Using hooks - to connect hand drawn-frames in cut-out animation - OpenToonz Tutorial

[@DarrenTAnims]

*Thanks for watching.* Timecodes for skipping the video and software links are in the description *All cut-out tutorials:* kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXrGZIKZlsxrqZY

[@madhvishukla4332]

Thank you soooo much sir for making these videos, it helps me a lot, i am facing a lot of problem with ringing and animating puppet animation thank you again 🙏💞

[@DarrenTAnims]

I'm pleased it helped. Rigging is a tricky area to work with and OpenToonz doesn't have the full set of tools, so you sometimes have to compromise. Good luck buddy 😀

[@madhvishukla4332]

@@DarrenTAnims thank you sir 🙏

[@garbagedataraccoon]

Pretend you see a raccoon mischievously rubbing its grubby little paws together. I've been trying to throw together my own show-accurate MLP:FiM mare puppet, and hooks look like a great solution to stuff like moving the hooves along automatically as the legs are performing a walk cycle.

[@DarrenTAnims]

Yes, lots of users use hooks this way. But often I find that I have to just manually set them.

[@jimb762]

Thank you! This will come in handy at some point. Unfortunately it says I cannot use the current tool on a mesh-deformed level :/ I just want to anchor my mesh-deformed arm to my mesh-deformed shoulder, but despite linking the arm to the body in schematics screen it refuses to follow it, all other body parts are set up the same way and are linked and working correctly, it's beginning to hurt my brain Hahah

[@DarrenTAnims]

If you've already got a mesh attached to your column you don't need hooks. Each joint in your skeleton can be connected to another column in the same way as connecting a hook.

[@jimb762]

Hi @@DarrenTAnims Thanks for the reply. I have tried both linking the arm/arm mesh to the torso/torso mesh seperately in schematics, all combinations have absolutely no effect. Yet I have no problem at all linking the object held in the hand and the flowing robe over the arm, which is odd, clearly I understand the principles of linking them since they all work, I'm doing the same for the arm to the torso, but it just won't link? 🤷‍♀ I've only started using Opentoonz yesterday so I'm struggling.

[@jahnocli]

Newbie here. At around 3:19 you mention "...unticking the Line tool", but you don't mention how to do this or where it is. Could you elaborate?

[@DarrenTAnims]

I show this in the video. It's on the options bar at the top left of the screen.

[@jahnocli]

@@DarrenTAnims Thanks for the quick reply!

[@rollonfood]

Is this a better method than using a skeleton?

[@DarrenTAnims]

No. This would normally be used along with a skeleton (or plastic tool).

[@cedricadougba324]

Thanks.

[@DarrenTAnims]

😀

[@hixidom2274]

How is moving the hookpoints at each frame less work than moving the arms at each frame?

[@DarrenTAnims]

You're right that moving hooks on each frame would be as much work as moving the arm, but this video shows that you set up the hook once for each separate drawing. And the benefit comes when the hook is connected to a plastic mesh. Then when you move the plastic mesh, the arm stays connected without moving the hook.

[@fahads_artwork]

what is the benifit of hook points if we have to move them manually in every frame when the body moves, instead moving the body parts directly is better

[@DarrenTAnims]

You're right that moving hooks on each frame would be as much work as moving the arm, but this video shows that you set up the hook once for each separate drawing. And the benefit comes when the hook is connected to a plastic mesh. Then when you move the plastic mesh, the arm stays connected without moving the hook.

[@fahads_artwork]

@@DarrenTAnims in toon boom harmony they have a nice tool ehere they connect they layer to the main layer so when main one moves all other moves along automatically

[@DarrenTAnims]

@@fahads_artwork You can do that in OpenToonz too. You connect columns using the Schematic.

[@fahads_artwork]

@@DarrenTAnims oh Thanks

[@fahads_artwork]

but how do you have a video?

[@pixill4ted593]

So can this be done using the schematic and attaching all the auxiliary body parts to the parent body? Using the animate tool to fix the the center and position to the attachment point for rotation? Or is this better for more expression? You could cut the body in half on different levels to make this sort of action I suppose. But didn’t you say it’s better to just draw your animation if your good at that? (I am not lol… yet)

[@DarrenTAnims]

Yeah, I think if you've got time and you're good at it, just drawing is always the best way to go, but using puppetry is a quicker way to tell your story and for those of us without the drawing skills, this is a good way to tell your story.

