AND SO IT BEGINS...

artfx · Post by **artfx** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 8:03 pm

I've been doing some tests with small individual bone layers to facilitate the point animation of things like the shoulder movement or the head turns. It requires a few more layers and a bit of planning but can yield some interesting results. The idea is that the main bone layer does overall body motion for a character, but certain layers may sit inside their own bone layer with small control bone to give a bit of extra motion to different parts of the character.

Draw_Girl · Post by **Draw_Girl** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 3:48 pm

Wow nice animation, I need to spend more time with anime studio

I need to start working on some character designs that will work with anime studio, got any tips, artfx?

artfx · Post by **artfx** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:12 pm

When I first got into it my thought was to draw in a program I am used to and bring those images in to manipulate. That would have been quick, but I think I would have missed a lot fo what makes AS great. Take a few days and just experiment. Just draw stuff and throw it out and draw again until you know the program. In the end, you will greatly appreciate what you can do with it, everything right inside.

rplate · Post by **rplate** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 10:34 pm

Whoa!! Have you seen this guys drawing tablet??? artfx, what are you using for a drawing tablet. I went to your site and watched some of your drawing lessons. Very impessive and informative.
Guys and dolls if you haven't been there.... With that drawing aablet, even I could draw well on the computer. Check it out. Go into the site and watch some of the drawing lessons. GREAT experience! At least for me it was. It may be old hat to others.
Click on the RSS feed for the list page.

Anime Genesis, learn to make your anime dreams into reality.
http://www.studioartfx.com

artfx · Post by **artfx** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 1:08 am

I'm drawing on a Motion Computing LE 1600 Tablet PC. Check it out here:

http://www.motioncomputing.com

I do use a WACOM Intuos 2 also, but when I started on the Motion Tablet I was really able to improve a lot.

DarthFurby · Post by **DarthFurby** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 6:10 am

I'd like a Cintiq myself. Great stuff by the way, hope to see more soon.

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 11:55 am

artfx wrote:I'm drawing on a Motion Computing LE 1600 Tablet PC. Check it out here:

http://www.motioncomputing.com

Although it seems cool equipment, it also costs a lot of dollars. Can you ever earn that back through animation? It seems to me that paying the monthly bills by working as an animator is tough enough for most.

I love your podcast. Did you know there already is a podcast called Anime Genesis, by someone called Benu? As far as I could see, it seems to be a video fancast about anime.

If you want link your podcast directly to iTunes, use

https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZF ... com/anigen

as a RSS link. You will not need to be listed on iTunes. Clicking this link will simply add the RSS subscription to the viewer's podcast listing in iTunes if iTunes present on his or her computer (tip found on the podcast411 forum).

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 1:08 pm

artfx,

Am I a total idiot never to have heard of the "Visual Novel" concept?

Talk about an "old" idea with "new" technology!! Man that brings back memories of my childhood! I had a book as a very young kid (a little more than 30 years ago) that had a color coded spinner that chose the non linear progression of the story. It was brilliant!

And here I thought this was an original idea in my head! I was thinking about doing something simple like this for my young nephews (more than a "book" less complex to create than a "game"). I'm surprised some of those "engines" don't incorporate flash for the crossplatform aspect.

I was trying to find the history of this type of content but didn't find anything specific. How long have I been out of touch? Is this a fairly recent phenomenon? (relatively recent I mean

)

-vern

artfx · Post by **artfx** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 7:40 pm

Rasheed wrote:Although it seems cool equipment, it also costs a lot of dollars. Can you ever earn that back through animation? It seems to me that paying the monthly bills by working as an animator is tough enough for most.

I would hope an animator could earn that back in a single job. If not, they ain't charging enough. ;P On the other hand, there's always always the barter system. If you're self employed or running your own business, you cannot afford to miss an opportunity to barter to keep overhead and business costs down. Every animator has more than one skill, so it doesn't just have to be trading animation. Maybe some Flash web stuff, databasing, audio, advertising, IT, anything that has a value can be bartered to get what you need without that initial outlay of cash.

In my case, though, it should be noted, I also do manga and anime DVD.

I knew about the podcast called Anime Genesis, but you see, mine is actually called Anime Genesis: How to Make Your Anime Dreams into Reality. The colon saves the day!

Up until very recently, their podcast was audio only. I found out about it when searching for my own after submitting it to iTunes. Speaking of which, that technique for getting it to auto appear in viewers iTunes list is cool!

heyvern wrote:artfx,

Am I a total idiot never to have heard of the "Visual Novel" concept?

