Animation

Drawing Each Body Segment

Each movable body segment needs to be drawn on it's own layer/column. Any level type can be used for cut-out animation.

How to Divide the Body +

The more you separate out the different parts of the body, the more sophisticated the potential motion could be. At the same time, more moving parts are sometimes more challenging to control.

The example image is missing

At minimum, you should include separate drawings for: the head, torso, upper left arm, lower left arm, left hand, upper right arm, lower right arm, right hand, upper left leg, lower left leg, left foot, upper right leg, lower right leg and the right foot. Make sure you plan for some overlapping.

Overlapping Tips +

When working with cut-out animation, it is important to plan out how the different body segments will overlap. If the segments overlap poorly, the cut-out approach becomes too obvious and then draws unwanted attention. The example image is missing

Using smart raster levels allows for hiding improperly overlapping line segments later on (vector levels can do this too but are currently a little finicky with the Skeleton Tool)
Give each level a descriptive name (ie. Fred_Left_Foot)
Draw each segment a little past the edge of the connected body segment
Round off the edges where two segments overlap
Use the fill bucket (shortcut F) to fill in areas of color (otherwise hiding overlapping line segments will not work)
You can clone cells to create an unlinked copy (Select the cell in the Timeline, then go to Cells → Clone) if there are drawings you want to duplicate

Drawing Order +

Drawings do need to be in a specific order due to how the rig overlaps. In the Timeline view, from left to right, place your drawings in the following order:

If you need to reposition the order of your columns, use the top (or left) of the column header to drag and reposition.

Quest +

In a Project and new scene, using any level type(s), create the drawings for an original character that will across the screen. These drawing should show the side view. Make sure to include a separate level for each moving part including:

Head
Torso
Upper arms
Lower arms
Hands
Upper legs
Lower legs
Feet

Please avoid stick figures or anything that look too similar to existing characters. They do not need to be humanoid - feel free to make this your own!

Centering

The center of each drawing needs to be placed at the location where each pivot point would be.

How To +

Select the Animate Tool
Set the property to "center"
For each column/layer:
1. Select the column in the Timeline
2. Click and drag to move the drawing center (the pink circle) to the desired pivot point location

Example Positions +

Quest +

For each level (and body segment), move the drawing center to the location of that body segment's pivot point.

Rigging

Before we can animate a cut-out animation, we need to create a rig/skeleton by connecting the parts of the body together.

Parenting in the Schematic +

The Stage Schematic (in the FX Room) can be used to connect the bones together to create the correct parent/child relationship:

The Schematic has 2 modes, the Stage view(which shows the Table and Camera nodes) and the default FX view (which shows the Scene and Output nodes). If the FX schematic is active, toggle the button on the very bottom right of the window:
If the Schematic panel is too small, press the accent key` to temporarily expand it to fill the program window
You can use the menu on the bottom left of the Schematic panel to optimize your view. From left to right, you can:
1. Selection mode
2. Zoom mode
3. Hand mode
4. Fit to window
5. Focus on current
6. Reorder nodes
7. Reset size
8. Expand/minimize nodes
For each pair of nodes you want to connect, click and drag from red socket to blue socket(or from blue to red)
The torso (or upper torso) should act as the "parent", with all of the other layers/nodes connected to it
1. Hand → Lower Arm → Upper Arm → Torso
2. Foot → Lower Leg → Upper Leg → Torso
3. Head → Neck → Torso

If any drawings move out of position after being parented, use the Select Tool (S) to fix the position.

Quest +

Use "the Stage Schematic" to connect the different layers of your character together.

Animating

Move with Animate Mode +

Animate mode is best when you want to move a section of the body without impacting other areas. It also allows you to position a rigged character/object with more control. While you could use the "Inverse Kinematics" mode, it can be finicky and offers significantly less control.

Select a body segment, move the cursor away from the body until you see the double arrows, then LMB-click and drag to rotate
1. Selecting the thigh or upper arm will let you rotate the whole arm or leg
If using a vetor level and the focus does not switch correctly when clicking on a drawing, change focus by clicking on the drawing in the Timeline

Creating a Basic Walk Cycle +

A basic walk cycle usually has a character walking in place. The looping cycle is later tweened to create the movement from one location to another. This allows the cycle to be reused in multiple locations.

