"Stupid" questions that never get answered? Get The Help Here!

Here’s a post I made answering this question:

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So Whenever I add overlays to the scene, I can see them in its default position for a split second at the beginning of the scene, and then it shifts to where I want them to go. How do I get that to stop?? It looks so messy and all of the overlays I use in that scene are just overlapping in the bottom left corner of the screen during that split second.

Add overlay to the background instead of creating it under it or use & instead of @

thanks :slight_smile:

is there any way I can make my character change back into an outfit that she wore in a dressing game?

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hi! im new to directing and such and i need help with a few things,

  1. whenever i make an extra (background person) go through a scene, they stop doing the walking animation in the middle of the shown screen (or zone, btw there are 3 zones in the background im using)

  2. is it possible to make extras move across shown screen during a series of dialogue?

and 3. i tried making my extras small just like the main characters who are in a convo but they don’t match, i even copied the sizes. idk how to explain it. here i’ll show you.

@SYDNEY spot 0.800 107 170 AND SYDNEY faces right AND SYDNEY starts talk_armscrossed_neutral_loop
@DYLAN spot 0.846 191 164 AND DYLAN faces left AND DYLAN is idle_awkward_scratch_loop

These are my extras:

&EXTRAF1 spot 0.800 107 170 in zone 1 at layer 1 AND EXTRAM1 spot 0.846 191 164 in zone 2 at layer 2

Hi :slight_smile:

  1. You have to make your extra walk across the screen (or to the point when you want it to stop)
    For example, if your scene is in zone 2, put your character in zone 3 so it’s offscreen and make it walk to zone 1
  2. Use & instead of @ for background characters (for walking, talking, moving) while the dialogue is happening
  3. It really depends if you want your characters in front of main characters or behind
    (if they behind make them smaller, if they in front make them bigger)
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thank you for the tips!

may i please have an example of script for what number one would look like?

and for the 3rd one, the mains who are having a convo are being zoomed in during their convo (so i had to make them smaller) and im having extras walks past them but theyre way too big and when i tried making them close to the main chars’ size it didn’t work, they stayed the same size.

thank you once again :slight_smile:

Can you tell me which background are you using? I 'll try to make you an example scene when character walking across the script. Are you in zone 2 then?

i’m using :

INT. BLUE SCHOOL HALLWAY - DAY

and im in zone 1.

Does anyone know where to get free backgrounds?

Many editors offer free edited episode backgrounds :slight_smile:

thank you!

INT. BLUE SCHOOL HALLWAY - DAY
&EXTRAF1 spot 0.761 362 188 AND EXTRAF1 moves to layer -1
&EXTRAM1 spot 0.783 367 188 AND EXTRAM1 moves to layer -2
@SYDNEY spot 0.800 107 170 AND SYDNEY faces right AND SYDNEY starts talk_armscrossed_neutral_loop
@DYLAN spot 0.846 191 164 AND DYLAN faces left AND DYLAN is idle_awkward_scratch_loop

&EXTRAM1 walks to spot 0.783 -59 189 in 2.1
&EXTRAF1 walks to spot 0.761 -81 189 in 2.6

thank you so much, it worked!

could you tell me what you changed and why soi could use this information for future reference? :):grinning:

She spotted the extra characters offscreen and then she walked them to another spot that was on screen. It’s important to do this because if you use the command:

@CHAR enters from right to spot _____

Then the character will come in at a default size which ends up looking weird.

I explain this on my Spot Walking guide.

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ahhh, okay i got it. Thank you!

you can also do
@CHARACTER walks to spot 1.242 300 0 AND CHARACTER does it while walk_scared

and of course you can replace walk_scared with any other action