Introduction
Hello everyone! I'm back again ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ. This time I'm sharing the process I followed to create a simple dance animation with an already completed illustration using the new transformation tool: “Puppet Warp”.
This is a simple dance animation compatible with the PRO version of Clip Studio Paint.
Without further ado… Let’s get started!!
0. Let's animate an illustration
In this guide, we will animate an illustration in a basic dance cycle. This is the result of the movement; at the end of the tutorial, you will find the final animation with a background, I hope you like it.
1. Character Design
I will start by presenting the step-by-step process of the illustration I created for the animation, following some guidelines to ensure a better result.
✦ The Sketch / Lineart
The first thing is to have a character to animate. For my part, I present this lovely cat girl whom I will call Olivia (Oli for friends). Once the character is designed, let's start cleaning up the sketch.
- SKETCH CLEANUP -
To begin, place all parts of the sketch (if you have several) into a folder. Now, to change the color of the layers in the folder and make it easy to clean up the sketch, you need to:
➀ Go to the blue icon in the “Layer Window” and click on the “Layer Color” option.
➁ Next, lower the “Opacity” and you're done.
By default, the layer is set to blue, but if you want a different color, go to the “Layer Property” window and in the “Layer Color” section, choose another color from the color bar or the paint bucket; just click on one of them.
- CHARACTER DIVISION -
To achieve a better result in the animation, we need to divide the character into different parts; this is why we will create a folder for each element. For this specific animation, we will need to divide the body into:
➀ The body: The head, torso, and legs (all of this must be joined as a single unit when animating unless one element overlaps with another).
➁ The arms; each in its corresponding folder.
➂ The facial features.
➃ The hair (in the case of this model, having hair with both a front and back view, I divided the hair into two parts).
➄ Accessories (depending on the quantity, these can be divided into different parts).
- LINEART -
I will create a “Vector Layer” within each folder to start making the lineart. To create a vector layer, click on the second layer icon in the “Layer” window.
At this point, I placed the sketch folder below the model parts folders.
- SYMMETRY RULER -
The fact that this example illustration is frontal allows me to use a little shortcut, which is the symmetry ruler. This ruler is found in: Tool Window (3) > Symmetry Ruler (4).
TIP: If you want to achieve perfectly vertical or horizontal symmetry, you must keep the “SHIFT” key activated while positioning the ruler on the canvas and then deactivate the key when finished. In the tablet or mobile version of the program, you can activate this key from the EDGE keys side panel.
● Stabilizer: If you have a shaky hand like mine, you can use the stabilization tool found in the “Tool Properties” of the brushes. Stabilization is ideal for lines, but for applying color, it's better to deactivate it.
Now you just have to start with the lines of the symmetrical areas.
We cannot use the ruler to reflect all elements, as this will give an unnatural effect. For this reason, it must be deactivated in some areas to paint them individually. To deactivate or delete the ruler, hold down the ruler icon found in the layer thumbnail and select the corresponding option from the menu.
- RULER > SHOW ON ALL LAYERS: Returning to the use of the symmetry ruler, there is a very good use it has; if you hold down the ruler icon, a series of options will appear, among which we have “Show on all layers.” This option allows the ruler's properties to be applied to layers where the ruler is not established.
- LAYER MASK -
When we finish making the lineart for each section, we will notice that parts that should be hidden overlap and can be annoying when applying colors. So, to hide them without deleting them, we need to create a “Layer Mask”. To do this:
➀ Select the layer. Activate the “Layer Mask” icon located in the “Layer” window section.
➁ Once active, a white thumbnail will appear on the side.
➂ Now, select that white thumbnail.
➃ Then, use the eraser to remove the excess parts.
If we want to make everything hidden reappear without deleting the layer mask, we need to: Hold down the thumbnail and choose the “Enable Mask” option from the menu. This is precisely the option that will disable it.
When disabled, the thumbnail will be covered with a large red cross. To re-enable it, repeat the previous step.
