I followed the instructions on the kickstart videos and the manual to make a puppet. They tell you that it’s best to construct the puppet and put the different angles (say like a 5 point turnaround) on the next frames. I get that this would be great to increase speed in animation, but I’m having a problem where if I put the arm layer under the hair layer in the hierarchy on one view, then they may be in the wrong order on another view.
If I make an adjustment to the arm position on one view, it affects all the other views. The pivot points are all thrown off too, even when I uncheck the tool property “Set the Pivot for Symbol on all frames.” It moves them on the other frames anyway!
Am I doing something wrong or have other people run up against these issues using this prescribed method?
Hello, I’m new to Animate too but maybe I can lend you a little help. I apologize in advance if I can’t, or if I totally misunderstood your question.
Have you tried moving the hierarchys by manipulating Z-depth?
The Heirchys of the layers themselves don’t matter like they do in … well just about any other program. Animate has this Z-depth thing that is going to hit you over the head with a Brick! :o .
Check out this video http://vimeo.com/3360406, Fast Foward to 35:00, where he starts talking about how to actually do it.
Just note that when I first tried it I had to hit that plus button next to Offset path ( I think it is) to bring up the z-depth
Hope that helps, once you learn that, you’ve caught to my level. :’(
Thanks so much for responding, but I think I understand the z-depth thing…the problem seems to be if I have a puppet assembled into layers with multiple views all layed out on frames (for switching out drawings), then the z-depth only works for one view…that is if one view is right, others will be wrong. I have to switch the z-depth each time I switch drawings. I know if I layed out all the layers the same then it wouldn’t matter, but the arms can’t always be in front. also the position of the individual drawings changes and the pivot points for each view.
hi,
i work on puppet’s parts that are converted to symbols. so i can work on each puppet part in a drawing view of each symbol (coming back to the whole puppet with a ‘top’-view button), but then the other parts are sort of grayed out, so they don’t disturb, and they are still visible for references.
the other thing with z-depth is that it works smoothly only for not parented parts. the children can’t switch the parent z-level from a ‘+’ to a ‘-’ (from behind to front and the other way round). correct me anybody if i’m wrong.
and the only time i have to correct the pivot points is when i use substitution drawing for a puppet’s part.
cheers,
rob
One thing that you need to remember when setting the z-depth by nudging is that if you have different views that require the elements to be nudged in different directions, you must have the Animate button depressed. The z-depth can be animated just like any other position value - you will need to animate it from one frame to another, then it will look good in all views.
So make sure that the animate button is depressed, then select the transform tool and go ahead and nudge. Or you can also manually add a keyframe by pressing F6. Then nudge.