Welcome to lesson five of animated loops.
In this lesson, we're going to learn about isometric loops.
This part will focus on creating an isometric run cycle,
which we'll then put into a scene in the second part of this lesson.
But first I'll explain what an isometric perspective is.
Let's get started.
An isometric perspective is a method for representing 3D objects in two
dimensions.
This means that you can create a complex scene showing a space all around your
character without having to worry about depth as objects will stay the same
size, regardless of how far away they are from the camera.
The easiest way to design for an isometric view is to use a grid.
The diagonal lines of the grid should each be 30 degrees from the X axis.
Then when you're creating your scene,
you can use these lines as a guide to make sure your shapes are drawn from the
correct angle.
You can also use the grid as a guide for the movement in your scene,
which is what we'll do now for our run cycle.
First, we will create a grid.
I have an empty 1080 by 1080 composition.
Create a rectangle.
It can be any color, but I'll make it white.
Change the Rectangle Path Size to 2000 by 5.
Set the Rectangle Transform Rotation to 30 degrees.
Change the Rectangle Path Position to 0 and -700.
Add a Repeater on the rectangle.
Make 50 copies.
In the Repeater Transform,
change the Position to 0 and 50 to create one set of lines.
Then add another, Repeater on all the contents of the layer.
Give that two copies.
And on the Repeater Transform,
set the Position to zero and the Scale to -100 and 100 to
make a flipped copy of all the lines, creating a grid. Open
the Character run loop from last lesson.
We're going to modify this to fit the isometric grid.
In the Project window,
duplicate the Character so you have two copies.
Name one 'CharacterRun2D' and the other "CharacterRunIsometric'.
We're going to animate in the isometric composition.
Drag in the grid we just made on top of the composition.
Make it 25% transparent and lock
the layer.
First, rotate the eyes -30 degrees. Then
select the MouthDetail layer,
and I'm going to add a white Fill effect to give him smiling teeth for this
animation.
Select the Shape within the MouthMatte layer.
Move the Anchor Point of that Shape to around the middle. Rotate
the shape -30 degrees.
Then select the MouthMatte layer and move the Anchor Point of the layer to the
middle.
You can do this by holding Ctrl or Cmd and double-clicking on the Anchor Point
Tool and set the Horizontal Scale to 90% just to flatten the mouth slightly as
the face is turned to the side. Then position the MouthMatte between the eyes.
Now we need to adjust the position of the whole face.
Select the FaceNull,
show the Position,
go to the first keyframe and select the first and last keyframe.
Move the null so the motion path of the face follows the line of the grid.
Then use the Convert Vertex Tool to give the motion path a slight curve matching
the shape of the body.
We'll add some rotation to the FaceNull,
too.
At the first Position keyframe,
set the Rotation to 5 degrees and keyframe.
12 frames later, set the Rotation back to 0.
And 12 frames after that, copy and paste the first keyframe,
add Easy Ease
and a loop In and Out expression in Character Tool.
I'll just zoom in on the work area.
The face needs to be moved to the lower right of the body so it looks like it's
on the front.
Select all of the Position keyframes and slide the face over and down until it
looks good.
I also want to remove the rotation from BodyNull and replace that with some
vertical movement on the face instead.
Delete those Rotation keyframes,
remove the expression and set it to 0.
Where the first keyframe was,
add a keyframe to the Anchor Point of the FaceNull,
change it to 0 and 5 here.
Six frames later,
0 and -5.
Six frames after that, copy and paste the first keyframe,
add Easy Ease and a Loop expression.
Now we're going to adjust the size of the shadow. Make
it 300 by 170.
Move the Position up to around 540 by 815,
a bit higher as we're looking down on the character. And
on the MiddleScale keyframe,
change this to 110 and 110.
For the hands and feet,
it's going to be easier just to redo these rather than trying to modify them.
We can keep the Path animation on the hands and feet, though.
Select the Foot right and left nulls.
Delete all keyframes and expressions.
We also want to delete the keyframes and expressions from the right hip.
But on the left hip, we can just modify these keyframes.
So show the hip and we want to adjust the movement so it follows the line of the
grid.
On the first keyframe,
select the first and last keyframes together and reposition the hip so it's
around the bottom of the body.
Then move the middle keyframe back and higher up making the motion path parallel
to the grid.
Okay.
Now for the left foot,
I'm going to bring in the 2D run cycle from the last lesson to use as a guide
for how the legs should move.
You don't have to do this, but I find having a reference is always helpful.
Go to the Start,
and I'm going to hide the right leg just to make the left one easier to see.