[@pixill4ted593]

@@DarrenTAnims once again thank you sir. I hope you have a great evening. And I’m sure I’ll be owing you some more tea in the future. Plenty yet to learn and do 😉

[@DarrenTAnims]

@@pixill4ted593 Thank you my friend. And there's plenty for us all to learn. I love it :-)

[@soeurwulfknightserrant5569]

I have a blank head and a mask - how do I move them together as one?

[@DarrenTAnims]

Hi. You should probably connect the mask to the head (on the stage schematic), then when you move the head, the mask will move with it. If you're unsure, you want to drag a line from the right hand connector of the head node and into the left hand connector of the mask node. Hope that helps :-)

[@soeurwulfknightserrant5569]

I did that - joined in stage schematic - had to manually set mask on blank face but when i move them, the mask shoots to another spot - tracks the blank face but not stay with it. thanks.@@DarrenTAnims

[@DarrenTAnims]

@@soeurwulfknightserrant5569 If you can share a screenshot, a video or your project, on my Discord, I can take a look at it for you. But that should work.

[@vikasbishnoi482]

my hook point moving along drawing, what could be the error????

[@DarrenTAnims]

The hook should only be where you placed it. So if it's moving, it's likely that you've moved it. There's not animation or tweening of a hook point.

[@permanently_cemented]

How did you decrease visibility

[@DarrenTAnims]

Whereabouts in this video are you referring to.

[@MichaelLeightonsKarlyPilkboys]

Hi Darren, great video! Could you tell me how to overwrite multiple frames with one specific frame? I've applied an auto-lip sync to a column of mouth movements, but I want to overwrite a whole load of the cells so that it's just one frame of the mouth. I'm trying to select about 100 cells in a column (from cell 1-100) and overwrite them with just a specific frame, but can't find where to input this.

[@DarrenTAnims]

Hi Michael. If the drawings you're replacing are all the same drawing in the same level as the new drawing you want to show, then you can just highlight them and press Q or W to scroll through the drawings in that level. If you've got different drawings in frames 1-100, then I think the best way is to highlight them, then delete them (delete key) and the paste your new drawing into frame 1 and either hold Ctrl and click and drag its extender up to 100 (holding ctrl prevents the next drawings in the column from moving too) or if you've got a drawing on frame 101, then you can right click in frame 100 and choose, Fill Empty Frames. And that will extend the drawing up to frame 100. Hope that helps.

[@MichaelLeightonsKarlyPilkboys]

@@DarrenTAnims Thanks so much Darren, that's really helpful! I'll try it out

[@permanently_cemented]

1:12 you make his lower body disappeared

[@DarrenTAnims]

Yes I did

[@permanently_cemented]

@@DarrenTAnims how

[@DarrenTAnims]

@@permanently_cemented by adjusting the slider. The video shows it quite well.

[@chulalachannel]

i subscribed and liked to support

[@DarrenTAnims]

Thanks Chulala 🙂

[@danielalexandertristan6977]

well thank u

[@DarrenTAnims]

You're most welcome

[@HorribleHomeVideo]

Do not take offense, but I have an observation about this video. Something about this method seems off, hooking one layer to another should not require manually telling it where to be at the end of an animation cycle, or you might as well just use keyframes (and its just as much work to do keyframes as the workflow you show here with hooks as it appears to not actually parent the layers at all). The logic of the hook tool is it HOOKS one item to another (much like parenting in other apps) meaning it should automatically follow the parent. So I am curious why the hook tool is being used as if it were a keyframe here? I'm new to opentoonz but proficient in editing software and other animation applications, so this is coming from a place of knowing how this tool should work. Why is the hook tool not actually hooking once implemented? Why are you adding it's endpoint? adding an endpoint means it is not hooked at all, it's just a keyframe basically how you show it here.

[@HorribleHomeVideo]

and i see others ask this as well, and you say "well plasrtic tool" but i'm not asking about the plastic tool, i'm asking about why hooking doesn't actually parent or connect things manually when they move. to clarify

[@DarrenTAnims]

I think I understand what you're asking. The hook can't follow when each drawing moves, which is where the hook come in handy. You can place the parenting location for each drawing, to be sure that as you change drawing, the column will still align.