Some Gecko Scenes

[Little Yamori]

Well I'm still working on finishing up this next animation, It's been over a year since I started and it's up to a little over 6 minutes and 102 independent animated segments, and here's where I'm having an issue. After I render a segment in AS, I import it into Windows Live Movie Maker (probably not the best choice, but it's been working thus far) where I "sew" everything together, but here's where suggestions would be appreciated. There are "blocks" of segments of the overall animation that I need a certain piece of music to run in the background, so I've been putting those blocks of animated segments into Movie Maker, rendering it with the piece of music, and then sticking that rendered block back into the whole animation as a new completed part of the story, but I've noticed that I'm losing some resolution when I do this even though I'm processing it in the Highest resolution. I have the segment below with the Rusted Pepper Can, and the "Black Pepper" is pretty clear in this render, (I haven't uploaded the more blurry comparison yet) but it loses its clarity (almost pixelating) when I add it to my block of animation with the music.

[3deeguy]

Little Yamori, you are amazing. I'm still looking to seeing your finished project! With your version of AS you may have to use an external editor.
I am working on a tutorial for electronics beginners. I'm animating a simple schematic. I will avoid the problem of degraded resolution by not using an external editor. Re-rendering in an external editor has always degraded my animations. For this project I will put the scenes in folders and list the folders in the order that I use them. There is no character animation so I've been able to save all the animations as Smartbone actions. I will even use SB's to control visibility as I go down the folder list. I've been able to keep the timeline relatively free of keys this way.
If someone knows how to maintain resolution I'll take advantage of it. Keep us updated!

[Little Yamori]

Thanks 3deeguy, I'll have to start experimenting with that concept, so if I'm understanding you right, you have completed segments of animation in ordered folders within a single AS file, then do you use the sequencer to have them appear in order?

LY

[3deeguy]

Little Yamori, I don't think a clear timeline is possible with character animations. What I'm doing differently is, first, I'm following Greenlaw's advice to write out the script before I start drawing. Second, I started to put my layers and folders in sequential order which simplifies things. Third, I put my layers in group or bone folders and use smartbones to control visibility. It seems to work for me.
I won't know if it actually works until I animate a character but I am making some progress.

[Danimal]

That character is really cute and the animation is well done. I hope you find the solution to the odd pixelation.

[Little Yamori]

3deeguy, thanks for the breakdown, I'll give it a try with a couple of animated characters and see if it works.

by Danimal » Tue Sep 23, 2014 12:01 pm

That character is really cute and the animation is well done. I hope you find the solution to the odd pixelation.

Thanks Danimal, actually this character's name is...."Little Yamori" , "Yamori" is Japanese for "gecko", I keep telling myself 6 more weeks to finish, but I keep blowing the deadline, I've made some progress and the light at the end of the tunnel is visible. I'm looking forward to posting it.

LY

[3deeguy]

Little Yamori, I did not notice a problem with resolution. In fact The curtain has an obvious terrycloth texture and the letters on the pepper container are clear. I also watched it several times full screen. Looks great to me.
In the first scene the character turns a wheel that raises a 3D pepper container revealing a solar stove. I've always liked your camera work and artwork. It looks like it's going to be really good.

[Little Yamori]

3deeguy, thanks for the encouragement.

The curtain is a paper napkin I took a photo of and applied bones to, so it bends a little weird, the Pepper can is all vector from AS, so that's why it came out clear in this version, but after I added it into my subsection of other scenes with music and "re-rendered" it as a whole chunk (not posted here though) the "Black Pepper" text is much less visible, it's minor in the overall scheme of things, but I'm looking ahead to avoid it happening with other solutions down the line.

I think camera work is often underutilized, but it lends a film quality to scenes that I never get tired of. I really enjoy this AS feature, and look forward to a "z" axis in 10 Pro.

LY

[lwaxana]

This is so adorable! Looking forward to seeing the completed piece. For your video editing, are you saying that you are rendering from AS into movie maker then rendering it from movie maker to create a block that you put back into movie maker and render a third time?

[Little Yamori]

This is so adorable! Looking forward to seeing the completed piece. For your video editing, are you saying that you are rendering from AS into movie maker then rendering it from movie maker to create a block that you put back into movie maker and render a third time?

Thanks Iwaxana,

You got it exactly, I'm rendering 3 times by the time the finished animation is done, I know there has to be a better way because I'm losing resolution with each render, but at the same time, I need those blocks to have specific music, so I'm sort of stuck when it comes to figuring a way out of it with the software I have. Movie Maker only allows 1 music track so that's why I have it in blocks to be put back in for the 3rd and final render, the only thing I can think of to avoid this, is using my sound software to do a long, perfectly timed track, with all the music for the entire animation synchronized so it can be that "1" track, that would allow me to avoid the "blocks of animation" with their individual music, this would reduced the rendering to only twice.

Argh

LY

[lwaxana]

I'm not familiar with movie maker but I think most video editing software should have a function to create groups of clips and audio and then you can sequence those groups/blocks within the editing software. Maybe try multi selecting the things you want to group and then right click to see what options you get on the contextual menu?

[lwaxana]

Oh sorry now I see the part about movie maker only allowing one audio track. Doh! Maybe different editing software.

[3deeguy]

Iwaxana, good eye! Little Yamori, I use WavePad sound editor for my audio tracks. I don't know if you can import multiple audio files into one project but it's a free download and worth a try. I'm sure you can find tutorials online. If Wavepad doesn't do the job I'll try again.

http://download.cnet.com/WavePad-Sound- ... 76212.html

[Little Yamori]

3deeguy thanks for that link.

I have adobe soundbooth which can edit multiple wav tracks into one, which is where I may end up, it's just that the animation is going to be about 8 minutes long, so if I remove the twice rendered group blocks of scenes (with their own music scores), and replace them with individual single rendered scenes, I'll have to perfectly time the entire 8 plus animation soundtrack with a single wav audio file to put into Windows Movie Maker. I guess that's just where the chips are going to fall until I get some new video editing software that can handle multiple sound tracks to lay over video, which I hope will be much easier to synch to portions of the animation rather than one track to cover everything from start to finish.

Thanks a million to everyone for the suggestions

LY

[ruscular3d]

I like this one, nice vibrant color! action from the geckgo! I'll be back I need to geckoing my lunch!