Hi.
Just like to share this with you. It's a cartoon eye that does not need masking. I have developed this idea to use in a single boned switch layer for simple cartoon characters with minimal groups to make the animation process in AS much faster and easier with support for swf output.
I now have a full switch layer based character that is POSE based only.
The great thing about this is that if you don't like the way interpolation works on your character you simply open 1 layer and tweak the points. It really is the best of both worlds!
Great technique, DK. I think that maybe it can be applied to several uses.
I made some modifications anyway. I made that left bones control the right bones angles, but negatively, so you have to move just one bone by eyelid. and add a new bone which moves the pupil, so all the keyframes still in the switch (or bone?) layer.
I just made a complete set of eyes that will blink pefectly all operated by 1 bone!!!!!!WOW!
Another improvement. Select each of the eyelid groups and scale them to "0" from frame 0. That idea came from Vern and synthsin75's thread on the gradient lighting trick.
Use the lighting trick is a very good idea, I constantly forget that discover.
DK wrote:I just made a complete set of eyes that will blink pefectly all operated by 1 bone!!!!!!WOW!D.K
Actually, I didn't want to control all with one bone, the eyelids loses its autonomy and the character loses personality (it's not the same to have a symmetric movement than a separated range of independent movement in each eyelid) (If someone would like to animate Garfield with just one eye bone, am, Garfield never would have his nice Garfield eyes )
I'm blown away. What a COOOL IDEA! I wait with anticipation to see how the switch layer gets involved with phonemes but the BONE thing is COOOL.
I have a modification that would make the eye perfect however I don't know how easy or well it will work and I don't have time right now to play with it.
I like to be able to move the "center line" where the lids meet, up and down. You follow? I can see how this works with the half circles so moving that center line is going to be tricky. Just a suggestion.
My first thought is one set of extra points and bones for each lid but that requires a bone constraint less than one which only works in one direction... this idea probably isn't worth it and might be done some other way.
Oops! It does work... sort of (apparently I did have time to play). It doesn't stay "circular" all the way up or down but it's close enough that the line gets hidden by the top eye stroke shape.
Basically I used "split curve" on a circle set to "1". This splits the circle into 8 sections and maintains the circle. I added two extra sets of bones for the extra points. Now the lid can rotate up past the center to move the center line of the lid higher up. It can only go nearly to the top or bottom before the circle deforms too much but you wouldn't need to go that far and the eye stroke would hide the deformation if it is thick enough..
Obviously this totally over complicates a very simple set up. But that's my job you know
A couple of things I noticed that will make this easier to set up and work with that have nothing to do with my over complication . The bones DO NOT have to be in the same rotation. They don't have to be right on top of each other. Rotations are relative so they can be anywhere you want on frame 0. this makes selection easier if you want to tweak or whatever.
Also because splines are a pain to select as well, I have the eyelids "closed" on frame 0 and the vector shapes "offset". Simple matter to just open them on frame 1 and also shift the vectors back into position. This could be an action. Small nitpick but it certainly makes it easier to fiddle with at this stage.
Wow...Talk abut go one step better. Tat's what amazes me about this forum. Love to see the file when you're done Vern. Nice work.
I'll post my character file later too.
EDIT: Sorry about my spelling my Laptop has dicky keys.
Note on frame 0 it is NOTHING like your original. The bones aren't even lined up or rotated properly... doesn't matter. Using point binding it makes no difference. As long as the points are in the right spot the original rotation of the bone is meaningless.
It's a bit more complicated. The lid meshes have extra "dangling" points from the original circle shape. The dangling points are bound to the bone that would be the "outer" points of the lid at the center. The NEW bones or... well the old bones, control the extra points added between the old points on the circle.
You can see why this isn't a "perfect" solution. When the lids rotated past the center the bones only rotate at 50% so they don't go far enough to maintain the circle shape. Works fine in the other direction.
I don't know if there is a solution for this... but it works in general.
Holy Cow Vern!!! The movement in those bones are so elegant. It reminds me of a swimming squid or jellyfish. I did'nt get time to implement it in my 2switch character rig yet but i'm about to post it in a new thread. Maybe we could continue tweeking there. I'll post a "continued" link here when it's uploaded.
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. The bones DO NOT have to be in the same rotation. They don't have to be right on top of each other. Rotations are relative so they can be anywhere you want on frame 0. this makes selection easier if you want to tweak or whatever.