Here is a test animation I did trying out the things I learned in Tutorial 5.8 - "3D scenes".
(I was discussing a situation I was having with this animation at this Forum thread: http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1432 )
Smaller Film File:
Here is a link to a smaller movie file of the "Busy Little Bees" movie - it loads quicker.
SWF Flash-type movie file. 680KB in size.
The issue of how to turn a character to the side has come up recently, and here's another solution: just turn the layer in 3D space. Of course, you can see that the character looks flat, but depending on the style, it can work. For me, I like the cartoon style of this animation, and it doesn't bother me at all that the girl looks like a flat 2D drawing that rotates a bit on the Y axis - I think it works.
That is one of the things I like about Moho - the ability to quickly create 2D characters living in a 3D world. It is an interesting, fun style.
At the end where the girl turns back and forth in the Y-axis, I had to experiment a bit. I wanted her to use her body to accentuate the last bit of text ("Aren´t we, Honey?"), but was not sure how to do it, so I thought why not turn her in the 3D space?
There is a point where if one turns the 2D character too far on the Y-axis it has some issues with its flat "2-Dness" in the 3D world. I turned it 35 degrees one way and back 15 degrees the other and that worked nicely. Plus as she turns towards her right, she cocks her head back to her right and lets her arm drop a bit. (There are lots of little subtle tweaks in the animation and extra little bones to give the hair, hem of her dress and ribbon in her hair extra life.)
