Hi,
I am wanting to incorporate 2D animation into a traditional video setting, similar to that seen in the “Roger Rabbit” movie with Bob Hoskins with the animated character interacting with the background video.
I am also, wanting to create topographical maps of the state of CA where I want to animate migratory trails (in red) of certain settlers for a documentary-style project. The animated line from city to city would simulate the travelling or migration of a particular group represented by a time-line, like something you’d see on the history channel.
I am using Sony Vegas 8 as my NLE platform / software.
So, can someone be so kind as to give me easy to follow steps on how I can transmigrate files from one platform to another while preserving quality & maintaining ease of use?
Thank you.
Drew
ps: obviously, if TB allows me to render the file down to a avi or mpg, I could load the file directly into my editing software. But for some reason, I’ve heard people talk about “flash video” being the ideal choice? Does this rely on my NLE program?
What about degradation of quality too? I’ve read here that people experience loss of resolution. Doe TB allow for seamless integration with NLE software & traditional video?
You want to export your animation as an image sequence and then import that image sequence into you NLE. The image sequence should be exported with a transparent background.
To do that you go to “File>Export Movie” and choose “Image Sequence” for the export format.
Click on the “options” button which opens an “Export Image Sequence Setting” dialog, select PNG for the format then click on the “option” button. That opens another dialog for PNG Options.
Choose “Millions Of Colors +” and click on OK.
That will get you a transparent alpha channel for your image sequence. Of course you will not have a background with your animation as that will be the live action footage that you will composite with your animation in your NLE.
Some people prefer to work the other way which is to import the live action footage as an image sequence into TBS and animate on top of it as your background. Both approaches work.
As to your migratory trails the technique you want to employ is called subtractive animation. Here is a tutorial that explains that technique. SUBTRACTIVE ANIMATION
Hope this helps, if you need more information, just ask. -JK
Hey there JK: Thank you very much for your informative reply – it is appreciated, though I am wondering about the order by which I would approach the first issue. After reading your 2 suggestions & conceptually taking each apart in my mind, I’ve come to a realization that I think that it would matter as to which approach I took. For instance, if I was to work on top of the live video by loading the live-footage into TB first, this seemingly would provide me with valuable “reference points” for interaction of my character whereas, if I went the former route, my animated character would be essentially non-cognizant of his/her surroundings.
BUT, this is not to say that there would be parts of the film where I could just use floating animated pieces on top of the live-action like the map, or time-line, or flying planes where it didn’t matter if the “actor” was interacting with anything, so the question is, would one approach be faster & easier for this effect?
The subtractive animation technique was very helpful! Thank you. Although I am complete Newbie with TB, the lingo used here should become more familiar after I complete some training & tutorials.
Best, Drew
I suspect that you would want to pull in the live action into Toon Boom for a background reference. But only those pieces that you actually need for reference. Then you can un-check that background track in the timeline and export your animated footage transparent to composite in your NLE. That’s the best place to edit and do post production. But yes the reference work with the live action in TBS is pretty significant in order to make your interactions smooth. -JK
Hi
I am aiming for a similar effect , will watch the tutorial suggested.
I tried the export into Premiere Pro, of just the drawing layer , to get the transparency, but am always left with a white background, perhaps my drawing layer needs some transparency turned on somewhere ?, I know Photoshop a bit and had similar problems, lack of understanding of alpha channels ,Anyway help appreciated.
sorted, newbie issue ! , I had another drawing layer still visible when I exported camera view , actually was a good mistake as I am drawing white, and set the drawing layer to black to check occasionally that it looked ok for the final compositing on black.