NT's Animation Wips and Tests

[ntilcheff]

Just in support of the wonderful trend, started by @Ozone and @Tacopug, I thought I'd post something small.

I did this in 2010 and, sadly, it turned out to be the last animation I ever drew on paper. I don't have a lightbox any more, and I don't have any punched sheets. I still keep my 3 pegbars, one of them sealed to the scanner to this day...

This is at 12fps (effectively making it on all on 2s) as it was supposed to be a "Well done" screen animation for some language learning activities and 12fps was what the people who ordered it required.

This was the board:

[ntilcheff]

I cleaned up the scans in Flash 8, smoothing the large gaps between the drawings with semi-transparent linear gradients to simulate dry brush smears. This technique helps with fast action that has to be animated at low frame rates.

And finally added some camera tracking and a simple background.

If I were to do this today, I'd do many things differently; not only the choreography and the dynamics, but the design and stylisation as well. Time can be stretched and squashed more effectively and a hybrid frame-by-frame / cutout approach can deliver better results.

[Tacopug]

This is awesome! I only recently looked into how much acme punched paper costs and it was fairly demoralizing haha.

I've only done traditional paper animation once or twice but it always looks extra 'magical' to me.

I have an old school animation disc sitting at home but it sure looks pretty gathering dust :P

Followed the thread :)

[ntilcheff]

At 5/9/21 08:40 PM, Tacopug wrote: This is awesome! I only recently looked into how much acme punched paper costs and it was fairly demoralizing haha.
I've only done traditional paper animation once or twice but it always looks extra 'magical' to me.

I have an old school animation disc sitting at home but it sure looks pretty gathering dust :P

Thank you!

Yeah, drawing traditional animation on paper is incomparable to the digital replacements.

The simple fact that you do not interact with an interface makes the experience much more satisfying.

And then you have the texture of the paper, the real pencil strokes and the piling sheets that give a sense of achievement, just because of the sheer volume and weight.

I miss these.

I was very reluctant to drop paper completely and clung to it for a very long time, at least while doing design concepts and exploring character variations.

While I was living in Sydney and Melbourne I knew studios where I could go and ask to punch a couple of A4 packs, but since I moved to Hobart that is not an option any more...

I hope one day to be able to have the time and the desire to animate some small project entirely on paper.

[ntilcheff]

A little 'study' I just did with cutouts in Flash CS6, while trying some new tools. It's always better to test while emulating real animation.

The whole thing took about two hours with the existing EDAPT Rabbit rig, without adding any new redraws.

One pose led to another and it ended up as a little pantomime :)

[ntilcheff]

This is not exactly work-in-progress, but just finished this intro-outro sequence for future 'leaks' videos for our second YouTube channel and thought I'd post it here.

Did it over two weekends entirely in Flash CS6, boosted by EDAP Tools.

My initial intention was to do a simpler motion graphics style video, but then realised I could reuse some sequences that I had done previously while testing various tools.

Found a suitable piece of music by the great Kevin MacLeod, cut it to the desired length and then quickly sketched and timed an animatic.

[Tobieshima]

all your animations look so fluid and you should know that

I liked the monkey particularly because of the cool movements

[ntilcheff]

At 3/8/22 01:46 PM, Tobieshima wrote: all your animations look so fluid and you should know that
I liked the monkey particularly because of the cool movements

@Tobieshima

Thank you, Tobieshima!

[Tobieshima]

At 3/8/22 05:49 PM, ntilcheff wrote:

At 3/8/22 01:46 PM, Tobieshima wrote: all your animations look so fluid and you should know that
I liked the monkey particularly because of the cool movements

@Tobieshima

Thank you, Tobieshima!

you're welcome :)

[ntilcheff]

A quick study how to dynamically and interactively rig a midi skirt with SMR in Flash

A question popped up whether there is a way to dynamically rig a skirt in a way that does not require a synced timeline and constant attention to match the position of the thighs.

A quick study shows that there are viable alternatives.

The setup is quite simple and effective: two elements, soft-welded to the thighs, and a mask that defines the hem line.

For more details, keep an eye on the Freshly Flanimated! thread.

[Dolorious]

At 7/3/22 12:08 AM, ntilcheff wrote: A quick study how to dynamically and interactively rig a midi skirt with SMR in Flash

A question popped up whether there is a way to dynamically rig a skirt in a way that does not require a synced timeline and constant attention to match the position of the thighs.

A quick study shows that there are viable alternatives.

The setup is quite simple and effective: two elements, soft-welded to the thighs, and a mask that defines the hem line.

For more details, keep an eye on the Freshly Flanimated! thread.

Can the rigs be redrawn/customized in Flash when needed? I know in Blender grease pencil, once you set up the rig, you can't really edit it much without breaking the rig as far I can tell. But I assume the rigging in Flash is a bit more flexible.

Actually may want to check if blender has that flexibility now...

[ntilcheff]

At 7/4/22 01:45 AM, Dolorious wrote: Can the rigs be redrawn/customized in Flash when needed? I know in Blender grease pencil, once you set up the rig, you can't really edit it much without breaking the rig as far I can tell. But I assume the rigging in Flash is a bit more flexible.
Actually may want to check if blender has that flexibility now...

