Playing with DMesh

So I downloaded DMesh.

http://dmesh.thedofl.com/

It basically converts your images to triangles.

BUT, it also lets you put your own vertices on the image.

Edge Animate: What the HECK does the Toggle Pin Do?

I was having issues trying to follow the tutorial Animate 2: The Pin (sounds like a very bad movie sequel). I couldn't figure out what the heck it does until I saw this movie.

Supposedly, when you are on time 0 (I don't think Animate works with Frames...), you can drag the blue pin to another time area. Then, while still on time 0, you move the object (in this case it is an apple ) and it automatically creates keyframes and animation from time 0 to, say, 1 Second.

Check out the video, it'll clear things up.

Edge Animate tutorial: Animating with the Toggle Pin

Importing Sprite Sheets into Adobe Edge Animate

Yep, it is in Spanish. 

This official Adobe.tv video shows how to import a sprite sheet into Adobe Edge Animate.  This will create reusable sprites that can be reused throughout your project.

Use Flash CS6 to make Sprite Sheets

So, if you create an animation (say, a walk cycle) in Flash, you can export it as a Sprite Sheet. Sprite sheets can be used with most programs that create games.

SWF and After Effects, Sliders, AND DuIK Part 2

So, Now, for some reason, I am having issues rendering the SWF's in my After Effects program.

What the....?!?!

I did some research, and looked at some forum posts, and I even tested it out on another computer with Ae CS4 (which ended up working just fine). The only thing I can think of is that a plug-in I have is screwing up the rendering of SWF files.

SO... I am going to try and recreate the puppet with FXG files.
Yay.

SO, I put all the body parts in frame one of the Flash timeline, and exported a FXG. I then imported it into Adobe Illustrator.  I bypassed the issues I had before with body parts disappearing by making sure everything was broken up and (important) the vectors were colored with a color number, not a bitmap swatch (which I had done before to make it easier to universally change colors in Flash.)

I imported it into After Effects.  To recap:

SWF and After Effects, Sliders, AND DuIK Part 1

Go to http://ik.duduf.com and download the IK tools. Install the files in the scripts folder of After Effects: (win = c:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects\Support Files\Scripts”,  mac : “Applications/Adobe After Effects/Scripts/").

So I set that up and began working on my Flash file to see if I can export  my characters body parts and the head to be ready for flash.

I will first make a copy of my flash file. With the first copy I am going to delete everything except the head. I will keep the 378 Frames that I used to lip sync to a high quality audio file I received.

That's a lot of chatterin'!

I exported the head as a SWF file. Importing that into After Effects is no big issue. Once I put it in a Composition, I imported the audio file to the comp and named it  "Head". I then proceeded to create a new comp for the body.

MORE Flash to After Effects Experiment 02: Exporting FXG

I continued my tutorial (or more like "self-teaching") with Flash and FXG files. As stated in part one of this foray, I am starting off with all the parts of the character in separate layers.

I then moved the Anchor points of all the characters to have the rotation match the ones I had in Flash. A little tedious, but so far so good.

Once I did that, I made sure to parent the limbs in the correct manner in order to make sure, for example, the hand moved with the forearm when I rotated the upper arm. I did this with the pick whip.

What I did was this:

Rigging Characters: Tutorial By Daniel Gies

It looks like it uses Null objects to set the rotation points! Hm... interesting....

Here is the code for the Null Objects:

n=thisComp.layer("Name_of_Null_Object")
nullpos=n.toComp(n.anchorPoint);
fromComp(nullpos);

Flash Animation Tutorial #1, Setup your file - Alex Butera

These tutorials give the basicis on getting started with Linear Animation in Flash, and also discusses After Effects intergration.

The author:
alexbutera.tumblr.com
twitter.com/AlexButera

Flash Tutorials On Traditional Animation

Flash to After Effects Experiment 02: Exporting FXG

FXG

A FXG file is a "new" file that Flash exports, instead of the usual Adobe Illustrator filetype (.ai).  Why Adobe did this? I don't know.

So, with that, I fired up Illustrator and saw how it imported. 

What the...?

It did not import the forearm. I decided to go back to Flash and break up the symbol that had all the arm shapes in it and put each symbol in it's own layer.  I also decided to draw a new hand with the fingers separated (for another test I want to see...)

That's a little better...

Flash to After Effects Experiment 01: Exporting Characters?

So, I did some stuff a LOOOOONG time ago with some STTNG Characters drawn by Josh Howard.   I worked in Flash tracing out the character of Data, trying to make animatable character for me to use for cartoons.

Well, I let things go a little bit--starting College up again and all--and never did finish up.

However, I have been doing some thinking, and I wondered if there is a way to import characters I draw up in Flash into After Effects and animate them there, using AEs powerful effects and the like.  There are a few different ways to do animation in AE, so I wasn't sure which one I should use.

So, I decided to try some experiments to see if it would work. I made a new FLA with just one frame. I splayed out the arms and legs of Data so I can try out different types of animation.

Trying to Learn: Preventing Distortion with the Puppet Pin and Starch Pin tool

Supposedly this will teach me to Apply Expressions to the Sliders that I addded to the Null Objects to prevent too much distortion to the Puppet Pins. (Link)

What'd I just say?

Update: This lesson used the Puppet Pins and Starch Pins to prevent too much distortion when you use the Null objects to distort the face.

Red Dots are the Starch pins, the Yellow X are the Puppet pins.  The yellow X with a red "null" box attached to them are the animatable distortion areas of the face.

Video Follows:

Trying to Learn: Puppet Pins and Null Objects

Part 2:  Attaching Null objects to the eyes and mouth, then attaching sliders to the null objects. (link)

Part 3: Creating Puppet Pins to distort the face, and attaching null objects to pins to use sliders. (link)

ADD THIS BIT OF CODE to the pins, by right clicking the position "clock" and add this to the expression area. then highlight the layer name (in red) and pick whip to the correct layer:

n = thisComp.layer(“layerToFollow”);
nullpos = n.toComp(n.anchorPoint);
fromComp(nullpos);

Enough is Enough! (A.K.A. "maybe I should do something")

I just finished up a few presentations last week; one on iMovie with the iPad/iPhone, and one about Flash Animation.

 

I overestimated the ability of communicating all the information I wanted to share; I wrote a 30 page word document! Even if I skipped the first half (which was the basics on how to use Flash) I would not have been able to finish in the 50 minutes I had. It was TOO MUCH.