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Noob question: can't add/delete points

Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 3:06 pm
by black-radish
Hi everyone,

This is the first time I used Anime Studio and I was walking trough the quickstart where I have to make hills, clouds and a tree.

I was just busy making the tree with add point, and then I altered a branch of the tree with translate point but the tree wasn't finished yet and I wanted to go back to 'add point', but it was grey (unavailable) to use all of a sudden.

Then I figured I had to start over but I couldn't delete the points anymore! (I could select them.. )

So then I deleted the entire layer, but when I want to add a new layer I can just choose "Image" "note" or "audio", no vector!

Before posting I did some research on internet and the HELP section but couldn't find anything! Please help! I worked with a free animator for a while but I already love this one way better and I only drew some hills and a cloud so far!

Thanks a bunch :D x

Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 3:19 pm
by jonbo
make sure you are on frame''0''. in AS6 and AS7 there is a setting in the preferences that only allows drawing tools on frame ''0'', this may be your case. check it under ''edit/preferences/options''. ctr+z will undo your last move.im not sure how many, but you can do this multiple times. :)

Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 3:24 pm
by black-radish
You, sir, are a hero!

I have no idea what changed while I was drawing but this fixed it!

Thanks a bunch!! :D :D

Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 3:34 pm
by jonbo
ur welcome. drove me nuts 2 when it happened to me the first time :oops:

Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 3:55 pm
by black-radish
Haha, yeah I got pretty frustrated too! But it works great now! I'm giving Frank his skeleton now, so all is well :D


Altough,

I finally thought: this is easy! this is working! I actually can do this quite well!

But meh!

When I move frank's skeleton his image curls up like a dried leave rather than simply moving his legs (bones are connected afaik), also, the icon for 'bone strenght' is inactive!

Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 4:56 pm
by jonbo
u might want to try region binding instead of the default flexi-binding for your bones.also sounds like ur bone constrainst are set too high or not set at all. u might want set them.

Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 12:30 am
by black-radish
Where can I change this?

I was just following the tutorial of Quickstart, but it tells me I have to adjust the bone strenght but I can't click on it, the icon is grey. Why is this?

Sorry for all these questions!! But I really can't find it anywhere else on the internet :(

Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 1:18 am
by fracturedray
Go to Help/Help...

In the PDF look at the top near the middle.
Enter the word "Binding" and it will search for that word in the document. The first word should find the chapter index
Enter the page number in the space near the up and down arrows.

There are a lot more tutorials in this pdf file you can simply search for the word "tutorial" and it will show you more info.

Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 12:54 pm
by black-radish
Thanks a lot! I'm doing the full totorial now! :D

But I'm still running into the same problem, everytime I use bones the picture behind it just curls up in a weird way, I tried 3 different tutorials now and a how-to on youtube.. Am I doing it wrong or do I need to change my preferences ?

Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 1:10 pm
by sbtamu
black-radish wrote:Thanks a lot! I'm doing the full totorial now! :D

But I'm still running into the same problem, everytime I use bones the picture behind it just curls up in a weird way, I tried 3 different tutorials now and a how-to on youtube.. Am I doing it wrong or do I need to change my preferences ?
Are you trying to animate a picture aka an image you imported or are you animating a character made with lines and shapes? If its an image you imported its not going to animate, unless you import, for example, an arm, a leg, body, head and animated it like a paper doll.

If Its a character that you drew with AS tools and the bones are distorting it then its a binding issue and it will make since after you read up on page 59 and 208 in the help section.


Stephen

Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 3:51 pm
by heyvern
Some tools can only be used on frame 0. Bone strength is one of those tools. If you want to change bone strength you must be on frame 0.

Also it sounds like you are trying to bone rig a single image layer. Probably won't work the way you expect if that is true.

-vern

Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 5:24 pm
by jonbo
this sounds like the bone hierarchy might be wrong. Check that you don't have like a hand bone parented to a foot bone or something. Use the re-parent tool to check the hierarchy. :wink:

Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 2:49 pm
by black-radish
Hey guys! Thanks for all the help!

The bone hierarchy is right, I'm pretty sure of it. Followed around 3 tutorials on that and I've been carefull putting them in the right order etc.

And during the quickstart tutorial I imported 'frank', are you saying he is supposed to curl up like a dried leaf when you move him? because I checked some youtube video's and he was moving pretty normally there.. :(

When I start Anime Studio's it always opens with a random figure, and the character moves great! So it's really something I'm doing wrong!

I'm reading the stuff about binding now, it's hard but luckily I'm patient! When I use the tutorial images the bones work fine! (the images move as they supposed to)
But when I draw things myself the image curls up, and acts weird.

I think I just need to practice some more to get the hang of it :) I do think the binding thing is the problem

Thanks for all the help!