Not at all. You see, most of the development of this idea went on behind the scenes in Japan. As far as the history of it, that would depend on what people consider the start. I would say it began with the 1980's text only stories from guys at places like MIT who were just getting into exploring the technology. This led to the formation of Infocom and a popular series of text "adventure games" or novels with many paths. Eventually graphics were added, but this type of game fell by the wayside in America giving rise to console domination of the game market.

In Japan, however, this type of game continued to flourish and development was taken further. When I say behind the scenes, I mean that most of the development was in the way of adult or "hentai" titles in Japan. While you may note that this type of visual novel are often available as free downloads on the sites listed, in Japan they sell and usually for $50 to $60 dollars. It's a big business. Like Japanese animation, this type of game slowly made its way back to the West in slowly growing popularity.

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 7:55 pm

Thanks for the info!

I'm really pshyched about it! I always loved this type of "game" or "experience".

Years ago I bought a CD game... can't quite remember the title. It was not anime. It was absolutely gorgeous. Very much in the style of "Myst" but it involved interactions with actual people and "finding clues" etc. But it was a "story". There was I think only two possible endings.

It involved riding in a train at one point interacting with passengers who told you things, gave you clues. It was creepy as heck! Really... creepy. And it was very... slow... and peaceful. I loved it!

It wasn't hard, there were absolutely no "wrong" moves. Every decision you made eventually brought you around to the ending. You felt though as if you were in control even though you really weren't.

That was what surprised me. As I played I never "died" or got "stuck" and had to start over. It was a nice change from fast paced FPS games.

What I loved about it was the concept of a story created and controlled by an artist's vision. There was no, difficult game play. You just followed along and watched the beautiful images and animations. It had wonderful sound effects. It created a totally believable environment.

I was kind of disappointed that I didn't see many "games" like this.

It is nice to know that this sort of thing still exists and is possibly gaining in popularity. Video games with AI and sophisticated engines are beyond my grasp... and my desire to create. I could really get into this type of thing.

-vern

artfx · Post by **artfx** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 8:18 pm

I totally agree. I'm not a big enough gamer to play what's popular today. As much as I love to look at that stuff, they are all just too hard for me. Gaming requires a serious time investment to be good at it and animators rarely have that kind of time. Slack off for a year or so and the games fly right past!

Every so often there is a slower paced game that focuses more on story and experience rather than quick action. I love this kind of stuff and have always wished for more. I really hope they gain in popularity enough for people to start making them again.

I probably won't be able to get past the first level of Metal Gear 4, but let there be an adventure game with a slow pace, a mystery, a deep investigative story and I am all over it!

artfx · Post by **artfx** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 12:30 am

A decided to do a quick point animation test. The idea here was not spend an inordinate amunt of time building a very reusable model, but to do something for just one shot. It took a couple of hours because of a few mistakes I made along the way, but then the point of it was to learn, and I did learn quite a bit.

http://www.studioartfx.com/video/pointy.mov

The main body and coat motion is done with bones. The coat, though inside the main bone layer is also in its own bone layer and has bone chains to move it. These bones don't affect anything else. The point animation is used on the head and face and some on the body.

I also did a flash export of it which I placed on this page. One thing I notice about the flash export is that it keeps the lines consistent even as the character scales away from the camera. In AS, the lines are thick when he is close and smaller when he is far away. It thought I once saw something in a panel in AS about scaling lines with distance, but I can't find it again. Maybe that was a dream I had.

CartoonM!ke · Post by **CartoonM!ke** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 12:57 am

Looks really good!

Would the line thingie be "Scale compensation" checkbox in the layer options dialog box?

Really amazing how you're just getting this program.

artfx · Post by **artfx** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 4:19 am

CartoonM!ke wrote:Would the line thingie be "Scale compensation" checkbox in the layer options dialog box?

That didn't seem to do it. But then I am moving the camera rather than scalig the object. I don't know if that matters or not.

artfx · Post by **artfx** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 4:22 am

More point animation playing as I learn more of the ins and outs of AS. TThis time I decided to do a girl summoning and evil monster!

http://www.studioartfx.com/video/summoning.mov

Same as last time, I also tested an SWF version. In this case, it seems to play rather slow. Could it be that the object alone is too complex for good flash playback?

Flash version

I see so much potential. Big things become possible with a little knowledge of AS.

AND SO IT BEGINS...

Re: AND SO IT BEGINS...