Have you ever spent time watching dance videos and found it’s hard to stop scrolling for more? Let’s create the dance animation too with Clip Studio Paint EX!!

 

 

Note : The software I’m using is Clip Studio Paint Ex 4.1, most techniques in this tutorial work in the previous versions except the Puppet wrap.

Tutorial overview

•Part 1 - Create dancing keyframe design for easier to work on it

•Part 2 - Draw the keyframe and the in-between keyframe with Clip Studio paint features

This tutorial is focusing on basic workflow so it’s beginner-friendly.

You can follow it step by step and ask here if you have any question

Part 1 : Keyframe design

The keyframe design is an important process. You will able to see the entire dance timing before start the drawing process, and it will help you save a lot of time from fixing the mistake

Step 1 : Draw strick man

Stick man represents the skeleton of the character and helps you save a lot of time on the drawing process.

No matter what structure your characters have, you can make the stickman version of them!!

Step 2 : Dance pattern design

Usually the pop dance has some pattern that may repeat in a short loop and then switch to another dance pattern.

Listen to the music and arrange the dance. Then draw it in order like a comic panel.

In my animation, there are 4 dance sets that will repeat in several loops

Tips: I use the brush with outline for the pose sketching, it will be easier if the body part is overlapped

I also publish the brush I used

Step 3 : Dance pattern animatic

Set up the animatic will help you see the overall of the animation

Create a new canvas, select the [Animation Project]

On the preset, you can select [1080 x 1920 no margins] for the vertical video.

Optional : If you like to work with larger canvas, you can add the safe margins by enable the [Animation frame setting] and add the [Blank space area]

This blank space will not export with your animation

Set up the timeline in the [Timeline] part

The music I will use is 30 seconds length, 

so I set up the playback time to 360 frames for frame rate 12 fps (12x30)

When you create a new canvas with the Animation preset, 

you will get an [Animation folder] with the [Timeline] ready for the animation!!

In the [Layer] panel, Right click on the layer 1 in the folder

and [Create folder and insert layer]

You will get a layer folder when you create the new animation cel

Next, Import the music to the timeline [File>Import>Audio]

 

 

Tips: enable the [Audio scrubbing] will allow you to hear the music when dragging the selector line on the timeline.

Select the animation folder,

and create an animation cel where the dance pattern changes relate to the music.

Tips: you may zoom the timeline to be easier to work

Sometimes, the beat is noticeable on the waveform on the audio tab..

The complete timeline will look like this:

Put the dance pattern that you designed in each folder

You will get a quick animatic for your dance

Note : this animatic is 5x faster

Step 4: Add dance keyframes that synchronize with the music

Synchronization is important when you make a dance video, 

Marking on the rhythm position will let you see how many frames are available for the movement.

On the timeline, expand the audio layer and you will see the [track label] bar

When you right click on track label bar, you can add the label to the audio

Mark the position for the rhythm in the music

Let’s start with the first dance pattern, it has only 2 keyframes and repeat in loops

 

If the pattern repeat every beat, you will have 11 frame for this animation

 

Create a new animation folder, and rename to the pattern name

(I will use a different animation folder for each dance pattern,

for our 4 dance patterns, there will be 4 folders in the end)

On the first beat mark, create a new animation cel and put in the folder

Then on the second beat mark, [Right click] and [Set as last display frame]

This will be the animation length for one beat, the entire bar is called a clip

 

 

Then add the new cel and put the keyframe on the folder

Reduce the [Opacity] and set the [Layer color] to the animatic keyframe to use as the reference animation

Repeat the clip to make the loop animation

Copy the timeline by the right click on the header of the clip bar

Then paste it after the first clip, then adjust the keyframe to the beat

(drag on the small square at the top right of the clip bar)

Merge the clips

Tips : To test the animation on some part, you can right click on the timeline bar and set the [start frame] and [end frame]

 

 

Repeat the steps with the other dance pattern and you will see the more detailed dance animatic!!

Part 2 Drawing the keyframes

To draw the frame-by-frame animation, I recommend using some useful features on clipstudio to help you work easier!!

The Animation cel panel

When you already set up the animatic,

Instead of putting extra reference layers,

You can use the [Light table] feature on the [Animation Cels] panel to work on the keyframe.

The light table is like a parallel world, it doesn't export your reference with your animation!!

To open the Animation cel panel : [Window > Animation cels]

Here is a quick explanation to the Animation Cels panel’s menu and the [Light Table]

When you import the image file to the light table, 

you can move it with the [Operation] tool > [Light table]

Start drawing the first keyframe,

Click on the cel (folder) that you want to work on,

The light table will instantly show the layers in the cel

I docked the Animation cel panel next to the Layer panel

It’s comfortable to use for me :3

Reduce the opacity of the stickman layer,

Then add a new layer and draw the keyframe.

Note : the layer menu and operation is still on the [Layer] panel,

but you can select the layer from the [Animation cel] panel

The first keyframe’s lineart is done, you may hide or delete unwanted layer and reference

To work on the next cell, drag the ink layer to the [General light table] pane

Then navigate to next layer, 

you will see the previous layer on the as if you’re working on the traditional light table!!

Move the reference on the Cel-specific pane to make it show only for this cel

You can also change the color of the reference layer

Mesh transformation

Tips : Since the movement is only on one leg. I copy the ink layer from the previous keyframe to edit, you can easily do it on the [Animation cels] panel

Use the [Mesh transformation] tool to edit the movement and draw only the legs,

This will help you save a lot of time on drawing

If you use the Vector layer for the ink, you may use the [Object] tool to edit the ink individually

Layer search

Giving the layer name ‘Ink’ for the ink layer will make it searchable.

You may search the layer by the name when you want to edit something

For example : I want to set all the ink layer to a reference layer for the coloring process

Open the [Search Layer] panel [Window > Search Layer] 

And type the layer name to search..

Hold [Ctrl] to select multiple layer,

Then [right click > Layer setting > Set as reference layer]

Tips : Instead of renaming the layer all the time, 

you may create empty layers with the name and copy them to another cel

If you don’t want the software to add ‘Copy’ to the copied layer,

you may change the setting in [File > Preference] and [Layer] tab

Now I can use the [Fill] tool and [Refer multiple : Reference layer] to fill the color

The layer search is also useful if you want to change color of some part

No need to find the layer in each cel on the timeline :3

Puppet Wrap (Clipstudio 4.0+)

If you want an animation to be more smooth, you may draw the in-between keyframe.

 

And if you’re using the Clip studio paint version 4.0+, you may use the Puppet wrap to create it instead…

Duplicate the layer folder and give it a new name,

Then assign it to the timeline

Important : Rasterize the ink layer if you use the vector layer

On the timeline, enable the [Onion skin]

Select the cel folder

Then [Edit > Transform > Puppet wrap]

Click to add the pin to the puppet, 

Start with several pin on the body ( this will pin the body in place) 

then add and move the pin on head, hair and legs

Click ok to commit, and your easy in-between keyframe is done!!

If the music is fast, you may not need to add a lot of in-between keyframe.

 

I repeat the steps on other dance patterns..

I also add 2D camera movement to the finished version to make it looks more lively in the finished version

You may check my previous tutorial about the 2D camera

Here is the result

I hope this tutorial gave you some idea for your dance video!! See you in the next tutorial and have fun animating!!