Great character designs!
Are you layering your fills to control the gradients?
Character designs all done in AS
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CartoonM!ke
- Posts: 110
- Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 4:54 pm
- Location: Walnut Creek, CA, USA
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I am using a boat-load of Layers, but only used gradients once, on M's mask.
All the other shading is done with Layer Settings under the Shadow tab.
Here's the recipe (for some reason food is on my mind ) I'm using--
I have two outermost group layers. One with the character Name and inside that one I have all the layers with the artwork.
It's like this:
Gus Char
GusFigure
Artwork layers
In the topmost group (Gus Char) I have Layer Shadows turned On.
Left the color at the default (black, #000000, Alpha at 128 opacity).
Offset -> 4
Blur -> 4
Expansiion -> 2
Direction ->315
The Layer Shading is Off.
In the next Group (GusFigure):
Layer Shadows -> On
Color to white (#FFFFFF) and Alpha to 255 (Opaque)
Offset -> 1
Blur -> 0
Expansion ->2
Direction 135 (the oppostite of 315 on the 360 Degree circle)
Layer Shading is On
Default Color and Alpha (Black and 128)
Offset -> 12
Blur -> 42
Contraction -> 0
Direction -> 315
I found out that group layers can apply its settings to all layers within, as if all the layers are on a single layer; which makes sense from a group layer viewpoint. The order that these FX are applied is important, the white Outline and Soft shading settings for the 2nd group layer needs to be "below" the Layer Shading that gives the dropshadow to the entire figure -- including the White Outline (which doesn't get the Layer Shading applied to it).
I figured this out after seeing and being inspired by the Popsicle Puppet Show by jordanek.
So all my fills are straight colors, the shading comes from the group layer settings. This way if I need to adjust the lighting, I can just go into the layer settings for each character and change them. And since those attributes are animated, there's a good chance that some pseudo-real lighting FX could be done.
It was really interesting that all of a sudden, I just "got" how to best draw in AS.
Hope some of this was interesting. Back to my storyboarding.
m!ke
All the other shading is done with Layer Settings under the Shadow tab.
Here's the recipe (for some reason food is on my mind ) I'm using--
I have two outermost group layers. One with the character Name and inside that one I have all the layers with the artwork.
It's like this:
Gus Char
GusFigure
Artwork layers
In the topmost group (Gus Char) I have Layer Shadows turned On.
Left the color at the default (black, #000000, Alpha at 128 opacity).
Offset -> 4
Blur -> 4
Expansiion -> 2
Direction ->315
The Layer Shading is Off.
In the next Group (GusFigure):
Layer Shadows -> On
Color to white (#FFFFFF) and Alpha to 255 (Opaque)
Offset -> 1
Blur -> 0
Expansion ->2
Direction 135 (the oppostite of 315 on the 360 Degree circle)
Layer Shading is On
Default Color and Alpha (Black and 128)
Offset -> 12
Blur -> 42
Contraction -> 0
Direction -> 315
I found out that group layers can apply its settings to all layers within, as if all the layers are on a single layer; which makes sense from a group layer viewpoint. The order that these FX are applied is important, the white Outline and Soft shading settings for the 2nd group layer needs to be "below" the Layer Shading that gives the dropshadow to the entire figure -- including the White Outline (which doesn't get the Layer Shading applied to it).
I figured this out after seeing and being inspired by the Popsicle Puppet Show by jordanek.
So all my fills are straight colors, the shading comes from the group layer settings. This way if I need to adjust the lighting, I can just go into the layer settings for each character and change them. And since those attributes are animated, there's a good chance that some pseudo-real lighting FX could be done.
It was really interesting that all of a sudden, I just "got" how to best draw in AS.
Hope some of this was interesting. Back to my storyboarding.
m!ke