Hi!
The template menu is just an empty graphical shell used to facilitate the viewing of certain layers on the timeline (by changing their opacity to either 0 or 100) It’s my cheap synfig version of the switch layers in for example anime studio or creatoon or the cell layers in Toonboom. The menu template contains a body layer which in turn contains several body shapes (front, side ect.) So whatever you put in those layers will become visible when you use the menu and that includes creatures with any amount of legs. You will have to do the rigging yourself though. I was planning the use the stickman version for rigging characters in the template but the old windows version can only contain one stickman figure at a time and since the build of the new 0.64 windows version is not workable and stable yet, I am currently using standard cut-out rigging as shown in Genete’s old tutorial.
Can you license it right now under CC0 by putting the library of poses in a zip file with License document kinda like the character template morevnaproject.org/2013/04/10/ch … -released/
What do you not understand in the sentence Posted: 02 Aug 2013 06:51 , “Yes and yes.” ?
Darkspace65 will, because he is very openmind, share his work.
That’s very powerful people who freely share the work they did.
John, i’m sure you re very impatient to work with “Synfig v0.85” and/or “Library of Pose v 2.35” … and that’s great ! , but can you less insist … ? that’s could be stressy …
Finished menus of all head poses: frontal, side three quarters, left and right.
Finished menus of all body poses: frontal, side and three quarters, left and right.
Finished implementation of mouthshape-menu with 15 shapes linked to all 4 head poses so when you change the head pose you will keep the same mouthshape.
Next on the todo list is the eyeshape-menu with again 15 eyeshapes linked to all the 4 head poses so when you change the head pose you will keep the same eyeshape. Don’t know yet whether to do a seperate menu for the eyebrows or keep them locked onto the eyes.
Then will come the handshape-menus (lefthand and righthand seperatly) which will be partially linked to the bodyshapes and there will also be a propshape-menu, which makes it easy to change props on characters like hats, scarfs or even a different hairstyle.
Linked to the switchlayer-template is the cutout-animation-template which will contain an easy rig setup at first and probably in a later phase will also make use of stickman-templates.
I also have to solve the render issue because when you render your stuff now the the whole menu template will be rendered along with it and that of course is not the intention, lol. A python script can probably solve that. The menu at the moment is suited for one character but it should be possible to have more then one character in the canvas, each with it’s own menu attached to it.
Also all the templates I use, wether it is the switchlayer-, cutout- or storyboard-template are used in beta phase on a production I am working on which is roughly a 10 minute pilote of an animation series made with synfig which is currently in animatic phase so I will probably start to fiddle on an animatic-template too, ,because everytime I come across something in synfig that annoys me (sorry developers ) then I try to go around it using a template and although the templates are mostly for personal use I will share them with the community under whatever license necessary once they are finished and prove to be useful or helpful.
Greetz!
Hi!
New update on my switchlayer-template. This is not an animation as such, but more a representation of me testing the current possibilities of the menu(s) and getting rid of any possible bugs. I know there are flaws in the headposes of the example character, but I was lazy and used the same poses for left and right.
Greetz!
It would be a nice feature if our new common UI elements of Synfig Studio can be hidden, and there is a canvas window be shown for end user only. The TALENT/Advanced user as darkspace65 can develop his/her own UI for specified requirement as this poses library UI.
Let me have a test and try this library of poses and invest more to see if I can figure out what is needed in UI part to achieve this advanced (even unique) function weekend.
Have you taught about doing a collab with Zegaldis who made the character template morevnaproject.org/2013/04/15/ch … -tutorial/ By the way how well does this work with the character template?
This plugin should totally be crowd sourced with the flexible funding option
No, and I would not have time for that anyway, but I think both templates can stand side by side. Zegaldis his template is far more advanced and by any means more professional while mine is aimed more at the beginner.
It does not. Rigging will be just simple basic cut-out animation. In time maybe I will add another version that will use basic stickman figures, like the ones created with the python script.
No money means no pressure, no pressure means no deadline, no deadline means fun.
Greetz!
Hi!
This is the first more or less stable version of my template. It’s not complete yet. There is no icon to translate the character and also no icon yet for hip rotation although the latter is already present. Switch of all handles except position and angle and select the circles to slide over the menus. Select the stars on the character to rotate limbs. Any comments are apreciated.
Greetz! cutouttemplatework.sifz (795 KB)
It is awesome for quick and simple animations!
How could the user change the character drawings? Is there a particular way to do it apart of select each pose and click on each character layer to change it?
-G
That would be one way to do it, but I admit it is not the most easy going or idiot proof way to get around it. After I round up the template and finish this character, give him a belt, add some more other details, close down any possible gaps on limbs, maybe give him a prop or two like maybe a motorcycle helmet, I will try and work out a more or less standard procedure to create/change a (new) character within the template.
Greetz!
Hi!
The current rigsystem in the template is, although functional, rather rigid when you try to add new characters which have different sizes and or shapes compared to the current character in the template. One way to change that is to use the buildin stickman plugin as the rigsystem so that messing around with pivotpoints without losing their consistency is allowed. I do like the simple starsystem I used to rotate the limbs in the template though and I would also like to keep the patchsystem to hide intersecting parts because I want to keep it pure cut-out and I think that is still the most simple and quickest way to do it without messing around with points once you start animating. After a little bit of reverse engineering I came up with this example that shows that it seems possible to get both the stars as the patches into a simplified stickman rig.
Greetz! stickmanstar.sifz (7.21 KB)
Hi!
With the latest excellent, or should I say genius, group-switch layer implementation in the last snapshot, my cut-out animation template became more or less redundant. I am in the middle of storyboaring and making and writing two comics at the same time so I will put the template on hold untill I have more time to decide what to do with it.
Greetz!
,because everytime I come across something in synfig that annoys me (sorry developers 
) then I try to go around it using a template and although the templates are mostly for personal use I will share them with the community under whatever license necessary once they are finished and prove to be useful or helpful.
