Setting up your X sheet and scanning? advice?

[mrgarbage]

Hi everyone, this is first post and Im sure some of you out there can help me with these questions.
Firstly, Ive been doing my head in latley with trying to set up my x sheet for dialogue.
Ive read examples all over the web and even tried to understand the great chapter in The Animators Survival Kit, but I still cant get it.
Does anyone know of some babysteps i can take in learning to set up the dialouge on my x sheet? tutorials?
Also i posted something about this in another forum and someone said should purchase software called Magpie Pro software, but id like to do this without using a computer, id like to do it the traditional way.

Also regarding scanning in drawings.
WHat dpi should i scann in to my computer, 150dpi?
ALso I know for a that some studios scann in there drawings done only with mechanical pencil, no inking on the paper, and digitally clean up there work. This is the path id like to take as i dont want to go over every single drawing in fineline pen.
Has anyone here used this methhod?


Also as im drawing on regular printer paper which has an area of 11 field i think, does anyone know where ic an purchase or download a printable field guide so i can plot out my field and camera moves?

Anyway my plans are as follows.

Draw all my animation on letter sized paper.

scann them in.

vectorize them, color them in Photoshop or Toon boom,

Assemble it in Toonboom camera moves etc them output as 720 X 480 for dvd distobution.

And hopfully have a happy ending, anyway all your help would be awesome,
thanks, I think this is enough for my first post.

[rupertpiston]

Sounds like we're on similar tracks here. I'm also using Toon Boom, but I do use Magpie as a support when Toon Boom doesn't do my lip synch quite right due to unclear audio recording or voice characterization.

One of the first things I try to do (except when I forget) is to make a bar sheet, which lays out general timing for action, dialogue, etc. For this I find a computer program essential because it allows me to track it by frame. Toon Boom's audio editor could be used, but I find Magpie a lot better for this because it is easier to play and replay, as well as reading frames etc. It will also allow you to print out an X-Sheet!

For more information on the bar sheet, see Shamus Culhane's Animation: From Script to Screen pages 106-112.

I'm also drawing on printer paper on home made disk using a peg bar from Lightfoot Ltd. I do my roughs in red color-erase, then go over in blue for the committed lines, and finally trace the final on another sheet with regular #2 type pencil.

The trick for those of us using Toon Boom is in the scanning and importing process. Digicel Flipbook will respect your pencil work much better, and has some other more beneficial qualities, but that's another story entirely...

I scan my drawings as B/W bitmaps at 200 dpi, though I've heard of folks using less and more resoulution, as well as scanning as greyscale. The trick during the scan is also about getting the exposure right since this will affect how much black and white shows up in your final picture. Actually my HP software uses a box called "Adjust Black and White" for this, while adjusting exposure is only for Greyscale. I use the lowest threshold level I can get away with without dropping out parts of lines. Also important for TBS is using the same size scan area each time, so I use 11x7.5 (after rotation).

Once I have it scanned I import/vectorize with no filter.

I've got my work area set up at 1280x720 for later DVD output at widescreen. Another resolution I've heard folks using is 1920x1080.

Use the link on my name to email me or check out my home page, which has some of this kind of work shown on it.

[mrgarbage]

wow thanks for the reply, it explains everything i need to know.
looks as though ill need to purchase magpie to make setting up my x sheet at lot simpler.

And thanks for the scanning advice,
One more question,
because your using noraml priunter paper as i am, do you use a clear field sheet so you know where to set up you scene or do you just animate right up to the edges except for the bottom are where the pegs are?
Or do you just resize your work to where ever you need it?

anyway thanks alot everything! :)

[rupertpiston]

Magpie is not essential, but it sure helps. I use the basic version, not pro, and once I catch the rhythm of the work and the words, it moves along at an okay pace. I think the pro version allows for more channels for things such as eyes and other expressives you may care to assign, as well as having automatic track to synch. I tend to get lazy when I depend on the lip synch capabilities of Toon Boom (which does only as good as your sound track is clean and clear), so when I do the work to do the synch manually in Magpie, it gets way better results.

With regard to field size and screen size: I have a couple of sheets I got from Lightfoot Ltd. (http://www.lightfootltd.com), which is where I got my pegbars and my first light box. The field size on the first one I got (from a workshop I went to at Lightfoot) is 9.5 x 7", starting about 1/2" from the top of the page and centered horizontally. I have another (not sure where I got it, but it was online) that has actual fields on it.

I do some resizing quite a bit. Something else I've been experimenting with lately is scaning my roughs, which have red and blue pencil marks, and tracing them in Toon Boom using the pencil tool. This tends to give a cleaner looking line since the import and vectorize function ain't too nice to your drawings. (I can say "ain't", I don't have to go back to teaching English for another 3 weeks... :D )

Anyway, feel free to email me (rupert@cartoonthunder.com). I'd be glad to help you out any way I can. I'm not too far ahead of you, but I've figured a few things out and tried a number of things. I'll also check back here for more dialogue.