Advance Directing: I need help with a scene!

Hai so I need help lets say I have my character laying on the floor almost fainted and he/she kicks the other character in the ankels and that character would fall.

I have questions:

  • Can I rotate a character?
  • How would I do this? I have the overlay leg I just don’t know where’d I start from this…

IF ANYONE COULD HELP ME I’D BE SO GRATEFUL!!! :persevere: :sparkling_heart:

Maybe something like:

INT. BLUE SCHOOL HALLWAY - DAY with (OVERLAY name) to % x y (location and scale)

@CHARACTER1 stands upscreen left and CHARCTER1 faces right
@CHARACTER2 stands upscreen right and CHARACTER2 faces left

@CHARACTER2 is talk_condescend
&CHARACTER1 is laugh_guffaw

@CHARACTER1 is faint
&CHARACTER2 is talk_afraid

@CHARACTER 1 is lay_asleep_loop

@overlay (OVERLAY name) shifts to x y in zone # in T
&CHARACTER2 is run_fall

Let me just break this down for you:
x & y= Co-ordinates, you can find the ones you want my opening ht episode app, going into create (make sure you’re logged in), opening up your story, directing helper, overlay helper, you will find there that you can move and scale the overlay as you want, you then copy them into your code as seen above. (X=Horizontal (Side to side) and Y= Vertical (Up and down)
#= Number, I didn’t say any specific zone, so it would automatically zoom, and place the characters in the first zone, you can change that as you wish, remembering that you must put/move your overlay into that zone.
T= Just the amount of seconds you want the overlay to move in, depending on how slow or fast you wanted the kicking motion to be.
%= The scale size

If you find you need to rescale your leg so it’s not too big/small simply do:

@overlay OVERLAYNAME scales to % % in T

The scale size needs to be entered in twice. (If you’re adding the overlay to the background name then you only need to enter the scale size just once).

To flip the overlay horizontally, put a negative sign in front of the first scale size:
@overlay OVERLAYNAME scales to -1.0 1.0

To flip the overlay upside down, put a negative sign in front of the second scale size:
@overlay OVERLAYNAME scales to 1.0 -1.0

If you want your overlay to be skinny , change the FIRST scale number.
If you want your overlay to be flatter , change the SECOND scale number.

If you want to rotate your overlay:

@overlay OVERLAYNAME rotates # anchor point x x in T

# is a number between 0 through 360 (like the degrees of a circle)
360 turns the overlay all the way around, which turns it back to 0
180 makes the overlay upside down
Put a negative sign before the number to make it rotate the opposite way.

Rotating an overlay depends on it’s anchor point which is the point from which the overlay will rotate:
anchor point 0 0 is the bottom left of the overlay
anchor point 0.5 0.5 is the center of the overlay
anchor point 1 1 is the top right of the overlay

Think of a graph when trying to place the anchor point

This overlay is rotating from anchor point 0 0

com-crop2

This overlay is rotating from anchor point 0.5 0.5

com-crop1

Keep in mind that the overlay will rotate the entire PNG image of the overlay which includes the transparent background. If you want to make the overlay rotate from the center, then your overlay needs to be in the center of the PNG image.

If your overlay is NOT in the center like this:

Then this is how the overlay will rotate at anchor point 0.5 0.5

com-crop3

Sorry it’s so long… if you want to know even more go check out @Dara.Amarie this is all her doing!!

I hope this helped!!
-Kit.Kat

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If you need anymore directing/coding help, feel free to message me! I know what it’s like at the beginning. I am okay to help, but if you ever want to know how to do something via coding, just search up your question on your web browser & put, “Episode Interactive” at the end of it & a forum post should come up. Another way is to do the same thing on YouTube…there’s often a tutorial video on there. These are both quick ways to find out how to fix an error without asking anybody. I had to learn all this myself, so I hope you have a go!

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