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  • Posted by Wally on June 10, 2005 at 12:56 am

    Hi, I’m trying to get some semi realistic movement of a masked head on a body. The body moves every three frames but the head is too herky jerky and moves during all three frames. How can I make it a little more realistic with the head actually following the body and not going ahead of it?

    Thanks,

    Wally

    Mike Clasby replied 19 years, 8 months ago 3 Members · 5 Replies
  • 5 Replies
  • Mike Clasby

    June 10, 2005 at 1:12 am

    Parent the head layer to the body layer.

  • Wally

    June 10, 2005 at 2:10 am

    Thank you for your response. Obviously, I’m learning as I go. Will I have any difficulty parenting the body layer with the head layer if the head layer is constantly changing shape and position? I also will have two other masks because a left arm and right arm pass infront of the head on two different occasions?

    I really appreciate your help.

    Wally

  • Mike Clasby

    June 10, 2005 at 3:01 am

    This might help, take a look at Dan Ebberts’ excellent tut, “Animating a Walk Cycle”:

    https://www.creativecow.net/show.php?forumid=2&page=/articles/ebberts_dan/layer_looping/index.html

    Basically, you set the anchor point of the head layer to a place it would naturally pivot
    (where it hooks up to the neck), then you move the head where you want it to be in relation to the body and it will stay in the same relative position to the body.

    The above will take care of position and any rotations of the body.

    As far as the head constantly changing shape, I don’t quite understand what you mean. If by changing
    shape you mean the head is changing size, you can tie the size of the head to any keyframed size changes of the
    body with a simple expression, by alt clicking the size stopwatch of the head layer, then pickwhipping to the size of the body.
    Then the head would match any size changes of the body, but that’s probably not what you mean.

    Anyway, if Dan’s tut doesn’t do all you want, fire in another question.

  • Bill Walsh

    June 10, 2005 at 1:34 pm

    Thanks for your help. I tried to parent the “head” to the movie and it did not take. The head remained stationary while the area in the movie moved. Do I have to mask the particular area (in the movie) that I want the head to follow?

    Thanks for your help,

    Wally

  • Mike Clasby

    June 10, 2005 at 3:34 pm

    I assumed the body was it’s own layer, on top of a seperate background layer, my fault. I’m now assuming the body is in a video, and therefore the anchor point of the video(with body in it) doesn’t move with the body.

    So you need to get a good tracking point to which you can attach the head layer via pickwhipping the heads anchor point to the tracking point (expression). Hopefully the point is close to the neck, that pivot point for the head to attach to. I have to go now, but go to Adobe and check out these quickies on tracking.

    Adobe Studio, Tips and Tutorials
    https://studio.adobe.com/us/tips/main.jsp

    You need to sign in or register (It’s easy)

    Track it!
    Using the new Motion Tracker
    Keep motion in perspective

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