Easy and Fast Help needed Please.

[Rasheed]

There is no "point motion tool". It is the same translate point tool used to move points around on the screen. If you use that tool on another frame the point is "key framed".

I keep forgetting how to call the tools. When I'm in a creative mood, I call the Translate point tool the point motion tool, because it moves the points.

[slowtiger]

Ah! This explains why so many people search for the "read my mind and do what I want tool" in a software and complain if they don't find it ...

[ktadie]

Do (not just read, but actually do) the tutorials, supplied with the software, and perhaps buy the official guide by Kelly L. Murdock. This isn't something you learn in an afternoon. You really have to take the time to learn, especially if you have no experience as an animator.

looks like that 512 paged tutorial costs :S

i have gone through almost all of the Help, and cannot find anything with overlappings, except for "Tutorial 2.4 Shape ordering " but here, its the whole shape. but i will try around with it.

i have been looking at ur shoe, to see the techniques and im still kinda lost. i cant use the "translation" tool to move the lace around properly... i cant even select the points on it, and move them individual.. =(

[heyvern]

I love helping people, I really do. Especially eager new users who are just learning. A big problem I have is when it is obvious they haven't made any effort on their own first. When the original poster here made the comment about the "stupid elbow tutorial"... that was nearly it for me. That turns off my "teacher" mode like a switch.

That "stupid elbow" tutorial sticks in my head as the turning point for me. Constraints baby. Yeehaaa! I get it now! I did variations of that tutorial many times with Moho. Screwed it up too, made a bunch of mistakes. Got it completely wrong.

I don't know why I enjoy sharing my knowledge so much but I do know that the effort of teaching requires the same effort on both sides. I lose interest if the student isn't making the same effort as the teacher. Do the tutorials, read the help, search the forums.

My father was a teacher his whole adult life. I know he didn't do it to get rich, especially at the end of his career when he taught mentally challenged students basic skills so they could get jobs and support themselves. (as you may have noticed, I don't have THAT kind of patience. ). To this DAY strangers recognize my name on my credit card (I have my father's name) and say my father was the best teacher they ever had. A manager I see everyday at a local convenience store was a student of my father's in junior high. She's my age and still remembers him. I think maybe that is why I do it.

Teaching is a two way street. It isn't a magic funnel of knowledge that just pours into your head. You have to want it. You can't learn AS over night. You can't learn it without reading the help files first. It is a weird different program.

I've seen it first hand right here on this forum. Those that excel with AS are the ones who make that effort to learn it. I've seen people in the first few weeks or even days with AS making animations... they aren't perfect... but they used the help and forums to get to get that far.

The help files are missing a lot of stuff. We can help with that here.

Sorry for the rant. I just don't think a lot of people "get it". I was a terrible student when I was younger. I wish I knew this back then. I would have made straight A's and learned how to write better and paid attention in math class.

-vern

[Rasheed]

Sorry for the rant. I just don't think a lot of people "get it". I was a terrible student when I was younger. I wish I knew this back then. I would have made straight A's and learned how to write better and paid attention in math class.

You're excused, Vern.

One problem I had when I was in school that I had this annoying almost perfect memory problem. Once something was interesting enough to remember, I never forgot (I can still remember most of it). This meant I never had to study hard, and was more bored than anything else. I often got a lower grade, because the teacher was convinced I could do much better if I really tried. For instance, I saw some theory on calculus once, one of my brothers brought home from the uni. I had no trouble understanding it, and was intriged. Suddenly my grades in maths class went up 2 points, and my maths teacher thought I was faking it all that time. In reality, I was just bored.

I think the biggest problem in learning and teaching is finding a common ground of knowledge and trust. People think that reading manuals is boring, because most manuals are. However, the manual and tutorial provided with Anime Studio isn't boring at all. It is quite educational. It let's you think outside the box, outside what you thought was possible.

Now I'm still chewing on this paper which discusses how to move through space without propellant. This would make space flight possible, because you would not need any fuel to propel yourself. The problem is that I actually understand some of it, while I actually shouldn't. Of course, we're decades, perhaps centuries away from a practical application, but it is a nice puzzle to solve when you're bored and have some time to kill.

Seen in that light, reading the manual isn't that hard. You can do the manual in an afternoon, perhaps two days, tops. However, like anything else, you have to do it yourself, because we haven't invented Vulcan mind-melting yet (who knows, one day we will). That would save a lot of time studying, if you could just mind-melt with an expert, to absorb his knowledge and apply it.

