AuthorTopic: Puppet/Modular Animation: how when and why?  (Read 44874 times)

Offline Mr. Fahrenheit

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Re: Puppet/Modular Animation: how when and why?

Reply #30 on: February 25, 2014, 09:43:26 pm
Its on the humble bundle right now if you want to get it!

Offline Conzeit

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Re: Puppet/Modular Animation: how when and why?

Reply #31 on: February 26, 2014, 06:34:00 pm
What kind of tweening methods do these guys use that I don't know about???
I'm pretty sure it's just mesh deformation plus image blending between frames.
from just looking at it a lot I'd say yes, mesh deformation but he also makes some elements simply fade in and out of visibility.( in the gif I posted Look at the lit fold on his crotch that disappears).
Frameblending is right, but I suspect he uses popular AE plugins for faking slowmotion, on a quick google search I got "twixtor" but I bet just going to AE helpsites or asking someone who actually does motion graphics like Tim (wink wink nudge ) can give much more precise tips on what would be most effective.
When asked Syosan is pretty vague, he just says he uses photoshop and it's better for animation than people think if you buy the full thing. I think he also mentions other adobe products
« Last Edit: February 26, 2014, 06:38:15 pm by Conceit »

Offline astraldata

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Re: Puppet/Modular Animation: how when and why?

Reply #32 on: February 27, 2014, 10:43:25 pm
I'd like to know how he uses After Effects to create animations like that (and preview them). I'm pretty sure the image-blending techniques he uses are common, but I've not found a tool on the market that lets you do that without a whole lot of tedium. He does mention he uses other tools alongside photoshop -- part of me wonders if this is some kind of in-house software or plugin for After Effects similar to Spriter...

And yeah, I also wonder if Tim has any ideas on this type of animation. I'm pretty sure this guy makes some use of the "puppet" feature in After Effects at least.
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Offline tim

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Re: Puppet/Modular Animation: how when and why?

Reply #33 on: February 28, 2014, 01:23:52 am
And yeah, I also wonder if Tim has any ideas on this type of animation. I'm pretty sure this guy makes some use of the "puppet" feature in After Effects at least.

AFTER EFFECTS

Game example : Night in the wood (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1307515311/night-in-the-woods)

I know After Effects really well - if not perfectly.
Frankly, the rendering doesn't smell After Effects at all.
I'm still not sure how they made the subtle, beautiful specular lighting on the torso.
Definitely not a frameblending effect given how clean & crisp it looks.

With puppets tools you can use any bitmap & texture and rotate & distort them.
The result can be REALLY awesome.

• The most simple look
https://vimeo.com/82803560

• Complex rigging :
https://vimeo.com/20889371
https://vimeo.com/29643579

• Hardcore rigging  :

(don't even imagine doing that without several years of experience)

• The result :








FLASH

Game example : The Banner Saga (https://vimeo.com/84151111)

So I would say Flash might be the culprit, because of how clean it looks.
Tweening is fairly easy in Flash considering it's all vector.

One of the king is David Besnier to me :

His header is really funny
http://davidbesnier.blogspot.fr/

Here is an awesome interactive piece too :
http://davedonut.deviantart.com/art/Outside-414990460

You can see a more complex piece livestreamed with his incredible workflow here :
http://www.livestream.com/donutshow/video?clipId=pla_5e8029bf-8734-4171-bb87-ee2d9083fbd1&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb

I definitely think this is the best way to make this kind of clean animation.
You can then import your animations into After Effects to composite them in a real environnement with some lighting :


His showreel is definitely worthwile : https://vimeo.com/86098147






PHOTOSHOP


You can also animate frame by frame in Photoshop by duplicating frames / redrawing only needed parts.
Example video in a small company I work for here in Paris :

As usual, the drawings are imported in After Effects for improvements (motion blur, lighting, tinting, etc…)
« Last Edit: February 28, 2014, 02:43:35 am by tim »
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Offline Conzeit

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Re: Puppet/Modular Animation: how when and why?

Reply #34 on: February 28, 2014, 11:44:57 pm
I find those links that explain the rigging very useful, thanks Tim

Offline Mathias

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Re: Puppet/Modular Animation: how when and why?

Reply #35 on: July 29, 2014, 03:35:31 pm
Animated using Spine:    (not by me! unfortunately . . .)

 
SOURCE

And they're amazing.

Better than the League of Legend anims done in After Effects because they take place in real-time, during gameplay.
Meshes, bones, etc are exposed to code and can be manipulated at run-time.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2014, 02:57:33 pm by Mathias »

Offline Probo

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Re: Puppet/Modular Animation: how when and why?

Reply #36 on: July 29, 2014, 04:58:41 pm
wow they look great! so spine does some kind of deformation too?

Offline Mathias

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Re: Puppet/Modular Animation: how when and why?

Reply #37 on: July 29, 2014, 05:04:28 pm

Offline Indigo

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Re: Puppet/Modular Animation: how when and why?

Reply #38 on: July 30, 2014, 08:31:59 am
Truly inspiring examples - especially for essentially 1-keyframe animation.  I hope this sort of quality catches on.  Spriter also has mesh deformation by the way, so this should be possible with both tools.

Offline Ellian

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Re: Puppet/Modular Animation: how when and why?

Reply #39 on: July 30, 2014, 12:45:52 pm
Shit Mathias, I just drooled in my soda can.
This looks exactly like Vanilla Software's games.