Cut-out on 3D character ?

Hello,

i would like to know if it’s possible to make a cut out on 3d character ?

what exactly do you mean?

In other words to break down the artwork of a character , so breaking the main parts of character to animate. For example the foot, the leg, the head, the arm the hand etc. As we can animate character into an 3D software. To be more clear can we animate a 3D character as a 2D character ? As into animate.
Thank for your answer, Debatoon.

You really are unclear as to what you are asking. Please select one. You want to…

1. Animate a 2D character in Toon Boom Animate and import it into a 3D program.

2. Import a 3D character into Toon Boom Animate and animate it there.



Hi, Zebetoonz

The second option looks at that as in the tutoriel=>

http://beta.toonboom.com/professionals/animating/resources/video-tutorials/cut-out-animation


http://beta.toonboom.com/professionals/animating/resources/video-tutorials/character-breakdown-part1

*But with a 3D character

Debatoon.

You can only animate a 3D object using Animate Pro or have even more control and possibilities in Harmony. See the link on this page for The Ship.

http://beta.toonboom.com/professionals/harmony-hub/resources/templates

I would suggest if you want to animate a 3D character in a 2D environment that you simply use 3D software like Maya, Lightwave, or Blender.

If you have a 3d character, why wouldn’t you animate it in your 3D package?

There is a Maya/harmony pipeline where you can intergrate the renders.

Thank you guys for your answers but my question is different. I would like to know if it’s possible to animate only one part of my 3D object in harmony and not whole object with the transforms tools (as a cut-out animation). I don’t know if i’m clear ? My English is not very good.



Can i import 3D scenes in harmony directly ?


I would like to know if it will be possible to import 3D objects and manipulate them in the harmony software as a cut-out animation.
I would like to know if this software allows for example to make a walk cycle on a 3D character as on a 2D character.



i haven’t maya but i have blender and google sketchup it’s not a problem ?

walk cycle:really hard and not good,i think!
better in 3d

It won’t be possible to import a 3d character and turn it into a cutout unless you are planning to trace over it to make a 2D character.

Harmony is designed to work in a 3D pipeline, not replace it. So animating 3D stuff inside Harmony isn’t the place to do it. You do in your 3D package.

I belive you can import 3d objects from blender but you have to render with plain opengl. Lilly has mentioned at them looking at adding blender but currently the full pipeline only works with Maya.

Thank you for your answers, it is more clear now. it’s a great shame. That would have been a revolutionary advance. It is a great pity that only Maya has a complete answer for the 3D. But it’s already great to use 3D elements.

The difference between harmony and animate is essentially there?

There is a 64 bit version ?

Debatoon.



Agree it is a shame on Maya. Hopefully they can add blender because that will allow some low cost integrations for people (like me) or do minimal things in 3D for which I have no need for high end software.

Harmony also has awesome pencil tool, deformations, bones, particles.

No 64 bit version currently but it has been posted they are working on one.

I might add that Maya is the easiest to learn, it’s like the Photoshop of 3D, though Blender is easy too, in terms of any dumb user can create something quickly. I think the Maya bridge is already great but with 64bit it will be able to take complex moves. It’s better to have Maya the industry standard work really, really well before moving on.

I would add that some users need to know the best way to preserve projects with Maya is to remember to use the Maya render folder hierarchy or else when you come back later you’ll find PSD files have come unattached if the .mb and .osb files have merely been saved to the project folder while the render folder is on another drive perhaps.

Harmony with 64 bit, a camera that can fly through and around, plus an app to install plugins without having to use the terminal will be amazing. I can see 3D gamers using this app.

Oh, I would also suggest that Harmony be optimized to work with the Quadro cards that Maya uses so it can use all of the GPU power. Imagine if it could use all of a Quadro 6000 and all of the cores of the CPU?

I have beeb pulled from my project. So, I’ll not be able to join in the fun but I wish all of you guys luck and look forward to seeing the great work that is bound to come in 2012 and beyond. Working with Harmony since early October 2011 was the best experience of my life. Harmony is great as it is and can only get better. Good luck to all!

Anyway I’ll pop by every now and then.

It’s not possible to do deformations in Harmony, so if you want to animate characters in 3D, then you should use your 3D software package. What the 2D-3D integration in Harmony is useful for is when you want to animate characters in 2D, but integrate 3D elements like vehicles, backgrounds, props.

~Lilly

We are working towards developing support for multiple products, but the pipeline is a complex concept, and each software package that does 3D handles the 3D differently. So whenever we want to add support for other packages, we have to do a significant amount of development. As Maya is the industry standard for animation, we started with that one, and as interest in the feature develops, we will expand our ability to interact with other products.

The 64-bit version is right now in development, and we expect to be able to release that product this year. So stay tuned for that!

~Lilly

As an update to this thread, since the last time I responded to it, Harmony 10 was released. Harmony 10 allows the import of FBX objects, which opens the door to use other applications.

For rendering, you can render through Maya Batch, 3delight, or Pixie. To explore these options, you can email support@toonboom.com, though Maya is the only officially supported pipeline.

~Lilly