...stop my foliage wandering off...

rookwings · Post by **rookwings** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 5:19 am

Due to the patience of mkelly and synthsin75 (my thanks to you both), I feel brave enough to ask another question...
I'm still stumbling around the tutorials, so this is not an important project. I've been doing a particular experiment that will hopefully help me continue an existing one, from jasc animation shop, in A S Pro. (Don't laugh!)

I have a simple sky on a layer, ground on another, with two sets of leaves and tree trunks gathered in two group layers above that. I've got the very long scene scrolling beautifully to frame 2800, with the sky moving more slowly. I have tried all sorts of ways to get the trees moving past naturally, and have resorted to setting up the positions by eye. I moved the whole background lot of trees by selecting their group and putting them where I wanted them to be at frame 420; namely, just disappeared from view. when I played what I'd got, the trunks behave themselves, but my leaves get left behind slightly!
I haven't even touched the foreground trees yet, because I can guess what's going to happen!
What the heck have I done wrong NOW? I thought that by selecting the group they would stay stuck together??
Yes, I've tried the camera tracking method first. All my sizes went wrong. Yes, I know I should probably use a bone somewhere, but I'm scared to make the situation worse! And, it will take me days to research where to put it.
Should I abandon this thing for a few years?

GCharb · Post by **GCharb** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 5:29 am

Hello there rookwings

You say your leaves do not move properlly with your trunk even though they are all in the same group layer right?

Have you tried and find a keyframe on the timeline somewhere for the leaves, maybe you moved them at one time, which creates a keyframe, therefore animating them diffrentlly then if animated at the group layer level, might be that.

If you send over the file, zipped preferablly, i will gladelly have a look.

GC

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 6:07 am

"... get left behind slightly..."

Need more info. Slightly? How slightly? At any time did you move the leaves layer? Maybe there is a key in a different spot? Is the group layer a bone layer with bones? Could bones be influencing the leaves?

-vern

rookwings · Post by **rookwings** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 6:30 am

GCharb's advice led me to search again for errant keyframes (thank you, GCharb!), and I have found, not extra keyframes, but some which I assume must be missing, heyvern!
As I have explained to GCharb in a pm, I put the keyframe for frame 420 in one move, touching ONLY the group layer, as far as I am aware!
I haven't involved bones at all. As I said, I was afraid they'd make a bad situation worse! At the moment I'm just trying to reproduce simple things with gradual exploration in order to better understand and get a sensible grip on this.
When I selected the group layer to make the keyframe, a keyframe also appeared on the trunks sub-layer (I think that's the right word), and NOT on the leaves sub-layers.
The plot thickens...!

rookwings · Post by **rookwings** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 6:46 am

This topic is getting a lot of views quite fast.
Maybe Adam and Eve have registered with this forum? (see question heading) =P

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:17 am

rookwings wrote: When I selected the group layer to make the keyframe, a keyframe also appeared on the trunks sub-layer (I think that's the right word), and NOT on the leaves sub-layers.

I think you have some key frames you don't want. Key framing a parent layer will never put keys on sub layers. It just won't happen. What I think happened is that you still had the layer translation tool selected then you clicked "by mistake" on one of the sub layers adding in a key you didn't know about.

You need to delete all the keys for layer or point motion on you sub layers. Key frame only the parent group layer you want to move. When using layer tools make sure you don't click on the screen on a layer you don't want to have keys. If you do just make sure to undo or delete those keys.

-vern

rookwings · Post by **rookwings** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:09 am

Thank you both, I found it. It was indeed a stray keyframe, which I found when I scrubbed the good one and the trunks STILL managed to sneak off! The strange thing is that I had shut the program in frustration, and opened it again after your last post, heyvern, and the animation behaved completely differently to when I'd just checked before I saved.
That can only be down to the occasional strange goings-on with this pc, because I frequently find I have to restart to get files from the tutorials to work correctly. It's old, and small, but it's a little workhorse, so I'm happy!
Another small matter, related to my question, is how do I stop it slowing down near the last keyframe, please?

funksmaname · Post by **funksmaname** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:47 am

if you right click keyframes you can set their 'easing' (they are on 'smooth' by default)...

i hightly reccomend you finish all of the tutorials before embarking on your own tests, it will make life much easier

rookwings · Post by **rookwings** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:47 am

Thank you, funk! (Note to self: Right click everything to see what happens...!)
Since 27th of december I have been reading the tutorials. (see my posts in Pixelpusher's question, How do I....> Am i driving you crazy yet?).
I have read them over and over and absorbed very little of it.
For your information, I am a girlie, so, even before we start, I have a different sort of brain to you. The best way I learn is by performing practical experiments.
So far, every part of the tutorials that I have tried to reproduce has gone horribly wrong, so I am in the process of trying to simplify stuff to find out why. The tutorials are very little help when it comes to this, like the "right-click" thing. I've got to put that into my head through the "side door" - it's where everything gets delivered. =P
It's reading other questions here and talking to you guys which have helped me understand better so far, apart from my experiments.
Thank you all for being here!

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 2:31 am

If you can identify a particular step in a specific tutorial, we can probably help you through them. Just as long as you can explain exactly where you are not getting the result the tutorial indicates.

And yeah, things like age, sex, and/or learning disability are things we try to take into account when we know about them.

rookwings · Post by **rookwings** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 5:34 am

I do try to find out for myself first, but thank you, synthsin. I have attempted to be as specific as I can.
I'm getting to grips with the A S Pro vocabulary as I go also. Like "vertices"; I haven't seen "vertex" (singular) mentioned, but does it refer to all points here, or just high bits or intersections, as in human language? =P
[and thanks for making me chuckle at the end of your last post

]

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 5:57 am

Actually, hardly anyone here uses 'vertex' or 'spline' (lines connecting vertices). Usually we refer to them as 'points' or 'vector points'. I think mostly because their animation channel is called the 'point motion' channel.

[Yeah, I had second thoughts about whether that comment could be misconstrued as a comparison.

]

mkelley · Post by **mkelley** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 2:43 pm

I'm probably one of the few that says "vertices" or "vertex" -- I dunno if that's a hangover from Illustrator or what.

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 7:14 am

I'm probably one of the few that says "vertices" or "vertex

They're all the same, tomaytos tomaatos and all that.
Just don't say vertexes or there'll be trouble...

Have you tried the 3D camera rookwings? It may be what you are after, that way you can move the camera instead of your scene layers.

rookwings · Post by **rookwings** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:00 am

Haha, thanks, Chucky. The point I was making is that we new people have the language to learn, as well as the program itself, so using more than one word for something just adds to our confusion!
Yes, I said I had tried the camera. I'm sure it IS what I'm after, but all my shapes and sizes went haywire. That will be a project for a future experiment of mine, as will be the bones issue.
The good news is, I have finally got a background [YAY!] in a new project, with a plant in the mid ground that actually all BEHAVES ITSELF!!!!
This is a major step for me.
THANK YOU - THANK YOU - THANK YOU ALL, as ever

*rookwings wanders off to search for "interpolation....*