Create Better Flash Animation

Mouth positions seem to be a point of difficulty for some, even with the great lip-synch feature in Toon Boom Studio, Animate, and Animate Pro.

I use a technique that is not described in any of the instruction manuals that works almost every time. At most, I only need to do minor modifications to Toon Boom’s lip-synch analyzing.

Refer to your Toon Boom manual for doing a lip-synch. All of the programs: Studio, Animate, and Animate Pro will work with this technique.

Once you have followed the directions, you are usually left with a lip pattern that resembles this in your X-Sheet window:

This assumes, you have created a mouth position for X,A,B,C,D,E,F, and G.

This will create a satisfactory lip-synch, but look at this closer. Three, Four and even more frames have the character talking, BUT THE LIPS ARE NOT MOVING! Let’s fix this!

Go one step further. Create mouth positions for BB,CC,DD,EE,FF, and GG. In other words, create extra mouths that are very similar.

BB’s mouth is very close to B.
CC’s mouth is very close to C.
DD’s mouth is very close to D…. and so on.

Now, when you look at your X-Sheet view and you see many frames with the same letters, alternate your single letters with double letters.

Instead of B-B-B-B-B-B-B- frames in a row, make it B-BB-B-BB-B-BB-B-BB. This way, there is more movement in every frame. Your X-sheet should now look like:

Here is how I draw my mouths for a relatively happy face:

Here is a demo of the difference.
In this particular instance, I was not extremely impressed with the improvement, but in other animations, the improvement is striking. This is for 15 frames per second animation.

When the frame rate is bumped up to 24 frames per second, the lips seem to almost move too fast and have a weird vibration to them. Thus, I stick to 15 frames per second for most of my animation.

Every project has surprises and “learning moments.” The latest project: About a minute of animation and a target date of two weeks from the moment I agreed.

Two weeks to create a one minute animation?! Okay, that’s insane. I also have a day job that eats up most my life.

I used cut-out animation in Animate Pro to create what are essentially movable puppets.

Puppet design is critical. Adding unexpected parts to each puppet will help a lot: Knees and elbows.

Okay, here’s the finished animation. It’s definitely NOT Disney. But, it was two weeks from start to finish while also being a doctor full-time…. I think it turned out okay….

BACK TO SQUARE 2

I have made some big changes in my system, and it necessitated re-scanning all my drawings. But that’s okay.

The big change here is that I now have the capability of scanning full-size animation drawings. Standard animation paper is 10 ½ x 12 ½ inches (26.7 x 31.8 cm), and until recently, a scanner that would copy larger than legal size was thousands of dollars. Then a comic book artist friend told me about the Mustek scanner, which retails for $160 or less. Check it out! (Mustek Scan Express A3 1200 Pro USB Large Format Scanner)

Thus I can now do away with my awkward system of registration crosses and align the scans by their peg holes. The ability to do this automatically I have still not mastered, despite some excellent help from Toon Boom technical support, but we are working on it. In the meantime, you can see that the output for my pencil test looks a lot different and, I think , a lot clearer. I used settings that automatically filled the figures with grey. Not perfect, as some open areas got filled and some areas intended to be solid were left open, but it is certainly good enough for pencil test purposes.

ABOUT THE ANIMATION

If you compare this video with the one from my Blog Entry No. 3, you will see that fully seventy percent of the drawings have been filled in. This scene is difficult in that it is all in pantomime, with no dialog to help with timing. (It is an unspoken secret among animators that dialog actually can be easier to do than pantomime for that very reason; recorded dialog is full of timing suggestions, and a good voice actor can make an animator look very good in that regard!)

Here we have a sturdy farm couple. The man is displaying to his wife the things he has brought back from market: first a live goose (yet to be animated), then a bag of seed corn, and finally a special surprise which he has concealed under his hat.

So far it seems to be working well. I will be adding some blinks and a couple of follow-through actions not seen here, as when the farmer steps back from handing off the goose and his arm swings to a stop: I think it would be better to let it swing to a more natural stop after his body has come to rest.

NEXT TIME

Look for complete animation of the main characters, and possibly the goose will be animated as well. After that there will be a closeup sequence involving What Happens When the Farmer’s Wife Looks Too Closely at What Was Under Her Husband’s Hat.

Then I think we’ll take this whole sequence to final color and add all bells and whistles.

Watch for it!!

Storyboard Pro from Toon Boom is designed to plan animated movies and pitch ideas. It is a wonderful tool.

On the other hand, I love using this software to create my weekly newspaper cartoon. Nothing else matches Storyboard’s ease of use.

Newspaper cartoons demand limited space, limited palettes (or just black and white in my case), and concise delivery of a punch line or idea. What looks good initially is often horrible or incomprehensible when reviewed as a “second look.” Changes almost always must be made. Time is limited. Space dimensions are very tight.

