Image Textures in 5.6

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 2:32 pm

From Rasheed
"..So, when are we going to see those textured vector animations? It is now fairly easy to do."

So... I am wondering what I'm doing wrong, I just get the same results in the new version.
I can't see any new texture options, or menus, I must be a little dim I think

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 2:47 pm

If you apply a texture image effect to a fill, bones that can manipulate the vector shape will now also alter the image fill. You need to be on a frame other than zero for the bone motion to affect the vector shape, and render to see the image texture.

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 2:51 pm

hi synthsin ,well here's the thing, it's getting the texture to land where I want it to like in Rasheeds example, I'm gonna mucha around some more with it but it doesn't seem to be an exact science when it comes to applying the texture accurately.there must be a trick I haven't found yet.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:07 pm

Okay, nevermind. I can't figure it out either. I can get close, but I can't seem to get the texture fill to 'fit' a vecter shape. Is this what Rasheed's example was trying to do?

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:25 pm

Yeah , that's what I thought, and my image layer matches my vector image, and when I export animation it matches, for a split second and the image is suddenly replaced by a non matching version which is just slightly out of whack.
When I play the rendered file it seems the image texture is fractionally bigger than the vector shape , also larger bone bends cause the image to slide off a little.
Still... it's a great feature that I am very excited about, just not as easy as uv mapping.
I would post the results, but ironically my website server is down for the day while they relocate

I'll try a restart.

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:18 pm

I have a couple of solutions for that:

remove the background of the saved preview
do not change the image size and the project size
do not move the vector layer that receives the image texture, but rather put it in a parent layer and move that layer instead
paint in your paint program on a new layer, on top of the imported image layer
paint outside the lines in your paint program (see below)
fill solid colors with vector fillings in Anime Studio, rather than in your paint program
if your design allows it, use thick outlines on your vector drawing

Here was the file I exported from Anime Studio Pro (vector drawing). I had to remove the background from the saved preview file with an image editor.

Here was the file I created with Artrage 2.5. Notice the colors are applied outside the lines, to ensure there will be no matching errors:

Both images are 640 x 480 pixels. I that is your project size, you should keep it at that size. If you start to change the width : height ratio, there will be matching error (meaning that the texture filling will not line up with the vector image).

Here is the resulting animation (not very good, but it demonstrates the technique):

Here is the project folder: character.zip

The face is solid vector color, and the hair and shirt are texture fillings. As you can see, there are still some minor errors, which, I suppose, you could remove in post-production. It is still a crude technique, which can't be used for pixel precision, unfortunately. I could redo the image, and paint some more just above the left shoulder, so the white pixels don't show up.

As always, making it perfect requires several iterations.

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 10:03 pm

yep,, looks like we have to allow some tolerance for the new image textures. It's still pretty good , though, methinks.

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 12:41 am

Another tip:

If you crop your image texture to the exact outer edges of the shape you are filling it will also work. In the example above from Rasheed, if you load the white areas as a selection (in photoshop) and select crop image from the menu you have an image size that will completely fit in the shape.

The image will fill the shape based on the outer "bounding box" size of the image and the bounding box that encompasses the shape. As long as they are the same the image will "match". Does this make sense? When using an image texture the WHOLE "square" image is used. It fits the shape based on the "squared" bounding box of the shape.

This is better since you don't have to have a lot of wasted space on the image. By cropping tight you save on image size.

-vern

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:22 am

I did some experimenting.

The problems seems to occur with long thin shapes, with more bones than points to control them. It seems that textures are bent slightly different than vector shapes, probably due to rounding errors (pixel images have less resolution than vector images).

For the white edge "bug" to occur, it doesn't really matter if you use the Tile or the Stretch method, because they both are affected similarly. It also doesn't matter if you fill outside the lines or not (so disregard my earlier remark about that).

So, if you experience a lot of white edges, where there shouldn't be any, add more points and try a pose/design with less bending of each single bone. If you bend your bones too much, the texture fill will break and give you white edges.

I think we are writing a part of the tutorial here, Vern.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 4:31 am

In the original post asking for this feature, the author was asking specifically for a texture fill that would rotate a circle shape by bone. This kind of manipulation wouldn't cause this trouble. That feature request basically only asked for texture translation, scale, and rotation by bone.

So I guess Mike wasn't psychic enough to anticipate us expecting even more. Oh well, a new request for next time.

I don't know if the old fuctionality of texture fills can be done anymore in 5.6, so I held on to a copy of 5.5 just in case. I can imagine still wanting to use that kind of behavior.

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 8:10 am

I don't do textures that are "confined" to the shape. if you create a texture that fills the WHOLE rectangular area of the shape you will not get those "white" areas or base shape color areas showing through.

The trick is not to do anything on the "border" of the image that could be done more simply using AS... like... well a border (stroke) or shading.

This image is actually a full square image... it goes all the way to the edges. The "background" never "peeks" through:

This is one of the images I used (there are 3). The "light" areas are transparent:

-vern

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:17 am

I wouldn't ever expect a program to be that exact as to never show white edges.

pozlang · Post by **pozlang** » Sat May 17, 2008 1:57 am

When I bend my character's body with a "dress" fabric applied to it as an image texture, the texture slips around inside the shape as the character moves. The image seems to want to remain "upright".

When I use the texture tutorial (copy a render to clipboard, make the texture in photochop, import the image as a layer and use masking to reveal) I get even weirder results in my bone layer. Even with regional binding applied. I can't layer bind, since the dress covers the whole spine and needs to be deformed by several bones.

Anyone have any other ideas? Am I ignoring the obvious answer?

Thanks for any help!

Image Textures in 5.6

Image Textures in 5.6

My textures are a mess!