How to animate.

[Dpendleton77]

I know I have probably asked this 100 time but.....how do you animate in Hash? I do a simple animation and it seems like there are a ton of frames added to it and it moves super fast for some reason. Thanks in advance and forgive me.

[fae_alba]

I know I have probably asked this 100 time but.....how do you animate in Hash? I do a simple animation and it seems like there are a ton of frames added to it and it moves super fast for some reason. Thanks in advance and forgive me.

 

Not a silly question at all. For me it all comes down to timing. Say for example you want your character to do something simple, like shrug his shoulders. Think before hand; how long does it take for you to shrug your shoulders? 1 second, half a second? Now, note how many frames per second you have set for your chor. Let's say 24 frames per second. So, your shrug, shoulders up and down, takes 1/2 second (for this example). That means, starting at frame zero, your go to frame 12 (1/2 a second) lift the shoulders, then at 24 frames (1 second) return your shoulders back.

 

Now granted, this is an over simplification, but it should give you an idea.

[Dpendleton77]

Thanks a lot I will try that.

[fae_alba]

Thanks a lot I will try that.

 

I was just going to add that reading the TOAM manual would help you. There is a good discussion on timing.

[largento]

It's often helpful to pick a number of frames (say 5) and do each of your poses on those keyframes. Then you can select them and drag them to adjust the timing.

 

At 24 fps something has to appear in two frames to register with the human eye. So remember that during quick movements. If you were to animate an eye blinking, for example, if the eye was only closed for one frame, the viewer won't see it closed.

 

I have a stopwatch/frame counter app on my iPhone that lets me start and stop and then shows me how many frames have elapsed. I find this very helpful for getting the basic timing of movements.

 

I am by no means a great animator, but what works for me is to think of animation as "move-hold-move-hold." So, if I'm animating the head moving around, I'll animate the head moving to a position over a certain number of frames and then I'll set another key frame down the line, holding that head position. Without the holds, you get floaty animation.

[Dpendleton77]

Thanks for the advice guys I will give it a shot and see what I can do.

[robcat2075]

I would be very curious to see a screen cam of how you are animating because what you describe could be... I don't know.

 

And when you do this screen cam I want to hear your voice narrating what you are doing.

[Dpendleton77]

I would be very curious to see a screen cam of how you are animating because what you describe could be... I don't know.

 

And when you do this screen cam I want to hear your voice narrating what you are doing.

How do I screen cam?

[robcat2075]

Hypercam 2 is free

 

http://www.hyperionics.com/

[largento]

Jeff Lew isn't supporting these things anymore, but it looks like you can still get DVDs of Jeff Lew's Learning 3D Character Animation on Createspace (Amazon's Print-On-Demand company.)

 

Here's a link.

 

These are great DVDs and Lew is using A:M to demonstrate the techniques.

 

Somebody has uploaded about 30 minutes of the first DVD on

. You can watch some of it and get an idea of what they are like.

[itsjustme]

Jeff Lew isn't supporting these things anymore, but it looks like you can still get DVDs of Jeff Lew's Learning 3D Character Animation on Createspace (Amazon's Print-On-Demand company.)

 

Here's a link.

 

These are great DVDs and Lew is using A:M to demonstrate the techniques.

 

Somebody has uploaded about 30 minutes of the first DVD on

. You can watch some of it and get an idea of what they are like.

 

I really liked Jeff Lew's "Animating Power and Weight" tutorials...unfortunately, I can't find them for sale anywhere. Well worth the money I paid...which I think was around $10 each for both parts. The available DVD material was great as well.

[Simon Edmondson]

Thanks for the advice guys I will give it a shot and see what I can do.

 

One of the techniques that the stop frame people use, is to use a stop watch to time themselves doing the action ten times, then divide that total and convert to frames. It won't give you the poses but it will help with the basic timing ?

regards

simon

[Dpendleton77]

Jeff Lew isn't supporting these things anymore, but it looks like you can still get DVDs of Jeff Lew's Learning 3D Character Animation on Createspace (Amazon's Print-On-Demand company.)

 

Here's a link.

 

These are great DVDs and Lew is using A:M to demonstrate the techniques.

 

Somebody has uploaded about 30 minutes of the first DVD on

. You can watch some of it and get an idea of what they are like.

Thanks I just order the first vid. I have seen the youtube vid.

[markw]

Well I think I might pitch in here as well with some suggested viewing.

First I really liked Barry Zundel's videos on Character Animation. Not so much a step by step "how to" but more a running commentary about what he's doing as he goes.

This next one though is an absolute must watch! Its short, at around 17min but very informative and was made by our very own Robcat!

Its called KeyFraming Options and you can find it here on his screen cam tutorials page. (Appropriately its the first video. The sounds a bit low on it so you may want to turn your speakers up!)

http://www.brilliantisland.com/am/amtutorials.htm

[Gerry]

I will absolutely second recommending Barry Zundel's videos. Five bucks each. You can't go wrong!

[Dpendleton77]

I have Barry's vids and I ordered Jeff Lew's.

[Dpendleton77]

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[robcat2075]

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Welcome back!

[Rodney]

Douglas!

 

It's great to have you back.

[Dpendleton77]

I could not resist downloading the new version 18. I am going to start messing around in it after I am finished with some classes.