The opera is taking shape and the end of the first act looks like it is within reach. The amount of work required to get this opera working is surprising.
This post is just a way of showing more the how-to side rather than the finished article.
I decided to cover an important part of the opera. Walking. As I am doing this opera almost frame by frame, it quickly became apparent that I would need a way to make them walk, sit, stand and a whole host of other things. I needed a way of taking a static picture of a character and changing it so that it looked like they was moving and walking. A walking generator was what I needed.
After searching online I found the perfect Walking Generator that is easy to use, malleable and works perfectly for 2D animation.
WCEdit Application
The way the character walks is entirely customisable within XML. After a bit of educated guessing and some trial and error, I was able to get my characters walking from entirely static images.
Sgt. Adams Walking
Jean strutting her stuff
The program is also capable of having characters walking towards the screen. I like that the program can do that but am not sure if it will be implemented in this project. It feels that a character walking towards the viewer could feel unnerving and change the opera from voyeuristic to an almost forced claustrophobic interaction. We shall see at any rate.
Hope to have another update as regular about my progress soon.
Broken Spares 