ROCQUITA: work in progress, notes on Layer organization

Sharing a capture of the ANIMATE workspace as I animate the characters in this scene.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THIS BIGGER

Notice that each character has their own single Master PEG layer on the main timeline. It took me a while to get my head around what Peg layers are and do because this feature is unique to ToonBoom and doesn't exist in Flash. In Flash, we tend to organize body parts in symbols within symbols within symbols and there is a lot of double-clicking deep into symbols within symbols to do what we need to do.

ANIMATE favors organization on parent-child layers that are all visible and accessible on the main timeline.

In a nutshell, a Peg layer is like a "controlling layer" under which all the layers of a character are registered. The Peg layer is expandable and collapsible.

Here is the Indigo Master Peg layer expanded:



CLICK HERE TO SEE THIS BIGGER

In ANIMATE, Keyframes are represented by black dots on the timeline and these can be Motion Keyframes (tweening, as represented by arrow on the timeline) or Stop Motion Keyframes (no tweening).

Interesting distinction: In Flash we MUST add a keyframe on the timeline to change a drawing from one frame to the next.

In Animate, it depends on how the drawing is being changed. If the drawing is to be repositioned, scaled, rotated etc. from one frame to the next, then we need to insert keyframes. If the drawing is to be replaced by a different drawing or an edited version, there is no need to add a keyframe. We use the "Drawing Substitution Window" OR > "Duplicate Drawings" to create an edited version. In the timeline screengrab above, the vertical lines separating the grey frames show where there are "drawing substitutions". I am still getting used to this concept.

*When the "Animate mode" button is enabled , ANIMATE will automatically insert keyframes on the timeline where needed... this is a timesaver!! And the beauty of having a Master Peg layer is that if you move something on one layer, all the other layers remain linked/registered.

Tip: If I want to edit a drawing and not be distracted by other drawings/layers or don't want to accidentally select something on another layer, this button above the timeline will hide ALL layers except the one that I am currently working on.

We are learning new things each day and as with learning any new program, it will take a little while before we settle on a working system or pipeline that feels right for us.