Moho Forum

Is it possible to make a PNG Image a vector layer in Anime Studio ? I am told that the "Bonding" of an image after applying bones cannot be done on a PNG insert.

You can use Draw>Trace Image but you won't get very good results unless it is a very simple image, and it won't be the same. It is really an approximation, and then you could work on the layer more. I've never been satisfied with any of its outputs.

Like the guy said above you could use the trace image button but the results are very poor. If it's a drawing just trace the original drawings in Anime Studio.

Alternatively, you might consider auto-tracing in Adobe Illustrator and importing an AI file. AI might possibly do a more accurate job at this sort of thing. The catch is, ASP will interpret the point placement of the shape differently. That's probably not important for most cases but it's something to be aware of.

G.

What would be helpful I think is if a more complex cropping functionality were adopted, basically allow points to act as an image crop, and allow the points to be automated. Some sort of 'auto crop to image' would help, and then you could still adjust the points.

What would be helpful I think is if a more complex cropping functionality were adopted, basically allow points to act as an image crop, and allow the points to be automated. Some sort of 'auto crop to image' would help, and then you could still adjust the points.

You should be able to do that using masking. I think that will work with a PNG image. I'm not sure what you mean by "bonding" with a PNG image. You can manipulate them with bones, if that's what you mean. Jack

In essence what I mean is: using an image downloaded from the internet then removing the background making it a PNG image, importing it to Debut or Pro, applying bones then manipulate the image it is screwy parts don't move correctly. I learned from tutorials that "Bonding" takes care of this but I have had no success with the Bonding. A representative from SmithMicro advised me that only a "Vector" layer could be bonded. So, see where I'm at ? Catch 22.

toshiyori:
If you want a good result, you need to put a bit more work into this. Some steps are mandatory:

1. Wherever you got the image from, you need to crop the parts you want, and erase the parts you don't want, and save the result as a PNG with an alpha channel, which is the transparency information. You do this in any bitmap software, like Photoshop or GIMP or whatever.

It is possible to do this step with masking in AS, but a bitmap software gives you much more delicate control over the result.

2. You can create some animation from a single bitmap image rigged with bones, bot not a broad rangew of movements. Take an image of a starfish for example: you may wiggle each of its arms nicely, but you will not be able to put one arm in front of another.

If you want to have a character walk around or do any other complex movement, you need to split up the original image into separate parts: the body, upper legs, lower legs, fee, upper arms, lower arms, hands, head - and each goes into its very own PNG file. Only when you do this AS can put one body part in front of another and move them all around really independently.

I believe this method is referred to as: "Paper Cutout Style", that requires each part of an image be separated and saved in a PNG file. Is there a program (other then photoshop, I won't pay there prices) that can accomplish this task ? I can do this on Pixelmator but it requires a lot of time. But yes, I agree the images must be in separate PNG files for a good animation, I was jus trying to bypass this "Paper Cutout Style" episode.

You can do what you want in almost any drawing software, even free software such as Gimp. It doesn't take long as you simply copy the character layer several times and erase the parts you don't need. Personally I always prefer to create my character's in Anime Studio as I believe this to be more versatile and I can avoid the "Paper Cutout Style" look as you call it by animating the vector points, where needed, also.