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By shadowkross - 12 Years Ago
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Hello, Team!
I thought I'd share my experience in building an actor for CrazyTalk Animator 2. I put this character together with Illustrator. I'm not sure how to complete the process after porting it to Flash (including the part on adding the pivots and patches). Here is a turn-around, and parts break-down.
I'm not sure about the scale of the character's body, so I'd like to ask for some input on what is thought of these alternate scales. I mean, with the original scale, the Head is wider than the shoulders, so I think that posing will be limited.
So, team, what do you guys think? Is this a good design?
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By shadowkross - 12 Years Ago
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I constructed the above digital puppet with this template I created. It's not complete, but it has enough to build off of.
Also, I build this template puppet for a male actor.
What do you think of these as a foundation for building an entire cast of characters?
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By planetstardragon - 12 Years Ago
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very nice work!! :w00t:
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By erikh2000 - 12 Years Ago
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Wow, very cool. I hope you get it working in a character and post a video later.
-Erik
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By shadowkross - 12 Years Ago
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Thanks Planetstardragon and Erikh2000! I built these puppets with Illustrator. I know they can be transferred to Flash, but I haven't figured out some of the subtle details on rigging them for import into CrazyTalk Animator 2.
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By shadowkross - 12 Years Ago
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I used the Template Female Puppet to build another character.
I also drew her dressed in an anime staple, the sailor fuku school uniform (both summer and winter versions).
What do you think, team?
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By etourist - 12 Years Ago
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Some very nice characters. Since you asked about the proportions I would say the original version is my preference. The others feel like the legs are starting to be too long.
If you have the pipeline version of CTA2 then I would imagine using the DrawPlus White paper as a guide for how to set up your characters in AI would be the way to go - as I imagine DrawPlus and AI would be similar in how they handle Flash Illustrations/exports.
If you don't have the Pipeline version then you won't have the dedicated button for importing a character template which means you'll have to go through the process of exporting each body part individually as a flash file then re-constructing your character piece by piece in the CTA2 character composer.
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By shadowkross - 12 Years Ago
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Thanks for your input, Etourist! The legs are a little long, in some of the other models! XD I didn't even notice that, I was focusing mostly on the shoulders.
I was a bit unsure about creating my own characters, because the models had a bit of different proportions, and the established pivots couldn't work with my design.
I do have the pipeline version of CrazyTalk 2 Animator, so I can eventually do a mass import. I haven't even thought of looking into the Drawplus white paper (even though I have that software), so I'll study up on it.
BTW, Etourist, I looked at your webpage; you have a lot of great material! I'm so happy to receive advice from an expert like you! :)
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By shadowkross - 12 Years Ago
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Have you ever wondered how nuanced and subtle the position of the eyebrows are in the expressions of animated characters are? I didn't, until I started drawing them. Check it out.
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By shadowkross - 12 Years Ago
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I know I should be building additional assets to improve the utility of the puppet (like mouth, eye, and hand shapes), but I have a stack of designs for costumes that I really want to finish.
I have learned, that one of the hardest parts, conceptually, of character design is the waist pivot connecting the lower and upper torso. It's even mentioned in the white papers that special care needs to be taken when drawing these parts because of the "torso-twist." Because of this, many of my puppets 90/270 degree profile view upper torso looks a little too "flared-out" Oh, well. It was the solution I was able to find, but I'm also still learning.
She's not a real nurse; she just likes to play dress-up. ;)
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By etourist - 12 Years Ago
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shadowkross (4/27/2014)
Thanks for your input, Etourist! The legs are a little long, in some of the other models! XD I didn't even notice that, I was focusing mostly on the shoulders.
I was a bit unsure about creating my own characters, because the models had a bit of different proportions, and the established pivots couldn't work with my design.
I do have the pipeline version of CrazyTalk 2 Animator, so I can eventually do a mass import. I haven't even thought of looking into the Drawplus white paper (even though I have that software), so I'll study up on it.
