Randomized boil on hold with multiple colour layers

[jodyprody]

Hello Tvpainters:)

In my scene I have several characters. For each one there is a mix of holds on 6s and animation on 3s. On the holds I am making the character 'boil' by drawing 5 unique versions of the line drawing, copying them out, and randomizing them (manually) so that you can't see that it's a loop. This has all worked fine enough so far, if a little cumbersome.

But now I have to colour the scene. Because of our pipeline, I need each of the 8 or so colours to be on individual layers. The problem comes when I have a hold that lasts for 300 frames - that is, for each of the layers I have to go in and copy the 5 instances out 10 times, and somehow randomize them all (but all in the same way) - because I can't do this operation while multiple layers are selected - or, I do it just for the line layer, and sit and colour all 50 instances uniquely! and my head falls off.

Is this something the x-sheet can quickly do - I can't seem to make it work? or another tool? What about the Faux Fixe, I can only see that does a repeat, not a randomize? How does the 'shuffle frames' button work in the xsheet?

Thanks for any help, hope it makes sense,
Jody

[slowtiger]

How different are the line drawings from each other? Is the line thick enough to cover colour area borders?

But the most important question: why has that boiling to be randomly? (8 drawings are a bit few to really give a random effect. If you have drawings 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, you can't continue with 8, 7 or 6 for obvious reasons.) I just finished a sequence with lots of moving holds, and found that anything from 3 to 8 drawings in a plain loop is randomly enough.

I keep lines and colour separate. In those loops I'd colour the first frame, extend the exposure to the last frame, then from that frame on I'd correct the colour if necessary, erasing or adding.

[Elodie]

So, if I understood well, you have 8 instances to animate that boiling character, but as each color has to be flooded into separated layers, before being used "randomly", you have so many many layers and that's why your head falls of.

So, if I've understood well, I think yes, the Xsheet wil be useful in your situation.
First, you should cut / past the 8 instances from the lines layer in another clip. So, if you go in the Project tab, you have this :

If you double click on your animation, you'll see the different layers :

So now, go back to the first clip and click on the Xhseet tab (click on the "thumb" button to see images) :

Create a new Xsheet layer (the "+" on the left hand side) and a new source (the + in the middle), like this :

Rename the source (at the bottom), define it as a clip and take the clip with your animation (and click again on the "thumb" button to see images) :

Now, you simply have to click and drag images from your source to the xsheet layer (to select several images at the same time, press shift, then hold the LMB click on the images you want) :

If you want to add expositions to your images, just click and stretch the xsheet (you'll see a double black arrow)

[jodyprody]

Hi slowTiger - hmm thanks for those ideas, I'll look into whether we can save some time there..

Hi elodie, thanks a lot for the detailed walk through, just what I needed to understand the xsheet properly. It works just as you say, however, I need to export the final animation as photoshop layers, and if I do it this way, it seems the layers become merged inside the xsheet layer. is there a way around that?

Thanks, Jody

[Fabrice]

"Export > Layers Tab > PSD" should do the job.

[jodyprody]

Hi Fabrice, hmm that usually does the trick, but now that I am referencing the 8 layers from another clip into one xsheet layer, it is exporting only that one layer..

[Fabrice]

I am referencing the 8 layers from another clip into one xsheet layer, it is exporting only that one layer..

Hmm, I'm not sure to understand, feel free to post some screenshots.

"Export > Clip > PSD" or "Export > Project > PSD" does export only one merged layer. (don't forget to choose "sequence" instead of "animation" in the settings)

"Export > Layers Tab > PSD" does export with all layers.

[ZigOtto]

the question is :
why do you need to export to PShop the "unmerged" animation of your character (1 line-layer + x color-layers),
instead of the premerged animLayer ?

[jodyprody]

the layers are imported to after effects for comping, we keep them separate so we can tweak individual colours depending on the scene/BG/lighting..

fabrice: i actually did just like elodie illustrated, I have my animation with line and color layers in one clip, and in another clip I have an xheet layer, into which I have put the images of the first clip, using the source panel in the xsheet tab. In the timeline I see one xsheet layer only, and so when I export using the layers tab -> psd, I only get the one layer, with everything merged.

[malcooning]

Jody, you are probably doing something wrong in the process. I tried to export a Layered PSD an animation with an X-sheet layer, and it exported fine.
Worked the same when I exported a single image layered PSD, or when I exported a layered PSD sequence.
I then imported the PSD sequence into After Effects as a sequence compositon, and it all came in fine: 2 sequences from the 2 layers in the PSD files.

Where do you check your exported PSD?
try to re-import the PSD into TVP or Pshop and see that it is layered.
Also, which TVP version do you have?

[malcooning]

Now that I read your last post again, I see what's the problem. You describe that you have all layers merged into one X-sheet layer. You should create a new X-sheet layer for every layer that you want separate. so in your case, each color should receive a different X-sheet layer, and the line should get it's own layer (in the clip:timeline tab you can see that X-sheet layers have no handles in the beginning and end of the layer)

[jodyprody]

ah ok, I see. But if the layers are in a separate clip, when I choose that clip as the source, it all comes in merged. So I guess I need to stay make the set of xsheet layers in the same clip as the normal layers?

[slowtiger]

It still seems odd to me to export every single colour separately to compositing. Usually a colour stylist comes up with a good set of colours for a character. This can be tweaked a great way in compositing, lighter, darker, more or less contrast, or completely blue or de-saturated ... but always all colours of a character at once. Anything else would be too much work anyway.

Only shadows and highlights/flames/glows would be done on additional layers and treated separately in compositing.

[Fabrice]

nb : the "FX > Color > Color Replacer" can be useful to change range of colors inside TVPaint, without changing other colors.

@ jodyprody, please excuse me : Malconning is right, I understand now.

[malcooning]

ah ok, I see. But if the layers are in a separate clip, when I choose that clip as the source, it all comes in merged. So I guess I need to stay make the set of xsheet layers in the same clip as the normal layers?

You would like to keep your head on but you're still asking for trouble
You can still do this, though you'll have to do so layer by layer:
1. Create the X-sheet layer as before.
2. Go into your source clip (in timeline view) and make only one color layer visible. all other layers hidden.
3. Back in X-sheet panel, the source for your X-sheet layer has only a single color.
4. Manipulate the X-sheet layer to get the right randomness (tween frame and then shuffle)
5. Go to timeline view. right-click your x-sheet layer and select "make-anim". this converts the layer to a regular layer.
6. Repeat the process for the rest of the colors by changing one by one to a different color layer in the source clip, and you're good to go.

Alternaively you can work it all in a single clip, b choosing "layer" as your source, instead of clip.
or, you can move each color layer to a separate clip, change to a different clip as source for each different color.