Toon Boom’s Storyboard allows me to quickly create cartoons within the often difficult restrictions of a print newspaper.

In the practice of medicine, there is something called “off label use.”

This happens when doctors use drugs for disorders that are not included in the approved indications for a drug.

Well, my use of Storyboard is also a bit “off label,” but it is perfect for the task!

Wow! There is an incredible article in today’s Washington Post Newspaper!

It’s a huge spread featuring Charlotte Rinderknecht, President and Executive Producer of Studio Kinate, LLC.
 
I had the opportunity to meet with her at a Toon Boom “Animate for Less” event in Washington, D.C. this past October. She wants to build a state-of-the-art film studio in Northern Virginia. She is incredibly motivated.

Check out her story at the Washington Post link below. It’s fascinating reading with pictures and video.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/15/AR2010011503044.html

I used to think “cut-out” animation was cheating.  Since Animate Pro came out, I’ve become a big believer in such a system. 

 I’m working on an animation for a British medical company.   I decided to use a cut-out technique.  We’ll see how it goes.

 Here are the characters in exploded cut-out view.

Here they are in assembled form.

Wish me luck.

Email: info@toonboom.com and steve@drmussey.com

The ideal combination for Toon Boom products is at least a moderately powerful desktop and a Wacom brand tablet.

Sometimes, however, you find yourself needing to animate in places where this bulky setup is simply not possible. Enter: The Tablet PC!

My job has allowed me to use and test many brands of Tablet PC’s over the years.

Do I hesitate to issue advice on using a Tablet PC with Toon Boom software? Well….yes. …But I still love the combination!

Tablet PC’s are amazing, but can be a bit of a headache when running traditional artist programs. This includes both Toon Boom and Adobe products. “Out of the box” they can be a bit of a challenge. On the other hand, once you have a tuned and working combination, it makes a great animation tool. Let me give you some tips.

First: What is a Tablet PC?

In my job as a physician, I use a Tablet PC nonstop throughout the day. It is amazing how many patients say, “Cool! What’s that? I’ve never seen that before? Is that a Mac?”

Unfortunately, as of this writing, Tablet PC’s are not Macs, though many of us keep hoping a Mac Tablet will soon appear.

Tablet PC’s are actually a Microsoft development that was introduced in late 2002.

Bill Gates thought all laptops would soon be tablets. A special operating system was developed called Windows XP Tablet, which was Windows XP Pro with a Tablet interface added. The platform was plagued by high prices, underpowered hardware, and near total absence in physical stores. Nobody could even try them out. Only online purchases were possible.

Eight years later, the platform continues to exist, but is still a niche product.

Many universities, particularly engineering schools, are making tablets mandatory. Pen and notebooks are being replaced by tablet PC’s in the math and science lecture halls. Standard laptops are of limited usefulness when working with equations and diagrams.

Unfortunately, the arrival of “touch” to Windows 7 has spiked interest, but has also made the definition of a Tablet PC more confusing. Is a Tablet PC little more than an interface you can swish around with your fingers or is it something you use like a pen and pad of paper?

The real value of a Tablet PC is when it is used like an advanced pad and paper.

When combined with Toon Boom, the real power of animation software can be unleashed.

Why is a Tablet PC good for animation?

It is portable. You can animate anywhere. Sometimes I do my best work when I am on vacation. You can carry a whole animation studio anywhere!

Can there be problems with a Tablet PC for animation in Toon Boom? Unfortunately, yes. There are some potential glitches (okay, make that “near total deal killers”) in using a Tablet PC centered animation interface, so read carefully:

1.Processors and Graphics for Tablets tend to be on the lower powered side.

2.Anything other than a Wacom Tablet based digitizer will cause trouble. Sometimes, tablet manufacturers are not clear about their digitizers.  Specifically, anything that says “HP Touch,” “passive digitizer” and current Dell Tablets can be a problem because they do not use Wacom digitizers. Look for key words “wacom” and “active touch.” If you cannot find them, run away!

3.Drivers for the Wacom Tablet do not come pre-installed, even when the digitizer is Wacom based. It is easy to install these drivers and you want to do this immediately to take advantage of pressure sensitivity. Visit www.wacom.com for the Tablet PC drivers.

If you want to use a Tablet PC with Toon Boom, you should follow these rules and hints:

1.Again, make sure the tablet has a Wacom brand digitizer. Another brand of digitizer has hit the market and it does not play well with Toon Boom’s software. The same is true with Adobe products.

2.Immediately upgrade your Intel Graphics drivers. Some computers tend to “protect you” by preventing this upgrade, but it is not too tough to get around this issue. Go to the Intel site and look up the chipset and download the driver. This is very important and will eliminate issues of crashing when you run the software. You may need to enlist your local computer geek to help you do this.