[jahnocli]

I hesitate to point this out to someone who doesn't have English as a first language, but it's "mind-meld". Melting minds is an altogether different alien activity (see "Mars Attacks", for instance...)

[Rasheed]

You're right, of course. I meant mind-melt.

Anyways, I can recommend the Official Guide to Anime Studio to anyone who uses the program for the first time. Although the book doesn't really go beyond the tutorials, it puts it in a much better context, and, therefore, it will probably be much easier to remember. I always found the electronic manual to be a bit terse, especially if this is your first animation program. The book is an excellent companion for those first few weeks of learning how to use the program.

If you're being paid for your animation, the 30 dollars or so to buy the book is a no-brainer.

[ktadie]

I love helping people, I really do. Especially eager new users who are just learning. A big problem I have is when it is obvious they haven't made any effort on their own first. When the original poster here made the comment about the "stupid elbow tutorial"... that was nearly it for me. That turns off my "teacher" mode like a switch.

That "stupid elbow" tutorial sticks in my head as the turning point for me. Constraints baby. Yeehaaa! I get it now! I did variations of that tutorial many times with Moho. Screwed it up too, made a bunch of mistakes. Got it completely wrong.

I don't know why I enjoy sharing my knowledge so much but I do know that the effort of teaching requires the same effort on both sides. I lose interest if the student isn't making the same effort as the teacher. Do the tutorials, read the help, search the forums.

My father was a teacher his whole adult life. I know he didn't do it to get rich, especially at the end of his career when he taught mentally challenged students basic skills so they could get jobs and support themselves. (as you may have noticed, I don't have THAT kind of patience. ). To this DAY strangers recognize my name on my credit card (I have my father's name) and say my father was the best teacher they ever had. A manager I see everyday at a local convenience store was a student of my father's in junior high. She's my age and still remembers him. I think maybe that is why I do it.

Teaching is a two way street. It isn't a magic funnel of knowledge that just pours into your head. You have to want it. You can't learn AS over night. You can't learn it without reading the help files first. It is a weird different program.

I've seen it first hand right here on this forum. Those that excel with AS are the ones who make that effort to learn it. I've seen people in the first few weeks or even days with AS making animations... they aren't perfect... but they used the help and forums to get to get that far.

The help files are missing a lot of stuff. We can help with that here.

Sorry for the rant. I just don't think a lot of people "get it". I was a terrible student when I was younger. I wish I knew this back then. I would have made straight A's and learned how to write better and paid attention in math class.

-vern

so, Mr.Heyvern, im also sorry for this rant, but i dont think we are on the same pages.
i have kindly been requesting how i can move the points on the lace, instead of using the bone functions.
so yes, the stupid elbow still has no help or use to me atm.

now, i have been through the help file for like the 5th time, let me go through all the differnt pages, so u can try and understand that the help still dosnt help me

oh, i have gone through the "tutorials" part of help.

so now 1) "Basics"
it goes through AS's interface, how to create shapes, how to add bones and how to use the keyframes to move around with the bones.

2) "Drawing"
here it shows u how to use differnt drawing techniques, including 3d, which i defeaitly dont need.

3) "Bones"
well, i dont need to use bones. besides, if i should use bones, it dosnt explain how i can use z-depth and all that.

4) "images"
ya, nothing here either. going through what you can do with differnt images you have imported form other sources, e.g. making someone laugh or talk.

5) "animation"
the only thing i can find useful here is working with the depth. frames by frames is also good, but again, its not what i am looking for.

6) "Effects"
fancy effects which i can probaly use later on.. like shadows.

so my dear heyvern, does all that look helpfull to my current litle problem? i dont think so. unless its actually one of those techniques, but in disguise.
i completely agree with ur teacher-student stuff u said, however, if a teacher asks a student to go read a source, which isnt helpful for the specific question at all, instead of simply just telling the student, well then i think its the 100% effort missing from the teacher, and not the student.

and no, i am not buying a 30dollars 512 paged guide book.

now, i am not trashing you guys or trying to insult you. and it may sound like i am putting you in a position as if you have to help newbs (ppl like me) but im not. and since you already know so much, why not share your knowledge? i mean, thats why you are at this forum?

[Rasheed]

Well, I did share some of my knowledge. However, I'm not going to do your work. I already have spent at least an hour of work, and I have seen nothing in return from you but some text and complaints.

