Charakter Design: Smartbones vs. Switches

[Andreas73]

Hello,

I never realy work with Anime Studio. Befor years I buy (i think) Version 8 in a Sale. Then I saw a Feature Video of Version 10 (or 9) and I was satisfied because the new features like the Smartbones and actions, so I never work with my boring Version 8

Meanwhile I have Version 10 since a year or longer and didn't do anything great with it. Now i will change this and will learn how it works.
I look many tutorials of SmithMicro and do some Try and Error works.

Now the point of the Thread:

I didn't have done a charakter yet. But I think, if I do this, he must be perfect, so I can use him often. And so I think, what is the best way to construct him.
One Question is about the speaking of the charakter.. I know there is the possibility to use switches (I hope the words are right, because I am from germany and use a german Version of Anime Studio). With this switches and Papayago I have do some nice work in the past (just tutorials). The Smartbones are surely a fine and mighty tool, but I think to synchronise with an Audio File the Switches where better. The same for Hands or Eyes.. That is What I think.
Because the switches are a little bit "cutted in possibility" (bad English, huh?). I will say, you can make the mouth open and closed, but what is, when the charakter is sad or angry. I think in Switches there are more emotions to made. Maybe like "Sad - A - O - u..." - "Happy - A - O - U" - Normal - A - o - U" and so on.

Same is Eyes and other emotional parts.

And that is the question. What do you think. Do you use Switches or Smartbones.. To do "Headturns" or something like this, the Smartbones surely great. But for face Animation?
I try out, to make an eyelid. One Smartbone make the eyelid Open and Close and another Smartbone makes it sad and Angry. That is possible, but looks sometimes not so good..


So what will you do?

Thanks for your Answers!

Andreas

[funksmaname]

Greetings!

Firstly:

I didn't have done a charakter yet. But I think, if I do this, he must be perfect, so I can use him often.

That is like saying 'If I'm going to play tennis, I'm going straight to Wimbledon.' - it takes time and practice not only to find the 'best' way to do things, but also the right way for you, based on your needs, your style, your characters, your motion...

here is one way of doing it...


personally I prefer not to have lots of switches and using papagayo, I just scrub through the audio and make the mouth shapes - but this isn't the best way if you want to work with other people who can't make these descisions about your character on the fly, for that, switches are probably the way to go.

[strider2000]

Hi Andreas73,

But I think, if I do this, he must be perfect, so I can use him often.

I've just been through this thinking process so I'll share what I've learned. You may find this thread of particular interest.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=27976

1) Mouth - use switch layers
I'd strongly suggest you use switch layers when starting out. Use the standard phonemes (see the tutorials, AI, E etc, rest, MBP, O, U, WQ, L,FV) plus extra mouth positions like frown, smile etc. It seems to almost come naturally to the experts, but the switch layers are very helpful for us beginners. Papagayo is great, but after a little bit you'll find that you can do lip sync pretty easily without it. You may be interested in this for using smart bones and switch layers

2) Study the Anime Studio Characters
Even if you want to create your own characters study the anime studio characters. In particular Scarlett Riggs is the one you want to really understand. With the one exception that for beginners I'd propose using switch layers for the mouth, the rest is really really really good

3) Animate short scenes
Rather than focus on your whole story, start by animating short scenes using existing anime studio characters. In the thread I listed above Gilles Charbonneau provided a link about had turns http://gcharb2d.blogspot.ca/2011/07/hea ... ogues.html It shows that you don't have to have a perfect character to create nice animation. Along those lines I'd encourage you to try to mimic some scenes from TV. By doing that with pre-existing characters you'll start to see what the limitations are and how to work around them. That will form a strong basis for knowing how you want to rig your characters so they'll do what you want.

4) Watch Anime Studio Webinars
I very very strongly suggest you watch the anime studio webinars https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 9nY8x4Sdfd. And anything Victor Parades does is an absolute must see!

You also may want to search the forum for my posts, not because I'm an expert, but because I've just been asking the kinds of questions that my be of interest to you and the experts here have been giving great answers! They'll provide you with all kinds of good insights. You'll love this forum!

I hope that some of that's helpful. Have fun!

[Andreas73]

Thanks for Help.

Just short answer (because I am on the run)
I surely don't want to play in Wimbledon, if I start to play Tennis, but i want to know what is the right way to hold the racket(?)

The thing is, that I THINK the best use for Mouth is a switch. I just want to hear, that People who do much more work with the programm think the same.
Just to bring my thinking to the "right Way"

I think you do that. Now I go back to my little room and make more training..

(I want to animate some Cover of Radio Dramas that are very popular in germany and make a videocollage of some of them and a little musik of the series)

[funksmaname]

So, the answer is, based on our two responses - there is no 'right' way
Good luck!