Moho Forum

I need to make a page turn animation for a book want the corners too peel then turn to show next page CANT get it too look right. rigging a head turn seems easier! also... book cover must have a image i made deform it.

How do I.... MAKE A PAGE TURN! lol

you can do a real 3d turning pages book in AS, but it requires a lot of knowledge:

1- create each page as a single image
2- import one page to Wings 3d as image plane and split it in vertical parts

3- export the page as obj file, with texture as jpeg
4- import the obj file in AS and put it inside a bone layer
5- rotate the obj layer in Y axis to face the camera, if it's needed
6- double click on 3d layer, 3d options tab. set 0 on border

7- rotate the obj layer in X axis 90 degrees, the layer must be show as a horizontal line in normal view (if you rotate the layer before to face the camera, it's probably you must rotate now in Z axis instead X)
8- add some bones following the form of the page

9- rotate the bone layer in X axis -90 degrees, to make it face the camera
10- animate your page.



Here is the anme file, if you want to see.

You must repeat this process with each page you want. If you want two faced pages, just import both images on wings and separate them with a minimal amount, then split both the same number of times and export them at once.

I know probably it's easier to animate the page using point animation when it's vector, but when there are images involved and you want a fancy result, this technique is good. Another option, obviously, is to make this kind of animation on a 3d software like blender.

Never made a page turn without using custom software (many such effects are standard in editors, for example) but if I had to I'd approach it like a door open.

I do doors by using a switch layer and simply moving the vertices of the rectangle appropriately. So in that sense it's basically cell animation, but with a door it's very straightforward -- the only "trick" is at changeover when the front of the door is hidden and you see the back, but you don't really need interpolation for this so you can just draw your layers separately (it only takes about five or six for a very convincing door open).

A page turn will need more vertices than a door, since you want to curl the edges, but otherwise it's exactly the same process. Even though I can hardly draw I bet I could do one in less then 20 minutes by using some sample images from the web.

Not exactly what i had in mind. This is like what I want but... it scrolls wrong at the end and the other side of each page needs to be different.

http://rapidshare.com/files/234257149/Untitled.avi --- very ruff!

If you have seen that "page curl" effect that is done with flash and seen all over the place I could replicate that with AS but it requires a layer script due to the calculations to keep things lined up. The flash version that is really popular is done using masking and fancy angle/rotation calculations to automate it. That kind of stuff could be replicated using lua in a layer script for AS.

You could do it "by hand" but it would require a lot of extra key frames. It might be done without a script using some tricky bone positioning and constraints... I'm just to tired to figure it out right now.

-vern

Here is a thought. Set up a camera, take pictures about every 10 degrees and roto scope it.
Have two images for the pages as a vector layer effect. One hidden by a mask.

Dale

or try using simple shape morph

http://ifile.it/i312znh

I was just playing with page turning
in my video editor software, which is
Magix. I would think the simplest thing
to do would be to create the page turns
in a video editor and splice them into
your animation.

Hah!

I was wrong. No scripting needed. Only 3 bones... but a few layers with masking. Haven't worked out all the shading yet but it looks okay. It's not as "dimensional". I basically replicated that 2D "Flash" page curl technique sort of. The "math" is pretty simple if you look at the bone constraints. Basically the page rotates from a point below the center of the "book". The page mask rotates at 50% of the same amount with another bone and a constraint. I added a third bone to sort of shift a shading line shape for the shadow. Like I said the shading is a bit tricky due to the masking and the shapes.

http://www.lowrestv.com/anime_studio/ma ... _curl3.mov

http://www.lowrestv.com/anime_studio/ma ... _curl3.zip



-vern

Some interesting suggestions here. heyvern's technique looks very promising.

very cool. How could you get image on top of the page?

Having an image is a piece of cake. The "page" itself is not being warped by bones, only the mask has points that are moved.

All you need is an image the same size and crop of the page you want or you could also mask an image layer to the page shape. I think it might be easier to make the image the same size as the pages.

In my sample document there is the layer for the "page front" and "page back". Just "replace" those layers with image layers and bind the layers to the bone that the points are bound to in my sample. I didn't really have to use point binding I could have bound the layer.

Basically the whole thing is an "illusion" of "dimensionality". The pages are never distorted just rotated. The only tricky part with using an image layer would be the shading. But you can use what is there in the same way but use transparency or the layer blend mode over the image layer to create shading.

-vern

Here's a sample with image layers. It was actually easier than I thought. Just put the image layer for back page (that folds over and rotates) over the "page curl back color" layer and bind that layer to bone "4".

Put the image layer you want revealed as the page turns over the "page curl front color" layer. Make sure "warp using bones" is off for both layers.

I forgot that the shading is OVER the layers and not part of the actual page layers. So the only thing you might want to do is darken the shape on layer "page mask 3" which is the wrong name by the way. That layer is not a "mask" layer at all but the shading layer. The "mask mask" layer is a mask for the shading layer above it. I hope this didn't cause too much confusion.

http://www.lowrestv.com/anime_studio/ma ... _curl4.mov

-vern

With a custom script I could make the page turn more... "flexible". Allowing you to change the angle and starting point of the page curl. For example pulling from the upper corner and changing the curl as the bone moves.

Right now it's a "fixed" turn. It turns at one angle in a straight line. You can change the angle by lowering the 3 control bones but you can't make it turn from the top unless you change the whole set up.

With a script I could put in controls that changes the angle and direction of the rotation.... I might try it just for fun.

-vern

Seems to me your basic setup could be used for door opens/closes (without the curling, of course).

I haven't examined the file (way too crushed for that right now) but if so thanks a lot! (I do door opens and closes all the time and it's not much fun to setup).