BTW, Etourist, I looked at your webpage; you have a lot of great material! I'm so happy to receive advice from an expert like you! :)
Thanks... I'm hardly an expert on CTA2 but I like your confidence in me :)
I think a mistake a lot of people seem to be making about CTA2 character design is that they think the bone structure is locked into one type of character (tall and thin). Not so. Whilst you can't break the bone structure apart you can stretch, move and resize it all over the place. You don't even need to have sprites for every bone (or make blank sprites to fill in for the lack of a sprite you don't need.). In your specific case, set up the pivot points to suit your character, don't try to make the character fit the pivot points.
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By shadowkross - 12 Years Ago
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etourist (4/29/2014)
Thanks... I'm hardly an expert on CTA2 but I like your confidence in me :)
I think a mistake a lot of people seem to be making about CTA2 character design is that they think the bone structure is locked into one type of character (tall and thin). Not so. Whilst you can't break the bone structure apart you can stretch, move and resize it all over the place. You don't even need to have sprites for every bone (or make blank sprites to fill in for the lack of a sprite you don't need.). In your specific case, set up the pivot points to suit your character, don't try to make the character fit the pivot points.
Thanks again, Etourist! Although, I'm not 100% sure on how to do that part yet, I'm sure you pointed me in the right direction to figure it out! I'm just so excited about making my own animations! XD
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By shadowkross - 12 Years Ago
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So here's another character to add to the pile. I created him from my male template. He's a major nerd, but he's passionate about what he loves. He's also the main character for the cartoon I plan on making.
I also drew him wearing a Gakuran School uniform.
And a variant with out the jacket.
So team, do you like him?
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By shadowkross - 12 Years Ago
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He's also an incurable fanboy, subscribing to many fandoms, including...
His parents worry about him. ;)
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By etourist - 12 Years Ago
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I love your enthusiasm but with so many characters I would suggest making a start at getting at least one up and running in CTA2. No matter which way you go at it, it's a lengthy and some-what tedious task.
Since all your characters have basically the same proportions it may be easier to do the first with a full imported template and then use that character in CTA as a base to just swap out all the sprites for each new character. The more characters you create that aren't already in the correct template format the more work you're going to have to do renaming layers etc. to what CTA needs.
At the very least get the correct template set up in AI before making too many more characters and start working on that. It'll save you a lot of tedious work later.
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By AverageJoe - 12 Years Ago
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I agree with etourist. Your enthusiasm is to be commended for sure, but I would suggest importing one of them into CTA2 and see how that works out for you before you spend too much time creating these templates, only to learn you'd have to re-do them due to some odd idiosyncrasy with actually getting them into CTA2 in a usable fashion.
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By shadowkross - 12 Years Ago
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Okay, it's been a while since my last update. During the last month or so, I re-drew my character designs (I made the shoulders a bit wider), and tried to improve the art a bit.
I set up my puppet rig in flash, and exported into Crazytalk Animator 2 Pipeline. Here is the video of my walk-cycle using my dummy-puppet.
I realize that some of the joints looks slightly out of alignment, but I can fix that. I just wanted the few people that have been following my progress to know that I'm still working on this project!
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By Peter (RL) - 12 Years Ago
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Excellent work Shadowkross. Please keep us updated as you proceed. :)
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By shadowkross - 12 Years Ago
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I rigged a female template character, and did a test animation of a walk-cycle.
I used Toontitan's "Puppet Producer" Flash Add-on to help with the tedious task of labeling, and it really reduced the time to complete it (2 days compared to the 10 days I spent on my original digital dummy). He also helped me out with a lot of my own mistakes in the rigging process; I couldn't have gotten a working puppet without his trouble shooting.
Layering still remains an issue, and I tried using the masking system, but I'm not sure how to make them helpful. I think I may have to go back and look at those tutorials. If I find I have a fundamental flaw (that the masks can't compensate for) in the basic design in the art assets, I may have to go back to the drawing board. :(
Oh, well, I still made more progress using Crazytalk Animate 2 (pipeline), and learned more about both Flash and Illustrator in the process. That's good, right?
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By Ibis Fernandez - 12 Years Ago
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Thank you for the kind words shadowkross. You're doing a great job on these characters. I loved the walk cycle. I like how she moves very feminine and girly-like. It suits her perfectly.
In terms of the joint masks there's no need to go back to the drawing board. It's really just a combination between the layering of the pieces and placement and size of the masks themselves.
