Animating Breasts in Anime Studio

[Danimal]

I finally had a chance to check out the tutorial. I still stand by my original post.

I like the woman's measurements too: 50 - 6 - 38. Perfect!

[heyvern]

Yes Danimal, at least we can admit the truth. We like "naughty pillows".



The so called offensiveness of this tutorial is just some sort of fabricated outrage. I've seen many animations here that have bouncing "Lewinskis" and no one said anything about it. I've seen animations with all kinds of stereotypes posted on this forum without a squeak from anyone. So a tutorial featuring bouncy "Ben and Jerrys", suddenly touches a nerve and NOW you guys go all PC?

You are talking about the size of yahoos in FANTASY ARTWORK OF CHARACTERS THAT DON'T EXIST. Of course the women in stories like that, written and drawn by men (and women. I've seen female artists also draw enormous "cadillac-bumper-bullets") are going to have "Abbott and Costellos" the size of the artists preference and the audiences desire.

No one ever complains that there are too many super good looking guys with huge muscles, perfect tans and piercing blue eyes in comics and cartoons. I find that stereotype of male attractiveness impossible to obtain.
(I also have average sized feet which I've been told doesn't matter at all, but the media keeps telling me otherwise.)

To portray women, you have to draw their... you know... "Holmes and Watsons". They are... uh... right there. How can they be avoided?

So I suppose most of you complained about female exploitation during life drawing class with nude models? Talk about a TUTORIAL!


p.s. True Story:
Our life drawing teacher in college would hit on the models during cigarette breaks. He was actually quite successful.. uh... dating life drawing models... and also a successful teacher.

p.s.s. New slang term for breasts:
"Tutorials"

[Danimal]

No less than seven euphemisms in there, but "Cadillac bumper-bullets" takes the prize for sure!

[heyvern]

My favorite is "Tutorials".
This can be used almost anywhere and has an easy out.

"Wow! She has some nice tutorials!"
"Dude! That's really offensive and demeaning to women!"
"No no! I don't mean that. I meant she has a website for learning Anime Studio Pro and has some very informative instructional videos."

[exile]

I hope some day our stereotypes of women will be history and we will be able to find a totally exaggerated "femme fatal" like this one amusing - and not have a guilty conscience if we laugh at the "bouncy" moves of a cartoon character which is actually a parody of the stereotypes implanted in us by a sexist society. If we lived in a healthy culture we wouldn't have to take a cartoon figure like this seriously.

We're a bit spoiled by having so many excellent tutorials - that might make us more critical than we would be otherwise. I don't think YouTube is going to be flooded by wobbly breasts because of this tutorial.

However that may be, I learned something useful from the tutorial about dynamic bones. What I didn't understand was "use Control + f to lock the bones in place" on the timeline. Otherwise, from a technical viewpoint the tutorial was informative - it was a clear example of a single smart bone action working on several layers at once. I've only been able to make blend morphs work on a single layer, are they more limited than smart bones?

- Steve

[funksmaname]

I've only been able to make blend morphs work on a single layer, are they more limited than smart bones?

They should function the same - but nested child control was only added in 9.5 and is 'broken' by having intermediary bound bone layers... if you follow those rules you should be able to blend morph or smart bone multiple nested layers

[exile]

They should function the same - but nested child control was only added in 9.5 and is 'broken' by having intermediary bound bone layers... if you follow those rules you should be able to blend morph or smart bone multiple nested layers

Let's see if I've understood - an intermediary bound bone layer is separate from the main skeleton (or there is no main skeleton)?

[funksmaname]

a nested child bone will block its parent bone layer from contacting its own children if it has its own bones and its children are bound to them... i think

[Yosemite Sam]

I finally had a chance to check out the tutorial. I still stand by my original post.

I like the woman's measurements too: 50 - 6 - 38. Perfect!

Haha!

[Yosemite Sam]

Yes Danimal, at least we can admit the truth. We like "naughty pillows".



The so called offensiveness of this tutorial is just some sort of fabricated outrage. I've seen many animations here that have bouncing "Lewinskis" and no one said anything about it. I've seen animations with all kinds of stereotypes posted on this forum without a squeak from anyone. So a tutorial featuring bouncy "Ben and Jerrys", suddenly touches a nerve and NOW you guys go all PC?