On the other hand, to make only a specific hidden section appear, simply take any brush, choose white color, and paint in the areas where you want the hidden parts to reappear. All this while keeping the white thumbnail of the layer selected.
✦ Color, Shadows, and Lights
Now that we have the layers separated, it's time for color. To add color, I'll start with the hair, for which I'll enable the areas hidden by the layer mask.
To apply the base color, I will use the paint bucket, so I will do the following:
➀ Create a new layer below the vector layer.
➁ Set the vector layer as a reference by activating the “Lighthouse” icon found in the functions of the “Layer” window.
➂ Select the “Paint Bucket” tool and go to the “Tool Property” window.
➃ In the settings, activate the “Multiple Referencing” option and activate the “Reference” (1) icon.
➄ If we activate the “Fill up to vector stroke” (2) option, we will achieve that the color is applied up to the center of the vector line, which is good because it reduces the white spaces that may remain when painting with the paint bucket.
➅ Finally, “Close gap” (3) fills even if there are small openings in the vector line.
Another method to fill an area without using the “Reference” option as explained above is to simply delimit the area by painting with the brush and then fill it with the paint bucket.
- LAYER COLOR -
Since we are now managing many layers, to differentiate them from each other, we can set a color for them. We do this from the layer window, using the gray square icon located in the upper left corner.
- SHADOWS -
Once we know the position of the lights and shadows in our illustration, the next step will be to paint them. To facilitate the process, we can rely on the layer functions, let's see:
➀ Use “Clip to Layer Below”. Its function is to create a false clipping. That is, what is drawn on it will only be visible within the limits of what is drawn on the layer it refers to (the layer below). If the clipping is removed, everything done outside the edges of the base layer will become visible. This adjustment is fundamental for my workflow; what I do is create a new layer above the base color, activating this function, and on it, I will paint the details of the lights and shadows.
✦ Details
At this point, I decided to try other color configurations. To do this, I used “Lock transparent pixels.”
This is a function that allows us to paint without going outside the edge and without having to create new layers linked to the base layer. When activated on that same layer, you can only draw on pixels that have color; transparent ones are completely ignored. This function is found in the layer options; it's the icon of the square with a small padlock.
Once we have established the base colors, lights, and shadows, it's time to start rendering and adding details. This is personal work, as everyone has their learned techniques.
- MODIFY LINE WIDTH -
The advantage of using vector layers is their easy line handling. With the “Correct Line” sub tool, we can modify the lines of vector layers. To access these settings, we will go to the icon with an arrow pointing to a node in the tool palette.
If the line is too thick or thin, I recommend using the “Line Reduction” tools. It increases and decreases the line thickness. Each of these settings has a percentage bar with which we can measure the amount of change in the lines.
✦ Prepare the file
Once the illustration is finished, you need to arrange and reduce the layers so that they are simpler to work with.
First, you need to check folder by folder and verify that all color areas are filled and eliminate any imperfections found outside the limits of each element.
Second, you need to divide the corresponding parts according to the division scheme we outlined at the beginning.
If some parts are joined, as in my case with the arms, we can use the tool: Selection > Lasso, and the “Cut and Paste” option found in the floating bar of the selection tool. This will separate it into two layers.
Important: Each arm must be separated from the structure and placed on its own layer, and the same applies to the hair in the front and back areas.
- COMBINE SELECTED LAYERS -
Now, the final step is to combine the layers of each folder to form a single layer for each element. To do this, hold down the folder (right-click if working on PC); a menu will appear where the option we need is “Combine selected layers.”
Tip: It is better to create a copy of the folders before combining them to have a backup.
2. The Animation
Now it's the animation's turn. This section will be a bit long because I will explain the process step by step in the most detailed way possible.
✦ File
➀ Let's start by opening a new project. The type of work is animation, so we will choose the last option in “Type of work.”
➁ For the file size, I chose a dimensionality of 1080 x 1920 px.
➂ In the “Timeline” options, you must set the “Frame Rate” to 8 and the “Duration” to 24.
When opening an animation project, the window containing the timeline appears, but if it's not there or gets accidentally hidden, we can open it from: Window > Timeline.
