Is this possible in TBSv3 ?!?
In the example in the ‘Help File,’ the cut-out “goth girl” is entirely her own scene. Assuming one would want to place that in the context of other elements, wouldn’t these other elements be scenes unto themselves?
If that’s the case, how do you sequence multiple scenes in one animation? There doesn’t seem to be a global timeline for that.
Should I just be saving these scenes to my library and making templates or something, and then sequencing the templates all in one “parent” scene?
Thanks!
There is a panel called the Scene Manager. You can add additional scenes in this panel or remove unwanted scenes. You can arrange the order of the scenes sequentually to suit your needs and you can also include or exclude scenes for publication. So in effect the Scene Manager is your way of ordering and connecting multiple scenes for a single movie. -JK
Thank you. So if I understand you correctly, if I have multiple scenes in the scene manager of the animation I am working on, when I export the final movie it should render each scene sequentially?
I’m not sure if that’s what I want.
Say I’m animating an argument between 2 cutout figures… Figure A is Scene 1 and he jumps up and down(needs a motion path), Figure B is Scene 2 and he walks around in circles (also needs a motion path), and the Landscape with moving clouds is Scene 3.
How do I get all these Scenes to occupy the same space, moving all together at once?
If there is sequential rendering because of sequential ordering in the scene manager, the final movie would have only Figure A jumping on a white back ground, then only Figure B waking around in circles on a white background, and then the empty Landscape with nothing occupying it. That’s definitely not what I want for my final animation.
I hope that was clear. Sorry this was such a long reply. I hope it illustrates my current understanding of scenes, sceneplanning, etc., so that someone might correct me where I am mistaken…
cheers!
I think there may be some confusion in termonology. A scene in TBS terms is normally used to seperate sequences. A sequence in animation is normally a continuous set of actions with no significant location change or time passage interuption. A sequence can be comprised of one or more shots. A shot is normally thought of as a point of view based on a single camera set up.
So for example a sequence could start with a wide shot that pulls in tight to a character talking then cuts to an over the shoulder shot from behind the talking character to reveal the person they are talking to, then cuts to a side on wide shot of both characters and then cuts to a shot of the door behind the first character that opens when a third character enters the room and then cuts back to a close up of the first character greeting the new comer and so on until the sequence ends and the next sequence of the film begins. This whole sequence could and most likely would be contained in a single TBS scene.
This is a complete misconception and is not how animations are created in TBS or any other software that I know of. Mixing multiple elements to compose shots and sequences is common practice and you can mix them as needed. You are confusing a cut out character that is constructed out of multiple elements with a scene. -JK
Sorry for the double post but I decided that this needed most clarification. So lets make some analogies.
The term scene in programs like Flash and even TBS can sometimes be confusing because they are used in some cases for purposes other than traditional cinematic scenes.
In the case of the Goth Character or any cut out puppet you do create and assemble them initially in a scene just because that is the only actual workflow set up in TBS for compositing to be done. Attaching them to pegs and creating peg hierarchies etc.
But essentually that is not a cinematic scene in the sense of a part of a sequential movie. It’s just a compositing workspace. Once the cutout is assembled you will save it as a template in your library and delete the scene or “hide” the scene or open a new animation project and do your movie there.
The cut out character template can be composited in actual scenes with many other cut out character templates all at the same time. Each character is animated on the same time line if they are in the same scene. Each character is represented by tracks in that time line and their time on screen is dictated by when they are in view of the camera. Think of it like a play with characters moving on and of the stage as their parts in the scene dictates. You can also have other elements in your scene too like props or backgrounds etc. -JK
Thanks alot JK! I do have a couple of questions though… 
ok, I sorta understand but I think I am still confused though… If I work on a cutout element (similar to how Der_Der_Rig is set-up) each component of the element is arranged as its own Drawing column in exposure sheet. In the title of this Exposure sheet window it says “
So would all the elements in this scene be represented as Drawing Columns in the Exposure window? Again, if they are all cut-outs, that can get pretty hard to manage in the width of the Exposure Sheet [Scene-1] Window!!!
Better yet, let me show you exactly what I am planning… I wanted to animate something similar to THIS. Basically I was thinking each distinct part would be animated where the camera would zoom into to focus on certain movements, zoom out or over to focus on others, pan “around” the structure where certain parts are “growing” into formation, etc… I wanted this to coincide with sounds too (which I would probably compose after the animation is complete).
Have you ever seen the <a href=“http://youtube.com/results?search_query=gantz+graf&search=Search””>GANTZ_GRAF video? I want to do something like that, but in a more cel-shaded technique.
Do you think this is doable? Any suggestions? Thanks for your help JK! I went to your site. It’s very informative!
Regards,
Mike
Whoops, I must have sent that while you were posting your second reply. I’m re-reading everything in this thread over now…
Yes, but here are some tips for dealing with that situation both in the timeline and the exposure sheet.
In the time line you can collapse pegs and keep things more under control in terms of viewable tracks when you are working.
In the exposure sheet you can toggle on the element list and un-check all the elements that you don’t need to see in the exposure sheet spread-sheet view, they still will be in the movie and on the time line but just won’t show in the exposure sheet display panel.
I forgot to say thanks for the kind words about the stuff on the website. I am sorry that I don’t have time to do more but we are very busy with our own cartooning projects and the website postings are mostly a spare time thing at the moment. The real work only shows up on our propriatary site which is not public but for internal use only. -JK
all the elements you uncheck in the exposure sheet won’t be visible in the exported animation, too.
cheers,
rob
You might want to re-test that, as my experience and tests indicate that unchecking in the element list for the exposure sheet does not remove the element from the movie, but rather it is unchecking in the timeline panel that will have that effect. I use the File>Export Movie command for my publishing of movies. (also be sure you have the Full Movie radio button “on” and not the Exposure Sheet Current Scene button “on”. -JK
You might want to re-test that, as my experience and tests indicate that unchecking in the element list for the exposure sheet does not remove the element from the movie, but rather it is unchecking in the timeline panel that will have that effect. I use the File>Export Movie command for my publishing of movies. (also be sure you have the Full Movie radio button “on” and not the Exposure Sheet Current Scene button “on”. -JK
i am on a pc and i have one scene in my movie. when i uncheck all the additional sketches in the exposure sheet any export with a ‘full movie’ option renders the film without the unchecked items.
strange…
cheers,
rob