Rigging Characters with Outlines
The question how to rig characters with outlines has popped up multiple times.
This is an indicator that there is a lot of interest in the topic and not enough information available from other sources.
At times there were even some voices suggesting that, because our sample rigs don’t have outlines, SMR as a system cannot be used to design and animate characters with outlines.
This should be enough to justify the existence of a short dedicated article.
In the world of digital cutouts outlines make life more difficult and complicate everything. This is why a large part of the character designs (and rigs) don’t have any outlines at all, or only have partial in the facial area, hands, feet and some wrinkles here and there.
Ultimately, it is an artistic and stylistic choice.
Read more...
The question how to rig characters with outlines has popped up multiple times.
This is an indicator that there is a lot of interest in the topic and not enough information available from other sources.
At times there were even some voices suggesting that, because our sample rigs don’t have outlines, SMR as a system cannot be used to design and animate characters with outlines.
This should be enough to justify the existence of a short dedicated article.
In the world of digital cutouts outlines make life more difficult and complicate everything. This is why a large part of the character designs (and rigs) don’t have any outlines at all, or only have partial in the facial area, hands, feet and some wrinkles here and there.
Ultimately, it is an artistic and stylistic choice.
Read more...
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🔥 Smart Magnet Rigs make life EXCITING! 🔥
💖 Advanced color management with Symbol Palette Control
Symbol Palette Control is an interactive panel which allows users to create multiple color palettes associated with a Symbol and then switch between these palettes.
Color palettes can be copied (cloned), modified with color effects, reorganized, saved as files or loaded from a saved file.
Palettes can also be optimized, by unifying the color of similar swatches, thus reducing the overall number of colors.
Color swatches can be modified individually, grouped, regrouped or excluded from color swapping.
Read more...
Symbol Palette Control is an interactive panel which allows users to create multiple color palettes associated with a Symbol and then switch between these palettes.
Color palettes can be copied (cloned), modified with color effects, reorganized, saved as files or loaded from a saved file.
Palettes can also be optimized, by unifying the color of similar swatches, thus reducing the overall number of colors.
Color swatches can be modified individually, grouped, regrouped or excluded from color swapping.
Read more...
Element Welder covers all situations where Soft Rotation with KineFlex is undesirable.
🔥🎬🔥 Watch on YouTube...
🔥🎬🔥 Watch on YouTube...
Rigging longer skirts
The traditional Flash approach to animating a longer skirt would be to nest its animation inside a Graphic Symbol, and run this symbol in sync with the character timeline, matching each keyframe of the character animation with an internal keyframe. Usually the skirt would be shape tweened inside the symbol. Each keyframe should match the positions of the thighs at character level.
Smart Magnet Rigs, however, are so flexible that they provide an effective alternative.
A simple setup of four elements allows dynamic and interactive posing, where the skirt is mostly animated at character level, and the body poses are automatically matched.
Read more...
The traditional Flash approach to animating a longer skirt would be to nest its animation inside a Graphic Symbol, and run this symbol in sync with the character timeline, matching each keyframe of the character animation with an internal keyframe. Usually the skirt would be shape tweened inside the symbol. Each keyframe should match the positions of the thighs at character level.
Smart Magnet Rigs, however, are so flexible that they provide an effective alternative.
A simple setup of four elements allows dynamic and interactive posing, where the skirt is mostly animated at character level, and the body poses are automatically matched.
Read more...
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💖 Next Or Previous Frame In Symbol are everyone's favorite commands.
Now, as of v.6, with the Ctrl modifier you can also directly create a keyframe as you go a frame up.
Read more...
Now, as of v.6, with the Ctrl modifier you can also directly create a keyframe as you go a frame up.
Read more...
EDAPT Rabbit is an organic-looking character, with functional joints, based on overlapping circles.
A fully functional Smart Magnet Rig, EDAPT Rabbit is suitable for testing KineFlex, Smart Transform, Smart Magnet Joint, Clean Up, Smart Graphic Control, Symbol Palette Control and all other features and tools in the EDAPT package.
🔥 Download the rig...
