Animating Front + Behind using Smart Bones ?

[Alon]

Hello All,

This is my very first post, I'm playing around with Anime Studio trying to make a rig that will let me animate: FRONT and BACK with my control maybe using Smart Bones but I'm still new and not sure how.

I did watch lots of tutorials, and great webinars via YouTube with the extremely talented Victor Paredes! who explain lots of things. but still I didn't found a video tutorial to explain how to do what I'm trying to do.

I'm attaching a short video that will show what I'm trying to do (not made with Anime Studio of course).
Short explain for those who can't view the video for some reason:



- As you can see the character can move the arms in FRONT and BACK of the body whenever I want, so it gives much more control to animate a character. But is it possible (easy? complicated?) to do in Anime Studio?

I will be happy to get some help on this, Thanks ahead and sorry about my bad English.

[hayasidist]

you don't _need_ smart bones to swap the forearm / hand from behind to in front of the torso.

two straightforward ways to do this in ASP11:

animated layer ordering: in the group that holds the individual layers: in the depth sort tab enable "animated layer order"

animated shape ordering: in the vector layer that holds the individual shapes: in the vectors tab enable "animated shape order"

which you choose depends on how you've structured your character.

[Alon]

Thank you for the kind reply.
OK, I guess I will probably need to use both Layer Order and Shape Order in some future rigs, so I want to understand how to make it work.

So after I chose the shapes of the Arm > Vectors > Animated shape order [enable]
After I animated the movement, how do I make these shapes to go Front or Back? and is it the same for animating Layer Order? (or maybe different buttons/options).

Thanks ahead!

[hayasidist]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K9K5RA ... ded#t=3967 will give you the overview of both shape and layer ordering (at time I:06:00 approx.)

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K9K5RA ... ded#t=1850 talks about animated shape ordering (at time 0:30:45 approx.)

Then there's the (ASP11) manual:

(p13) "Animated Shape Order: A new option in the Vectors tab of the Layer Settings dialog allows you to enable animated shape ordering. See “Vectors Tab” on page 213 for more information. See “Tutorial 5.11: Animated Shape Ordering” on page 228 in your Anime Studio Tutorial Manual for a hands on tutorial on how to use animated shape ordering."

and

(p227) "Enable animated layer order: During the course of an animation, you may want to move objects in front of or behind each other. One example is when simulating head turns. The children of a group layer have the ability to move back and forth in layer order over the course of an animation, but you need to turn this option on to allow it. If it’s off, then moving one layer in front of another affects them for the entire timeline."

If you're still stuck / confused after you've had a go at getting it to work, just ask....

[Alon]

Thanks for the great details and example videos.
Actually I've been watching the all webinars but unfortunately the Layer Order part isn't really covered, only show the option for "Enable animated layer order" but not an example how it works.

So, I understood the Shape Order, it must work on the Same Layer than when the option is on, I just play with the UP / DOWN arrows whenever I like on the timeline and it makes keyframes for the shape order, works!

The problem I probably do something wrong is the Layer Order.
1 - I created 2 GROUP Layers, in each one there is a vector layer with shape.
2 - For each group layer I checked these options to enable:
- General: "Allow animated layer effects"
- Depth Sort: "Enable animated layer order"
3 - Animating: I animated the movement of the layers using few keyframes (just like I tested the shape order), But when I change the Group Layer order / position (scrolling manually on the Layers tab, UP or DOWN) during the timeline, it doesn't create a keyframe for the order.

Is there a specific key I need to press in order to create the keyframe for each layer order?
Thanks ahead!

[hayasidist]

you can animate layer order only inside one group.

so, for example, if you have a set up as below and enabled animated layer order in A and B:

Group A
> vector a1
> vector a2

Group B
> vector b1
> vector b2

you can animate swapping a1/a2 and b1/b2 but NOT A/B.

======

Then, if you have:

Group X (with animated layer order enabled) (and A and B as above with vector layers)
> Group A
> Group B

you can animate swapping A / B.

but this wont allow you to interleave their child layers, e.g., a1/b1/b2/a2.

If you need to interleave these 4 vector layers then you'll need to have them in one group.

=====

This might also help viewtopic.php?f=13&t=26849&p=153419

[Alon]

Thanks again!
I think I got it.

Thanks to your great examples, What I did is that I used the Bone Layer of the character as the "MAIN" group that contains all the other groups. (Arm_L, Arm_R, Body, Head etc...)

this rig is a bit more complicated I guess for a beginner like myself, but once I put all in groups and enable the "Animated layer order" I could finally change the position and add key to the timeline, very nice!

I still need to test how it work with the "mini" layers for swapping vectors and such... I hope it will work.

[hayasidist]

Glad to have been able to help.

====

now you have the basic idea, you might like to think about using smart bones to control the layer changes.

for just a simple layer swap:

Bone (make sure you have "animated layer order" on)
> vector 1
> vector 2

In the Bone layer add an independent bone (i.e. not connected to any other bone), and use the "Make Smart Bone Dial" menu option in the Bone dropdown. Use options such as Min angle 0; max angle 90; duration 2.

In the "Action" timeline, at frame 2, (the bone should be now at 90) move vector 2 to be above vector 1.

Now go to mainline, and somewhere in the main timeline move the bone from 0 to 90; go later in the timeline and move the bone from 90 to 0. Note that the default interpolation is linear, so the layers will switch "somewhere in between" the keyframes. So select the keyframes; right-click, and change interpolation to "step", and now the layers will switch at the keyframes.


Enjoy!