I have an idea for a Tween based animation style that also uses morphs and motion paths as well as 64 angles of every body part (which are all connected with hinges) in conjunction with rotoscoping. It's all planned out in my head but the problem is I need a really good action script programmer to help pull it off.
I have a feeling that this method could really revolutionise animation and cut the amount of time needed to make it by loads. It would also mean that you could create more detailed characters than is possible in normal frame by frame animation but you could still achieve the same fluidity.
Some of the head positions are wrong in this chart of head angles below but the basic idea is to create all the main angles for every body part and use a mask to show just one of those body part angles at a time. Then the chart could be moved around. To prevent stutter morphs could be used between each body part position (this means every block of colour used to create the asset would have to be drawn on a separate layer) Here's an experiment where I used lots of morph layers.
So the idea is. You would create a key position with the characters body parts independently positioned (but connected by the hinge points) so the character is in a pose, then you'd create another key position with all the body parts in another position and Action Script. As the character moves during the in-betweens Action Script would be needed to move each body part's sheet one notch at a time to gradually change the angle of the body part. (again) Morphed in-betweens would be used to smooth out this transition.
I did a very basic test to prove that these morphs work well if the body part is kept in the same place within a graphic or movie clip and then that movie clip is moved along.
This just uses 3 key body positions with all the body sections separated and morphed independently and then moved within a graphic using a Tween and a motion path.
I feel like this is quite hard to explain. There's a bit more to it than what I've gone in to so far but I might have to write up a blog post going into this with more depth with drawn examples. Anyway. I'd like to work with a programmer to make this method a reality. I'd do all the drawings. I can see this being turned into a new workflow for animators that might be built into some kind of software or an extension for Flash or something.
