figure in motion

[thehj]

so i'm still in the learning phase, and i've learned some stuff from the following clip ( a guy with a loose head, he grabs it back to place)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llDuXgbH084

difficulties and mistakes:
1. using vectors, as am new to this
2. bending the elbow, i found that i need to add more points than just 2 points at the sides of an elbow
3. i failed to use negative curvature (viewtopic.php?t=15386)
4. all the body is in a single vector layer!
5. I haven't managed to use mask with this fella ( i tried to apply mask on a "boned" layer)
6. the loose head thingy was an idea inspired from a mistake, I mean the head wasn't intended to detach like that
7. i failed to export to gif...

i know the short (very short) doesn't need all this excitement, but what can i say, am a noob =P

thanks in advance for any tips you provide, i almost know the solution for all these problems and will work on them in my next so-called work, except for problem 5

[thehj]

a minor tweak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bf0f8uRk5A

[neeters_guy]

Beginners' work is difficult to evaluate because the problem is NOT fixing all the little things, but the larger problem of not mastering the basics.

Your list seems to suggest you are picking topics randomly (ie., masking and "negative curvature" are advanced topics, and you do know that AS doesn't export to gif, right?). You really need to read the tutorials in the manual, then go back to the woodshed and work on character construction and rigging. Here are a couple tutorials to start with:

Drawing Characters in Anime Studio

Beginner's Tutorials

Also, there a ton of video tutorials on youtube worth checking out, search for darthfurby, dueyftw, cartoonlearning, cartoon zack, jotoonkid, etc.

If you do all that, you will know enough to come up with a rig that works the way you want it to work (and blow us all away ).

Good luck.

[funksmaname]

neeters makes some good points... although i have seen worse 'noob' work so don't feel disheartened.

first, you really must do every tutorial that comes with the program, it will accelerate your learning by 1000% and you will know what some of the programs strengths and limitations are.

I don't see a huge difference between export 1 and 2, except 2 is way worse quality... whatever you did, go back to export method 1

to answer some of your specific problems:
1. keep at it... only through experience will you learn where to put points to get the shapes you want
2. there are quite a few ways to do this - look around and see what suits your way of working, but do the tutorials first!
3. same as above
4. some people like to split over 100 layers, i dont. Unless there is a good reason (needing to change stack order during animation or using props for example) I will always put characters on as few layers as possible (i.e. 1) so that when it comes to point motion i'm not skipping between layers all day
5. what did you want to use masking for? actually, i've been using the program for 3+ years and only just bothering to look into masking, a lot can be done with simpler methods such as shape stack ordering...
6. some of the best ideas come from mistakes, but rather than doing the reacharound, maybe he should catch his head with the arm on the same side as the head falling?
7. you can't export gif from AS - i take a PNG sequence to photoshop and crop/export for web from there

keep at it, and post if you want advice, but don't feel you have to post every small step you make - we've seen them a million times spend your energy making the next step rather than publishing your last - look around the forum, get involved, see what others are doing and how and try it yourself to have lots of lightbulb moments.

See you around

[thehj]

lol man, maybe I haven't practiced well yet, but i covered all the tutorials coming with AS and i have some experience in animation, including flash (adobe flash)

soooo...

GIF
yup i know gif can't be exported directly and i converted the avi to gif but:
- background is not clean, so i guess i'll have to use some png combination method
- it was too slow, but i figured out that half frame rate should be used



MASK
it's a bit different i agree, but it's all clear, thanks to heyvern btw (topic)
anyhow, i think i still have to play with it a little bit

-VE CURVATURE
since you've mentioned it... in a figure like that, what do you prefer, more points? or negative curvature? and why?


thank you very much for your help, wait for my next work =P

[thehj]

sorry funks i've just seen your reply, thanks, and lol @ point 6

keep at it, and post if you want advice, but don't feel you have to post every small step you make - we've seen them a million time
hehe, ok, i'll try not to talk too much =P

[funksmaname]

far be it from me to discourage you from talking... its just if everyone posts 'LOOK MA! I CREATED A LINE!' posts (and some people then take crits of said post personally) you're wasting valuable learning time imo!

[thehj]

you've got a point there