Moho Forum

OK, got AS Debut 6.0 last weekend. Just finished the 3rd Reagan Animation minutes ago...


Very first movie from scratch. The audio sucks. The joke is: Why dont cannibals eat clowns? Because they taste funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OI0nNtT47c

2nd Video, using BUSH audio, going slightly more complex than 1st video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skjBFl-ngyU

And my final movie made minutes ago. Here I was trying Groups in Groups. Made FRONT View with all parts and a Mouth Stack. Then duplicated and re-shaped everything to RIGHT view. The Duplicated again and Flipped group. Then synced all 3 to same audio so I could switch at any point and still have lip sync running. Picked Head direction, then went and animated each piece all the way through , starting with eye brows, then eyes, and so and so and son on.

Wanted movement while turning (eye blinks).

Would still like to have another step on left and right turns.

Took 5- hours from scratch. After this one Im seeing some of the power the application has to offer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRnPN2WR7sQ

Nice progression there, dude.

Can't give much feedback because I'm new myself, but thought these were pretty good.

I like your style! 1st and 3rd my favourites, 1st because of the fine use of b/w, 3rd because of character design. Very well balanced! I'm definitely looking forward to your future stuff.

Seems like you had lots of training before, right?

Tip: Left and right side view can be done with the same layer, just flip it in animation. (doesn't work with asymmetrical characters)

Appreciate it.

As for the Black & White, that is the initial reason for the purchase. I have an idea I've had for a long time that is in that "Steamboat Mickey" Style, and it was an easy first test.

But no animation training to speak of, unless you count decades of watching cartoons. I figure with this type of animation, expressions are key. I have done some self teaching and practices to some of the old school basics; overlapping, anticipation and the like. I would suggest anyone looking to do animation find some traditional teachings online.

As for the reagan clip, I was happy I could put 3 groups (faked in debut by using Bone layer) that contained mouth switches, into another switch group. Lots of possible uses there. I Like your "flop" idea, but think I would loose the ability to modify the bones I place in the head to help smooth out the head turn.

I need to work on fluid motion now. I think Ill have a character walk, hit some steps up and then down and back into a walk. If I can get that I'd feel good. And I assume I would use several tools i haven't tried yet. Cycle, Bone Walking, Bone Locking? and maybe Layer Panning?

I foresee two tests:
#1 - a simple (but well animated) walk across the screen, maybe a run back with a jump. This one I'll focus on a static screen with the character moving.

#2 - Character walking (stationary) with a scrolling background. I'd like to have the steps or obstacles scroll onto the screen and the character hit them in stride.

Every test I do reveals methods I hadn't thought about while learning AS. Good program.

A suggestion, It seems that the mouth movement is going every syllable. Try just opening the mouth for each word and on long words just two movements. It kind of an art to get the lip sync looking good.

dueyftw wrote:A suggestion, It seems that the mouth movement is going every syllable. Try just opening the mouth for each word and on long words just two movements. It kind of an art to get the lip sync looking good.

I know what your saying. I used the standard large to small option in AS (havent tried papa... yet) and then went back and edited it all the way through. I had made the 8-9 basic mouth positions. I noticed that I was pretty much removing many of the auto frames and just opening up with the position that fit the word. I will take it further and eliminate more (or create less?), because t does look a bit busy.

Thanks