Bone Movements Question

[-Silver-]

I'm creating a 2D Action-RPG and will soon require a program to help with character animation. Anime Studio caught my eye with its bone mechanics, but I'm wondering if it can do what I'm after.

Since the main character will go through various clothing and armour changes, will I be able to create a bone movement system (say of a character walking) for the main character in leather armour for example, and essentially copy/paste that bone movement to a character model in steel armour?

Is that possible? Or would I have to redraw the bone movements from scratch for every armour set? It looks like a very powerful mechanic, but despite searching I haven't found out whether it can be used in this way.

Thanks for reading <3

[funksmaname]

you can just use the same character model and have multiple costumes in layers hidden under a single bone layer which will have all your rigging, and then just show or hide them as needed (rather than copy/pasting bones and movement which is a bit more complicated)

[Imago]

More simple with the switch layer, you draw every armor and the you can change it.

[-Silver-]

Thanks for the replies, that's great news!

I'm a big Photoshop user, using an Intuos 3 for all my work. Would it be simple to draw everything in Photoshop and import it to Anime Studio for animation? I'm assuming the drawing tools in Anime Studio aren't as flexible as Photoshop's, but I could be wrong.

[funksmaname]

depends how you define 'flexible' - raster drawing as in photoshop may be flexible for drawing but it's quite literally unflexible for animating. AS's drawing toolset is entirely vector based which, yes, has a learning curve, and isn't as 'free' as using photoshop (you need closed objects in order to fill for example, although you have fine control over an outlines thick and thin and visibility of line segments) but is WAY WAY way way WAY more flexible for animating... you can use photoshop textures in vector shapes to make things look less clean etc, but the smoothness and fluidity of animating points trumps photoshops drawing freedom imho - it really depends what kind of style you have...

You can import parts from photoshop and they can still be animated with bones - but the whole workflow is longer than working with vectors as any rotations need new parts drawn and imported, whereas working in AS you can just manipulate what you have and create smooth interpolation rather than 'toggle switching' different drawings - again, all rests on your chosen style but all possible.

[jahnocli]

Thanks for the replies, that's great news!

I'm a big Photoshop user, using an Intuos 3 for all my work. Would it be simple to draw everything in Photoshop and import it to Anime Studio for animation? I'm assuming the drawing tools in Anime Studio aren't as flexible as Photoshop's, but I could be wrong.

I'm assuming you know that there is a script for automatically exporting Photoshop layers to an Anime Studio file?

[-Silver-]

I'm assuming you know that there is a script for automatically exporting Photoshop layers to an Anime Studio file?

Nope, I had no idea. I've only just heard about Anime Studio and am assessing whether it's the program I'm looking for!

Funksmaname: So importing a typical piece of artwork from Photoshop (say, the main character) even with all of his body parts on separate layers, wouldn't look good animated? I studied GIS mapping at uni for a bit and learned the differences between raster and vector images, so I'm assuming it's the same for animation processes. My standard raster images would blur and pixellate then when moved and warped?

Looks like I'll have to learn vector art. So if I can import vector images from Photoshop using the script Jahnocli mentioned, that would provide the best solution? Great drawing program for flexibility, and vector images for optimum animation quality in Anime Studio?

[jahnocli]

I've seen some great animated films in AS using just bitmaps. Don't feel that you have to start producing vector drawings if you don't want to.