You are talking about the size of yahoos in FANTASY ARTWORK OF CHARACTERS THAT DON'T EXIST. Of course the women in stories like that, written and drawn by men (and women. I've seen female artists also draw enormous "cadillac-bumper-bullets") are going to have "Abbott and Costellos" the size of the artists preference and the audiences desire.

No one ever complains that there are too many super good looking guys with huge muscles, perfect tans and piercing blue eyes in comics and cartoons. I find that stereotype of male attractiveness impossible to obtain.
(I also have average sized feet which I've been told doesn't matter at all, but the media keeps telling me otherwise.)

To portray women, you have to draw their... you know... "Holmes and Watsons". They are... uh... right there. How can they be avoided?

So I suppose most of you complained about female exploitation during life drawing class with nude models? Talk about a TUTORIAL!


p.s. True Story:
Our life drawing teacher in college would hit on the models during cigarette breaks. He was actually quite successful.. uh... dating life drawing models... and also a successful teacher.

p.s.s. New slang term for breasts:
"Tutorials"

This had me laughing quite a bit. As another poster stated, your use of euphemisms was absolutely hilarious! Oh man... never knew there was so many variations to describe breasts.

[Yosemite Sam]

I hope some day our stereotypes of women will be history and we will be able to find a totally exaggerated "femme fatal" like this one amusing - and not have a guilty conscience if we laugh at the "bouncy" moves of a cartoon character which is actually a parody of the stereotypes implanted in us by a sexist society. If we lived in a healthy culture we wouldn't have to take a cartoon figure like this seriously.

We're a bit spoiled by having so many excellent tutorials - that might make us more critical than we would be otherwise. I don't think YouTube is going to be flooded by wobbly breasts because of this tutorial.

However that may be, I learned something useful from the tutorial about dynamic bones. What I didn't understand was "use Control + f to lock the bones in place" on the timeline. Otherwise, from a technical viewpoint the tutorial was informative - it was a clear example of a single smart bone action working on several layers at once. I've only been able to make blend morphs work on a single layer, are they more limited than smart bones?

- Steve

I agree.

I find it a good practice to always freeze/lock the bones (CTRL + F) in place for certain things as to avoid the horrendous 'floating bones' Anime Studio look.

Thanks!

[Yosemite Sam]

While I think some suggestions are a little heavy handed given that you are not creating animations, but teaching meachnics - I do think that as 'teachers' you have a certain responsibility. If you get a lot of requests on how to animate breasts, imho your best response would be to teach the broad mechanics of how breasts might move - not necessarily even using breasts as an example.

You could have easily used the same example to make hair bounce, and just mention that the same mechanics could be used for breasts, but you chose the most exploitative route to simply get cheap views... which is of course your choice - except I would imagine it could work against your credibility as mentors past adolescent boys. More mature audiences seriously seeking tuition will cringe away from this, as a simple tutorial has really become unnecessarily NSFW.

I've no doubt it has resulted in a spike of interest on your tutorials, and if that's all that matters then great. Also if an artist; be it Jim, one of your students or anyone else chooses to create this style of objectified character they have the freedom to do so - I just think, in this case, as mentors to both young boys AND GIRLS who might be seeking to learn how to animate, you've sort of missed the mark and are perpetuating stereotypes we should really try to move on from.

I hear what you are saying. I think the main thing I've learned from this all is to not focus on 'certain' body parts. If I would have shown how to animate a woman running, and that woman just happened to have large breasts, and I showed how to animate them as part of the run cycle, it probably wouldn't have been frowned upon by some.

I guess it all comes down to individual sensibilities. I can't even begin to tell you how many YT videos I've watched about drawing breasts, and most are far more crass then the one Chad and I have done, and yet it doesn't bother me at all. But that's just me. Guess I'm just a demented, sick bastard.

[rocky53204]

"I'm not bad... I'm just drawn that way." - Jessica Rabbit

This tiresome discussion may be a way to draw more users to see the prolific intermediate tutorials being offered by this talented pair.
Nothing prevents anyone else from offering tutorials that satisfy their viewpoint(s).

[cynthia]

I could only make myself watch a couple of minutes of this piece of garbage. Particularly upsetting (my hands are actually shaking as I type this) was seeing the disabled arms locked behind the body. This is a continuation of a long history of men depicting women in positions of sexual availability. This "tutorial" has nothing to do with the animation of human movement. As anyone who has been affected by breast cancer knows, one of the major perils of mastectomy is the danger of damaging the muscles in the chest and arms. The animator, as a student of anatomy, should know that when the arms move, the breasts move because they are attached to the muscles underneath.