Now, let's prepare the file:
➀ You need to delete the folder that is created by default.
➁ For the second step, we need to go back to the file where we have the character design layers, then select the unique layers of each element, copy them, and paste them into the animation file.
To copy and paste an element, whether it's a layer or a folder, to another file, you can do it from: Edit > Copy/Paste; or with the keyboard shortcuts “CTRL + C” (copy) and “CTRL + V” (paste).
➂ Now we need to organize the files into folders:
(1) We will create a “New Animation Folder”. We do this from the “Timeline” window using the second icon after the playback buttons.
(2) We will rename this folder to match the part of the character it will contain; now we take the corresponding layer and drag it into the folder.
We repeat these two steps for each part.
Important: The layers must be ordered in a specific sequence. For this specific illustration, it is as follows (some folders can be omitted depending on the number of character elements, but the important thing is that one arm is before and the other after the body):
1. Front Hair.
2. Facial Features.
3. Left Arm.
4. Body.
5. Right Arm.
6. Back Hair.
7. Tail.
Now I will select all layers and move the character to the center of the canvas.
Finally, I will arrange the windows to make it more comfortable to work on a tablet screen. Since this is a vertical animation, I find it more convenient to have the timeline window on the left edge.
To move a window across the screen and dock it to any part of the periphery, simply drag the window from the top (where the name is) to the desired location. A red section will appear when the window can be docked to other areas.
✦ Torso
We will start with the torso animation because it will provide the guidelines for the rest of the parts:
- PART ONE -
➀ The first thing is to select layer by layer within all folders and duplicate them. The duplicated layers will automatically be set on the second frame of the timeline corresponding to each folder.
To duplicate layers, you need to hold down one of them, and a menu will appear where you will find the option to “Duplicate Layer.”
➁ We will rename the layers in each folder to make it easier to work with them. I will name them with numbers: The first layer we transferred from one file to another I will name “1” and the duplicated layer “2.”
➂ The third step is to activate onion skinning. The “Enable Onion Skin” option is found in the timeline window (it's the icon with two overlapping squares). This option allows you to see the position of the previous and next layers with a different color and opacity.
➃ Next is to select the layers named with the number (2) from each folder and, using the “Transform” tool, move the entire character model slightly downwards; the onion skin function will allow us to calculate the position relative to layer (1).
In tablet mode, there is a shortcut in the menu bar; for the desktop version, you can use the keyboard shortcut “Ctrl + T” to quickly activate “Transform” in its basic mode.
- PART TWO -
➀ Now, you need to select only layers (2) from the body, front hair, and back hair folders; then activate the “Puppet Warp” tool. This option is found in: Edit > Transform > Puppet Warp.
Puppet Warp allows us to edit multiple layers at once.
It's important to create the keyframes for the body movement along with those for the hair, because this will make it easier to animate the rest of the hair afterward.
This tool is a new addition in version 4.0. If you want to learn more about it, I invite you to visit the following official tutorial:
When activated, the elements of the layers will be covered with a mesh of triangles. Clicking anywhere on the mesh will create a red point, this point is known as an “Anchor”, and these anchors are what will allow us to move the illustration.
We can place as many anchors as necessary.
➁ To recreate the body movement, we will place an anchor on the head, another on the chest, one on the abdomen, and one on each foot.
When we click on an already created anchor, it will activate, turning red, and the rest will remain gray. These gray anchors immobilize the parts that we do not want to be affected by the deformation caused by other anchors.
➂ Now we will select the anchors of the feet from the center and drag them upwards so that they match those of layer (1); to help us, we will use the shadow provided by the onion skin.
➃ We will activate the central anchor of the abdomen and rotate it with the outer circle so that the character's hips point to one side (in my case, the left from my perspective) in a not-too-exaggerated way.
Note: If you want exaggerated movements, more frames will be needed to smooth the change from one keyframe to another. The PRO version of Clip Studio Paint only allows 24 frames, and the EX version an unlimited number.