I made you another quick video, using the same template left over from the troubleshoot ;)
Hope it helps.
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By shadowkross - 12 Years Ago
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Once again ToonTitan, you really helped me! Thank you so much! ^_^ I devoted so much time to learning both Illustrator and Flash, that I hadn't given much practice to the actual animation software! Silly me!
I followed your instructions, and I resolved the layering issues, and managed to figure out most of my problems with the masks. Honestly, I think the small a mount of clipping I'm getting in the linked animation (specifically angle 315)is fixed with some adjustments in the run-time composer, but at first I thought I had messed up again (I'm still not sure).
It would be nicer if the rabbit ears could be animated. ;)
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By shadowkross - 12 Years Ago
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Building on everything I learned so far, I rigged this male template puppet with surprisingly fewer problems.
I'm a little perplexed by the poke-though with the upper thigh and waist on every angle. I tried to fix it both in the character composer (with the layering and masks), and the run-time composer.
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By shadowkross - 12 Years Ago
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I Built my two dummy puppets just to prove to myself that I could transfer what I had into an animation (even if it is only something as simple as a walk-cycle. It was a fun and educational experiment! But those dummies were incomplete; I still need to draw eye, mouth, and hand shapes for them, so I'm going back to basics.
I just completed the first draft of line work for all 11 of the hand shapes.
I had to redraw my hand assets because much of the original art I had wasn't really intended for the simplified art-style I'm currently using. These hands are much more "cartoony."
EDIT
Oh yeah, if you're curious, this is my original hand art.
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By Erin C. Diana - 12 Years Ago
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Awesome! I like your creativity. Hope you will share a video version soon. Good luck. :)
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By InfoCentral - 12 Years Ago
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shadowkross (7/1/2014)
I just completed the first draft of line work for all 11 of the hand shapes.
Very nice work!
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By TGL - 12 Years Ago
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shadowkross (7/1/2014)
I Built my two dummy puppets just to prove to myself that I could transfer what I had into an animation (even if it is only something as simple as a walk-cycle. It was a fun and educational experiment! But those dummies were incomplete; I still need to draw eye, mouth, and hand shapes for them, so I'm going back to basics.
I just completed the first draft of line work for all 11 of the hand shapes.
I had to redraw my hand assets because much of the original art I had wasn't really intended for the simplified art-style I'm currently using. These hands are much more "cartoony."
EDIT
Oh yeah, if you're curious, this is my original hand art.
FANTASTIC WORK!!!
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By shadowkross - 12 Years Ago
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After building those hand assets, I wanted to try building a puppet with more "realistic" proportions. I am using my new hands in this dummy. What do you think? Should I detail it?
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By RicksWorks - 12 Years Ago
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ABSOLUTELY! And then add these characters to the Marketplace for us to buy and use!
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By shadowkross - 12 Years Ago
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I modified my existing male dummy template, and I made a dwarf. I had a bit of trouble making a long-beard dwarf, so he has a neatly trimmed short beard.
Pretty cool, eh?
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By Ibis Fernandez - 12 Years Ago
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very nice! I love it.
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By TGL - 12 Years Ago
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:cool:
I think you should sell him to us :D - in vector format - as a template to work with :)
I'm not so keen on the dummy that we got with pipeline...even as is, he does not work properly when installing his template even without any changes.
I sure hope someone (YOU) makes a good dummy template that we can buy! :)
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By thefidler - 12 Years Ago
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The character looks great. Seems like you are on a roll. Creating new characters faster and faster.
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By shadowkross - 11 Years Ago
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It's been a long time since I posted on this thread, but life gets in the way. I'm back, and I've been working on my re-scaled female model.
I struggled with working on the mouth shapes, so if anyone else did, I'd like to post my 0-angle of what I made, as a reference.
What do you guys think?
I've been away form the message boards for a while. Have we resolved an issue with making long hair, and can we use the the bunny-ears yet?
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By shadowkross - 11 Years Ago
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Hey team! Here is a complete re-scaled female character i created based off my new female template.
I can't wait to dress her up. What do you think of her?
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By Oflexboy - 11 Years Ago
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@shadowkross
Nice one you have here...:D
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