Yes.

SMR is like nothing else and I call this 'infinite flexibility'.

You can add states/variations inside the individual body part containers, you can change the hierarchy, you can move elements freely as if they are not rigged; you can add elements, or just remove bits - the structure is always open and transparent to the user.

Have a look at this article, esp. if you are familiar with Flash. You may want to get an introduction into Smart Magnet Rigs before that and look into the following pieces on SMR FK / IK.

There is a learning curve, but also a lot of documentation, sample rigs and video tutorials available.

[Dolorious]

At 7/4/22 03:10 AM, ntilcheff wrote:

At 7/4/22 01:45 AM, Dolorious wrote: Can the rigs be redrawn/customized in Flash when needed? I know in Blender grease pencil, once you set up the rig, you can't really edit it much without breaking the rig as far I can tell. But I assume the rigging in Flash is a bit more flexible.
Actually may want to check if blender has that flexibility now...

Yes.
SMR is like nothing else and I call this 'infinite flexibility'.
You can add states/variations inside the individual body part containers, you can change the hierarchy, you can move elements freely as if they are not rigged; you can add elements, or just remove bits - the structure is always open and transparent to the user.
Have a look at this article, esp. if you are familiar with Flash. You may want to get an introduction into Smart Magnet Rigs before that and look into the following pieces on SMR FK / IK.
There is a learning curve, but also a lot of documentation, sample rigs and video tutorials available.

Huh neat

Any performance issues or crashing when setting up the rigs?

[ntilcheff]

At 7/4/22 03:20 AM, Dolorious wrote: Huh neat
Any performance issues or crashing when setting up the rigs?

Animate's general performance is worse than Flash and it affects everything. That is why I still use Flash. But apart from that, the tools are extensively tested and don't have any major issues (as far as I know).

[Dolorious]

At 7/4/22 03:39 AM, ntilcheff wrote:

At 7/4/22 03:20 AM, Dolorious wrote: Huh neat
Any performance issues or crashing when setting up the rigs?

Animate's general performance is worse than Flash and it affects everything. That is why I still use Flash. But apart from that, the tools are extensively tested and don't have any major issues (as far as I know).

Well that's good to know, because I'm using a toaster.

[ntilcheff]

A little design, rigging and animation test I did in Flash CS6, while working on some new features of EDAP Tools.

[Mabelma]

At 2/15/23 06:10 AM, ntilcheff wrote: A little design, rigging and animation test I did in Flash CS6, while working on some new features of EDAP Tools.

This is some really awesome stuff! i love what you're posting on here. The character designs look awesome and the animation is super smooth. Keep up the great work!

[ntilcheff]

At 2/15/23 11:51 AM, Mabelma wrote: This is some really awesome stuff! i love what you're posting on here. The character designs look awesome and the animation is super smooth. Keep up the great work!

Thank you!

[ntilcheff]

Just came across a couple of silly old roughs, done in Flash 8.

[ntilcheff]

And this one, which was a test of combining frame-by-frame and cutouts, again in Flash 8.

[ntilcheff]

This little dance loop, animated in Flash CS6, was used in the Intro/Outro sequence for Freshly Flanimated!

[ntilcheff]

Facial rig test - digital cutouts in Flash CS6.

[ntilcheff]

A technical study how to incorporate masks in SMR to achieve dynamic shadows by using duplicate elements with color effects. Macromedia Flash 8.

[Martyr-Machine]

At 8/10/23 11:42 PM, ntilcheff wrote: A technical study how to incorporate masks in SMR to achieve dynamic shadows by using duplicate elements with color effects. Macromedia Flash 8.

I think it can be emulated in this too!

[ntilcheff]

At 8/11/23 02:05 AM, Martyr-Machine wrote: I think it can be emulated in this too!

The look maybe, but not the process with the IK and the welded elements :)

Flash 8 is the first one that can be properly 'extended'.

[Martyr-Machine]

At 8/11/23 02:12 AM, ntilcheff wrote:

At 8/11/23 02:05 AM, Martyr-Machine wrote: I think it can be emulated in this too!

The look maybe, but not the process with the IK and the welded elements :)

I think the IK part could take a lot more effort, given how old and limited the program is

[ntilcheff]

A 35-element Smart Magnet Rig.

The objective for this test was to design and create a 'heavy' rig to use for stress testing the new high-performing KineFlex in Adobe Animate. Created in AA 23, this will be used to demonstrate how finally KineFlex's performance in Animate is on par with that in Flash.

[ntilcheff]

This is one of my Flash Animation reels - shots from a project finished five years ago, in late 2018. What was great about it was that I not only animated all 'my' episodes, but directed them, did all character design and rigging, and also did the sound design.

Another remarkable thing is that what you see is all accomplished entirely in Flash, without any post. The SWFs look exactly like the video.

Produced in Flash Pro CS6 powered by EDAP Tools. At the time I wrote about my thought process behind its look and feel, if anyone is interested.