Stretch the cells (for each drawing/body segment) to take up 32 frames
Still using the Animate (you could also use Inverse Kinematics) mode of the Skeleton tool, adjust your character:
1. In the first frame, set your character into the starting position (called the contact pose). Arms and legs are traditionally bent at an angle and extended diagonally in opposite directions
2. Make sure in frame 1 that every cell has a keyframe:
  1. Right-click on the frame number (in the top row of the Timeline):
  2. Select "Insert Multiple Keys"
3. In the last frame, do not change any positions but manually add keyframes to each level (this will give you an ending contact position that is identical to the starting position - really helpful for looping later!):
  1. Select the last frame in the Timeline
  2. In the top menu, select "Scene" (Xsheet for older releases of Tahoma)
  3. Select "Insert Multiple Keys"
4. In the frame 16 (the middle frame), rotate the arms and legs into the opposite positions (this is the inverse contact pose)
  1. In Animate mode, select the upper arms and legs to move the entire arm/leg
  2. Each adjustment you make on a different frame should make a keyframe automatically (you can always use the shortcut Z to add a keyframe manually if necessary)
Play the animation in the viewer to preview your motion and make adjustments to the pose as necessary. More poses can be added for better believability.

Adding More Poses to the Walk Cycle +

The Passing, Descent, and High-point poses add to the sense of realism for a walk cycle.

Add 2 Passing poses at frames 8 and 24 (or midway between the inverse contact pose and each contact pose)
1. Adjust the angle of the legs as necessary
2. Refine the angle of the feet
The passing poses are almost identical - except the legs switch positions in the 2 poses
Add 2 Descent poses at frames 4 and 20 (midway between the passing pose and the previous contact/inverse contact pose)
1. Very slightly lower the entire body (selecting the torso should let you do so)
2. Adjust the angle of the legs as necessary
3. Refine the angle of the feet (make sure the foot on the ground is still at the same height as it was previously)
Again the poses are almost identical - except the legs and arms switch positions in the 2 poses
Add 2 High-point poses at frames 12 and 28 (midway between the passing pose and the forward contact/inverse contact pose)
1. Very slightly raise the entire body (selecting the torso should let you do so)
2. Adjust the angle of the legs as necessary
3. Refine the angle of the feet (make sure the foot on the ground is still at the same height as it was previously)
Again the poses are almost identical - except the legs and arms switch positions in the 2 poses
Play the animation and make adjustments to the poses as necessary
Save All (CMD-S)

Animating the Walk Cycle +

Walk cycles for a single character are often reused multiple times in an animation or series of animations. For this reason, it is usually best to add the walking character into the scene as a sub-scene.

Open (or create) a background scene
Add your character as a sub-scene to your animation:
1. In the Timeline, select the first cell in the layer you would like to add your character
2. Right-click and select Load Level
3. Select your character scene
Set the walk cycle to loop a few times with one of the following methods:
1. Using the Command Bar:
  1. Select all of the frames for the sub-scene (Left-click on the left edge of the column or the top edge of the layer)
  2. Click on the "Repeat" button
  3. Specify the number of times you want the cycle to repeat and click on repeat (likely at least 4 or 5 times)
2. Using the Timeline:
  1. In the Timeline, type "1" directly after the last frame (or copy and paste the first frame to just after the last frame with Cmd-C and Cmd+V | Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V)
  2. Select all of the frames for the sub-scene (Left-click on the left edge of the column or the top edge of the layer) and drag down on the bottom handle for as many frames as you want the walk cycle to repeat
In the Animation Room, use the Animate tool to set the horizontal starting position
1. In the Timeline, select the first frame of your sub-scene
2. In the Viewer, move your character to the desired starting position (a keyframe should be created automatically)
Use the Animate tool to set the horizontal ending position
1. In the Timeline, select the last frame of your sub-scene
2. In the Viewer, move your character to the desired endinging position (a keyframe should be created automatically)
Play your animation and make adjustments as desired
- If the walk is too slow, try adding more repeats of the cycle or move the character across a smaller distance
- If the walk is too fast, remove some frames or move the character a larger distance
Save all (Cmd-S | Ctrl-S)

Quest +

Create a short animation with an original character that walks across the screen:

Animate the original character walking in place using all of the walk cycle poses:
- A contact pose
- An inverse contact pose
- Descent poses
- Passing poses
- High point poses
In a new scene, make a background with a location for the character
Load the walking character's scene as a sub-scene
Add a position tween on the sub-scene to make the character look like they are walking across the location

Learn to Animate

Cut-Out Animation in Tahoma2D

Drawing Each Body Segment

Centering

Rigging

Animating