Revision as of 12:32, 21 August 2007

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Tutorial WIP

Note: Need to improve the text, the formating, and add images (when photobucket is available, grrrr )

I will link this page from the Tutorial page when ready :)

Rore 05:06, 20 Aug 2007 (PDT)

This tutorial will show you how to create a simple animation of a growing flower with blines.

Basic settings

Click on File > New. You can keep the default values here and just click OK.

Click on the foreground and background color in the toolbox, in order to create a gradient you like. (You can also directly edit the gradient by clicking on it). Select the Gradient Tool and drag your cursor across the canvas to fill it with the gradient.

Select the Bline Tool and in the tool Options dialog, make sure that only "Fill" is checked. In the toolbox, Set the foreground color to green. Draw a kind of triangle with the Bline tool. To close the shape after drawing the 3 vertices, right click on the first vertex and choose "Loop Bline".

Note: If only the "Split Tangent" option is available, drag a little the red dot (the "duck") that covers the firt vertex, then right-click again on the vertex (the orange dot) to make the Loop Bline option apear.

Now that the shape is closed, you can "create" the bline shape by selecting another tool or pressing the Create button (gear-like icon) at the bottom of the tool options.

This will be the base of the stem. You can tweak the tangent handles (red dots) a bit to make a rounder triangle. With the Normal Tool, right-click on each vertex and select "Split Tangent", so the tangent handles of each vertex could be moved separately. We're done with the basic settings.

Animate the stem

We need to change our simple image into something that can be animated. In the Canvas Menu, select Edit > Properties. Go to the Time tab and set the End time to 5s. There's now a timetrack at the bottom of the canvas.

Click at the beginning of the timetrack (0f), then, on the Keyframes Dialog (the one with a key icon) click on "+" (add a new keyframe). Click again on the timetrack, at 1s, and add a new keyframe. Press the green circle at the bottom right of the canvas, to switch to the Animate Editing Mode (the circle is now red).

With the Normal Tool, select the green sprout, and move up a little the upper vertex. Click on 2s on the timetrack, add a new keyframe, and move again the upper vertex to make the plant grow. You can play with the vertex handles to bend the shape a bit if you want.

Add some new keyframes at 3s and 4s, and make the stem grow some more.

While you are still on the 4s keyframe, right-click on the stem border, close to the top, and choose "Insert Item (smart)". Do the same on the other side of the stem. Right click on those new points and choose Split Tangent again. Then try to make a shape that looks like the one on the image.

The animation of the stem is now finished, but it still lacks the petals. You can watch a preview of your animation: Go to File > Preview, validate, wait for the preview to be generated, and watch :) (Previews are often aliased and blurry, but the final render will be clean-cut.)

Adding the petals

Change the paint color to pink, and create a petal with the bline tool. You'll notice that the green duck that allows easy movement of a shape is at the center of the canvas. Select all the vertices of the petal with Ctrl+A and move them close to the green duck (with the Normal Tool), as shown.

Then drag the green duck very close to the top of the stem. Tweak a bit the petal if needed.

Click on the petal to select it, then Ctrl-Click on the stem. Both objects should be selected. Now click on the vertex at the top of the stem and ctrl-click on the green duck of the petal. Then right-click on the stem vertex, and select "link". The petal will move a bit as the green duck is snapped on the stem vertex.

Now that there's a link between the petal and the top of the stem, when the top of the stem moves, the petal will follow the move. (And if the green duck of the petal move, the top of the stem will move, but we don't want to do that here.)

On the Layers tab, select the newly created Petal layer and duplicate it (with the third button, on the bottom of the tab). On the canvas, press Ctrl+A to select all the vertices of the duplicated petal, and move them a little, so the petals are no longer overlaid. Repeat the process several time, to get something looking like this image.

Note that the duplicated petals are also linked to the stem. If you go back to the first keyframe, you'll see that the petals are visible :

We don't want that. We want to petal to appear almost at the end of the growth.

Hiding the petals

This part is maybe the most clumsy one. I guess there may be an easier way to manage this step, and if I find them, I'll update the tutorial ;)

Let's say we want the petals to appear a little after 3.5 seconds in the animation, and be full size at 4seconds, instead of being full size all the time.

On the timetrack, click to place the cursor at 3 and a half seconds. On the Keyframes tab, click on "+" to add a new keyframe. On the Layers tab, select all the petals layers (with Ctrl+click), then press Ctrl+A to select all the petals vertices. Scale them down with the Scale tool, and move them, so they are hidden by the stem, as shown.

From 3.5s to 4s, the petals will now appear and grow. But the problem is that they are still visible from the first keyframe to the 3.5s keyframe. We could either change the size of the petals an make them tiny and hidden on every frame between 0s to 3.5s, or we could make them invisibles on those frames.

Let's choose the second solution. With all the petals still selected, jump to the first keyframe. In the Param tabs, set the "Amount" value to 0. The petals are now invisible on that keyframe. Repeat the process for the keyframes at 1s, 2s and 3s. The animation is almost OK now.

The last remaining problem is that the petals are slightly visible between the 3s keyframe and the 3s 12f keyframe. On the timetrack, click a little before 3.5s (at 3s 11f it will be the best) and add a new keyframe in the Keyframes tab. Make all the petals invisible (Amount: 0 in the Param tab) on that frame too.

Now you're done. The stem grows for 4 seconds and then stays still the last second. The petals are hidden until 3.5 seconds, and then grow quickly between 3.5 and 4 seconds, and stay still the last second too.

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