I am working on this piece with several scenes. I’m about to start the second scene and want to make the visual and sound be seem-less as it makes the transistion from scene 1 to scene 2.
I want the props from scene 1 to be the exact as scene 2.
In other words lets say there is a room with some desk and there is music playing, and the camera is fixed. I want this to occur across 2 scenes. If things go the way I want it when I watch the exported file I should not be able to tell when scene 1 ends and scene 2 begins…thats the goal.
What I did was import the entire music in the first scene …its 2000 frames long. I cut frames 1001 to 2000 from the first scene and paste it to the second scene. I also "streamed each sound element in both scenes.
For the visual I copied the last frames from the first scene and paste into the first frame of scene two. For whatever reason I can’t seem to make this seemless.
In the end I tried to individually write down the parameters for each element in scene 1 and manually key stroke it in for scene 2. Motion path, rotation, properties etc.
I copied and paste from the time line, copied and paste from exposure sheet…but when I export and playback …things just jump a little bit …as it transitions from scene 1 to scene 2.
Say for example you have a desk …in scene 1 …when I checked every parameters matches up in scene 2 …there is still this slight movement. Whats puzzling is …I used the back drop as media elements.
Using the desk example …in scene 2 the legs of the desk would be slightly thinner while the rest of it remains the same…and this is all one media element. Puzzling to me since the entire object didn’t change.
Why is this happening?
In addition the sound jumps, or stutters a little at the transition as well.
Can anybody say what I should do to fix this?
Thanks.
You might want to use templates and your library to better manage scene asset sharing. Cut and paste is not the best way. Refer to the Tips and Tricks thread in tutorials to read more on how to utilize your libraries.
It took me hours to set up the second scene …and as I wrestled with it …I was thinking …there has to be an easier way …I just wasn’t seeing it then.
I explained that I used media elements for by props …however there are cases in scene one where I key frame the props. Let me explain …I am animating a band scene …and so the drum, symbols etc …which remains fixed for most of the action …ocassionally gets banged by the drummer and shakes. Thats why I didn’t put the entire drum set for example in one element.
And I explained how I handled the sound in my original post …was that the proper way to do it?
Oh BTW as I looked at your tips&Tricks section (for the first time )…I ran across your “inking in thick and thin lines” write up.
You suggested that there is an initial (rough) drawing and a final drawing …much like the older paper-based cell animators techniques. I’ve never used such tecniques because I draw directly into TBS (either on my tablet or with my Wacom). So my first drawing …is my final drawing.
Personally I’ve never used the “draw top layer” technique before so I’m wondering if there is more here. Where would you draw the first rough cut, and why would you do it with this technology?
Thanks.
Think of a drawing element as a stack of cells or drawings. So the way to develop your drawings in Toon Boom is very much the same as you would do in a pencil and paper world. Create a drawing element and begin creating very rough loose sketches for your sequence of cells. I typically do my first layer roughs in red or orange using the pencil tool. Then create a second drawing element to the right of the first element. Turn on the auto-light table (short cut L). You now can see your first element below the second element and you can use the first element rough to guide your tightening up stage on this second element. I usually use blue and the pencil tool for this second stage. Now create a third element to the right of the second element and do your final clean up on this third level. I use black and the brush tool with draw top layer set to “on” for this final 'inking" level. Once you finish your final inking cells, you can go to the exposure sheet elements list and un-check the two previous element layers so they will no longer show up. You also want to be sure these two rough element layers are unchecked in the time line. I normally label my drawing layers A,B,C,D,E etc. so I do my sketching layers as “rA” (rough layer for element A) and “tA” (tighten up layer for element A) and so on as I do each lettered layer. This makes it super easy to identify which are final layers and which are disposable layers. Any layer not checked in the time line and not checked in the exposure sheet will not be included in your final rendered movie. So use your elements and the auto-light table in drawing view just like a traditional animator uses his light box and drawing disc. As to why you would use this multi-stage approach, that is a personal preference but the results should speak for themselves by producing superior drawings through the use of a progressive refinement technique.
I think I’ll defer to Mathieu and Ugo to discuss the best way to split sound files across scenes, that way I might learn a new trick or two myself. Hope this helps-JK
Ok …I’ve always used the light table feature to draw the ensuing drawings. Let me explain…even though I use the pegs and elements I really consider myself more of a traditionalist animator than many I see on this board. So, the cut-out-character technique for example never appealed to me.
Rather I studied that a litlle to see where I could borrow some of the techniques and use in my work. When a character for example raise his arm …while I’ll peg the hand …but I want to see the shirt sleve wrinkle a bit to give more depth to the motion.
That said, the way I use the light table still presented some problems that maybe adopting your idea may help me. One of the thing I struggled with during my pose to pose technique is constantly going back over stuff. By pose-to-pose I mean I use the light table to draw the next pose with the previous pose and sometimes the next drawing as a guide.
Maybe I’ll look at the motion a few times and eventually decide its not right. Or I may draw and erase a shirt sleeve 20 times …because for each attempt the goal is to get it exact.
And one of the most common problems I have is maintaing the character size …especially the torso and legs. I have the feet, hands and head all deligently prepared in my library …but the torso and legs I try to do on the fly. For the first 100 frames I’ll be good but at some point there is the shrinkage or growth.
Thanks …kudos for your help!!!
For the benefit of clarification for any new TBS users reading this discussion, the auto-light table is very useful when you are wanting to work in drawing view across elements. This could be for coordinating between two or more elements as in limited animation or for coordinating the various body parts for a cut out character. Also when you want to do progressive refinement drawing in a traditional animation light box approach as previously described. Onion skinning, which is different from the auto-light table is very useful for coordinating between cells of the same element. This is most helpful when you are drawing incremental changes between successive drawings.
This problem has been there for all animators long before there were computers, so it is not limited to Toon Boom or any other software. In traditional hand drawn animation with pencil and paper, we have a fairly standard technique we use to deal with this at the drawing board. Normally each sheet of drawing paper in a stack is punched to be placed on registration pegs. This insures alignment between sequences of drawings. So with the “back light” turned on we can see through several layers of paper. (this is much like using onion skinning in TBS) The problem with variations in volumes usually occurs when the character moves across the page or more often when the view point of the action is shifting slightly in perspective. This situation actually makes the fixed registration of the sheets of paper a limitation on comparing to previous volumes. So we normally pick up our drawing off of the peg bar and visually move it over the old area of the previous drawing to check for consistency in our volumes between drawings. We then can make the adjustments if they are drifting too big or too small and then we can put our current drawing back on the peg bar. This checking process is continuously done from drawing to drawing to reduce or eliminate drifts in size and volume between successive drawings. You can do a similar thing in TBS although it is more difficult in onion skinning and requires you to select and move drawing objects , make comparisons and adjustments, and then return things to their appropriate locations. This technique of checking volumes is absolutely necessary to insure consistency and unfortunately is much easier to do in the pencil and paper world. -JK