Idea for Mask in profile view for Switch Layer Mouths... whatcha think?

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JoelMayer
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Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 8:29 pm

Idea for Mask in profile view for Switch Layer Mouths... whatcha think?

Post by JoelMayer »

So i've been thinking about how i'd attempt a front to profile headturn these days. The main problem is, that i want to use Switch mouths (Actually a whole head switch that snaps into the profile view when you turn the head far enough) and not Smartbones and have a separate Mouth set for the profile view because it simply looks better.

Now i've been thinking that maybe a way to get the cutting into the jaw thing working with a Switch would be this:

Have a switch selection that you reference and group that reference with the jaw vector layer.

Then turn everything invisible except for a mask layer that was drawn in the switch layer.

Than set the group with the reference and jaw to be masked by the reference.

I wanted to quickly prototype it however i found that the "exclude stroke" option is greyed out. Probably because all the switches are in seperate sub-groups.

I just thought with a reference layer it'd be kinda neat because it'd uptdate automatically when i switch out mouths. But if this all gets to complicated, i'd just do a mask shape that cuts into the mouth and animate that by hand or something...

Maybe the more god-level rig people among you (Greenlaw, Victor, and Co. :D ) have a good idea of how this could be achieved.

Excuse the silly drawing, drew this with my mouse in Milanote... also with "Cutter" i mean a mask... i fall into using Toon Boom terminology every once in a while.

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Greenlaw
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Re: Idea for Mask in profile view for Switch Layer Mouths... whatcha think?

Post by Greenlaw »

Yeah, when I first saw the 'profile cutter' technique using Liquid Shapes, I got very excited...but then I found Liquid Shapes only works inside a single layer, not multiple layers. Still a cool technique, but not as useful as I hoped.

When I have cutaways in head profiles (like in my Boss Baby: BIB rigs,) I just build the cutaway into the head vectors and drop the mouth Switch behind the head. This works well enough in the animations I've done for the show, but it's not a smooth transitioning effect like you're describing or the LS technique Victor has demoed. (For examples, see my 2020 demo reel: the baby on the conveyor belt and in the sewer scenes has the cutaway enabled.)

I think if LS shapes could be made to work across multiple layers, including groups, it would do the trick. It would be cool to see this in a future release. :D
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