A fully functional Smart Magnet Rig, EDAPT Rabbit is suitable for testing KineFlex, Smart Transform, Smart Magnet Joint, Clean Up, Smart Graphic Control, Symbol Palette Control and all other features and tools in the EDAPT package.
🔥 Download the rig...
💖 Smart Magnet Rigs are like nothing else
The duality of SMR, where elements can be moved and modified freely as just any bunch of random instances on the Stage, but also can maintain a hierarchy and respond to high-precision FK/IK tools, opens endless possibilities for posing.
This, combined with the magnet functionality and element welding, gives infinite flexibility to riggers and animators to create structures which perfectly serve their goals, without constraining them.
🔥🎬🔥 Watch on YouTube...
The duality of SMR, where elements can be moved and modified freely as just any bunch of random instances on the Stage, but also can maintain a hierarchy and respond to high-precision FK/IK tools, opens endless possibilities for posing.
This, combined with the magnet functionality and element welding, gives infinite flexibility to riggers and animators to create structures which perfectly serve their goals, without constraining them.
🔥🎬🔥 Watch on YouTube...
Interview with Nickolay Tilcheff
Nick's interview for the Adobe blog was finally published on our website.
The conversation revolves mostly around EDAP Tools, our motivation to start the project and our use of Flash/Animate as a professional tool of choice, but he also touches upon some topics about his early interest in cartoons, how Vlad and Nick met and the history of the first incarnation of Electric Dog back in the twentieth century.
Read the interview...
Nick's interview for the Adobe blog was finally published on our website.
The conversation revolves mostly around EDAP Tools, our motivation to start the project and our use of Flash/Animate as a professional tool of choice, but he also touches upon some topics about his early interest in cartoons, how Vlad and Nick met and the history of the first incarnation of Electric Dog back in the twentieth century.
Read the interview...
Analog Look with Digital Cutouts
There are basically two approaches which can be taken to simulate the analog look:
Real paper cutouts
If all body parts are drawn on paper, cut with scissors, scanned and imported into Flash, this will give a look that is as close to the real medium as possible.
Vector shapes with bitmap fills
Another option for getting analog textured look in Flash is to use bitmap fills. These can be applied both to vector shapes and strokes. They have a matrix and can be scaled, rotated and moved around. They can also be swapped very easily.
Read more...
There are basically two approaches which can be taken to simulate the analog look:
Real paper cutouts
If all body parts are drawn on paper, cut with scissors, scanned and imported into Flash, this will give a look that is as close to the real medium as possible.
Vector shapes with bitmap fills
Another option for getting analog textured look in Flash is to use bitmap fills. These can be applied both to vector shapes and strokes. They have a matrix and can be scaled, rotated and moved around. They can also be swapped very easily.
Read more...
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💖 Comprehensive Magnet Snapping
Magnet Snapping has been a defining feature of Smart Magnet Rigs since the inception of our system in 2012.
The elements were ‘smart’, because they knew where their place in the hierarchy was and the joints were ‘magnetic’, because they could reassemble at the press of a button.
Initially there was only one kind of Magnet Snapping, where a child element would snap to its parent.
But as the SMR system was maturing, many other types of Magnet Snapping were introduced to cover all possible situations that we could think of.
Now there are so many variations, that Magnet Snapping deserves a special article which can serve as a quick reference.
It is possible that even long-term EDAP Tools users are unfamiliar with all the options and thus are not taking full advantage of the snapping possibilities.
🔥🎬🔥 Watch on YouTube...
Magnet Snapping has been a defining feature of Smart Magnet Rigs since the inception of our system in 2012.
The elements were ‘smart’, because they knew where their place in the hierarchy was and the joints were ‘magnetic’, because they could reassemble at the press of a button.
Initially there was only one kind of Magnet Snapping, where a child element would snap to its parent.
But as the SMR system was maturing, many other types of Magnet Snapping were introduced to cover all possible situations that we could think of.
Now there are so many variations, that Magnet Snapping deserves a special article which can serve as a quick reference.
It is possible that even long-term EDAP Tools users are unfamiliar with all the options and thus are not taking full advantage of the snapping possibilities.
🔥🎬🔥 Watch on YouTube...