Help with Cut Out basics

I’m trying to cut up and rig a drawing I imported from Illustrator. So far, I’ve found instructions on bits and pieces of the process, but not exactly what I’m looking for. I have been able to cut up the drawing, but not actually save it as a separate element that I can attach to a peg and therefore animate. This seems like it should be really easy, but I can’t figure it out.

I’ve downloaded all available pdf and video tutorials (including the ones from the pirate guy-thanks for your work) and they all start off after the cutting up process. I would greatly appreciate anyones help. I’m using TBS v3.5 on a Mac.

Thanks!

Each body part you cut out will become a separate element for your character. So one drawing of a character may end up spawning many body part elements.
head
right eye
left eye
right pupil
left pupil
mouth
torso
right upper arm
left upper arm
right lower arm
left lower arm
right hand
left hand

Hopefully you are beginning to see the pattern of elements. So you can start out by creating and naming all of these elements. Then as you cut out a body part you copy that part and go to the appropriate body part element and paste that part into that element. You repeat this for each part that you cut out. Then you can layout and organize the character when all the parts are in their appropriate elements. So step 1 is cut out the parts and copy and paste them into individual elements. step 2 is to layout the character from the parts. Step 3 is to rig the character by making a hierarchy of pegs etc. -JK

Hi JK,

I just sent you an Instant Message about this, so I hope that you’re not annoyed that I post the reply again. I’m hoping to catch you before you go offline today. I’m in Australia and I’ve been trying to figure out the solution for this for a few days.

I simply can’t figure out how to create an element that I can paste cut out pieces into. I’ve tried to add a drawing element in both the Exposure Sheet and the Timeline. I’m very likely just missing a small detail.

Also, do you have any tips about searching the forum? When I search for a keyword or phrase, it pulls up lots of posts that may contain the word or phrase. It seems like there must be a better way than scanning through dozens of posts and replies.

Thanks.

rich, not sure if you’ve seen them, but give these a look, they may help clear some things up.

http://pirateproductiontoons.blogspot.com/2007/04/tbs-cut-out-tutorial-pt-1-finally.html
http://pirateproductiontoons.blogspot.com/2007/05/cut-out-tutorial-parts-2-4.html

Hi kdog,

Thanks for the reply! Yes, I’ve downloaded your tutorials. (I mentioned you in the first post, I called you the pirate guy because I couldn’t remember your ID). Thanks again for going through so much effort. I saw the part where you were dealing with the chef’s left hand. I’m not at work at the moment (that’s where I’m using TBS) and I don’t have the video to review on my home computer (and I’m stuck with dial-up speed so I can’t pull it up right now.)

I don’t to remember you specifically saying how to cut out a piece of a drawing and paste it somewhere else as a separate element. I fully admit that I may have missed it as my other responsibilities have been crowding in on my animation time so I haven’t been able to even watch the whole tutorial yet.

I’ve tried various ways of cutting and pasting in both the Exposure Sheet and Timeline. Again, this is very likely just a small detail I keep on missing. thanks for your help.

ahh, heh I thought you meant the recent workout series they released which had a pirate guy on it. :slight_smile:

when you copy drawing elements, you want to make sure you goto the new element you want to paste on, but make sure to do the actual pasting on the drawing view window. if you right click anywhere on it you will see the option to “paste drawing object.” you won’t be able to do that directly into the timeline or x-sheet. Hope that helps, feel free to ask more if something’s not clear.

Rich_Simms,
I’m not sure if you got all your questions answered. If not, ask more questions and I certainly try my best. -JK

JK and kdog,

Thanks for your help! It works just as you said. Kinda strange way to copy and paste, but that’s just how it is I guess. I look forward to posting the piece I’m working on. Until next time…