CREATING MOVEMENT ON SELECTED LEVELS

 

When creating a repetitive movement such as a walk or run cycle, or the motion of an object such as a ship rising and falling with a wave action, it is best to create the cycle of movement in a fixed position and then move the sequence of drawings across the screen as required. A walk cycle of 16 drawings inserted into the dope sheet ten times can be made to move across the screen and out of shot over 160 frames and saves a lot of redrawing or tracing.

Movement of levels within the Tapptoons Animation Studio can move the images up, down, left or right (or North, south, East and West in traditional animation jargon). When you have created your animation, which doesn`t have to be a cycle of course, left-click on the dope sheet on the frame where you wish the movement to start to establish the level you wish to use then go to the Level Action menu ....

Select the Create A Level Move menu option. You will then see the Create Level Moves form, as below.

 

Left click the Select Start Position menu item.

You can move several levels at the same time if the are using exactly the same settings. This is useful if a character is made up of more than one level. The head might be on one level, the body on another and the legs on a third. To move levels simultaneously it is necessary to select the levels using the check boxes shown. If the process was started by clicking on the dope sheet the chosen level will already be checked as shown in the example below in which the bottom animation level has been selected.

Most movements from start position to finish position in animation don`t begin with a sudden jerk. If you`re moving a repeating walk cycle or run cycle from out-of-shot, across the screen and off screen at another point then obviously you don`t need to worry about sudden starts and stops, but if the object or character is in shot when the movement start an/or finishes then it`s often best, unless a deliberate sudden effect is required, to use `Cushioning` to start a move off with a small movement, followed by a slightly larger movement and then continue with a fixed rate of movement until just before the end of the move. The Animation Studio uses a fixed system of thirds to achieve cushioning. The normal rate of move is established at say, 9 pixels per frame but the first frame will only be moved 3 pixels, the second will move 6 pixels and the rest of the move up to the final two frames will move at 9 pixels per frame. The last frame will move 3 pixels and the one just before it will move 6 pixels. This effectively cushions the move in and out and looks much smoother on screen. The Cushion Start and Cushion Stop check boxes must be checked before setting the start and stop positions.

The lowest of the sliders is the frame setting. This will be already positioned if you have chosen a specific frame from the dope sheet, but you can move it as you wish to set your first move start position.

The image can be moved to its start position using the North-south and East-West movement sliders. Images can be moved completely off screen if the character or object needs to enter at the beginning.

When you have selected your initial position click on the Set Start Position button. This will now change its caption to Set Stop Position and you can select the position you wish the movement to finish, again using the sliders and left-click the same button to fix the final position. The button will now be greyed out and you must move the frame slider along one frame by click the extreme right arrow on the frame slider. This will restore the button label to Select Start Position and enable the button for the next start event. More than one move event can be created in this way.

If you want the position of the image to be held in the same place for a given number of frames after the initial level move(s), you must repeat the level move settings as before but without altering the position of the image. In other words, set a level move but without any movement. Otherwise the original scan positions will be used as if no previous level move had been set.

When you have made all the settings you require left click on the Create Level Move > New Event menu item and all the moves will be created.

Back on the Main Scanning and Editing Form you will see that above the levels that you used for creating level moves there is now an `LMv` at the top of the dope sheet column as a reminder of which levels have been modified. When playing back animation from the main form the new level moves will be shown but you can playback the original animation by using the Playback menu at the top of the form.

If you go on to create Snow and Rain Effects for each level the letters at the top of the dope sheet will then read `WFXLMv` to indicate what has been changed. These modified levels will be used in subsequent stages such as Track and Pan processing and Semi-Transparent Level processing as the images used to build a Finished Scene. You will be given the option of using the original scans or the effects versions when the time comes to run those processes.

If you decide to remove the Level Moves completely this can be done from the Main Scanning and Editing form main menu `Remove` which will remove the references on the Dope Sheet and delete all the images created for the Level Move.

 

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