Dr. Nick's new AS Tutorial

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Dr. Nick
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Dr. Nick's new AS Tutorial

Post by Dr. Nick »

Greetings Folks ~~

So I put together a tutorial on drawing characters in Anime Studio. It is a beginner level tutorial, intended just to help guide folks new to AS up the learning curve. So, first, I just wanted to share it with anyone who's new and wants an exercise in character drawing in AS. Anyone can access the tutorial at:

http://www2.bc.edu/~nagelh/characterDrawingInAS/

But I would also like to get some feedback from you folks. So if you have any comments, questions or insights regarding the tutorial, please take a moment to let me know your thoughts. Especially on page 13 ~~ I'd like to know if anyone has tips or advice regarding seamlessly joining layored limbs to bodies in creating humanoid charcters.

I intend to maintain this tutorial over time so if anyone has any editorial feedback I'm happy to revise any or all parts of the tutorial given more expert advice.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Cheers,

~~ N ~~

PS This guy does have a sword ~~ but I like to draw guys with swords. And since I rarely get to draw characters I like, there you go!

PPS And yes, I know this guy looks like one of the 300. That's no accident, I figured going with something that was kinda familiar would help folks getting up to speed with the tool by giving them something they could identify with. Maybe. Anyway, I welcome your thoughts and editorial comments....
Dr. Nick
----
"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."

-Confucius
Genete
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Post by Genete »

A great tutorial Dr. Nick
Who has any good tips for achieving a seamless blend across layers when joining limbs in this fashion?
The best way to do that is the way you did it. When rigging the model just bind the overlaying points of both layers to the same bone(s). It should be region binding to keep them together and not produce a crack in the shoulder.

-G
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ianc
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Post by ianc »

As a newbie to AS and vector drawing I found your tutorial enlightening, informative and it showed me techniques I can use for drawing and filling characters ,which I've been struggling with. Thanks for a great tutorial and I hope you'll be doing more in the future.
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Post by Dr. Nick »

Super ianc. I'm really glad to hear you found it helpful and I look forward to seeing some of your creations ~~ maybe here in the forums. I'd like to do some more stuff along these lines ~~ I'll have to get more time.

Cheers
Dr. Nick
----
"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."

-Confucius
VidE
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Post by VidE »

I'm really looking forward to watching your tutorials. However, I seem to be missing a QT component so cannot see anything. (I'm on a mac, BTW.) Are you using DIVX or some other specialty codec? If so, can you let me know what it is so I don't have to install all the xtras on the QT 3rd party page?
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Post by Dr. Nick »

Thanks very much for your interest the tutorial VidE. I'm still working on tracking down the problem for viewing the videos on MACs. Unfortunately, I don't have a MAC available for testing and development. The videos are all streaming WMV files. I haven't yet determined the minimal version requirements for Windows Media Player required for the files but as soon as I get a spare moment I'll try to get this sorted out for MAC users.

In the meantime, if you happen to come up with a solution that works please let me know and I'll write it up as an appendix in the tutorial for MAC users.

~~ Cheers ~~
Dr. Nick
----
"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."

-Confucius
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Dr. Nick
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Mac users please help

Post by Dr. Nick »

Some Mac-users have reported they cannot view the
videos in this tutorial. If any Mac-Users can please
take a moment to try the following solution it would
be much appreciated.

Please download and install the following codec to
see if you are then able to view the videos for this
Tutorial

http://www.techsmith.com/download/codecs.asp

If this solves the problem I'll write this up in an
appendix for the tutorial.

Thanks in advance.
Dr. Nick
----
"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."

-Confucius
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JimmyC
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Post by JimmyC »

Just spent a few minutes looking at the tut. Super stuff. Thanks very much for your effort. I used Moho about a year ago, but I am now determined to do something with this package.

I just bought AS Pro today. Thanks again
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funksmaname
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Post by funksmaname »

Good effort Dr Nick :)
why is this thread in two forums though?
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Dr. Nick
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Post by Dr. Nick »

That's my fault ~~ I figured to put it in shared work and Tips and tricks thinking it was kind of applicable to both. I suppose it is a bit redundant but I guess there might be users of one or the other forum who might not have seen the announcement otherwise.
Dr. Nick
----
"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."

-Confucius
scunge
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Post by scunge »

I had the Ensharpen codec installed already and I still only get audio with no video. I have had these same issues with many other people that do tutorials and use WMVs.

I don't want to come off sounding harsh but the reality is that Microsoft could care less about Mac users. Yes, we have Windows Media Player for Mac but it doesn't support the many different codecs that Windows users enjoy in their version of the player. And Microsoft actually points Mac users to Flip4Mac and their WMV QT plugin but it is spotty, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

So, the quandry is do I buy a copy of Windows to install on my Intel-Mac and use Boot Camp or Parallels to view your tutorial or do I just shrug my shoulders and forget about it? Unfortunately, I have no desire to have Windows on my machine nor do I have the money to make that happen even if I did.

While I give you much credit for taking the time to do the tutorials, I fear that you will have a good amount of Mac users that won't be able to participate.

I don't know what the answer is or how to fix the problem but I guess one thing to maybe contemplate is maybe having an alternative format for the movies. Are you using Camtasia or some other screen capture software? I have done similiar types of tutorials and have used Snapz Pro (on the Mac) and in the beginning I always save out to an uncompressed format and then use Quicktime Pro to experiment with different formats/codecs and get the file sizes as small as possible.

Whatever you do, don't stop making tutorials! We need more users to take the time and share their experience.
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Post by drummen »

I am also a mac user and cannot see the video. I downloaded the video and then uploaded it to youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=watBkapll34

I just did the first video, I can take it down if the good Dr. does not want it up there. or I can upload the rest.

let me know.
drummen
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Post by drummen »

Also, you can upload them to http://www.zamzar.com/

and it will convert it for you, it takes a while.. but it works.
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Post by Dr. Nick »

Brilliant drummen ~~ thanks for checking that out. Please feel free to keep the MAC readable video on the 'Net. And if you already have the rest of the learning videos converted to the MAC readable format please feel free to post them for other MAC users.

Also, if you've converted the files, perhaps you can zip 'em up (create a zip archive) and put a link to the archive on this forum thread. I'll then put an appendix in the tutorial with a link to the archive so that MAC users will have the choice of going through YouTube or simply download the bundle at their convenience.

For next time, I know I'll have to figure out how to generate the right cross- platform format for both PC and MAC. Unfortunately I don't have a MAC for testing and development so any help from MAC users such as yourself is greatly appreciated.

Cheers.
Dr. Nick
----
"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."

-Confucius
drummen
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Post by drummen »

Hey man, thanks for the tutorials! I am new to AS and They have helped me a lot!

I will post the rest to youtube and put them in a zip here as well.
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