2d character animation with AE ?? is it a good idea??

hi,
i need some 2d character animation done.. i dont know how to use toonboom studio ..what are my options..i dont need disney quality animation just basic 2d walk cycles and some other actions..is AE good or do i need to use some other tools..
thanks..

Bon Jour mon ami!

I work for a 2D animation studio. We've always used AFX to composite scenes for both 2d an 3d animation.

Seems you're asking if you could use it as your main 2D software. Although technically, yes you can import animation as image sequences into the app, I don't really think afx was designed for that purpose. The reason being: as a 2d animator you might have the need to scroll back and forth thru your animation in real time. Plus it wont give you the tools you need for individual frame ink and painting.

What we usually do in the (our) studio is to have the 2d animation done in applications like:

US Animation
Retas Pro
Digicel Flipbook
CTP

After entering x-sheet data, and applying digital ink and paint, we import the output into AFX, where we do the final compositing.

But if all you intend to do is scan in animation then have them converted into a video of some sort, I think AFX is more than enough for what you need.

Also note, when importing your animation into AFX it is assumed that the scanned files are named in with appropriate numbering, and that you have already mereged separate animation layers beforehand.


Hope this helps.


J

puppet animation is feasible with aftereffects (there's a ragdoll type effect in CS3, not that great) but pretty complicated to code. Look for dan ebberts on the interwebs


http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthr...p?f=10&t=504897

On the puppet side...

Here's IK from Dan:

http://www.motionscript.com/design-guide/toc.html

There's a walk cycle at Creative Cow (site down therefore no link at this moment) the main AE page:

http://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-b...s.cgi?forumid=2

I think. Just click on Dan's head at the top and scroll down to "Animating a Walk Cycle".

Here's an example of some animation, all in AE, both for contests:

http://www.ifilm.com/video/2686263

http://www.ifilm.com/video/2710509

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