Animation challenge

[StephanA]

We have a dressup game (flash) with +5000 items and we are looking for a way to have our static characters to sit down and to stand up by pressing a button.
Can this be animated and if so who can help?
Thank you, Stephan.

[jahnocli]

This is all very vague. Can you be a bit more specific?

[slowtiger]

Depends. (as always ...)

It depends on many things. 5000 items is a lot. So if I can have a character in 5000 different dresses, then I have to animate all 5000 dresses with the character. AS only creates sequences which you can put into your game, there's not realtime rendering of motion within the game. At least all 5000 dresses must be set up and rigged in a way that they can be moved. Flash is able to move things during the game, however, it cannot handle flexible stuff like dresses in the way AS could do.

A 3D game engine could render your character's movement with any texture you assign to it. In this case only the texture changes, not the shape of the clothing, although I think it should be possible to program this as well.

[heyvern]

Sounds like a job for "batch export".

This could be done with bones but as stated previously might require some tweaking if the clothes are really different. Just drop in a new outfit layer or turn layers on and off... 500 times... <thunk>.

I use a similar technique for the character packs I'm developing... but I do use the occasional point binding... but not 500 times! <thunk> If I had the resources in your position I would want to hire someone to do that as well.

More info needed.

This is one of those strange dress up flash things I see adds for all the time? What's up with that? I guess it's for the kids... right? It's for the kids... not grownups? I've seen some for grownups too. Makes my former Mennonite heart skip a beat.

-vern

[jahnocli]

"...500 times..."

It's not 500. It's 5 thousand...

[synthsin75]

Depending on how different each piece of clothing is, this could be done with a single controlled mesh. Even with a fair degree of variety, it could still be done. With a single animation for all elements.

But yeah, I guess the biggest concern would be how to export each 'option'. I'm not familiar with flash, so I wouldn't know what is needed.

With an example of the extremes of the clothing variety, I could at least tell you how difficult it may be. I'm betting it would be just as easy to do further animation than just sit/stand.

The drawback, as already mentioned, would be the enormous number of renders possibly needed.

(Also pay has not been mentioned)

[slowtiger]

Vern: It's easy to tell wether such a game is for children or for grownups. If you DRESS a character, it's for children. If you UNDRESS them ... well.

[PARKER]

Thats an easy animation task.I think i could help.

[lipsync]

I am Divina Leonardo, the Production Manager of Toon Manila Productions. TMP is a service animation studio in the Philippines since 1991. Our recent clients are companies from Asia, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Spain and USA.

We would like to express our desire to be part of your creative team working on your 2D and 3D flash animation projects. PLEASE TRY US OUT, FREE OF OBLIGATION on your part. And we will come up with the quality that you need. You can send us a test sequence to our FTP site (our FTP details are stipulated below).

TMP specialize in Storyboards, Layouts and Animation up to Compositing. We are licensed to use the following softwares:
Animo 7 for scanning, compositing and Digital Ink and Paint
Flipbook 3.61 for Linetest
Magpie Pro 1.25 for sound reading.

Here is the list of our most recent projects:
Company Scope of Work Title

AFilm A/S, Denmark Storyboards Benjamin Blumchen –tv series
Hans Christian Andersen –tv series
White Cockatoo
Jungo

Excalibur Animation, Spain Animation, Pinatas
Animation Assistance,
In-Betweening,
Scanning,
Compositing.

Filmax Animation, Spain Animation Assistance, El Cid: The Legend
In-Betweening, Gisaku
Scanning, Nocturna
Compositing.

Flying Bark, Australia Storyboards Flipper – tv series
(former Yoram Gross EMTV) Dive Olly Dive
Layouts Flipper – tv series
Tabaluga – tv series

Ocon Digital Magic, Korea Storyboards Dibo

Optima Digital, Philippines Storyboards, Dunkin’ Donuts Commercial
Layouts,
Animation,
Animation Assistance,
In-Betweening,
Scanning,
Compositing
PrimeTime TV, Germany Pre-Production Designs, Timm Thaler –tv series
Storyboards,
Layouts,
Animation,
Animation Assistance,
In-Betweening,
Scanning,
Compositing.
Unitel Pictures, Philippines Pre-Production Designs, Siopawman
Storyboards, Pinoy Blonde
Layouts,
Animation,
Animation Assistance,
In-Betweening,
Scanning,
Compositing
Digital Ink and Paint.
Wildbrain, U.S.A. Storyboards Higgly Town Heroes


Thank you very much and I hope to hear from you soon. We will be very glad to be of help to you.


Sincerely,
Yna Leonardo
yna@toonmanila.com
Mobile : +63 917 962 1003


This is our address:
TOON MANILA PRODUCTIONS
7/F Landsdale Tower
#86 Mother Ignacia Street corner Timog Avenue,
Diliman, Quezon City 1100
Philippines
Website: www.toonmanila.com
FTP site: 203.215.76.177
Username: toonmanila
Password: tmp
Tel : +63 2 4102595
Fax : +63 2 3719350

[gabriel12]

What animation/legal rights to own for the cartoon character designed for a company?

[Rhoel]

Vern: It's easy to tell wether such a game is for children or for grownups. If you DRESS a character, it's for children. If you UNDRESS them ... well.

... I'd buy it

But then, I'm incorrigible.

[elfinruler12]

What animation/legal rights to own for the cartoon character designed for a company?

If you designed it especially for a company, the company can retain the rights and royalties for that character by signing a contract for that. To know about the rights and royalties visit this site http://si-r-usdesign.com/.