Show us what you have, and we'll try to tell you how to improve on it. That is how it works, the sharing. You do the hard work, and some of us give pointers how to improve.

[heyvern]

... and since you already know so much, why not share your knowledge? i mean, thats why you are at this forum?

I don't know where to start. Without some basic understanding of the tools this is a problem.

My brain locks... too much to explain in so short a space. there is a bare minimum needed for me to start with. I don't want to copy and paste the help files and tutorials.

You started out asking about bones, then moved on to points, then shapes. In all of those cases there pages in the help and tutorials with examples for each problem. You continue to trash the tutorials and help files instead of finding the information they actually contain. If you had done ALL the tutorials start to finish you would be in a good place for asking for help and getting good answers.

You asked about the "point animation tool". How to animate the points...
This is the first page of the tutorials, A Quick Run-Through:

http://www.lostmarble.com/moho/manual/i ... index.html

It doesn't get any clearer than that. Did you read that page or just scan it?

In your original post you said the bones were all moving in strange ways...
Here is the page for Bone Setup:

http://www.lostmarble.com/moho/manual/i ... index.html

On this page it says:

OK, let's add bones to the other leg. But first, we need to select the spine again so that the second leg will also be attached to it. Use the Select Bone tool and click on the spine to select it. Next, use the Add Bone tool to add three bones to the other leg as shown below:

It describes bone parenting. If you did just that tutorial like 10 times you would know how basic bones work. Later on it goes into more detail in the help files.

At your level of knowledge anything I would say would be "copy and paste" from the help files.

I used the tutorials, I used the help. That was my starting point. That is all I am asking. Use the basics first.

... and since you already know so much, why not share your knowledge? i mean, thats why you are at this forum?

I was on this forum first to learn Moho (former name). Then I got better at it and was able to help people. I don't have to do anything. I don't get paid.

I apologize if my rant hurt your feelings or made you angry, however I stand by every word. If you want to learn something, part of that process is studying the available documentation. Study it until you could write the darn thing yourself.

Look at what Fiziwig did:
viewtopic.php?t=10266

That just blew me away. He was a new user and he used the help files and tutorials. He ran into problems and asked for help but he understood the basics.

The info is there, you have to read it and do it. Don't make excuses. Don't blame the help files or the lack of tutorials if you haven't even read them thoroughly.

--------

This is just MY opinion. Others are more willing to solve the problems and spoon feed the info available in the help. Lately I just get frustrated by the lack of initiative and whining. There are some forums where no one will even respond if you ask simple basic questions.

This is a great community and we all have bad days. You caught me on one. Don't let me get you down too much. try to take what I'm saying to heart. Read the help files THOROUGHLY. With the program opened so you can try it out and see the results first hand.

-vern

[Rasheed]

You should read some of my old posts. I was complaining that it was so hard to understand. Now I know the reason. I lacked basic knowledge of animation. I had to spend many hours of study and buy many books (spend hundreds of dollars) only to be able to understand what animation was all about.

I was tempted to enroll in Animation Mentor, but 16,500 dollar in two years is a bit too steep for me, even though AM is the cheapest high-level animation school available to me. However, it gives you an idea what level of skill professional animators have. You may compare them to physicians, skill-wise.

Character animation isn't something you learn in an afternoon. It takes years of hard study and commitment, long work days, and hardly a social life outside animation school. There are other roads than formal education, cheaper self-education. It only means you have to study even harder, because you don't have the feedback of your animation student peers to rely on.

So I'm more humble than I used to be, because I know what it takes to be an animator. I have lost some of my cockiness, because it works so contra-productive if you want to receive help from other people. Perhaps that was the hardest part, because we Dutch are (in)famous for being bold and self righteous. IME Dutch seem to like to complain and let others do their work for them. That doesn't really promote an atmosphere of sharing. Boy, how I had to change my behavior.

[synthsin75]

"Now for something completely different."

Well, I'll take a crack at it.
Slowtiger was right. Knots are hard work. But I know how frustrating it is to have a task in mind when you first start trying to use AS. Don't let it get you down.

Here's a simple example.

This is as simple as I could think of doing it. Three regular vector layers with only point motion. Rasheed's example, while very good, is probably too technically complex for a new user. To understand what's going on you'd need a grasp on masking which is notoriously confusing.

If you have any questions, please ask. But do seriously attempt to understand this example.

Best of luck.