Animated Short based on J-Metal Band Member

[GraphicAnime]

Hello,
This animation is based on Demon Kogure from the Japanese Metal Band, Seikima-II.

I was using some new techniques for this animated short and taking advantage of AsPro 10's new features.
In the past, I created animated characters that were entirely created in vector with Anime Studio.

For the character, I used a combination of vectors and bitmap images.
The head and limbs were created in vector.
All of the armor was illustrated in Manga Studio EX5 and touched up in Photoshop.
I used bone control to manipulate the bitmap images together with the vector layers.

I used a similar technique for the flying creatures (profile view).

The rest of the postproduction and effects was completed in Premiere and After Effects.

[Danimal]

The overall look is nice and I especially liked the effects near the end.

[EHEBrandon]

I like the designs but I felt the head movements were very unrealistic also some things could be timed a bit better.. But the overall look and designs are nice. These are things that could improve over time. Nice job.

[GraphicAnime]

I had trouble animating the head because of the complexity and detail on it.

The two blue eye shadows are separate objects, which I tried to keep inline with the nose as the head turned.

In between the head turn animation, I would have to fix the alignment of the makeup that is suppose to line up straight on the nose.

I would have problems with the control points moving around in the wrong place , after every couple of frames.

Below is how I setup the head, face and makeup. I may need to think of a better layer arrangement in the next project.



Below is a quick tutorial I created on how I put together the character in Anime Studio Pro 10.
http://graphicanime.com/seikima-ii/anim ... ation.html

[3deeguy]

You do great work.
I don't know if I'm reading your layers accurately but I think I see a lot of group folders. That might explain why you would have trouble keeping things lined up in a head-turn. Designing a head turn with SmartBone control will save you a ton of headaches.
Something that works well for me is that I draw an eye or a mouth by stacking shapes on a single vector layer. I mask them with a 'face' vector layer.