Image Layers and Bone structure

gnarlygnome · Post by **gnarlygnome** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 4:46 am

ah.. so an entire image that is Vector Traced will be easily animated..

Tracing an image with the computer is a good idea- FLash is well used in anime/manga purposes and they trace the drawing with flash and the lines can be animated.

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 5:04 am

gnarlygnome wrote:ah.. so an entire image that is Vector Traced will be easily animated..

Tracing an image with the computer is a good idea- FLash is well used in anime/manga purposes and they trace the drawing with flash and the lines can be animated.

You still use many layers. Trace the face, in one layer, hair in another, eyes in another, ears in another, etc. MANY MANY layers. Anime Studio is about layers.

gnarlygnome · Post by **gnarlygnome** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 5:13 am

are you talking about the Draw>TraceImage function of AE?

Do i do that separately for each layer and I assume so you say it's all about layers.

That's a fine idea.

I'm trying to do Japanime style with AE, but it's hard I think..lol. but I thought a "Panty and Stockings" style of cartoon with Japanime would work wonders for my project

thank you so much for the feedback

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 5:20 am

gnarlygnome wrote:are you talking about the Draw>TraceImage function of AE?

Do i do that separately for each layer and I assume so you say it's all about layers.

That's a fine idea.

I'm trying to do Japanime style with AE, but it's hard I think..lol. but I thought a "Panty and Stockings" style of cartoon with Japanime would work wonders for my project

thank you so much for the feedback

Please do not use the built in trace thing AS 8 has. Do it manually with the add points tool. I am just trying to say that if you want good result you are going to have to actually work hard in AS. It is not a "import your drawings and add a bone and tada you got an animation."

look at the layers in this simple south park scene I did to learn the program. It is hundreds of layers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P909KjUiTK0

gnarlygnome · Post by **gnarlygnome** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 6:03 am

wow.

your work looks good. Thank you for sharing it.

Hmm..

I wonder if I could draw traditionally by hand, many action sequences and then ah.. use AE for some other parts.. to get that hand-drawn animatoin look with the help of AE.. For example, I could draw the action poses and the limbs while using the auto-lip sync with the mouths drawn in AE and used for the dialogue..

It's just that it's very technical, and I am for hard work in animation- but for me to spend a lot of time in the comptuer when I could spend that time drawing-- I see that if I draw, draw, draw by hand the animation in that time frame, I would constantly develop the skill as an animator..

This is a cross-platform program, you can import Photoshop, Illustrator, movies into this program. There are shortcuts that should be taken to bring about the projects..

but.. hmm.... I see that if I go through the process of making all the layers for the character and it has all the angles, then I can use it througout the entire animation, and that itself is a time-saver, because it will save time in the long run..

animation isn't my only projects. Ive got paintings, electronic music, film work to do.. so I am swamped with art to do.. lol.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP. thank you I am grateful.

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 6:16 am

You can use switch layers. Keep playing with the program and you will get the hang of how it works....

gnarlygnome · Post by **gnarlygnome** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 8:29 am

ah.. so the switch layers will connect the arms/legs and make them look good without the outlines overlapping I saw a tutorial on that.
Right?

Awesome. yeah gotta keep playing with the program, I wish I could learn the exact method but there's many different methods to pull out animation as I have so many art projects I'm juggling but this is exciting lol.

hayasidist · Post by **hayasidist** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 3:05 pm

nope - switch layers allow you to swap different "poses"... for example eyes open and eyes closed.

eye switch layer
-- eyes closed image (or vector) layer
-- eyes open image (or vector) layer

you can have either "eyes open" or "eyes closed" but not both.

If you want to make things blend seamlessly (e.g.)

front view upper body group (or bone) layer
-- eye switch group [as above]
-- left arm image
-- right arm image
-- torso image
-- head and neck image

then you have to make sure that where layers overlap visually you have "matching" strokes (lines) and fills.

AS (by default) produces a rendered image by starting at the lowest layer (in the example above: "head and neck") and drawing that. Then it goes to the next one up (here: "torso") and draws that - overwriting "head and neck" where there is an overlap .. and so on and so on ...

Because it can be "hard" to clean up the join you'll see techniques such as "collars" used to cover the messy area where the neck joins the body:

front view upper body group (or bone) layer
-- eye switch group [as above]
-- collar image <<<<<
-- torso image
-- head and neck image

In this example: AS draws the head and neck, then torso and then collar -- which overwrites the area where neck and torso meet...

AS8 introduced the "patch" layer to help achieve cleaner joints.

gnarlygnome · Post by **gnarlygnome** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 5:56 pm

wow that's amazing stufff.
I guess Im off to work to try all this.
thanks.

gnarlygnome · Post by **gnarlygnome** » Sun Apr 08, 2012 3:46 am

I want to thank you all for replying.
It has been a while since I have been here.

http://youtu.be/OP0xmR9iBkE

I did make an animation.. but not with complete use of AS or a complete anime- it's just more ah.. "Motion stills" kinda like a manga. HOwever, I want to do it the Japanimation style- I wonder, will layers on each movable part willl do it Japanime style?

I know I can use AS to move the lips, some limbs.. but for complete Japanime style, would I have to do it like, draw each frame for 8 frames a second, which I plan to do-

but can anyone point out a work-plan in which I can use the correct methods to make Japanime?

I know I haven't been using all the techniques in AS it's a matter of time- I have so many art projects to do, so I've been multitasking and this anime is sort of a "Sketch" until I do the final product.

Thanks for any pointers.. LOL.