Jerky classic tween

[AMULI]

Hi,

I am animating an eagle illustration. First part is a zoom out tween from eye full screen…

…to head…

…then bird in the sky. Second part is a gliding through the screen.

My problem is that this gliding is jerky. In order to be able to zoom out, the eagle drawing is detailed. So I guess that to get a smooth rendering, for the gliding part I should tween a second clip symbol with a far lighter number of control points. How could I produce this simplified version of the eagle ?

But may be someone has another avenue ? Thanks in advance.

[n. tilcheff · Accepted solution]

Hi AMULI,

From your description I gather that the first two images are one shot (zoom out), but then the third image is a second shot.

You zoom out, but then you cut to shot 2 with the whole bird gliding right to left. During this cut you can introduce a different version of the eagle.

(Please, correct me if this is not the case.)

How does the jerkiness of the tween manifest itself?

What kind of path are you using for the eagle?

How many frames do you have between the keys?

How is your file set up?

I don't think that the jerkiness is produced by the complexity of the vector, unless you're talking about playback issues.

I suppose your eagle is inside a Graphic container. Just guide all its layers and draw a temp box in there (to appear instead of the eagle) to see if this simplification will deliver a smoother tween.

If not, things to consider are the positions of Registration Points, resolution of the whole scene and scaling of the 'jerky' symbol.

Eliminate all rotation from transformations and see if that improves it. Small rotation tweened over many frames rarely works well (due to lack of resolution).

When I do this kind of shots, I pan the background, while moving the bird smoothly, often using a motion guide to get good arcs.

If none of this helps, you may have to supply the part of the file for review.

Good luck!

NT

[AMULI]

Hi Nick,

Thank you so much for taking time for a so detailed response. I appreciate 🙂

the first two images are one shot (zoom out), but then the third image is a second shot.

You zoom out, but then you cut to shot 2 with the whole bird gliding right to left.

In fact, there is no cut. I animate a mask revealing the sky, with a disk centered on the eagle's eye and growing beyond the whole scene.

During this cut you can introduce a different version of the eagle.

Since my first post, I did it. In this clone, I reset the position of the registration point (centered on the eye in the original), as you mentionned that point in another response a few days ago. Unfortunately, same result 😞

How does the jerkiness of the tween manifest itself?

Some kind of ghost image, particularly visible on the feathers ending the wings.

The eagle is a movie clip symbol nesting a graphic symbol for the more detailed beak and eye required for the zoom out part : at the very start image the eagle is highly scaled in. No rotation at all anywhere.

Sorry for the bad tagging : I do use classic tweenings, with a curved path for the gliding. This tweening is about one hundred images long (so about 4 s with default 24 ips frame rate).

playback issues.

Thank you for the temp box trick : same ghost image with a fake simple black rectangle. Surely I am asking too much to the player ! But my intent was a slow gliding movement : the bigger the birds, the slower they can glide. And it's an eagle, not a falcon 🙂

consider … resolution of the whole scene

It's huge : a 16:9 of 2000 x 1125, far from the standards with Flash/Animate, isn't it ? But I am not targeting the web directly : this animation is intended as opening titles for a series of videos. But having no experience with After Effects, I opted for Animate.

Two options I considered :

• Reducing the scene to 1280 x 720 : but how to scale a whole animation ? I fear it would imply to rebuild it.

• Only keeping the eagle drawn in Animate and rebuilding the animation in After Effects. But I not even know if everything is possible (zoom out + mask animation + tweening with curved motion path).

[n. tilcheff]

I sent you a PM.

Reducing the stage size shouldn't be an issue, but not sure if it's necessary.

You can do it automatically from Modify menu > Document...

Make sure you have "Scale content" checked before setting the new stage size.

Best!

N