Project Updates - Where Have I Been and What Am I Doing?

TET all dressed for the
Peanuts Movie.

It's been almost a month since I last posted in this blog largely due to a family matter that involved travelling back to Western Australia from South Australia to actually be with my family over there. Rest assured I haven't forgotten about this blog and things are still happening on my projects.

JAC Cat
CrazyTalk Animator 2
"I just do eyes..."

Last time I updated you on this character I was drawing hands...so many hands... it's one of the things Reallusion don't actually make clear in their advertising that their character templates are much more involved than drawing seven character views.

Even less obvious is all the work that goes into giving the character a wide variety of facial expressions and the ability to lip sync. After finishing the hands I'm now creating eyes... so many eyes... I feel like that bio-engineer from the movie Blade Runner that says "Eyes, I just do eyes."

Replacing the Dummy Template Eyes with Cats Eyes in five view angles.

Fortunately the eyes are a little less complex than hands so I'm hoping it won't take quite so long. Unfortunately, after that I have to do the nose and the mouth. Thank goodness cats don't have eyebrows because I'd have them to do too.

Hoot Game Creating

The game staring TheseStars' Hoot the Owl is still progressing slowly. As I mentioned last update I've been stuck on the player control system for Hoot for several weeks (more) now. Yesterday, I finally had a break through after rebuilding the control system from scratch using the most promising techniques I've been experimenting with.

Screen Shot of the demo level I've been using to work out Hoot's control system.
That pink box will be Hoot in the finished game.

Turns out building it from scratch instead of trying to plug someone else's code into what I had done so far did just the trick. My control system for the game feels very simple but allows Hoot to really move around and interact within the game levels. I'm sure it's going to be very addictive and hopefully I'll be able to show a proper example of the game real soon.

Still Learning, Learning, Learning...

Last update I was learning Silo 2 so I could create 3D characters for Reallusion's iClone. Well I went through multiple video tutorials and even paid for a Silo course with Digital Tutors (now known as PluralSight) that was excellent. I was all ready to get started after watching some of the best, creating models over several weeks, except I forgot all the basics...F**K! Now I'll have to do a quick refresher before I can really doing anything.

I did have a rough go at importing something from Silo into iClone via 3DXchange and it seems like it's possible. Just need to work out how to use 3DXchange correctly now.

I've also been trying to learn Anime Studio Pro 11 and not gotten much further than the introductory basics. Largely because the tutorials I'm following are the ones that come with the software as a PDF file.

I know SmithMicro have many great video tutorials on their channel but the playlists are confusing and don't seem to be in any kind of progressive order of learning. I could buy their video training course but this is made up of videos already freely available on their YouTube channel. I refuse to pay nearly US$50.00 just to have the tutorials, maybe, sorted into some kind of logical order.

That's about it for the moment. I'm hoping to add a new animated project to the mix now that I finished my iClone, Animation 4 Business promotional video but I've yet to decide what. Hopefully one of my own projects this time.

Anyway, now you're all caught up. I hope to get back to weekly posts to this blog starting from now.

Comments

Eight 2D Animation Apps For Your Phone or Tablet Mobile Device

M obile productivity apps have become so capable that they can be great alternatives to their PC/MAC equivalents or serve as great tools in their own right when you're away from your desk. While some apps simply mimic their desktop counterparts, others offer well thought out, touch-friendly interfaces that are easier and more fun to use. Every so often I check out what's available for 2D animation for Android devices, since that's what I use, that can complement my workflow with Reallusion's Cartoon Animator 5. Some may be available for Apple devices as well. Below I've listed six free (F) apps (with optional paid (P) upgrades) on the Google Play Store that you might want to explore. Some are just fun apps on their own while others may be useful as part of your workflow on bigger animation projects. Not all are exclusively animation apps and could be used on any production. JotterPad (F/P) The name JotterPad makes this sound like a notepad application but it's ...

The Family Guy Method - Animating Talking Hand Gestures in Cartoon Animator

Once you start getting into character animation you learn pretty quickly that people don't just speak with their mouths. Hand gestures and movements play a pretty important part of how people communicate too. The problem is, animating hand gestures and movements is extremely time consuming... and who knows what gestures and movements should be used and when? In Reallusion's Cartoon Animator I use pre-animated talking character motions that I chop and move gestures around so the arm and hand movements 'feel' right based on my own understanding of body language (and I also act out dialogue to get a sense of what arm and hand movements I might make with what's being spoken). Recently I came across a video by the creator of Culpamland Extra , an online animated series, in which they briefly outlined how they animate talking using the Family Guy Method. I'd never heard of this, and if you try to search for it online you'll be hard pressed to find anything. So I...