At the Start,
set the Rotation to -45 degrees.
Then move the Position on the ground on the near side of the shadow around the
front edge.
Keyframe both.
On the next frame, the foot is flat on the ground so set the Rotation to 30.
Five frames later,
slide the foot back in line with the grid towards the back edge of the shadow
and keyframe the Rotation.
One frame later, rotate the foot down a bit more and
move the Position further back and up because we want the toe to still be on the
ground at this point.
Five frames later,
lift the foot off the ground behind the character
and rotate the foot to point backwards.
Six frames after that is the passing point.
So move the foot down below the character and reduce the Rotation a little.
At the End frame, copy and paste the start keyframes.
Add Easy Ease to the last Position keyframe,
the Middle Position keyframe
and to all of the Rotation keyframes.
Add a Loop expression to the Position and Rotation.
Back two frames,
adjust the rotation pointed up more before the foot hits the ground.
Eight frames before that, point the foot back a bit more.
Five frames earlier,
point the foot more at the ground because the toes still need to be lifting off
at this point.
We're going to adjust the motion path to help with this.
And as with the 2D version, we want this motion path to follow a smooth curve.
At the passing point, we can flatten the curve a bit.
And at the End, the foot needs to be coming down from in front of the character.
I'm going to add some more keyframes to the Rotation around the back of the step
to help with the delay of the Rotation behind the movement.
And now it's looking okay, but we need to adjust the way the leg is bending.
Select the left ankle and in Effect Controls keyframe the midpoint.
At the Start, there should be 50%. Eight frames later,
you can also keyframe this at 50.
Four frames later at the midpoint increase this to
around 56 to bring the knee in.
And six frames after that, reduce it to around 42.
At
the End, copy and paste the Start keyframe,
add Easy Ease and a Loop expression.
I want to smooth out the bend at the end of the step so I'm going to reduce the
midpoint percentage here.
And also adjust the motion path at the End, too.
Okay.
I think we're good with that so we can delete the 2D guide animation now and we
can copy and paste the left leg keyframes to the right leg. Show the right hip,
copy and paste the left hip keyframes to that.
Move them 12 frames earlier.
Under the first keyframe,
select all the Position keyframes and move it over around one grid square on the
other side of the character.
We can show the right leg and foot now.
I'm going to go to copy and paste the keyframes from FootLeftNull to
FootRightNull.
Move these 12 frames earlier.
Under the Start, select all the Position keyframes and,
again, move them over around one grid square to the other side of the character.
We also need to copy and paste the midpoint keyframes from the ankle.
Move those 12 frames earlier, too. And I
want to move the shadow down a bit so its midpoint is between both of the feet.
Now the legs are done so we can hide the hips.
Let's do the arms now.
Show the shoulders first.
I'm not going to animate these,
but they need to be positioned correctly in line with the grid on each side of
the body.
We can delete the keyframes and expressions from both handles as we're going to
re-animate these.
At the Start frame, we can hide the shoulders now.
And then we need to change the direction of the bends on each of the wrist
controls.
And we're also going to flip the Vertical Scale of the HandLeft Shape layer to
-100.
Now we'll animate HandLeftNull.
Start with the Position out at the side of the body, slightly behind.
And rotate the hand to point in the direction of the arm.
12 frames later, move the hand forward in line with the grid.
And rotate it to point forwards, too.
At the End, copy and paste the Start keyframes.
We're going to add a curve to the motion path, too.
Give it an arc that roughly follows the shape of the body.
Easy Ease all of these keyframes.
Add a Loop expression,
move the Position keyframes one frame earlier and the Rotation keyframes one
frame later.
Also move all of the Path keyframes for the fingers on HandLeft 12 frames
earlier.
Now we'll copy and paste everything to the right hand.
Start with HandRightNull.
Move these 12 frames earlier
and at the first keyframe, select all the Position keyframes and
drag the null over to the other side of the body around
here.
We'll also adjust the motion path so it curves in the other direction.
And on the Rotation,
select the first and last keyframe and point the hand away from the body.
At the midpoint have it pointing forwards.
Then we also need to add some animation to the length of the arm as from this
angle, the arm needs to shorten, as it moves back. At the midpoint here,
it should be its current full length of 125,
so keyframe that in Effect Controls.
12 frames earlier, make it 75 instead.
And 12 frames after the midpoints - back to 75 again.
Add Easy Ease and the Loop In and Out expression.
We can hide the grid now.
And there you have a looping run cycle from an isometric perspective,
ready to add into a scene, which we'll create in the next part of this lesson.
I'll see you there.
Thanks for watching.