hi guys!
i am new to AGS. i want to create a walking cycle. but- i want to do it with a Rotoscope technic (painting on a real video picture). i was googled how to do it, but i did not find any useful guide. so i started things myself. i shot a movie of me walking, then edited it with a painting program- i cut the scene into layers, and then moved every layer so it would match the previous one (so that i will look at the same spot, at any picture). BUT THEN WHAT?
i could have start drawing, but i cannot cycle the animation in a painting software, right? i know i can do that with a Flash software, but i wonder if there is a simpler and more Old Shool program for animating.
and- is there a guide that can tell me how to do a rotoscopic walking-cycle? (i also like the video-animation walking-cycle, like it was done at Police Quest 4, and a Guide to that thing would be great to).
thanks!
okay the way sierra did it was with a blue/green screen. It definitely sounds like you're on the right track, with what you've done so far.
I am building a green screen at home and will be attempting this shortly also.
as far as animating goes, I dont have a lot experience, but maybe try animation shop pro (the one that comes with paint shop pro). I used it years ago and it seemed okay.
Would love to see what you come up with!
PS has anyone else successfully used video capture to create their animations?
I've been looking at Synfig Studio (http://synfig.org/Main_Page) recently as a free alternative to Flash, and that can do it (tutorial (http://synfig.org/Walk_Cycle)). Looks like quite a steep learning curve though, and the software isn't particularly user friendly yet. Still, it works with vectors and tweening, so you could potentially get quite a smooth animation from relatively few frames, then export as a series of .png files to edit externally.
Otherwise there's several different graphics packages out there, some of which will allow you to do animation, though I think most are commercial. There's a list in this thread (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=32234.0). The free version of Graphics Gale (http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/) for example will let you animate in a series of frames, although it won't let you export to a .gif file so you'd have to finish your animation then export each individual frame manually - though at least you'd be able to preview the animation while you were working on it and use onion skining.
OK i finally made it. i was not looking at Synfig studio or gale, but i did it with macromedia flash 8.
i have just shot a short video of me walking, then flash let me to cut the video into frames and use it as a reference.
then what i did was to paint every frame with Flash brush tool. it was a hard work, and took me almost 2 hours for each walk-view. (i did the "back" and the "left/right" so far). the resaults look rotoscopic, and it was hard for me to put details (at the face for example), but i want to create a 320X200 game, so it is not that matter.
after painting each photo, i deleted the reference (video), and arrange every paint to the exact same place as the frame before (the onion skin helped me). i also used small red dots as landmarks (on the head for example or on the stomach) so i knew how to orient my paintings.
at the final stage i matched the first painting (the first frame of the walking cycle) to be a flawless continuation of the last frame.
i used this youtube link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP-oVL02Yv0) to see how to use the onion skin method only! (this guy is using a different technic for the walk-cycle).
mybe i will upload a youtube clip soon, so i will be able to show you how it looks like.