Smooth Head Turn (attempt)

[TheMinahBird]

I read up on Selgin's head turn tutorial and was physicked to get started on building a character and what not. But then the hair was the next issue.

I don't know if it looks too weird, but if it doesn't to anyone else then that's fine... I guess.
I'm a bit of a perfectionist.

[wormpoo21]

Looks good to me. Nice work.

[lwaxana]

The head rotation looks great! (It looks like you're still working on the hair.) So far it's not as dynamic/expressive as your usual drawings, but it could provide a solid base to add squash and stretch and dynamic poses using point animation. Are you planning to use this as a template for all of your characters? Is your reason to create a rotating rig that you want to work quicker? The reason I ask is that your poses and facial expressions normally use really expressive shapes, in a way that might be considered "off model." Which is perfect with your style! So I wonder if creating a few unique drawings for each scene and then creating a really simple rig off of those poses to animate between the poses would be a more efficient workflow than starting with a stiffer rig that needs to be tweaked a lot. Your older head turns would be an example. On the other hand some people create really dynamic animation with rotating rigs. And they are fun to create and a valuable exercise! So just a thought. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

[TheMinahBird]

Yeah the hair looks super silly xD ! I'm trying to work on having a hair for the back of the hair to be more subtle, And yeah it's VERY simple. That's because when I test something out I might want to try I never do something too complicated that might waste my time that way if something went wrong I didn't lose anything really.

I'm planning on animating fight scenes from different views and just basic 360 rotation that way I won't have to worry about if things look too weird or not proportional. I usually tweak things inbetween frames so they won't look too "flash" or smooth. But yes I know what you're talking about. I am a Looney Tunes/Spumco wanna be x) really like weird expressions.

I really need tips on the hair right now, I'm considering adding another piece to make the profile view actually exist. because it looks too jarring to me.

[neeters_guy]

You're off to a good start. Treat the hair as clumps in different layers and layer sort them as needed:

Notice that the jarring, or popping, effect is minimized when the layer sort happens between held poses.

[slowtiger]

Neeters: That's the first "automatic" head turn which convinces me. Well done.

[lwaxana]

Neeters--that hair demo looks great! Thanks for sharing!

[lwaxana]

Minahbird--awesome! can't wait to see your fight scenes!

[TheMinahBird]

@neeters, That looks really good! Can I have the file maybe..? c:

[neeters_guy]

Thanks for the compliments, guys.

@neeters, That looks really good! Can I have the file maybe..? c:

Sure, here it is: HairTurn_v95d.anme. Keep in mind it's a quick example to illustrate the principle. All the point motion and layer sorting are in the smart bone action.
Hope it helps.

[willf]

All the point motion and layer sorting are in the smart bone action.

That head turn looks great.

So you can put layer sorting into smart bones? Does version 9.5 have this feature, or did it come along in version 10?

[neeters_guy]

So you can put layer sorting into smart bones? Does version 9.5 have this feature, or did it come along in version 10?

iirc, Smart Bones was implemented in v.9, but the layer sorting feature wasn't added to it until 9.5 release.

[TheMinahBird]

woo boy, ok this is total garbage I created.

@Neeters I definitely tried but It's a mess now, My style doesn't' transfer nicely.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_8kIJl ... pCaWM/edit or https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_8kIJl ... 9fbHpCaWM/

They are both the same file of my character, Rose. Maybe you can make some sense of it?

[neeters_guy]

I tweaked your file, mainly moving keys and fixing the layer ordering. It's still not perfect (the top hair and cowlick needs work), but you get the idea:


Some tips:
-- Work out the turnaround views on paper first. It's difficult to do this while pushing points around on the fly.
-- Color your layers. It'll make layer sorting easier to see.
-- Take notes while working. When your action timeline starts to fill up with keys, it's easy to forget what all those keys do.
-- When you create the shapes, add enough points to allow the shape to change into its flopped shape. That means the shape will have a symmetrical point count.

Anyway, don't give up. It's tedious, but being organized helps a lot.
--
ps. I emailed you the file.

[TheMinahBird]

Neeters I just wanna say thanks a lot! I made this animation!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_8kI ... nA2TWVkUkk

I've been really wanting to thank you, Iwaxana and Victor for helping me!