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Home ? Tips & Tricks ? Extend or combine character actions

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14/05/2016 11:00:35

ikesMuvizu mogul
ikes
Posts: 282 		Hi All,

I do not know if this is being used by people, but I would like to share a trick I found to extend or combine character actions. What I do is, have multiple instances of a same character. I direct the visibility with keyframes. So the first character is visible and the others are turned off. He can do a walk or an action and if I want him to do something else immediately, I switch off visibility of the first and switch on the second to take it over. You can in this way use the beginning of one action and the end of another. In that way you can make smooth transitions or new kind of actions.

Hope you understand what I mean here. I've made two examples below. Maybe if I have the time, I could make a tutorial if it's not quite clear.

Happy animating!

Ikes

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14/05/2016 11:02:47

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		That's a really clever trick! Thanks for sharing.
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14/05/2016 12:14:52

ukBertyMuvizu mogulExperimental user
ukBerty
Posts: 975 		Nice one....
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14/05/2016 12:45:17

Valero
Valero
Posts: 50 		I'd never would've thought of it. Great usable work!!!
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14/05/2016 14:05:57

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		Great idea! Without knowing where you changed visibility, it's hard to guess what you did... to me it looks seamless. I'd like maybe not a full blown tutorial (although that would be nice) but at least a little background on what actions were combined and where the switch was made.

One of the new additions to the User assets uses a similar trick to switch between two wheelbarrows (one attached to a character, and one free standing)... the end result looks like the character pushed a wheelbarrow to a certain point then walked away from it. In reality the wheelbarrow attached to the character gets turned OFF while the freestanding one gets turned ON!

Very clever!
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14/05/2016 15:52:53

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		As well as animating the Visibility to do this, you could also use Layers - one layer with, one without, then cut between them in the edit.
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14/05/2016 17:05:09

ikesMuvizu mogul
ikes
Posts: 282 		Thanks! It could be possible with layers indeed, but can you then kind of see the flow of the action?
I have made a little tutorial on how I do this. Sorry for the video quality. I had to record my screen with a camera, because my screen capture software doesn't record the pulldown menu's in muvizu. Very strange...


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14/05/2016 19:03:24

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		Ikes,
thanks for taking time to make this tutorial... it makes sense to me now! VERY clever! Playing devil's advocate here... you could have applied the diving action to the original character and slid the action to wherever you need it, right?

But I can imagine situations where the complexity and timing of the character actions would necessitate something like this! Thank you for sharing the results of your creative exploration with the rest of us! You are very inventive!
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14/05/2016 19:05:56

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		Is that a CRT monitor?
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14/05/2016 19:42:23

ikesMuvizu mogul
ikes
Posts: 282 		MrDrWho13 wrote:
Is that a CRT monitor?


No, it is a Wacom Cintiq screen
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14/05/2016 19:46:10

ikesMuvizu mogul
ikes
Posts: 282 		PatMarrNC wrote:
Ikes,
thanks for taking time to make this tutorial... it makes sense to me now! VERY clever! Playing devil's advocate here... you could have applied the diving action to the original character and slid the action to wherever you need it, right?

But I can imagine situations where the complexity and timing of the character actions would necessitate something like this! Thank you for sharing the results of your creative exploration with the rest of us! You are very inventive!


Hi Pat,

Thanks, This was indeed a quite simple example with just a walking and one action, just to show how I did it. It is ofcourse possible to have more complex actions with up to more character instances all with their own actions and stich it all together..
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14/05/2016 19:49:12

ikesMuvizu mogul
ikes
Posts: 282 		MrDrWho13 wrote:
Is that a CRT monitor?


Do you (or anybody) maybe have a clue why my screen capute doesn't capture pulldown menu's in muvizu? I have tried 3 or 4 different capute software, all with the same result.
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14/05/2016 19:53:30

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		ikes wrote:
MrDrWho13 wrote:
Is that a CRT monitor?


Do you (or anybody) maybe have a clue why my screen capute doesn't capture pulldown menu's in muvizu? I have tried 3 or 4 different capute software, all with the same result.

Unfortunately not. Support might know: http://www.muvizu.com/Support
I doubt it, but it's worth a shot.
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15/05/2016 01:49:29

jgourlay
jgourlay
Posts: 21 		ikes wrote:
Do you (or anybody) maybe have a clue why my screen capute doesn't capture pulldown menu's in muvizu? I have tried 3 or 4 different capute software, all with the same result.


Are you trying to just grab a single shot or record a video session when this happens? Muvizu menus disappear when focus is lost which happens when you click in a screen capture tool - the windows snipping tool in Windows 10 has a delay so you can enable it and then select the menu you want before the select mode is enabled.

I was able to use ezvid to capture a recording of my desktop with all Muvizu menus visible. Bit of a hunt to find where it hides your video (\Users\<YourName>\Documents\ezvid\projects\) but otherwise was easy to set up.

Hopefully this is helpful

Cheers

JG
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15/05/2016 09:47:43

ikesMuvizu mogul
ikes
Posts: 282 		Hi jgourlay,

Thanks for your reply. I tried to record a video session of my screen. I can capture everything in muvizu exept the pulldown menu's and context menu's when you right click.
So I downloaded and installed ezvid... But it also has the same result, no menu's
With just a printscreen, it is the opposite, then it captures all the menu's and popup screens exept the workspace and camera view.
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15/05/2016 14:03:11

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		not a very convenient workaround, but it would accomplish the full goal if you felt like going to the trouble: You could use ALT-PRTSCR to capture each menu and your other screen capture program to capture everything else... then combine them in your video editor.

This is what happens when you decide to be a good guy and help people by making video tutorials: no good deed goes unpunished. ;-)

However maddening this may be, rest assured that your efforts and information are greatly appreciated!
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15/05/2016 14:52:35

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		ikes wrote:
MrDrWho13 wrote:
Is that a CRT monitor?


No, it is a Wacom Cintiq screen


Ikes, how do you like your Wacom Cintiq? I've been looking at them, but the price has kept me from buying. That's the one that allows drawing directly on the screen while the picture is visible below the pen, right? Amazing concept for digital artists!
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15/05/2016 16:00:51

ikesMuvizu mogul
ikes
Posts: 282 		PatMarrNC wrote:
ikes wrote:
MrDrWho13 wrote:
Is that a CRT monitor?


No, it is a Wacom Cintiq screen


Ikes, how do you like your Wacom Cintiq? I've been looking at them, but the price has kept me from buying. That's the one that allows drawing directly on the screen while the picture is visible below the pen, right? Amazing concept for digital artists!


Hi Pat,

That's right, I can directly draw on the screen. I bought it a couple of years ago for digitizing a couple of my paintings. I realy like it, altough it is quite expensive indeed.
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15/05/2016 17:53:47

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		tablets of that type are very popular among the users of conventional animation programs such as Anime Studio and ToonBoom studio, where characters can be drawn/painted, then animated.

There are some lower priced Chinese knockoffs that get good reviews, HUION GT-220 is one that comes to mind

It's on my wish list... but the older I get, the less time and enthusiasm I have for learning curves.

Nevertheless, you can safely put my name on the list of people who envy you for having a cintiq. ;-)
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19/05/2016 18:44:56

chaver
chaver
Posts: 5 		Thank you for sharing
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