3.Let me reiterate, using the base video drivers will likely cause repeated crashes when you animate. Update the drivers and the problem resolves.

4.Be sure to check out eBay for used machines. The price premium on Tablet PC’s remains fairly outrageous. Machines from two or three years ago, however, are still excellent and are only a fraction of their original cost.

5.Key words to look for in a Tablet PC: “Active Digitizer” and “Wacom.”

6.Key words to AVOID in a Tablet PC: “Passive Digitizer”

Let us cut through this and name some specific machines:

Fujitsu is a Tablet PC maker that has been creating Tablet interfaced machines for many years. Their quality is superb. Their top models are the LifeBook T4410, T4310, T2020 and T5010. If you are looking on eBay: look for a LifeBook T4220 (which I use), and the T4210. Amazing prices can be found on eBay for the T4210, which is a decent machine. Virginia Tech’s School of Engineering specifically advises Fujitsu Tablets for its students.

HP-Compaq have a mixed bag of tablets. There are only two that I would advise, both of which are now only on eBay: the 2710p and the 2730p. These two machines are from the “business line” of HP machines, so they tend to be better built. I picked up a 2710p on eBay for $700 in June and I love it. It runs all Toon Boom products well. Beware of the “touch” series from HP because they do not use the Wacom tablet interface and you will not get pressure sensitivity in Toon Boom, Photoshop, or others.

Lenovo has a great line of tablets. The X200 is the current line and they are excellent. On eBay, look for the X60 and the X61. We have two X61’s and they are excellent. The X41 is also great, but is probably showing its age. You can pick one up for less than $300 on eBay and I would grab one of these over a NetBook anyday!

Toshiba has been slacking off a bit from their tablets. The current model is the M750. The M700 was a bit of a reliability disappointment after their strong m200 and m400. The m200 is on eBay for less than $300 and sports an ultra high resolution screen, making it ideal for animation. I bought one of these new and then picked up two from eBay last year and they are very reliable and durable. Speed in Animate and Animate Pro may be an issue, though. The M750 is also advised for Virginia Tech’s School of Engineering students.

Gateway no longer makes tablets, but you may find one of their older models on eBay. The value of the Gateways is in their higher powered graphics, even though they are now a few years old.

The Motion Computing line of machines are all “Slates,” meaning the keyboard is separate. Many artists swear by these. My own concern has been they tend to be a bit underpowered and very expensive.

That pretty much sums up the line of Tablet PC’s that I can say are usable. I have neglected Acer simply because I have no experience with this line. They appear to make capable tablets, too. I specifically do not advise the Dell line because their models use a non-Wacom digitizer.

Again, eBay is an amazing resource for affordable tablets. Specifically, the Fujitsu line seems to have the greatest eBay deals.

Ideally, the perfect animation platform is Toon Boom, a fast PC or Mac, and a Cintiq Tablet. However, an affordable portable and decent alternative is an eBay Tablet PC with Toon Boom.

By the way, I keep saying “eBay,” but I have also had great success with Google’s shopping feature.

One final note, beware of viruses. About a third of the machines I have picked up on eBay have been highly infested by very nasty viruses. Create back up disks, scan your machine, and maybe consider a Windows 7 upgrade disk purchase before you use it.

I love Tablet PC’s. I would take an older Tablet PC over a newer conventional laptop any day! When we were on the road at CES and I needed to crank out some animations, the only tool was a Tablet PC and Animate Pro. It did the job!

Now, go have FUN!

How fast can you create a new animation?

Can you create a regular animation for websites on an everyday or every other day basis, using one animator?

Yes, some artists have done this, but it is really difficult and often the animation is quite crude.

Can it look like some time may have been invested in the project? In other words, can you create something that looks like it took far longer than it really took you to create? In other words, “more for less?”

This past week, I traveled to CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas. Everyone is doing their own version of reporting and I wanted to add something unique to the website we were involved in creating for our regional newspaper at fredericksburg.com

The tool: Toon Boom Animate Pro and a Tablet PC

The result is at: www.fredericksburg.com/it/ces

Twenty-four hours prior to the show, I spent about five hours on a desktop with a Cintiq creating characters, backgrounds, and cameras for the animation. Toon Boom’s products allow you to create a library or template of characters

We spent ten hours a day reviewing the show and then dashed back to our hotel to add to the site. That meant only a few hours were available to animate. I used an older Fujitsu T4220 tablet PC for the work, which did the job, though I could have used a little extra horsepower. The animations were created by ONE person, me, and I was still able to get more than enough sleep.

The videos were uploaded to YouTube to allow access from multiple sites.

All of the major Toon Boom products: Animate Pro, Animate, and Studio allow the use of templates for character creation and rapid quality animation.