My circus project: Finished!!!!

Want to share your Moho work? Post it here.

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moorsel
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My circus project: Finished!!!!

Post by moorsel »

(*** start edit

Image

The animation is ready as of 20071021:

See it on google video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 6912063538

or via the blogs

http://circusfaldinianimation.blogspot.com/
http://circusfaldini.blogspot.com/

end edit ***)

I started to create an animation for a hobby (for my sons as they like both drawing and story telling). I took a "child book" of my oldest son and I plan to base the story of the animation on this book. This project will certainly take some time!

Just started and this is just a mesage to share my progress. I can show you a "screentest" of this animation I created and uploaded to google video. It can be accessed through the link below.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 4825550571

Keep in mind that the animation is rendered at "web quality" and not in "dvd quality". On google video it also shows rather small (that is when watching at 100%).

Tools I (plan to) use are:

Microsoft Expression Graphic Designer CTP sept
Anime Studio Pro 5
Vegas Movie Studio 6 or Premiere Elements 2
Audacity 1.2.4

and perhaps

Paint Shop Pro 9 and/or Dogwaffle

The background of the animation snippet posted on google video was done in Microsoft Expression Graphic Designer (EGD), exported twice to a png file. Once "normally" and once with a blur effect applied to all objects. The latter version is shows "under the fog cloud" and is otherwise hidden (in the google video instance of the animation this will probally not visible as it is too small for this). This approach is based on AS Tutorial 6.9.

The characters were also done in EGD, a seperate layer was created for each "moving" part of the body (as I used the cut-out animation style for creating this animation). So in the EGD file there is a layer for the torso, the arm, the upper leg, the lower leg, the heel, the tow etc. Each layer is exported seperatly to a png. Actually, as with the backgound this is done twice, one normal version and one blurred version (the latter shows up when the character walks through the fog cloud).

All pngs where imported in Anime Studio Pro (Moho). Inside AS the character was "rigged" using "bones". This took a few iterations (exporting from EGD to AS) as the cut out parts of the character have to fit nicely over each other even when the part are moved. In my first attempts the seperate parts did fiit nicely in the inital position but when open space or undesired shapes became visible when moved into another position. I had to correct this in EGD by adapting the shapes of the individual parts and then import the parts again in AS.

The fog was entirely created in AS (tutorial 6.9)

The character could have been created in AS but I choose to create it in
EGD. By doing so I perhaps had to do some extra work but I hope to reuse to the created walk cylce for another characters simply by placing another set of pngs into the animation. Also: for now the character is a simple drawing. I could choose to create a more illustrated version of the character in EGD and without changing the animation that character will become more illustrated in the animation also. I read in this forum that the drawing capabilties of AS are limited so at some point I think I would have to use another application for this anyway.

My "circus project" will continue and perhaps from time to time I will post
some additional questions and perhaps some additional work in progress in this forum (when time permits me to do so).

Gr,
Frank[/img]
Last edited by moorsel on Sun Oct 21, 2007 3:49 pm, edited 40 times in total.
Patmals
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Post by Patmals »

Hi Moorsel,

Its looking great! Im absolutely sure your children will love it!

How long do you think the story will run for? Running time i mean?

The guy walking across the screen seems to be the strongman of the circus?

Good luck with your work!!
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moorsel
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Post by moorsel »

Actually I don't know yet, judging from the length of the story in the child book I think it must be at least 20-30 minutes (so it will take me some time to finish it.....).

Gr,
Frank
Patmals
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Post by Patmals »

wow, a tv program :)!!
well, good luck with it :)
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HOYBOYS
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Post by HOYBOYS »

Hey MOORSEL........NICE WORK and great use of COLOR!........ :D :D
HAVE A LAUGH ON US! at www.hoyboys.net
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Mikdog
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Post by Mikdog »

Nice. The guy is walking WAAAAY to slow. Like, he needs to be moving across the screen in a third of that time.

I like the background, but it needs some movement.

Good luck. Post the finished video when you're done!
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moorsel
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Post by moorsel »

Hi Mikdog,

Thanx for the tips. Are you sure about the speed of walking? I made him walk over the screen in 1/3 of the time as you suggested and then it seems that the man is in a real hurry whereas this scene should be the start of a new working day for the people in the circus. Everything must start up real slow.....

Gr,
Frank
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moorsel
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Post by moorsel »

Hi again,

I tried to speed it up twice, so the man crosses the screen in half the time (not 1/3). Seems to be that this is the better option.

Thanx for the help, very much appreciated!

Gr,
Frank

PS this adapted version is not uploaded to google video, the link still shows the original version
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Mikdog
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Post by Mikdog »

Hi,

Glad it worked. I watched it a second time, and it does seem he could be walking at that slow pace, perhaps if there were also movement in the background or the clouds were moving or something, or if there was music playing.

However, the first time you watch it, it's like he's wading through molasses.

I didn't time out 1/3 speed, it was an estimate. If the 1/2 speed works, s'all good.

Cheers.
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moorsel
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Post by moorsel »

Thanx again for the help, the animation in the background is something I am considering. The scene is going to be populated with more characters later on, the man you see in the sene right know is just a passer by, the main characters will enter the scene also and I anticipate to focus the attention towards them once they have entered the scene.

Gr,
Frank
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moorsel
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Post by moorsel »

I uploaded a slightly modified version, accessible through:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 3154320212

Gr,
Frank
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moorsel
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Post by moorsel »

An updated version of my circus project is uploaded to:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 6290644978

Gr,
Frank
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Mikdog
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Post by Mikdog »

Cool work.

Walking speeds are MUCH better!

Nice action with the monkey too.

If I may rercommend you use the camera to make the scene a bit more interesting. It already IS interesting, but using the camera to direct the viewer's attention will ADD to the interest.

Very cool.
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slowtiger
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Post by slowtiger »

This is really nice stuff, and fun to watch. I'd recommend it to others who worry about head turns and stuff quite a lot: but you show that one can perfectly do without that.
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moorsel
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Post by moorsel »

Mikdog,

Thanx for the tip and the compliment. I plan to do the camera work as a last step just befpre the scene is finished. I plan to zoom in on the boy an pan the camera with his walking path as he walks towards the window of the car.

Slowtiger,

Thanx for the compliment! Yes indeed as a simple hobby user with limited time to work on the animation I try to avoid the real complicated and advanced stuff as much as possible.

Gr,
Frank
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