It is also sickening to hear stated in an Anime Studio tutorial that it is only for men, and the kind of men who view women in this manner. How can I ever recommend this software to a child or woman interested in learning animation? If anyone is wondering why Toon Boom is so far ahead of Anime Studio in sales, all you have to do is look at their fantastic educational programming and compare it the appalling tutorials of Chad Troftgruben.

For me, the only good thing to come out of this mess is to read the eloquent posts of Slow Tiger, Selgin, and Funksmaname. It is very affirming to me to know that these artists are also thoughtful and good people.

[Yosemite Sam]

I could only make myself watch a couple of minutes of this piece of garbage. Particularly upsetting (my hands are actually shaking as I type this) was seeing the disabled arms locked behind the body. This is a continuation of a long history of men depicting women in positions of sexual availability. This "tutorial" has nothing to do with the animation of human movement. As anyone who has been affected by breast cancer knows, one of the major perils of mastectomy is the danger of damaging the muscles in the chest and arms. The animator, as a student of anatomy, should know that when the arms move, the breasts move because they are attached to the muscles underneath.

It is also sickening to hear stated in an Anime Studio tutorial that it is only for men, and the kind of men who view women in this manner. How can I ever recommend this software to a child or woman interested in learning animation? If anyone is wondering why Toon Boom is so far ahead of Anime Studio in sales, all you have to do is look at their fantastic educational programming and compare it the appalling tutorials of Chad Troftgruben.

For me, the only good thing to come out of this mess is to read the eloquent posts of Slow Tiger, Selgin, and Funksmaname. It is very affirming to me to know that these artists are also thoughtful and good people.

Generally I would ignore a message like this, but your post is so full of fallacies and false accusations I feel compelled to respond.

You bash our qualifications. You make assumptions about our intent. You throw out blanket statements that are not based on any kind of quantifiable data, but purely from your own emotional disposition.

You accuse me of drawing a woman in a position of sexual availability? How would you ever know that? The answer is, you don't. That is just your interpretation. I simply drew her arms behind her because there was no need for them in any other capacity. But MOSTLY because I thought it was a cool looking pose. It's fair for you to state how it comes across to you, but you have zero right to accuse people of things you have no way of knowing.

And I understand how the human body works. I recently made a tutorial about how the chest muscles raise and compress when the arms raise and lower. Just because I didn't demonstrate that in this latest video doesn't mean I don't understand it. Another assumption of yours. You can say I didn't show it, but to conclude I don't understand it based on one video is just silly.

We also never stated the video was just for men. Chad's 'manly men' comment was an obvious joke. And how does a tutorial on YouTube somehow taint the software? If I made an Adobe Flash tutorial and said "Women are only good for making babies", does that somehow reflect poorly on Flash? Only someone who doesn't know how to think for themselves would draw that conclusion. Unless of course the video was produced by Adobe.

And to deduce that Anime studio is inferior to ToonBoom in sales and popularity because of Chad's tutorials is downright laughable. Are you serious? TB is more popular then AS for many reasons, but I'm sorry to say that Chad is not one of those reasons. He could only dream of that kind of power.

And why you would let an instructional tutorial bring you to the point where your hands are shaking is beyond me. I've watched dozens of 'female drawing' tutorials online where the men drawing the women make all kinds of 'cute' remarks about body parts. But it's all in fun. When we can no longer joke about things like this, then our society is doomed, imo.

Today I watched Harry Partridge doing a Flash tutorial where he drew a penis, then made a 'tool' joke as he was showing how you can relocate the tools panel. Am I supposed to freak out? If I don't like it, then I will CHOOSE NOT TO WATCH ANY MORE OF HIS VIDEOS.

That's the great thing about the United States.

I don't care what people joke about. I care about what they do. How they treat other people. And I don't lose any sleep if I hear someone making a booby or pee pee joke. If it's not my cup of tea, then what do I do? Exactly, I don't watch those people or spend time in their company. It's their CHOICE to be the way they are and it's my CHOICE not to associate with them.

I'm sorry that this tutorial offended you so deeply. Chad and I have taken note on how to try and better present such topics in future lessons, but there was no malicious intent on our end whatsoever. That was unethical of you to imply. Chad and I are both happily married and greatly appreciate and respect our wives. That doesn't change the fact that most guys like boobs. It's not some sexist conspiracy against women, it's called GENETICS!