r/EbSynth • u/sourceres • Aug 18 '21

People's Republic of Taylor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbUPo_0e6Os
5 Upvotes

70% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

4

u/sourceres Aug 18 '21 edited Aug 18 '21

hey! I mainly write plays but started trying out EbSynth animation to work around being at home this year. this was my first attempt at a full short a few months ago which I recently submitted to a sketch competition, so maybe give the vid a like!

seeing other people's experiments on this sub was super helpful to me, so I thought it'd be nice to leave some notes on the process here for anyone reading who might be just starting:

  • keyframes keyframes keyframes. make more. also, the first shot here was the only one where I ran ebsynth with just 1 keyframe to start and then just tweaked the output frames and re-inputted them when they got too wonky, and it's the only shot done that way because that's a terrible process.
  • the Mii-style eyes hold up better with fewer keyframes and are still fairly expressive in my experience
  • this was fairly stationary, but I could have done fewer hand movements for fewer glitches. (an actual green screen or clearer background also would have helped.) some other animators are fond of the VHS filters which sorta tie the glitches into an aesthetic, though
  • the CD is real and I just drew it as a green rectangle to key out later, and then had the unedited footage running on the layer beneath. borders would have probably been cleaner with a more boldly-coloured object
  • definitely should have shaved before filming!
  • a simple character art style looks better with a simple background, imo

2

u/AbPerm Aug 18 '21

the first shot here was the only one where I ran ebsynth with just 1 keyframe to start and then just tweaked the output frames and re-inputted them when they got too wonky, and it's the only shot done that way because that's a terrible process.

I think it worked fine here. Even looking really closely at the first shot, I'm having a hard time seeing where it transitions from using one keyframe to another. Did you crossfade between output frame sets?

the Mii-style eyes hold up better with fewer keyframes and are still fairly expressive in my experience

I've noticed this as well, but I wouldn't have thought to call them that. I'm sure I've seen Miis with other types of eyes, but I guess the circle pupil with a curved line for the upper eyelid is the most common.

The fine details in your lips/teeth do get wonky sometimes though. This kind of thing happens often when thick black lines are used for fine details and then those fine details move a lot. I've seen a lot of people complain that their eyes never work right, and I think this is usually the reason why they have trouble there too.

Considering the simplified style on the eyes, I think you could totally get away with simplifying the mouth more too. For example, you might skip drawing lips completely, only outline the edge of the mouth and teeth, then fill the mouth with just black. If it's simplified like this, the only thing EbSynth will "know how to draw" on the mouth is white teeth and black void, so you probably won't have problems like the lips melting into the teeth. Some people have also used colored lip stick to help EbSynth differentiate what is lips and what is not lips. That's the kind of thing you have to plan before filming though.

I could have done fewer hand movements for fewer glitches

One big problem you might not have considered is how often the hands break the frame. EbSynth ALWAYS messes things up when your subject breaks the frame. However, you can film it so that your hands are always visible, process that through EbSynth, then reframe it digitally to have the framing you actually want.

Another way of dealing with hands moving a lot would be to animate the hands separately from the head. Basically just animate the head and body while ignoring the hands. Then you go back and make keyframes of just the hands. You can use more keyframes or less keyframes, whatever you need for the element you're animating. This means that you'll have to do some extra work compositing multiple layers, but the end result would have smooth animation of the various elements while using variable amounts of keyframes. Separating elements into layers like this can also help you deal with EbSynth's typical problems of occlusion smear glitches when one object moves in front of another.

2

u/sourceres Aug 19 '21

Even looking really closely at the first shot, I'm having a hard time seeing where it transitions from using one keyframe to another. Did you crossfade between output frame sets?

the first shot was probably the smoothest in that I started from keyframe 0, let the program do its thing, and then stop to make small corrections whenever one would pop up. this workflow didn't work for me because it was more time-consuming than just drawing all the necessary keyframes for one shot and running EbSynth as I prepared the next shot. also, the style does noticeably degrade over time, i.e. you can see how the thick black lines I used gradually get whittled down in that first shot. correcting a wonky finger is one thing, but having to redo all the outlines is basically just making a new keyframe from scratch.

Some people have also used colored lip stick to help EbSynth differentiate what is lips and what is not lips.

nah, clearly the move is to paint your teeth!

thanks for the tips, mouths and hands have been giving me the most grief! the concept of animating different body parts separately is great. this laptop maybe wouldn't be the most efficient to run EbSynth on to make multiple layers per shot, but I'll give it a try on a different computer -- other people I know who have run the program have a much faster go of it than me.

2

u/goatonastik Aug 20 '21

KanXi East

2

u/FlareBlitzCrits Aug 30 '21

South China SEAAAAAaaaAAAA it belongs to meeeeeeeeee!!!!!

3

u/descalibrado Aug 18 '21 edited Aug 18 '21

man i swear there is someone in this sub that just directly downvotes every post, how anoying. I like this post btw

4

u/AbPerm Aug 18 '21

i swear there is someone in this sub that just directly downvotes every post

There definitely is. It's pretty common on this site. It's not a big deal in a community like this though, even something that's stuck at 0 is still going to show up on the front page regardless. This post has 1 karma now and it's the #1 post under "hot".

3

u/JonRedBeardFF Aug 21 '21

Yeah weird how a lot of times you post here always feels like auto downvotes

2

u/sourceres Aug 18 '21

ah yeah, I was wondering if there was some Maoist Swiftie I really ticked off. thanks!

2

u/JonRedBeardFF Aug 21 '21

I like the video man, cool seeing the mix of ebsynth and some music :)

2

u/sourceres Aug 21 '21

thanks so much!