Skipping in Celaction

For our motion studies module we were introduced to Celaction to use as an alternative to Adobe Flash. A coloured jpeg drawing of Remy was put into Photoshop so that his body could be broken down into layers, which were each named accordingly.

Elements of the body taken apart in Photoshop.

This Photoshop file could then be imported to the pool in Celaction so that a hierarchy could be created to link the joints, which were then anchored to move at their appropriate pivot points. As inverse kinematics don't work well in 2D animation, the root was based in the character's pelvis. These layers were also maneuvered in the Actor Display menu to ensure parts of the body were not hidden.

The components ordered in an accurate hierarchy.

Two different shapes have been used for the eyes, which can be easily flicked between when necessary. However, the pupils need to be invisible whilst the blink shape is selected.

The two eye shapes: open and blinking.

When imported, Remy was much larger that the designated stage, so the camera size was increased. The required key poses and breakdowns were positioned in the dope sheet and an ease in/out algoraithm inserted the inbetween frames.

Although it seems much quicker to animate in Celaction, the animation looks a lot stiffer than drawing frame-by-frame in Flash.