Review: Animaker - 10X Better than other Online Animation Video Making software (#DIY)... or is it?

Animaker's bold claim, right on its homepage is that it's 10X Better than other Online Animation Video Making software (#DIY). Also featured on their homepage is a cool promotional video that's dynamic, full of charming lip synced characters, with high quality animation that matches perfectly to the story being told. If I could make anything even half as good with their studio, I'll at least buy that they're better than most of their competitors. Let's see if they live up to their tagline 'Animated Videos, Done Right!' Animaker is a flash based, cloud animation studio application that gives you access to an entire library of thousands of characters, props, backgrounds, sounds and more, to create almost any kind of 2D animated video. In fact they make the bold claim that theirs is the largest animated library in the world of any similar online application (it's not... or if it actually is, it's not as versatile as other comparable librari...

Moho 14 Released - Still the Best 2D Animation Software for Indy Animators on a Budget

Moho 14 Released. Regular readers know I am a Reallusion, Cartoon Animator advocate through and through. Hands down I would recommend Cartoon Animator 5 first over Lost Marble's Moho 14 to anyone who is just starting in 2D animation, is a team of one, or just needs to animate as quickly as possible. However, feature for feature, Moho is, arguably, the best 2D animation software for the rest of us who can't justify a Toon Boom Harmony , or Adobe Creative Cloud subscription (and even with their applications Moho is very competitive on features). You can get started with Moho Debut for just USD$59.99 which is a cut down version of Moho Pro but it still has the most essential features needed for 2D animation. While Moho Pro is a whopping USD$399.99 (Cartoon Animator, which only has one version, is just USD$149.00) upgrades to new version numbers come down to a quarter of the price at USD$99.00. Even though Reallusion just released features like Motion Pilot Puppet Animation and...

Review: Headshot Plugin for Reallusion's Character Creator 3

Headshot for CC3. Quite possibly the best 3D Avatar I've made of myself in any 3D application. Creating a realistic 3D human avatar is a whole lot easier with Reallusion's new Headshot Plugin for Character Creator 3. The plugin is an AI powered extension that can generate 3D digital humans from one photo. Which sounds like an amazing proposition but, in practice, if you're trying to achieve a specific likeness to an actual person, Headshot will give you an excellent base to work from. Headshot has two modes, Auto and Pro. Auto Mode Auto is well worth a try if you have an ideal photo of a front facing person that is properly lit and posed to Headshot's optimum requirements. It's also the only mode that will take a crack at generating a hair model. I grabbed an image of Harrison Ford, dragged it into Headshot without changing any of the default settings (other than specifying 'male' and selecting an 'old male' setting) and this is what I...

Inochi2D - Free Open Source 2D VTuber Avatar Rigging and Puppeteering Software (Part 2 - Inochi2D Session)

In part one of my deep dive into the free VTuber software, Inochi2D , I focused mainly on Inochi2D Creator, which is used for rigging your character avatar in the correct file format for use with Inochi2D Session, the puppeteering part of the software. The two sides of the software are still very much in development and the documentation, particularly for Session, is very thin on the ground. To the point where I don't think I could even do a comprehensive tutorial because I'm not sure I'm even doing things right, and the software could change significantly in a single update. As a result, in this part of my Inochi2D deep dive I'm changing tact from presenting my finished Cartoon Animator TET Avatar, and will be summarizing my experience of getting Session up and running using OpenSeeFace as the recommended webcam motion capture software. To do this I will be using the TET avatar I created in my review of Mannequin , since that can be exported as a full, ready to go r...

Inochi2D - Free Open Source 2D VTuber Avatar Rigging and Puppeteering Software (Part 1)

Inochi2D Creator - Free Open Source VTuber Software. If you've been looking for a way to live perform as a 2D cartoon avatar on camera, whether it be for a live stream or for pre-recorded content like educational videos, then VTuber software is a low cost (or even no cost) option worth looking into. In my previous post, How to Become a VTuber - 2D and 3D Software for Creating and Controlling Your Avatar , I took a brief look at the relatively new but completely free and open source Inochi2D which I thought showed great potential for my own needs of creating a live performance character rig for my own TET Avatar that I use for all my promotional materials. While it is possible to live perform my character using Cartoon Animator itself, Reallusion's MotionLive2D capture system isn't great - with lip sync in particular. More importantly though, I can't exactly teach people how to use Cartoon Animator if I'm using Cartoon Animator to control my Avatar. What is Inochi2D...

Animation and Video Life

Search This Blog