This is a try to combine frame-by-frame with cutout animation.
I used a switch node for each back leg on the puppy.
lørdag 27. september 2008
fredag 26. september 2008
Stickman Time Line
Four tips about the time line in Stickman:
1. The size of the gray scrollbar controls the time line length.
2. Double-click below the numbers in the time line to add key frame.
3. The red round button controls the time line offset.
4. Turn on Edit->Preview: Time Line when working with long animations.
1. The size of the gray scrollbar controls the time line length.
2. Double-click below the numbers in the time line to add key frame.
3. The red round button controls the time line offset.
4. Turn on Edit->Preview: Time Line when working with long animations.
torsdag 25. september 2008
Mountain Overview
In this simple drawing I combined strokes from Photoshop with coloring in Stickman.
onsdag 24. september 2008
Traditional vs Cutout Animation
I have loved Disney movies since I was a kid, especially 'The Lion King'.
It looks so living without being real.
But how much work is it to create it?
Let's say, one person can animate 3 seconds of smooth 24 frames per second every week. To create 5 minutes, you need to work almost 2 years! Yikes!
Cutout is a technique to reduce work in the animation process. Instead of drawing every frame, the pieces are moved from frame to frame or animated with key frames like in Stickman. It's limited but effective.
Many of software packages try to bridge the gap between traditional and cutout animation. They hope to get the best out of both worlds. Stickman is very untraditional. For example, the 'Create Figure' editor (good old Elemento) are more like a programming tool than a graphics designer.
Programming is a way of controlling the relationship or logic between elements. In 'Create Figure' you can add skeleton and program attributes with expressions. It's exciting to see how a sketch drawing becomes a figure.
So, with programming, it is possible to fake some of the effects created with traditional animation. For example, squeeze & stretch, eye control and skeleton. I don't say cutout animation is better than traditional animation, but it is more effective. Cutout and traditional need to be considered as two different and separate genrees of animation.
If you work with traditional animation, your time and your skills is your limit. In cutout, you don't need drawing skills that much, but storyboard planning is more important.
Storyboard is like a comic strip of your movie. It helps the animator and director to cooperate. One scene can be very easy or very hard to animate, depending on how it is planned in the storyboard. The important thing is that the director and animator agree about how the movie will look at the end.
It looks so living without being real.
But how much work is it to create it?
Let's say, one person can animate 3 seconds of smooth 24 frames per second every week. To create 5 minutes, you need to work almost 2 years! Yikes!
Cutout is a technique to reduce work in the animation process. Instead of drawing every frame, the pieces are moved from frame to frame or animated with key frames like in Stickman. It's limited but effective.
Many of software packages try to bridge the gap between traditional and cutout animation. They hope to get the best out of both worlds. Stickman is very untraditional. For example, the 'Create Figure' editor (good old Elemento) are more like a programming tool than a graphics designer.
Programming is a way of controlling the relationship or logic between elements. In 'Create Figure' you can add skeleton and program attributes with expressions. It's exciting to see how a sketch drawing becomes a figure.
So, with programming, it is possible to fake some of the effects created with traditional animation. For example, squeeze & stretch, eye control and skeleton. I don't say cutout animation is better than traditional animation, but it is more effective. Cutout and traditional need to be considered as two different and separate genrees of animation.
If you work with traditional animation, your time and your skills is your limit. In cutout, you don't need drawing skills that much, but storyboard planning is more important.
Storyboard is like a comic strip of your movie. It helps the animator and director to cooperate. One scene can be very easy or very hard to animate, depending on how it is planned in the storyboard. The important thing is that the director and animator agree about how the movie will look at the end.
tirsdag 23. september 2008
Gida
I want to create a funny, simple character that looks like taken a child drawing.
I've named it 'Gida'.
For the head and boy, I created a curve element. I used the 'freehand' mode to draw the shape. For the legs and arms, I used opencurve.
I used 'deform' nodes for the arms and legs.
No bones except for the head. That makes it more difficult to animate, but gives more control for stretch and squeeze.
Here are the control points:
I've named it 'Gida'.
For the head and boy, I created a curve element. I used the 'freehand' mode to draw the shape. For the legs and arms, I used opencurve.
I used 'deform' nodes for the arms and legs.
No bones except for the head. That makes it more difficult to animate, but gives more control for stretch and squeeze.
Here are the control points:
mandag 22. september 2008
Animate a Thinking Character
This article will tell you the secrets of good animation.
Good animation have more common with theatre than drawing or painting.
It depends mostly on how the character acts.
Take a look at these two pictures:
Can you tell me what the cowboy is doing in the first picture?
Can you tell me what the cowboy is doing in the second picture?
I can't tell you what the cowboy is supposed to do in the first picture. It just looks unnatural.
In the second picture, it's clear that the cowboy is tired (or sneezing). Maybe he's going to bed.
This is the difference between a thinking character and a controlled robot. Your job as an animator is the create the illusion of live. Make the character behave like it's thinking and acting on it's own.
The goal of animation is to make the publicum forget that what they are watching is animated.
Good animation have more common with theatre than drawing or painting.
It depends mostly on how the character acts.
Take a look at these two pictures:
Can you tell me what the cowboy is doing in the first picture?
Can you tell me what the cowboy is doing in the second picture?
I can't tell you what the cowboy is supposed to do in the first picture. It just looks unnatural.
In the second picture, it's clear that the cowboy is tired (or sneezing). Maybe he's going to bed.
This is the difference between a thinking character and a controlled robot. Your job as an animator is the create the illusion of live. Make the character behave like it's thinking and acting on it's own.
The goal of animation is to make the publicum forget that what they are watching is animated.
søndag 21. september 2008
Turn Wheel
Yeat another frame-by-frame drawed animation.
This was for testing semi-transparent black pixels copied from Photoshop.
For some reason, Windows does not copy semi-transparent pixels to the clipboard (or is it Adobe Photoshop's fault?). Therefore, I created a new algorithm that filters out non-grayscale colors and sets the alpha by blackness value.
This was for testing semi-transparent black pixels copied from Photoshop.
For some reason, Windows does not copy semi-transparent pixels to the clipboard (or is it Adobe Photoshop's fault?). Therefore, I created a new algorithm that filters out non-grayscale colors and sets the alpha by blackness value.
Abonner på:
Innlegg (Atom)
