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Kelleytoons
Forum Admin
6491 Posts |
 Posted - 08/26/2012 : 8:03:01 PM
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Folks,
I happened across the Cartoon Smart website, where they have a TON of video tutorials. Nearly all of them are on Flash (there are a few Toon Boom as well) but I had just read an animation book on Flash and there were techniques that were similar to AS so I thought I'd take a chance. For $15 getting Cartoon Heads seemed a no-brainer.
I'm really glad I did. While it's *very* Flash specific (he goes into a lot of detail on the controls in Flash) the basic techniques are certainly transferable into AS. As a matter of fact, I followed along his video by doing the same thing, more or less, in AS (of course, with my own lack of talent style). I was pleased with the results:
There were several things I really liked about the lesson, including watching the way some folks work (which was really different from the way I have been working, but has got me decided to change my workflow for content creation). I also was interested in how to match up techniques with Flash tools and methods -- there are things that are a lot easier in AS, and some that are much easier in Flash. Some of what Flash can do can be easily mimicked in AS, some requires a bit of ingenuity, but no matter what it's very informative to look at the way others are drawing.
He has a few other tutorials that interest me and I may end up buying them, but I would at least strongly recommend that any of you interested in improving your own drawing methods consider looking at his stuff (some of you already draw so well it really isn't necessary). It's not so much about talent (that certainly doesn't hurt) but about technique in these videos (trust me -- I have ZERO talent, and if I can draw this image most of you will do FAR better). |
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rocky53204
Silver Member
USA
856 Posts |
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Jaakay
Junior Member
United Kingdom
325 Posts |
Posted - 08/27/2012 : 11:28:03 AM
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I've ordered it too!
I'll let you know how I get on.  |
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Kelleytoons
Forum Admin
6491 Posts |
Posted - 08/27/2012 : 12:06:41 PM
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If either of you run into some issues trying to figure how to mimic some of the Flash stuff let me know -- some of it is obvious, some not so obvious (one advantage we have is shading effects we can apply instead of his highlights -- I just reversed the shadow and made it light).
Looking over his shoulder, as it were, while he drew was fascinating to me. A long time ago I used to use the sculpting technique he basically uses for everything and I kind of gave it up and I'm sorry I did now (one thing he does differently is to always start off with a rectangle -- in the past I used a circle and I think the rectangle works better for a lot of reasons). It's a bit like working with clay, which for my talent (or lack thereof) is a far better workflow.
You'll both miss the lack of Boolean shaping Flash can do -- I have no easy way to mimic this in AS (the scripting may be impossible, but in any case it's way above my pay grade in terms of graphics and math). I faked this mostly by just adding more points and shaping, which is a long way around, or by overlaying shapes (you could also try masking in some cases, but it might be more trouble to set up than it's worth). But you'll love the fact that you won't have to convert layers to fills in order to be able to shape the line (line width to the rescue!) as well as that awkward "convert to symbols" thingee he has to do all the time (one of the advantages of the symbols, though, is that you can have references -- watch how he works with the eyes in this regard. This sort of thing could easily be done in AS with layerscripts, but because I don't know how often I'd ever need it I'm hesitant to build it).
I've decided I'm going to buy at least one more of his tutorials (he has two that interest me -- one on backgrounds, the other on retro style). Even if I just get *one* tip from each of them it will be well worth the money. |
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Kelleytoons
Forum Admin
6491 Posts |
Posted - 08/27/2012 : 12:12:43 PM
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Oh, more more thing -- the thing that immediately struck me about Flash v. AS was that you could easily shape a line by just clicking in the middle and dragging. The analogy in AS, of course, is to add a curved point there and drag, but what that means is that first you are in Translate points (in terms of moving things around) and then you have to go to Add Point (to add the point) and then you go back to Translate points (while you add the point you can certainly drag it around, but anything else you do there will just add another point).
I'd already modded my Translate point tool to adjust curvature by holding down the Ctrl key, so it occurred to me I could mod it again for the Add Point tool. Because Flash (apparently) uses Ctrl to add points, I switched keys and then use the Alt key for curvature. But what this means is that when you have Translate points up and running you can easily add a point by just holding down that alt key and when you release it you are immediately back into translate point mode (and the same is true for adjusting curvature). While I was at it I made the shift key into a create shape shortcut, so I basically have a Swiss Army Points tool now that combines a lot of tools into one. |
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Kelleytoons
Forum Admin
6491 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2012 : 08:51:33 AM
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Here's what I did in Lesson 1 of the Retro series:
Perhaps not as interesting as the cartoon head, but a departure for me as I never use gradients in AS (nor do I attempt to do any shading -- the shading in the cartoon head was a first for me).
