Automatic Inbetween

[Iuri]

Hi Folks!
I'm new in the TVPaint forum and I have a question that I think many animators would like to know the answer.
The inbetweening process in a animation is very mechanical, mathematical, then, thinking in this, I thought if don't exist a script, plugin that can do the inbetweening process to us animators. It will permit a decrease of time in producing any animation. I don't know nothing about programming, but seeing a lot of functions in this programs that are incredible, I think that a program catch the previous and the next frame, calculate and trace the middle lines doing the inbetween frame is not much complicated, or no?
That's it.
Seeya.

[Sierra Rose]

Tweening goes pretty fast when you do it by hand. I don't like the look of computer generated tweening. Anyway, I'm pretty sure you need a vector program for that, not a bitmap. Then you lose all the warmth of your own artistry when you use vector (I think).

[Iuri]

Yep. I think this have to be vector, then the artistic look will go away. This is the problem. ^^"

[Sierra Rose]

I haven't done work where I have deadlines to meet. So I don't feel the hurry maybe that others do. But I enjoy the tweening a lot!!! It's relaxing and fun for me so I don't mind it.

[slowtiger]

Automatic inbetweening of a bitmap is, in fact, one of the hardest tasks a computer can be confronted with. What's very easy for a human being is most complicated for software. The simple task to recognise a bunch of black pixels as a line with two ends and not confuse it with another line, the task to recognise a line crossing, and so on - this needs very sophisticated software.

Basically there are two different ways to "automatically" inbetween. One way deals with whole bitmaps and kind of "morphs" between them, with a lot of adjustment by the user. This means the whole drawing is treated as a bitmap area which gets deformed to fit the same area of the next (key) drawing.

The other way uses a vector representation of each pencil stroke, compares it with the "same" pencil stroke in the next key drawing, and calculates the inbetween. Vectors are easier to handle for software, they have an identity and a defined set of attributes like position, direction, stroke width. But still the user has to tell the program that a certain line is meant to be the nose and not the mouth in each and every key.

But both methods only work automatically with the really easy movements, like the tilt of a head, or bending a body. If you want to move a body part from one side to the other, like an arm in front of the torso, the software is lost. You either have to place that arm on a separate level, or have to do those inbetweens by hand.

Because of that, the "puppet animation" appproach is used much more often. You build a 2D or 3D model of your character once, then adjust its bones to get the poses you want, and the software easily inbetweens the keys because all the elements are niceley separated from each other.

[Sierra Rose]

What a clear answer. I have worked with the "bones" idea a bit, and it is counter to my desire to draw. But I can see it's like a wireframe in 3D, a kind of puppetry. That can speed up your work, I can see that.

[Gochris1]

My evolution into a traditional animator happened this way:

1. I thought I couldn't draw, and thought using 3-D would be faster, so I learned how to use a 3-D program.

2. I thought I didn't like drawing, so I learned to use a vector program with bones (Moho, now called Anime Studio.)

3. After years of learning how to rig a 3-D character, I found the actual process of of ANIMATING a 3-D character very frustrating. And animating was still a very slow, tedious process.

4. I was frustrated. So I started doodling stick figures and animating them. I liked it. I got better at drawing. Compared to learning 3-D, learning to animate traditionally took FAR less time, and was more intuitive.

5. I bought a light board, and gave myself over to drawing frame by frame! I am EMBRACING the process of animating this way.
Now I like to animate that way, much more than pushing pixels around.

6. Advantages of traditional animation over letting your computer do the in-betweens:

My animation designs look more original than the 3-D animation I was doing

I get almost as much animation done in a session traditionally as I do using 3-D. And when I do 2-D, I feel I have more control.

I have learned that good animation is not about smooth inbetweens. It is about the quirky, creative, unpredictable inbetweens that separate the poses (read Richard Williams.) Trying to do odd inbetweens with a computer is very difficult - the computer is not a creative collaborator.

So sometimes I will use 3-D for backgrounds and depth tricks - but I have given in to traditional animation methods. I feel that yields the most expressive, unpredicatable, CARTOONY characters. And I will use Anime Studio for various reasons - usually for special effects, not to animate characters.

So the bottom line is: Forget about auto - inbetweening! Traditional animation is not as hard as you think - Embrace it!

GoChris

P.S. If you really want auto inbetweening, check out "The Tab" I can't vouch for it.

[ZigOtto]

... The inbetweening process in a animation is very mechanical, mathematical, ...

I'm afraid you're somewhat wrong on this point,
the work of an assistant (or an inbetweener) consists not only to draw inbetweens at their right place, but in respect of the chief animator's intentions and direction, a continuation and refinement of the animator's job,
in other words, it's all about feeling, not mechanic, nor mathematic (or so few) ...
... guess where the computer would place its inbetween, it's a good indication where NOT to draw it !

[Sierra Rose]

A good example of what Zig Otto is saying: I am animating a baby dropping his head to his chest as he laughs. If I just did mechanical tweens, I wouldn't have the changes of the cranium and lower face you need for foreshortening. For some actions I do go actually in between the two lines on the light table, and the fact I'm not good at getting right in the middle gives a an effect I like.