hair ends left and right. Only the hair behind the body moves; the hair on head stays put.

5) Do you use switch layers for the hands? What about for eyes? I think you are for mouth.

Yes, for the hands and feet, as well as the eyes, brows, and mouth.

6) On the kick are you using head and body turn or just standard views (ie switching from left 3/4 to right 3/4 or left 3/4 to front to right 3/4). My eye is not yet good enough to tell from the animation. From looking at the belt buckle it looks like it may just be the 3/4 views, but is looks so nice. Also, are you animating on 2's or 1's? Does that make a difference? The intuitive feel for what you can and cannot get away with and what gives the smooth motion is something I'm still trying to learn.

It's a simple flip from 3/4 left to 3/4 right.


I think this is fine most of the time. The trick is to make the flip during a large movement. See this my post here: Switch layers smooth transition & stopping the walk cycle

Incidentally, Greenlaw has some tips here:

The trick for getting smooth transitions in rig-switching is to design your character so you can shift internal elements to create 'in-betweens' before you make the switch. For example, before making the switch between front to side for the head, shift the facial features in the direction you wish to have the character 'turn'.

Since a gif has a very low framerate (ie., 10 fps), it's like animating on 3s . Honestly, I haven't consider that issue that at all when I animate, so I guess I animate on 1s by default.

I apologize if that's too many questions, but I think you've done a great job and I'd like to learn from it. I'm surede others would be interested too! Thanks for any ideas you'd like to share.

Thanks. Sorry for the overlong reply. I may get around to posting a generic rig to pick apart; that may be the easiest way to explain my method, such as it is.

Hope that helps.

[strider2000]

Thanks for sharing your approaches neeters_guy! It's very helpful.

For the version I'm working on now, I'm using patch layers as you described. It's easier to setup than the mandcon joint

I've never heard of the mandcon rig/joint. I'll have to try it, but it seems like you prefer the patch layers due to the easier set up.

It's a simple flip from 3/4 left to 3/4 right.

Thanks for the notes and links on the body turn. I'll check out the references. The animation is very helpful.

Since a gif has a very low framerate (ie., 10 fps), it's like animating on 3s .

Interestingly, when I was experimenting with some switching between views to try to figure out what frame spacing was it did look like 3's The books I've seen talk about the different intervals, but I don't yet understand the subtle details. I realize it made/makes a lot of difference when you draw each frame, but when you use bones I'm not sure if there's a real reason not to use an interval of 1.

Sorry for the overlong reply.

Not too long for me I very much appreciate you're taking the time to provide insights to me (and I'm sure others). Your input is very much appreciated. Thanks! Great work on the characters. Nice and clean.

PS
I just took a first look at some of the links you shared (plan to spend a lot of time digesting and playing), but I saw you Commander Faye character and wanted to say that that's an excellent job! The smart bone combinations are one that I've struggled with and I've been coming to some of the same conclusions you had (ie single axis motion only), but the rig does a beautiful job addressing those issue. I don't know if you consider that too much work, but ... it looks worth it to me, because it really breaks out of the typical flat character look It's a great example as well as rig switching example for character wizard. (I've taken a quick look at the link you added from Greenlaw, but haven't fully understood it yet (I'm currently too inexperienced in animation to follow the points clearly yet. It'll take me some time.)

[TheMinahBird]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8r1fp95WKA
The walk cycles are INCREDIBLE!

[neeters_guy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8r1fp95WKA
The walk cycles are INCREDIBLE!

Although I tried my best to furnish a completely boned rig, John ended up using point motion to get a more realistic front walk. All the credit goes to him.

[JohnJackson]

not been on here for a while and am happy to see people were still posting!
Thought id update everyone.
for my next Mancunian cartoon im trying it in blender. ive been on it six months already and have made the characters and some of the buildings.
i do intend to come back to anime studio ...er...moho... but find making complete ten to fifteen minute cartoons is better with collaborators. (i have an american and a belgian helping with the blender cartoon).
i think working with others (in other parts of the world) is really fun and helps you learn new things to incorporate them into your project you may not have thought about yourself.
with the last Mancunian cartoon i had neeters help and the project went to the next level.
Ive just watched the power of the daleks animation dvd and think if it had been given to a few people on here it would have been much better. the dvd has a very rushed look. ( ok...ok.. its a few years to make and who knows who on here would want to be interested in a project that would tie them up for so long..but you all know what i mean)
anyway...ive rambled on enough...i will be back ....animation is in my blood.....and more anime studio/moho cartoons from me will happen....
John

[strider2000]

Cool. Looking forward to your next animation whenever it is. I have blender, but only played with it a little. I've been thinking that the cost of creating a character would be way too high. But the challenges of creating a 2d rig that is versatile can make that pretty time consuming as well. You might want to put some posts on your blender learnings under the "other software" category. I'm sure people would be interested.