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Can you mirror a turn?

Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 2:29 pm
by mermer
Hi,

I'm still finding my way around Anime Studio.

I've created a character, and using a smart bone I manually moved the vector points to get the character turning smoothly to the left from a full to a 3/4 profile. This took a while to do, but the effect was great.

I now want to mirror the turn to the right. Is there a way I can do this without setting up another smart bone and having to painstakingly move the vector points again?

Using the layer transform tool, tried to flip the layers while in 3/4 view, but this didn't provide a smooth turn. I also tried the point transform tool by selecting all the vector points for each layer and flipping those. However, neither approach has worked.

Can anybody suggest a better approach? I think I'm probably missing something fundamental, as it seems obvious to be able to mirror a Smart bone move.

Many thanks

Re: Can you mirror a turn?

Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 6:31 pm
by steveryan2
I am also looking for an answer to this.

The technique I used was not ideal, but here it is:
After completing the profile view on one side, I took a screenshot of my computer screen. Not a rendered version, but of the screen that shows where the points are.
Then I imported the screenshot into a layer beneath the head and mirrored it.
Using the screenshot as a guide, I pulled the points of the head and face to match the screenshot.

Confession: I actually did not take just one screenshot of the composite head, but several screenshots. One for the nose, another for the eyes and so on. This helped eliminate confusion.

Re: Can you mirror a turn?

Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 11:13 pm
by neeters_guy
Steve, the method you describe is the correct way, but it takes a lot patience. I noticed the amount work you put in on the head rig for the Zombie project.

It sounds like to me that mermer is asking for an easier/faster way to achieve the same thing. It's possible to mirror the other side without too much fuss as I suggested in this thread: how to duplicate a head_turn action for the other side

I'll add that sometimes the flip layer key doesn't stick. I'm not sure why that is, but in any case, you may need to go back into the new sb action and redo the flip layer key.

Since the opposite side is a copy, you can refine it further by tweaking the points to to make it look different from the other side.

Here's an example I've been working using this idea:
Image

Note, this is an unnaturally slow turn. It helps if the front view is symmetrical so it doesn't "pop" too much when making the turn. But in most cases, you can avoid this altogether by making the turn fast while using some anticipation to cover the change. This is the more common practice.