Image Layers and Bone structure

gnarlygnome · Post by **gnarlygnome** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:39 am

Hi. I like to draw my own images and animate them. LOL.

I drew separate arms, legs, and a body with head. That's 5 peices to make a figure.

The problem I have, is:

I cant seem to bind all bones at once. I can bone one bone to one layer, but not all the bones in that one layer- so when I manipulate a bone, one of the bone doesnt move,
which means if I move an arm, the shoulder comes off the body.

Make sense anyone? lol.

thank you sooo much!!!

I'm trying to do Japanime style with this software. Any ideas?

hayasidist · Post by **hayasidist** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 1:20 pm

it sounds as though your bone structure needs to change a bit. Check out the manual -- tutorials 4.1 and 4.2. The key is to have a fixed "root" bone, then a logical bone chain from that -- use the "reparent bone" tool as necessary.

gnarlygnome · Post by **gnarlygnome** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 5:06 pm

I was referring to this tutorial when I was trying to do what I was doing- but see, that's the point..

I can only Bind one bone per layer- I can't bind all the bones therefore I can't make animate a drawing of a figure I just did.

gnarlygnome · Post by **gnarlygnome** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 5:08 pm

i thought one of the most important things to do with this software was to animate a character I drew with my bare hands using a pencil

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 7:01 pm

Do you really have 5 separate image files for your body parts, like "arm.png", "leg.png", "body.png" and so on? If not, AS can't move the parts independently.

gnarlygnome · Post by **gnarlygnome** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:05 pm

ah, well I figured out that one has to import the pgn. files from the layer window, not from the file>import, a big difference, since the bones are automatically binded to the image if they are imported in the layer window/menu.

However, I did have separate arms, legs, just like the characters you'd see in the tutorials. You are saying that AE can't animate them all because they are separate image layers?

It's true that so far, I was unable to link the bones of separate image layers together using reparent tool.

But I don't understand how the tutorials shows a figure made of separate parts and are animated.

Is it because it is a vector image?
Do I have to Vector Trace my pgn. image first in order to get them all put together?

gnarlygnome · Post by **gnarlygnome** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:07 pm

Slowtiger,

Now I do have 5 separate png. Image layers. They are all in one group.
They have bones, but
I am unable to link the bones of separate image layers together right now I have been through most of the tutorials but I haven't read the whole manual LOL.

I can't hear the You Tube Tutorials as that would speed up my workload, so I read the manual and use written tutorials instead.

Thanks.. I am sure most of you have done what I am doing- just animated hand-drawn characters of separate limbs. LOL.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:55 pm

OK, check your setup. It should be like this:

- bone layer
- - image 1
- - image 2
- - image 3
- - image 4
- - image 5

One bone layer, and inside of it a lot of image layers, that's the way to go.

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 11:30 pm

Look at this, a simple example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRFkpSEcToA

gnarlygnome · Post by **gnarlygnome** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 11:58 pm

thank you for the video I just watched it.

However, this is what I Got.

I cant hear the youtube tutorial but I looked at it but somehowe I am missing something because of the image layers are so warped

lol

thanks for your help dudes

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 12:59 am

Is that you that dropped baldy like a bad habit?

Are you importing images like I did, one leg, one arm, body etc? If you are then it looks like you need to use the bind layer tool on each layer. Click on a layer then click on the bind layer tool, now click on the bone that goes to that layer; repeat for each layer and its bone.

Also, try and rig it like this and parent the bones like this.

gnarlygnome · Post by **gnarlygnome** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 3:42 am

hmm. but so far I can only bind one bone per layer.
If a leg has 2 bones, for upper/lower leg, only one bone can be bind per layer.

Is that the way it goes? Because that's the situation I have.

thanks.

gnarlygnome · Post by **gnarlygnome** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 3:48 am

i guess what this means I have to draw an image layer per animated bone-

head
body
breasts
upper arm
lower arm
hands
sword
upper leg
lower leg
feet
an image for each layer of these things to have a bone for them to animate them. right?

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 3:50 am

gnarlygnome wrote:hmm. but so far I can only bind one bone per layer.
If a leg has 2 bones, for upper/lower leg, only one bone can be bind per layer.

Is that the way it goes? Because that's the situation I have.

thanks.

Yes that is the way it goes. You need to make 2 layers out of the leg.

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 4:11 am

gnarlygnome wrote:i guess what this means I have to draw an image layer per animated bone-

head
body
breasts
upper arm
lower arm
hands
sword
upper leg
lower leg
feet
an image for each layer of these things to have a bone for them to animate them. right?

OR.....import the finished drawing and trace over it.