How do I Make a new character?

Goldensphinx · Post by **Goldensphinx** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 9:50 am

Okay, I'm new to this, and i've only had this on my computer for about a day.

Now, I have the basics down, (I think) and i'm still messing around, but I was wondering,
when you make a new character, and the character has over lapped body parts, how do you spread them out and add bones, and when you start animating they come together to form the character. I don't know if I made that sound confusing, but i'll demonstrate.

this character (below) has overlapping body parts:

He's spread out, so that the body parts don't get confused

When you press play, he comes together like this:

Now, how do I go about making my own character like that?

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 10:27 am

Simple answer:

Bone Offset.

On frame 0 you lay out the character with the parts and bones "spread out". Then you select the "Bone Offset" tool and drag the bones into the correct position.

-vern

Goldensphinx · Post by **Goldensphinx** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 10:58 am

Thanks for that.

I have just one more question
Can I make a character on a program like photshop, and import it and then add the bones and offset the layer. O_O

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 12:15 pm

Don't know exactly what you mean by "offset the layer". You use the bone offset tool to "offset bones". This means the bones are originally placed in one location and then "offset" for frames past frame 0.

You import image layers (png) and move them where you want using the translate layer tool. then you draw bones and bind those "body part" image layers to the appropriate bone. Then you offset the bones.

Read the help and do the tutorials. It's all explained.

-vern