➄ Finally, I will place other anchors along the legs, so that they allow adjusting their position to prevent them from looking deformed. Done, once finished, click accept.
● Delete anchors: When the tool is active, in the “Tool Property” window, we will find the anchor settings. In the “Click on anchor” section, there is an option to delete selected anchors.
In this window, we also find other settings to configure the mesh.
- PART THREE -
To create the movement, we will use four key poses. These are:
1. Vertical Pose.
2. Pose to the left.
3. Vertical Pose.
4. Pose to the right.
Let's review the frame order; first, frame one has the unmodified base layers.
Frame two contains the modification we made in the previous part.
In frame three, we must return to the initial position. To do this, we need to call the base layer, which we will do as follows:
Remember also that you need to arrange the hair layers and frames just as we are doing with the body.
➀ You need to select frame three in the timeline and hold down that frame until a menu appears (right-click if working on a PC). On the left side, a list will appear with the names of the layers created up to that moment; among the options, we will choose layer (1).
The red line shows the active frame at that moment.
Once again, we will do the same with the hair frames.
For frame four, we will repeat the same process as for frame two, but in this case, we will move the model's hips to the right.
Let's look at the step-by-step:
➀ Let's start by duplicating layer one. This copy will appear with the name “1a”, but I will change its name to “3.”
➁ Now, we need to apply puppet warp as explained before.
➂ Once completed, we must ensure that the layer is on frame four.
- PART FOUR -
After the above, the first four frames must have the following layer order: 1, 2, 1, 3. The same applies to the hair folders.
➀ Now we will move frames 1, 2, 1, and 3 with an empty frame separation between each one.
➁ Following the same separation and repeating the sequence (1, 2, 1, 3) one after another, we will fill the rest of the timeline by calling the already created frames.
➂ In the end, the correspondence between layers and frames will be as follows:
● Cel : 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 - 9 - 11 - 13 - 15…
● Layer: 1 - 2 - 1 - 3 - 1 - 2 - 1 - 3…
This animation will have a total of 16 frames.
● POSE BALANCE
It is important to remember that the poses we create must have a certain balance; this is why we must consider the following guidelines:
In the second pose, the hip goes to the left side from our perspective. This causes all the character's weight to be shifted onto the moving leg; the body, trying to maintain balance, makes the upper part lean to the right, thus putting the character in equilibrium.
It's important to keep the feet aligned at the same level, so I advise creating a new layer above the folders where you can place a horizontal line as a guide.
Finally, the legs also need to have balance. It seems to me that the legs are too close together, so they need to be separated.
This must be done using “Puppet Warp.”
After all the above, we arrive at the following result.
● In-between Frames: As a base, we use four keyframes to create the illusion of movement, frames that we reuse throughout the rest of the timeline. But if we want to obtain a more fluid movement, we can create more in-between movements between the keyframes.
So, between the frames of layers (1) and (2), we will have an in-between movement, another between layers (2) and (1), one more between layers (1) and (3), etc.
✦ Arms
Now let's activate the layers corresponding to the arms.
- PART ONE -
➀ To begin, frame one is already set with layer (1).
➁ For frame two, we will move layers (2) of both arms (the duplicated one) to frame three to match the position of frame (2) of the body. To move the arm, I will place an anchor on the shoulder and rotate it to the right from my perspective for the left arm, and to the left for the right arm.
➂ We will fill frame five by calling layer (1), pressing the cell and choosing the number in the menu.
➃ For the seventh frame, we will duplicate layer (2) and rename it to “3.”
➄ Now we need to move the frame and align it to correspond with the position of body frame seven (layer 3).
➅ For this frame, we need to move the position of the arms outwards.
The result should be as follows; the frames of the left arm (1) should be aligned with the position of the body layers (2), and the same for the frames of the right arm (3).
If we have frames with transition movements, then we also need to create arm layers that accompany those movements.
- PART TWO -
By default, the last frame extends through the rest of the timeline. To be able to reverse the position of the arms so that the one that was hidden is now in the foreground, you need to define the extension of the layers. To do this, you need to position yourself at the mark shown in the following image.
