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animating 'flat' characters

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animating 'flat' characters

I have story idea where I would need to animate paper-thin 3D characters in Maya 6, but I'm not sure how to approach the skeleton. I have only animated regular models before and I know this would bring up particualr difficulties. Does anyone have any experience with this, or have any ideas? Thanks. This is my first post.

I have never used maya so I can't give you program specific advice. I assume you are doing a south park type of thing. If so you wouldnt use skeleton you would break your model into pieces and then parent them. For example the arm and body would be two pieces and the arm would be parented to the body.

For this kind of thing I'd suggest using this program:

http://www.lostmarble.com/moho

It allows you to draw or import flat 2D objects and rig them with bones.

James :cool:

I am interested in using maya or other 3D apps for this too, possibly for combination 2d/3d type stuff. I have tried a variety of things in Maya (PLE) but havn't really been able to understand a good way to do it yet. Let us know if you come across good resources for it.

Them Bones

If bones don't work in MAYA the only other thing I can think of would be the deformers.

Lightwave makes flat animation really simple, two words, morph target.

If bones don't work in MAYA the only other thing I can think of would be the deformers.

Lightwave makes flat animation really simple, two words, morph target.

I also heard Animation Master (3D program) is good for that sort of thing too.
James :cool:

why the hell use maya for this? use maya for 3d elements and do the cutouts 2-d. if you need to bend them and morph them in 3d, i suppose that's a different story. still sounds like killing a fly with a bazooka.

they actually do use a 3d program to make southpark though, so it isnt that far off.

Basically you could just work it like flash but with a little better controls.

The arms you can parent to the body and then adjust the point of rotation so they rotate in the right spot and move along with it.

just depends on what kind of characters they are. like southpark or something. try looking into flash as well.

"who wouldn't want to make stuff for me? I'm awesome." -Bloo

I did such a cutout animation using Moho with a little After Effects. Find it at http://www.decksawash.net/socks/socks.asp
I used switch layers in Moho to do the dialog.

Alan

Get some "Good Advice" at http://www.decksawash.net

I did such a cutout animation using Moho with a little After Effects. Find it at http://www.decksawash.net/washingsocks.asp
I used switch layers in Moho to do the dialog.

Alan

"The page cannot be found
The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. "

James :cool:

Oops. My bad. Try this instead:
http://www.decksawash.net/socks/socks.asp

Alan

Get some "Good Advice" at http://www.decksawash.net