It's clear gradients are much more powerful in Flash than AS, but you can do a lot of what Flash does with patience. Again, I followed along as the lesson went, and was able to keep up even if I couldn't *quite* do all he did (it's really easy to change hues in a layer, for example, something which AS doesn't really offer -- I suppose I could have brought up my color adjustment tool to see how close I could get with it but I honestly didn't even think of it at the time). |
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Jaakay
Junior Member
United Kingdom
325 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2012 : 2:40:14 PM
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Hi Mike,
One problem I had was creating the eyeball for the lady tutorial. In AS you can't just cut a piece out of a shape. I tried to create a mask, but I not very good with them so did a bit of a bodge job.
Is there a right way of cutting a piece out of a ready made shape?
Jaakay
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rocky53204
Silver Member
USA
856 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2012 : 3:05:33 PM
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Sharp job there Mike!
My hot tip of the day discovered as I was not satisfied with the way 'crayon' looks. On a whim I tried two layers with the crayon effect, one atop the other... note the difference. As you can see the background color through both of them a third, solid layer behind them is likely needed. Nevertheless, a great, fast way to 'cheat' hair.
Here's a before and after...
This is still a work in progress so critiques will fall on deaf ears. |
Edited by - rocky53204 on 08/30/2012 3:14:10 PM |
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ITAK
New Member
Ukraine
54 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2012 : 4:39:20 PM
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Rocky,
For "cheat_hair_job" you can use Stroke with the same color as Fill and with assigned brush to it. For adjusting a "fuzziness" you can use "Line Width" tool.
Something like this:
P.S. It's not a critique, just an advise :) |
Edited by - ITAK on 08/30/2012 4:39:41 PM |
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Kelleytoons
Forum Admin
6491 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2012 : 4:52:03 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Jaakay
Hi Mike,
One problem I had was creating the eyeball for the lady tutorial. In AS you can't just cut a piece out of a shape. I tried to create a mask, but I not very good with them so did a bit of a bodge job.
Is there a right way of cutting a piece out of a ready made shape?
As I said earlier, the boolean tools in Flash are something we could use but would probably be impossible (or else really really really difficult :>) to program in AS.
You can use a mask -- masking isn't *quite* as easy but gives you all the same advantages (and a few more, since the resultant shape(s) are editable -- kind of a non-destructive boolean process). |
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Funksmaname
Silver Member
660 Posts |
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Kelleytoons
Forum Admin
6491 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2012 : 6:41:50 PM
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What she's talking about is a point in the tutorial where the pupils are created as simple circles and then a pie shaped wedge is cutout by just overlaying a triangle and using boolean subtraction tools in Flash. Fast, quick and easy but no easy way to duplicate this in AS since the cut out piece is not wholly inside the other shape (which is what you are suggesting with something like eyeholes in a face).
I'd love AS to have this feature (boolean subtraction AND addition) but I can't see how it could possibly be programmed in Lua (the math makes my head hurt) so I suspect it would be something that needs to be added in by Mike and Co. to the core. |
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SynthSin75
Administrator
USA
4611 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2012 : 6:58:02 PM
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Funk, I just added this to the Youtube embed FAQ. Youtu.be links will not work for embedding here. I fixed you above video.
-Wes |
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hayasidist
Gold Member
United Kingdom
1352 Posts |
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Kelleytoons
Forum Admin
6491 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2012 : 8:25:50 PM
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You're still missing the point -- having specific tools to do one particular thing isn't the idea. The idea is to understand how to create ANY effect using generalized tools to do it. For example, suppose now I want to create the U.S. Open logo in three seconds:
Look, I love tools as much as the next guy, but we need to stop thinking about specific things and much more general things (because the AS toolbox is already ridiculously cluttered, and menu scripts are incredibly unwieldy). |
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Kelleytoons
Forum Admin
6491 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2012 : 8:30:37 PM
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And, sorry -- don't mean to sound harsh. I appreciate your tools, just like I appreciate a lot of things scripters have contributed. In this particular case, though, we really need AS to have the capability of doing boolean subtraction and addition.
If you've never seen it at work in Flash you have no idea how powerful a drawing tool this can be. It's available in nearly any graphic program, vector or bitmap, out there, so I'm not sure why it can't be in AS (and, as I said, you can do the same things with masking but it isn't nearly as easy and it does lose some abilities, as well as results in much more unwieldy things to deal with). |
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Cartoon Smart Tutorials
