Add Tweens improvement

[Paul Fierlinger]

Can the excellent Add Tweens button on the Animator Panel be improved by not having an empty frame added to the last frame? It serves no purpose since there is nothing past it to tween between therefore each time it needs to be deleted, if one wants to maintain a hold, which is nearly always the case?

[Hervé]

Can the excellent Add Tweens button on the Animator Panel be improved by not having an empty frame added to the last frame? It serves no purpose since there is nothing past it to tween between therefore each time it needs to be deleted, if one wants to maintain a hold, which is nearly always the case?

Good idea, but it should add exposures in place of empty images

[Paul Fierlinger]

I'm at a loss here. What are exposures compared to empty images? This computer nomenclature often baffles me.

[Fabrice]

Hi Paul,

Could you check this : (user manual lesson 6-13)
Adding or removing an exposure allows to work on the timing of the animation without having to add empty frames.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Thanks, Fabrice, now I understand. I've worked this way for many years now and just somehow slipped into it without giving too much thought to iy or analyzing the steps I take from intuition. I am just getting used to taking advantage of the stretching out of individual frames (creating holds by dragging out frames) and realize how there is more to it than meets the eye.

When I was in Amsterdam recently and had met up with Peter Wassink and his friends they told me about this while they had trouble explaining to me why it's such a big deal, compared to just repeating instances or taking them off, frame by frame. Now I would have trouble too if I had to explain to someone why this adds more to the process than just eliminating the clicking on a keyboard.

So what Herve suggests, which is to make the exposures (something already there) expandable by a selected number of frames would be very useful for creating animatics, which I happen to work with a lot (having for the most part dropped the need for storyboarding). Fascinating stuff.

[ZigOtto]

... to make the exposures (something already there) expandable by a selected number of frames would be very useful for creating animatics, which I happen to work with a lot ...

actually, it's the "Set Frame Repeat" command.
(need to be added as button in the Instance Panel)

[Paul Fierlinger]

Truthfully, I haven't done too much exploring with the instance panel yet. I never plan or plot my actors too much. Sometimes I will but often it's just straight ahead animation for me. I feel a need to wield my pencil about, scribble and fill space with unfinished lines more than thoughtfully plotting the play.

[hisko]

Hi Paul,

I was one of those friends and I remember that we couldn't get the point through about the instances.
Anyhow, now you know it, I think that you won't need the bookmarks as much as before, since you can flip through the instances and use the lighttable to be able to see only the instances.
It's a major improvement, really.
The instancepanel is also invaluable. Check it out. It will safe hours and hours of copying, pasting, erasing etc.

Did you decide about the openingmusic of you film already?

[Paul Fierlinger]

Hi Hisko, I couldn't remember your name so I used "friends". I will get around to playing with the Instance Panel one of these days.
Strange that you ask about the opening music because we are working on it right now, because In a few weeks we will be doing another focus screening in New York, like the one I had in Amsterdam, which was so helpful. The opening is being composed as a true overture; a compilation of many of the themes within the film's body.

I've implemented most of everything that came up from you guys at that screening -- some were easier for me to get across than others. I don't think I succeeded in making Tulip a more endearing dog but truthfully, in real life (when her name was Queenie) she wasn't the least bit pleasant and none of Ackerley's friends could understand what he saw in her. German shepherds aren't too endearing, period -- or not as much as Jack Russells.

We also have started preliminary work on our next feature for these same producers, which will be based on Sailing Alone Around the World, by Joshua Slocum, so from a man and his dog story I go to a man and his boat story. But there will be women in there too, and more of them than in Tulip ( )-- just not the kind you draw. And no dogs! I need a break from dogs.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Can the excellent Add Tweens button on the Animator Panel be improved by not having an empty frame added to the last frame? It serves no purpose since there is nothing past it to tween between therefore each time it needs to be deleted, if one wants to maintain a hold, which is nearly always the case?

Good idea, but it should add exposures in place of empty images

Herve, I've studied up on instances now (I had the manual printed and bound at Kinko's) and now that I know the difference between exposures, images and empty frames from a few test runs I'd like to ask you to PLEASE NOT make the tween button create by default exposures instead of empty frames!!! The instance work flow does not work well for me and I am sure I am not the only one who will feel this way.

I like to have empty frames between my key frames so that I see them flash by. To have stretched exposures just doesn't simulate the timing for me -- it turns animation into a slide show before I'm finished with it. It makes me look at a single drawing for a longer period of time than I intended when I drew it. To simulate real time playback I prefer to have flashes instead of holds -- a huge difference in perception.

[hisko]

That's where the instancepanel comes in. The two B's are meant to create new (blank or same) instances within your instance, so if you only want to see your keydrawing for 2 frames and blank cells behind it, it's a matter of pushing a button.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Well, sure, but that's no better for me than having a simple button that creates a blank image between every frame I highlight. One click and it's done. I know that all this button does is one key command:
Layer: Insert Tween Images
I just hope this command remains as is so that I can create my own button if the current one will be changed to inserting exposures.

When I animate lipsync I draw the first head (I don't draw just the mouth) and I then add an empty image which I drag out for the length of the phrase I am syncing up to. Then I spot the vowels and draw heads on these frames. Then I draw some inbetweens etc. Instancing gets in the way of this work flow for me. I don't want to watch my WIP as a bunch of short holds. I know that short holds work well when it comes to mouth sync but that's the lazy way. I want to see facial expressions change and if I have to watch those as multi frame exposures it is annoying to me. This has nothing to do with the Tween Button but I thought I might use this opportunity to explain how I work with inbetweens.

When it comes to drawing key frames of an entire figure, I find the little frame handles very useful at times and there are times when I wouldn't want to work with holds. It depends a lot on the temperament of the character, my mood of the moment, how many hours I've been already drawing -- all sorts of surrounding circumstances influence my work flow, but one thing I can't stand is anything geared towards formulaic thought and methodology.

This is the beauty of TVP. It offers good choices to individualists and I'd hate to see the layers modeled too much on Flash.

[ZigOtto]

... I like to have empty frames between my key frames so that I see them flash by. To have stretched exposures just doesn't simulate the timing for me -- it turns animation into a slide show before I'm finished with it. It makes me look at a single drawing for a longer period of time than I intended when I drew it. To simulate real time playback I prefer to have flashes instead of holds -- a huge difference in perception.

you are the only one animator I know who prefers "flashing holes" than "holds".
Placing main Keys on the timeline, then secondary keys, then inbetweens and playing the preview, is somehow like refining your animation, one step after the other, from Animatic state to full Animation.
When I summit a linetest to a client, even unfinished, I always leave "hold" the part with inbetweens missing, so the movie is jumping here and there, but not with "holes".
Anyway, if you are animating in [Key, blank, blank, blank, Key, blank, blank, blank, Key, blank, blank, Key] that way,
use the (Insert left/right Empty frame) couple of buttons from the Instance Panel, the [<E+] and [+E>] buttons.

[Sierra Rose]

Paul's not the only one. I too work this way.

[Peter Wassink]

Paul's not the only one. I too work this way.

Sierra that makes you a "Fierlinger school" animator.