Stroke Masking? How did this happen?

[striker2311]

Please tell me about this front walk cycle that is controlled by stroke masking, it is awesome and I want to know how is this created as I need it in one of my project.

I didn't understand.
Arm layer was all the way back of every layer so just how did the use of stroke mask brought it up in front ????

Please tell me.


[youtube]https://youtu.be/kp_Vgp-N2Nk[/youtube]

It is explained here:
http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtop ... 04#p196168

but I didn't understand its making order, grouping details and many things more please tell me...

[Greenlaw]

I somehow missed neeters_guy's video, but it seems to be based on a technique I described a few posts above the video. It's a nice example.

In my setup, I use a Stroke Exposure mask to hide and reveal different regions of two sets of a limb, one limb in front of the body and the other behind. The Stroke Exposure is used on a simple path following the length of the arm, and using the standard vector stroke as the mask. A Smart Bone Dial in each limb group animates the stroke mask sliding up and down one copy of the limb, and does the inverse for the other limb. Important: you will need to disable AA for the stroke layer mask or you will get a thin white 'matte line' where the edges meet.

You can see this setup working in the Puss In Boots demo I posted a few years ago. I think I used this setup for some King Julien characters too.

I don't use this method anymore because it's too much trouble to set up on a tight deadline, and this level of control is way overkill in most situations. Also, it gets a bit fiddly when the limb shape is irregular (i.e., you then need to build in stroke width animations.)

TBH, there are easier ways to make arms, legs and tails appear to 'wrap' around a body. I'm planning a video explaining all the different methods I've used over the years. Will post an announcement when it's ready.

[neeters_guy]

Greenlaw summarized the method perfectly. Here's the Moho file if you want to study it.

The usual way to move limbs in front and behind the body is to simply use animated layer ordering, so you don't need two set of limbs. But a smart action can prevent layer ordering, so this is a workaround in that situation.

I'm up for any video by Greenlaw.

[Greenlaw]

What Neeters says is true...you can use animated layer ordering to get similar results, but when you want to use a Smart Bone Dial to control the 'wraparound' effect, Animated Layer Order can conflict with the SBD control. To be clear, it will work until you need to change the depth sorting from what the control has been programmed to do and...well, it won't let you.

Using duplicates and visibility is a workaround solution to this problem. Instead of controlling Layer Order, the SBD is used to animate visibility to hide and reveal different limb sections at different depths, so the layers don't need to be moved at all. For that matter, even masking can becomes unnecessary. At the same time, this setup allows the option to use animated layer order when it's needed. (Using both techniques at the same time is probably a special case use, but it's very handy when I need it.)

For an 'all purpose' character rig that will be re-used in many shots or episodes, I think this approach can be simpler to set up, easier to animate, and it works for most situations. (For me, anyway.)

But for 'one-off' shots, it's probably way overkill. If all you need is to animate is one or two shots with simple bone rig, you should use that. Naturally, you should do what's appropriate for the situation and the time available.

In other words, it's good to be aware of many different ways to do the same thing. In my experience, I find that some tricks work better for different character depending on its design, the style of animation used, and the situations the character will be placed in. For example, the way I rigged Puss in 2014 is very different from how I rigged Boss Baby characters in 2018, but if I had to create a new Puss character rig today, I'd probably do something similar to what I originally did with Puss. (But with some improvements I hope.)

(Sorry, I had to edit the above a bunch of times. Might edit this again later.)

[neeters_guy]

Thanks, Greenlaw. Your Puss in Boot example is fantastic btw.

[striker2311]

I somehow missed neeters_guy's video, but it seems to be based on a technique I described a few posts above the video. It's a nice example.

In my setup, I use a Stroke Exposure mask to hide and reveal different regions of two sets of a limb, one limb in front of the body and the other behind. The Stroke Exposure is used on a simple path following the length of the arm, and using the standard vector stroke as the mask. A Smart Bone Dial in each limb group animates the stroke mask sliding up and down one copy of the limb, and does the inverse for the other limb. Important: you will need to disable AA for the stroke layer mask or you will get a thin white 'matte line' where the edges meet.

You can see this setup working in the Puss In Boots demo I posted a few years ago. I think I used this setup for some King Julien characters too.

I don't use this method anymore because it's too much trouble to set up on a tight deadline, and this level of control is way overkill in most situations. Also, it gets a bit fiddly when the limb shape is irregular (i.e., you then need to build in stroke width animations.)

TBH, there are easier ways to make arms, legs and tails appear to 'wrap' around a body. I'm planning a video explaining all the different methods I've used over the years. Will post an announcement when it's ready.

Thanks it was helpful really....

[striker2311]

Greenlaw summarized the method perfectly. Here's the Moho file if you want to study it.

The usual way to move limbs in front and behind the body is to simply use animated layer ordering, so you don't need two set of limbs. But a smart action can prevent layer ordering, so this is a workaround in that situation.

I'm up for any video by Greenlaw.

Thanks for taking out your time for me really....