A question about animating a static character

I'm aware of the use of bones animation, but this is different. I'm wondering if people here are familiar with taking a static character like so:

http://www.brianclopp.com/images/greens ... houtte.jpg

And then manipulating the image with an editor (Gimp, Photoshop) to do things like create a run animation, jumping, walking, etc.

What is this style of animating called? And is there any good software out there that makes it easier to do?

anime studio, adobe aftereffects, i think some do it in flash

that editor I'm making

there's probably more, but those are the ones i know

for a completely static image, tho, aftereffects is probably the best

oh yeah, there was some facething...forgot what it was called

but it used to be only for facial fun puppet things...I think now it does stuff like that

Thanks Lucid.

By the way, I saw your program, it looks really cool. I can't wait to see how the final program turns out.

thanks, btw, stumbled upon that last program by accident....

it was called crazytalk

There's also graphics gale for pixel art animations. That's what I use. What do mean by static character though? I'm not sure I understand. I think what you mean is just traditional animation of a sprite, (no segmented body parts, just pure frame scrubbing of a single sprite) correct me if i'm wrong. If you want to make a nice looking run animation for that silhouette your going to have to redraw the frames by hand.

Or do you want to bake a bone style movement by cutting that image up into limbs and animating them like a doll?

MrMiller wrote:

"I'm aware of the use of bones animation, but this is different. I'm wondering if people here are familiar with taking a static character like so"

You can create this effect with Poser 7. One of the render settings lets you save the animations as black on white silhouettes.

Lucid wrote:

"thanks, btw, stumbled upon that last program by accident....

it was called crazytalk"

I think the program is called 'ICLONE' by 'reallusion'. Its the same company that made 'crazy talk'.

Iclone is for character animation, and crazy talk lets you create facial animations with lip syncing.

Iv'e got the programs on one of my old hard drives i think. Poser6 or7 would be the best option out of the 3.

...

You can create this effect with Poser 7. One of the render settings lets you save the animations as black on white silhouettes.

...

Iv'e got the programs on one of my old hard drives i think. Poser6 or7 would be the best option out of the 3.

I could be wrong, but I think he's more interested in a taking any still image, and converting it to animate-able puppet, not necessarily creating a silhouetted image

> ...

> You can create this effect with Poser 7. One of the render settings lets you save the animations as black on white silhouettes.

> ...

> Iv'e got the programs on one of my old hard drives i think. Poser6 or7 would be the best option out of the 3.

>

I could be wrong, but I think he's more interested in a taking any still image, and converting it to animate-able puppet, not necessarily creating a silhouetted image

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You could try Jasc Animation v311 :

http://board.jokeroo.com/progress-mater ... -v311.html

I dont think it has an option for splitting the image into 'body parts' though?

There's also graphics gale for pixel art animations. That's what I use. What do mean by static character though? I'm not sure I understand. I think what you mean is just traditional animation of a sprite, (no segmented body parts, just pure frame scrubbing of a single sprite) correct me if i'm wrong. If you want to make a nice looking run animation for that silhouette your going to have to redraw the frames by hand.

Or do you want to bake a bone style movement by cutting that image up into limbs and animating them like a doll?

I probably should've explained that better. I meant just one frame of a character/model.

I could be wrong, but I think he's more interested in a taking any still image, and converting it to animate-able puppet, not necessarily creating a silhouetted image

That's correct. I checked out Crazy Talk last night: http://www.reallusion.com/crazytalk/

^^^ that program is really something. I'm about to get into bones with Construct and I'm hoping I'll be able to do something as smooth with Construct as what I see with Crazy Talk.

> I could be wrong, but I think he's more interested in a taking any still image, and converting it to animate-able puppet, not necessarily creating a silhouetted image

>

That's correct. I checked out Crazy Talk last night: http://www.reallusion.com/crazytalk/

^^^ that program is really something. I'm about to get into bones with Construct and I'm hoping I'll be able to do something as smooth with Construct as what I see with Crazy Talk.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

just checked your link out-

"Complete 2D Animation!

CrazyTalk Animator focuses on total animation production with actors, props, scenes, camera & a complete time-line for precision animation. The real difference with CrazyTalk Animator is you get full characters with a talking head and full-body motion. CrazyTalk Animator is a great match for ambitious beginners, educators, video editors and all users that need a total 2D Animation solution with deep character creation and performance animation tools"

Pretty impressive. My version must be about 10 years old!