Tuesday Musings - Software Fun!
As I mentioned last week, I've been looking for a new animation program to fill in some of the gaps in technique. I don't want to go true 3D or very realistic - always want that bit of a fantasy angle. After seeing "The Curious Child" by Howard Vause at Detroit Shetown Festival in September and reading about it in Cartoon Brew, I became intrigued with the software he used, wondering if it might fit the bill. I contacted Howard and he graciously answered my many questions concerning Reallusion's Cartoon Animator 4. I then downloaded the trial version and played around with it for a week or so...then I bought it! It seems to be almost exactly what I was looking for. I was able to make a small demo film in three weeks time, playing with an idea I had of making my main character an actual drawing and everyone else in the film a silhouette. This is actually a concept for a possible future web series ("The Butterfly Mantra"). I barely scraped the surface of the software's capabilities, but was pleased by what I found. Having done animation before helped, of course, but the tutorials and folks on the forum were also extremely helpful. I even entered the little film in a contest hosted by the company!
The interface is fairly familiar to animators:
...but the possibilities are very intriguing! Lip synch (which I also tweaked a fair bit), facial expressions, etc. were fun to play with. Creating and setting up the various alternate facial features allowed for a lot of facial flexibility:
Another really useful feature is the ability to edit parts of a character on the fly in an external editor, then update in CTA4; saves SO much time!
Layering of assets in a pseudo-3D space allows for parallax and the impression of moving through a 3D space. I am presently playing with those possibilities, creating a short scene for an episode in season 2 of "22 Bones", in which the characters are exploring an ancient temple where the Rats may discover their Origins! The three shots below give a bit of an idea of what I'm talking about...you can zoom right in and "look" into the room at the end of the hall, as you pass under the lanterns overhead...or seem to!
If this little scene works (I have a character with a torch walking down the corridor in planning), I may enter it as well.
Like I said - tip of the iceberg; I'm looking forward to fun-filled winter of playing with the software!!!!
******
No updates this week, except that the Second Season of "22 Bones" is well underway!
The interface is fairly familiar to animators:
...but the possibilities are very intriguing! Lip synch (which I also tweaked a fair bit), facial expressions, etc. were fun to play with. Creating and setting up the various alternate facial features allowed for a lot of facial flexibility:
Another really useful feature is the ability to edit parts of a character on the fly in an external editor, then update in CTA4; saves SO much time!
Layering of assets in a pseudo-3D space allows for parallax and the impression of moving through a 3D space. I am presently playing with those possibilities, creating a short scene for an episode in season 2 of "22 Bones", in which the characters are exploring an ancient temple where the Rats may discover their Origins! The three shots below give a bit of an idea of what I'm talking about...you can zoom right in and "look" into the room at the end of the hall, as you pass under the lanterns overhead...or seem to!
If this little scene works (I have a character with a torch walking down the corridor in planning), I may enter it as well.
Like I said - tip of the iceberg; I'm looking forward to fun-filled winter of playing with the software!!!!
******
No updates this week, except that the Second Season of "22 Bones" is well underway!
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