This mark is at the beginning and the end, but in this case, we are only interested in the end.
When you place the cursor over the mark, it will change design, indicating that you can now drag the tab. Now, drag it to the limit of the last arm frame (frame eight). We will do the same with the second arm folder.
The following steps are important:
➀ First, we will select the right arm folder and duplicate it.
➁ Then, we will move it above the left arm folder.
➂ Now, we need to select the left arm folder, duplicate it, and place it below the right arm folder.
I recommend changing the color and name of the duplicated folders to differentiate them from the original ones.
➃ Finally, you need to take the set of frames from the duplicated layers from the center of the bar containing them and drag them to align them with the end of the original layer frames.
The order of the folders should be as follows:
(1) Right arm - Duplicate.
(2) Left arm - Original.
(3) Folder with the body.
(4) Left arm - Original.
(5) Right arm - Duplicate.
To finish, I check layer by layer and, using a layer mask, correct errors or excesses of the arms that might cover areas they shouldn't.
If we work with more than 16 frames, then we must fill the missing frames with the original arm layers after the sequence of copies. For this part, we must follow the same sequence that has been carried out so far.
With this, we finalize the arm sequence. And once again, we can improve the animation's flow by adding frames between the keyframes.
At this point, the animation looks slow, but we can speed it up by changing the frame rate. To do this, go to the following path: Animation > Timeline > Change frame rate.
✦ Hair, Ears, and Tail
If we edit the body pose along with the hair, as explained at the beginning in the body animation, then we will already have the three hair layers in the position corresponding to the body. Now we just need to complete the timeline by calling the layers in their corresponding cells according to the sequence.
With just these layers, the movement looks very stiff, but to improve it, we will edit these layers a bit more.
- EARS -
To edit the ears, we will position ourselves in the folder where they are located. Then, layer by layer, we will edit them using the “Puppet Warp” tool. The ears must be moved in the direction of the body's movement.
In this step, I positioned the anchors in such a way that they prevented the movement of the rest of the hair, only allowing the ears to move.
This must be done with each of the three layers. With this, we get a better addition of physical movements. Although we can still make it more fluid, we will see that after the next step.
- HAIR -
Recall that we have three layers for the main hair movement, and we arranged these layers with the sequence 1 - 2 - 1 - 3, ordered along the 16 frames with an empty frame separation between each frame. Therefore, we have throughout the timeline a sequence of a full frame, then an empty one, followed by a full one, etc.
It will be in these empty spaces where we will place layers with in-between movements. In total, we need to create four layers. Let's see how:
➀ We will position ourselves on frame one and select layer (1) from the front and back hair folders; then we will duplicate them. The new layer will be placed in the empty frame between frame one and three with the name 1a. Now, we need to select the duplicated layers and transform them using the “Puppet Warp” tool with an in-between movement between the position of the previous and next frames.
➁ We will repeat the previous process, but in this case with the layer (2) which is in frame three.
➂ For frame five, which also contains the layer (1), we need to select layers (1) and duplicate them, both for the front and back hair; and rename the copies, in my case (1b), and place the created frame in cell six. And edit the layers once more as explained before.
➃ Finally, we position ourselves on frame seven and select layers (3) and edit them once more with puppet warp.
Now that we have the four layers, we need to fill the rest of the empty spaces by calling the created layers following the sequence which is now: 1 - 1a - 2 - 2a - 1 - 1b - 3 - 4 for both the front and back hair layers. Done, we have it.
- EARS 2 -
If we follow the previous steps, we should already have the frames completed. Now we just need to edit the new four front hair layers, but only the ears. The edits we will make will be an intermediate movement between the position of the previous and next frames.
Done, now we have this animation:
- TAIL -
To make the tail movement, I will use five frames. The first one, which I already have, will be the base position, and I will create the rest from this one by duplicating the layer, editing it with “Puppet Warp,” and then duplicating this edited layer again to edit it, and I will follow this process until all five frames are completed.
