What is the best way to make a character and in what sequence?

[Dineeeyd]

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Hi all, I have a question again, what is the best way to do the character together with the bones and whether it will be possible to then transfer it to other scenes? If you know then explain please)))

[DarrenTAnims]

That's a huge question. And something that you need to figure out for yourself and for your workflow. It sounds like you want to create a puppet. It depends if you want to use the plastic tool or just connect the columns. But for both, I'd start with sketching your character on 1 column, then drawing the different parts on other columns, leaving some overlap between parts, so that, for instance, when you rotate the arm, there's still some shoulder being shown. To use a puppet in another scene, it's best to save your puppet in its own scene, then load your puppet scene into your other project using the menu item, File > Load as subxsheet. Be aware that if you load it into the same project OR load it into another project and DON'T use the IMPORT option, then any edits will affect anywhere the puppet is used.

[RodneyBaker]

Hi @Dineeeyd As @DarrenTAnims suggests, your question is a pretty involved one and not particularly suited for github. You may find feedback from one of the Opentoonz discords more appropriate. Darren has a discord channel dedicated to Opentoonz and there are other Opentoonz discords as well as other online venues where you'll find a wealth of knowledge and interest in th esubject of creating characters for use with Opentoonz.

While I will close this report... Please feel free to continue the discussion here of course as you see fit.

[Dineeeyd]

@RodneyBaker Well, can I know how to make several poses of a character in one scene, because I can't figure it out.

[RodneyBaker]

@RodneyBaker Well, can I know how to make several poses of a character in one scene, because I can't figure it out.

I suppose the most direct answer would be that we draw them (the poses that is). There are a number of different ways to pose a character but I'd say each approach relies on what we have available in the character to pose.

Do you have an example of a character you would like to pose?

[Dineeeyd]

@RodneyBaker do you want to see the character himself?

[RodneyBaker]

We have to start somewhere. Without knowing more I'd just start guessing. For instance, we might think of a pose as just a set of facial expressions.

Project File: BasicSetup.zip

[Dineeeyd]

@RodneyBaker I need to make poses for this character

[RodneyBaker]

Because of the simplicity of the character you can probably get away with just having each part of the character in a separate column of the xsheet. I presume you might already be doing this.

Because of the very simple arms and legs I personally would consider making those a custom vector brush. Then you can simply adjust a single stroke/line to get them to bend as you see fit. That would also allow you to simply draw the arms and legs into place. Of course the explanation of that setup might be a bit more complicated than this back and forth via github can easily support.

But for starters, do you currently have the different parts of the character in separate columns or are they all in the same drawing?

[RodneyBaker]

I'll guess most will usually keep separate parts of a character on different levels but I like to keep them in the same level where possible. In this way we can store them all in one file (a single TLV toonz raster level for instance). There are benefits to keeping parts in separate files as well.

Here is a friend for your character to illustrate the basic idea:

Note how in the Schematic window most of the 'parts' are children of the Body part. In this way when we move the body the other parts... arms, legs, hat... will move right along with it.

[RodneyBaker]

Posing has a lot to do with the environment the character is in... but you know that already.

[Dineeeyd]

@RodneyBaker I made a skeleton for the character and this is what it looks like

[Dineeeyd]

@RodneyBaker another question, how do I import a character to another scene? when I drag him to another scene, he cannot be manipulated and the skeleton disappears... what to do?

[RodneyBaker]

Probably the easiest way to bring a character into a scene:

1) Save your character by itself as a Scene 2) Import the (character) Scene into the new Scene you wish to have your character occupy... as a subxsheet.

We can then either adjust the frames of that subxsheet or open the subxsheet and edit the character further.

[Dineeeyd]

@RodneyBaker I still can't interact with the character.

[RodneyBaker]

You must Right Click on the Character column (which is a subxsheet that contains all of the potential/parts for your character poses) and select Open Sub-Xsheet. You can then adjust the character as needed.

Note that you may wish to explode the subxsheet so that there is no longer a subxsheet and your entire character is now 'present' in the current scene. This especially if the scene is fairly simple... such as a single background...

If the above is the case then you might just wish to import the scene into the current scene... no need to use a subxsheet.

The subxsheet is particularly useful when it contains all of the poses you will need to use in the scene. Then we can just use the Q and W keys to move through the frame of the subxsheet to pose our character. Entering the subxsheet therefore wouldn't need interaction unless for specific reasons... which we want to avoid because that will also change those poses for other scenes the character/subxsheet is in.

When using a subxsheet it's important to remember to close it and return to the outer scene. Otherwise we can easily forget that we aren't in our main scene and start to change things in that subsce

When explosing a subxsheet (i.e. pulling all the columns/levels out of a subxsheet into the current scene... Opentoonz will ask if we wish to keep the current parent/child relationships. Generally we DO want to keep those relationships as we don't want to lose those connections in the Schematic.

I will recommend NOT using your current project while you experiment with this. Build something temporary so you aren't afraid of breaking things... and then experiment... break things. :)

Added: I note in your image that you've only exposed one frame of your subxsheet (on frame 1). You should have many frames... of different poses... in the subxsheet. Then you can choose from those poses in your scene. If you only have one pose in the subxsheet.... that is the only choice you will have. A level is a collection of images A column is a collection of levels A scene is a collection of (xsheet) columns A sub-xsheet is a collection of contents from a 'scene'.

[Dineeeyd]

@RodneyBaker And can you please show me from the screenshots?

[RodneyBaker]

@RodneyBaker And can you please show me from the screenshots?

I don't have your project file so I'm working from a disadvantage here.

Can you join the Opentoonz discord? This back and forth via github might take a few years to walk you through these processes. There you will get more detailed feedback in real time.

Opentoonz discord (invite): https://discord.gg/UQxvYBKW5U

[RodneyBaker]

Transferring this to Opentoonz Docs