This new video provides a general overview of Puppet Producer and it's it's usage.




Ibis Fernandez   |   (available for hire)
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Professional Animator, Filmmaker | Creator of the highest quality (modular) G2 rigs for cartoon animator and developer of Toon Titan and Puppet Producer 
Author of Flash Animation and Cartooning: A Creative Guide
>>> be sure to check out http://toontitan.com for professional grade assets, templates, and custom tools for Cartoon Animator and more.

Hi Ibis nice clear overview..just curious do you create each body part on a new layer..then lock that layer then make a new body part..lock that layer etc etc ?

If you are doing that for each angle on one flash page do you end up with tons of layers? or are you cutting down on the quantity of layers in some way?    John

Im not really using layers. the whole thing is done in a single layer. CTA doesn't really care about the layers, just the instance names of the pieces and the arrangement of the sprites on the zero angle.

In the white paper and in the template they use an insane amount of layers, but Im assuming that just from a more old school approach to flash design. Macromedia (now adobe) always suggested keeping items organized in layers for organizational purposes. And if the items where to be tweened then they should be by themselves on their own layer. It doesn't really apply to this though. i have a feeling the creator of the original G2 flash template was just following the recommended practice. But after testing it really doesn't seem like the layers have any true functional value in terms of how your swf works with CTA.

However if you want to try and keep to the convention as outlined in the whitepaper. the solution is easy.

Just select all the items in your pose after you have rigged your character. Right click the selected object and select "Distribute to layers" from the context menu. This will place every item in its own layer and name each layer according to the item it contains. Once you have that you can arrange and organize the layers any way you want.




Ibis Fernandez   |   (available for hire)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professional Animator, Filmmaker | Creator of the highest quality (modular) G2 rigs for cartoon animator and developer of Toon Titan and Puppet Producer 
Author of Flash Animation and Cartooning: A Creative Guide
>>> be sure to check out http://toontitan.com for professional grade assets, templates, and custom tools for Cartoon Animator and more.

Thanks for the video. So you create a body part, group it create another body part group it etc. I keep  screwing up when I put one body part slightly over another and then adjust it it keeps interfering with the shape underneath..I must be forgetting to group it before adjusting. Glad I don't need all those thousands of layers..phew!

what I have been doing is using one layer for my finished character. As I drop a new part I create a new layer and lock the main layer. On the new layer I draw the new part. When its finished I group the part. Cut it, and use paste in place to paste it against the main layer with all the other parts.


Ibis Fernandez   |   (available for hire)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professional Animator, Filmmaker | Creator of the highest quality (modular) G2 rigs for cartoon animator and developer of Toon Titan and Puppet Producer 
Author of Flash Animation and Cartooning: A Creative Guide
>>> be sure to check out http://toontitan.com for professional grade assets, templates, and custom tools for Cartoon Animator and more.

Brill' I just wanted to make sure the best practice and that sounds great.

Ibis,
I'm working on my custom character and notice there's a new feature in your plugin Puppet Producer. Before I complete my artwork in Flash could you do a quick video demo or explain the workflow or the way to I should design the eyes for my character in Flash. See the attached screen shot.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

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CreativeSoulTV.com • Video Maker • Cartoonist • Geek • Flawed Genius • Blogger • Tech Enthusiast • Apple Fan • Youtuber • Podcaster • Movie Lover! Social: The Creative Journal • CreativeSoulTV • Twitter

Ibis,

I'm getting errors now for some reason using the plugin, any suggestion? I'm converting the image to a movie clip but have no idea what I'm doing wrong, checkout the screen shot and error message in the screen shot.

Thanks!


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CreativeSoulTV.com • Video Maker • Cartoonist • Geek • Flawed Genius • Blogger • Tech Enthusiast • Apple Fan • Youtuber • Podcaster • Movie Lover! Social: The Creative Journal • CreativeSoulTV • Twitter

The only new "feature" i have is the autoconfig button. Where you draw all your base eyes, and click the autoconfig button. It will go through all the eyes and congured them.

Basically you draw for example your eye shape.
Note there's a sort bug in CTA that doesn't like pupils that are horizontally flipped.
1. So when creating eyes, you can duplicate your eye symbol, but before configuring it. Break it apart and then convert it to the new eye symbol. That way you have a completely new eye sprite that is not being horizontally flipped.

2. You then go into edit in place mode and add the required frames. And draw the corresponding eye for each frame. For speed and efficiency purposes, i don't recommend configuring each eye expression as you go. Instead just draw each frame and once you are done, just press the auto config button. This will config all your expressions in one go.

3. The final steap is to go back to frame one of that eye. The first eye, and double-click to edit in place. Here you will need to do the following.
a. Copy the eye shape and paste in place on a new layer. You now have two copies of the same eye.
b. Hide the top layer so you can see the eye on the bottom layer.
c. select your pupil/iris and copy it to a new layer between the two eye layers.
d. on the eye drawing on the bottom layer delete the pupil and and fill in the hole that is left behind with a color that matches the white of your characters eye.
e. select the top layer/frame and press the "Eye socket Button"
f. select the middle layer/frame and press the "Pupil" button.
g. select the bottom layer/frame and press the "Eye Base" button.
h. now that all three items are configured, click the top layer and set it as a Mask layer.
i. You can now exit Edit in place mode. and that eye expression will be fully configured.
j. double-click outside ONE Time to go back to the main eye symbol, got to the next frame and repeat the steps until all your eyes and the articulating pupil.




Ibis Fernandez   |   (available for hire)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professional Animator, Filmmaker | Creator of the highest quality (modular) G2 rigs for cartoon animator and developer of Toon Titan and Puppet Producer 
Author of Flash Animation and Cartooning: A Creative Guide
>>> be sure to check out http://toontitan.com for professional grade assets, templates, and custom tools for Cartoon Animator and more.

what are you doing when that error occurs? Try closing Puppet Producer, then exiting flash. then restart flash, and then launch Puppet Producer again... see if it continues. Let me know so I can try and replicate it. based on the errors it seems like flash doesn't have the document in focus for some reason so it detecting no properties.




Ibis Fernandez   |   (available for hire)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professional Animator, Filmmaker | Creator of the highest quality (modular) G2 rigs for cartoon animator and developer of Toon Titan and Puppet Producer 
Author of Flash Animation and Cartooning: A Creative Guide
>>> be sure to check out http://toontitan.com for professional grade assets, templates, and custom tools for Cartoon Animator and more.