The first two frames contain the movement pointing to the left, the third to the center, and the fourth and fifth to the right. Once we have the first two frames, we can duplicate and invert them with the “Transform” tool; these will give us the right position for frames four and five.
Now all that remains is to duplicate layer two and edit it to place it in frame three.
At this point, I reduced the number of frames from 24 to 16. To do that, you need to drag the blue guide on the timeline to the frame you want to be the end.
Now all that remains is to fill the rest of the frames by calling the already created ones. The order of the frames must have an ascending and descending sequence: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2.
Finally we get:
✦ Eyes / Mouth
The last part of this editing will be the eyes. To do this, we will start by remembering that frames 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 are the main ones, so:
➀ Frame one must contain the base layer.
➁ In frame two, a copy of layer (1) must be placed, and with the “Transform” tool, we must adjust the position of the eyes so that it corresponds to the head's tilt.
➂ Now, we will repeat the process until all six frames are completed.
➃ The rest of the frames up to 16 must be filled by following the order of the previous layers from 1 to 6.
- BLINKING -
The blinking animation will have five frames, of which the first and fifth will be the base illustration, so nothing needs to be done for them. The structure will be as follows:
(A) The first frame will correspond to the open position.
(A1) The second will be the representation of the eyelid lowering slightly from position “A.”
(B) In the third position, the eyes will be closed.
(B1) The fourth corresponds to the eye opening from position “B.”
(C) Finally, we will have the eyes open once more.
• FIRST FRAME
This is just the unmodified layer (1).
• SECOND FRAME
➀ We will select the second frame in the timeline.
➁ Once there, go to the layers window and duplicate the base layer. This duplicated layer will automatically snap to the second animation frame.
➂ Now, with the “Lasso” selection tool, we will select the upper eyelashes in both eyes. To make it easy, I advise selecting both at once.
➃ Once selected, we should lower them a little with the “Transform” tool.
To select several separate elements, you must activate the “Add to selection” option from the properties of the “Lasso” tool.
• THIRD FRAME
For this third frame, we will repeat the steps. This time, we will duplicate the layer we duplicated in the previous step, but in this case, we will not move the eyelashes; instead, we will paint the shape of the eyes completely closed.
• FOURTH FRAME
Once again with the “Lasso” tool, we will lower the eyelashes by a quarter of the eye or even more, this in order to simulate a pair of opening eyes.
• FIFTH FRAME
The fifth frame is already in its final position, so nothing needs to be modified.
Done, we now have a blink.
- MOUTH -
For the mouth, I have two models: the closed one that I drew on the same layer as the eyes to keep these features aligned. The second is an open mouth that is in its own animation folder. I duplicated this mouth 4 more times to match it with the possible movements of the closed mouth animation; now I simply aligned these four layers with the body's position.
To simulate the opening and closing movement of the mouth, you don't need to fill the entire timeline; just these five layers will be more than enough.
✦ Background
Finally, we have the background. With this background, I did two things:
(1) A static background. For this static background, I created a normal folder from the layer window and painted the static elements there.
We can also import images or use backgrounds downloaded from Clip Studio ASSETS.
(2) For the animated part of the background, I will represent sound waves. To do this:
➀ I created a grid with a vector layer to use as a reference when animating the frames.
➁ I created a new animation folder where I drew 5 different wave combinations, one on each layer.
➂ I ordered these five layers back and forth (1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 3 - 2 - 1… etc.) until all 16 frames were completed.
3. Export Animation
To export an animation, go to: File > Export animation. There are different export formats, but in my case, I will use “Movie.”
Then, you need to name the file.
In this window, you need to set the file size and frame rate.
Finally, you need to choose the file location, and you're done.
4. Result
To create a longer video, I added the same dance movement but with different arm poses.
And so we have…
Farewell
Animating images is a lot of fun, and now with the new Puppet Warp feature, it becomes a bit easier. I hope you also have fun using this tool. Thank you for making it this far! It would be a great help if you could give me a like. See you next time! (≧∇≦)\/\
Bye bye.
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