White gap appears every time I move bones?

[Daniel Millyard]

Hey guys I need some help here Im trying to make a short Halo parady cartoon and im rookie with this software im getting better but there is one major problem im having. every time I create a fuly rigged charector and I move say his arms this white Gap comes up and I don't know why or how to fix it can any one please help me?


The problem?

the problem is highlighted in red

the skeleton/ final rig

Thank you

[Genete]

Which white gap? have you got a visual example?
-G

[Vagabond]

It looks like a fill problem not a bone problem. The shape for the right shoulder pad looks different from left like you created shape with wrong points or something.

BTW I was looking at your layer list and wanted to know if you have all your character views in a switch layer & different skeletons for side left and front views?I'm trying to figure out best way to build character. Winsor was done with views in different files. I like your way better.

[Daniel Millyard]

hmm ill try, but your right all of my Character thats bone layers and all are in a switch file, I recomend it because it just makes animation seem faster and more clean in the fact you don't have to keep importing new bone layers and characters.

Hey ive tried re filling the shoulder pad and so on it dosen't seem to help?

[Blue]

At first I thought the bone was pulling points across and over the opposite side of the shape, but maybe that isn't the case. Perhaps the bone is pulling the gradient to such as extreme it is causing the anomaly.

Instead of using a gradient, try putting an image in the shape that is the same color as the gradient. I have a feeling images bend better than gradients.

Nice character design.

[Daniel Millyard]

Hey thanks for the advice I'll give it a try, I'm surprised that the bone effects the gradient. I'm glad you like my design. Does this problem occar offten?

[Blue]

Actually, I haven't animated anything with a gradient yet. I'm just guessing the bending is too extreme. I typically use solid fills or images. However, I suggest making the image you are filling the shape with larger than the vector shape. So when you manipulate the two circle controls make sure each circle is outside of the vector shape. Or maybe use the tiling feature, that way it should repeat if pulled past it's size/area.

It still could be something funky with the vertices. As you scrub the animation pay attention to the vertices and make sure they don't cross each other. When a shape overlaps itself, that is exactly the kind of anomaly you typically see.

Also note that AS uses absolute paths to dynamic content such as images if the image is not pulled from the same directory that the .anme file is in. So it is best to save the image in the same directory then bring it into AS.

[Daniel Millyard]

thanks im looking into it right now, thanks alot really helps, ive gotta get this finished before my holiday finish. thanks I shall update on the situation.

[Mikdog]

Maybe you have 2 shapes over each other. The one shape distorts well and the other shape isn't for some reason. Like, it looks like one vector point has been bound incorrectly.

Try make sure the black rectangle on his shoulder is the shape that contains the fill. Otherwise the black outlined shape may be transparent/have no fill, and you may have another shape below with the gradient.

Does it happen with the other arm too?

Or try bind the exact points to the bone, I forgot how, but you use the BIND POINTS TO BONE tool. Or, increase the bone strength and see if that helps keep the vector inside the distortion zone.

Nice character btw.

[Daniel Millyard]

ya it happens on the other arm, and the helmet, the helmet is strange because it only happens to it when one of the arms comes past it, its really weird and strange because this program allows us to fill the objects with gradiets yet when you munipulate them with a bone it goes really strange? im looking into what you just said a the moment but it doesn't seem to be working?

[Daniel Millyard]

what I am noticing is that its not just a white gap by the looks of things the whit is the origanall defualt colour while the affect on top AKA the graideit is disapearing/moving.

[Smoof nickel]

I had a similar problem, the only difference was that the whole body was outlined with this very frustrating line! So.. What I did was I created another layer and traced over the previous drawing, and then finally deleting the old layer. I think the problem is called "Aliasing" which is an error in the rendering process, ALSO, I realized I had been reusing some of the same shapes so I'm almost positive that had something to do with it. You might also want to try checking gap filling under the vector tap in the regular Layer.

Hope I was some what of a help

-Smoof

(BTW) I like your character design, nice work, especially for a rookie.

[Daniel Millyard]

thanks I try my best.

Oh ya thanks for the tip im gonna get a good look at this problem, everyone has given so much good advice yet this thing, just won't go. so keep the tips and help coming through

[heyvern]

Gradients will get modified by bones and can "fold over" on themselves and will reveal the default color beneath. Is the gradient applied to the shoulder "rectangle"?

Looking at the design of the character it appears that the rectangle on the top of the shoulder is not being "distorted" or warped by bones very much. The problem is that even point binding does not prevent gradient effects from being distorted by bones. They are ALWAYS distorted. The only way to avoid that is LAYER binding which probably won't help much in this case. An image texture also will get distorted by bones regardless of how the points are bound.

Are you using "Flexible" bone binding mode for the bone layer? Or are you using "Region" binding? Try switching one to the other to see if it might help.

Flexible binding mode will allow ALL bones to influence the gradient effect. Region binding can "lock" the gradient in place... a bit more... since the bones closest to it and with the most strength maintain the influence. Using bone offset with Region Binding will also help eliminate the "folding" of the gradient.

A trick might be to use a "SHADED effect instead of a gradient. Shaded effect IS NOT distorted by bones and will hold it's "position" as the shape is turned or moved. So the lighting "direction" won't change. However a shaded effect shades the shape on all sides. It won't look exactly the same as a gradient. This might be countered by using a larger offset and more blur radius.

To create a "gradient" with "shading", just use a dark color for the shading and set a large inset and blur radius to "match" the gradient effect.

This will totally eliminate any potential gradient problems that might be causing that "gap". If the gap is NOT caused by the gradient then... would need to see the file to know what is causing it.

-vern

[Daniel Millyard]

Hey that worked! I put the shoulders in there own layer and binded each layer to certain bones it works yes thanks you all so much, and I hope you guys will enjoy my animation when its finished! thanks really helped!