Hello! In this article, I will teach you how to create your first Animation in Clip Studio PAINT. Whether you are a beginner or just starting in the world of 2D Animation, you will be able to achieve a simple LO-FI style Animation.

 

If you have Clip Studio PAINT PRO or Clip Studio PAINT EX, you can follow the entire process and achieve your own animation!

This is the Animation we will make:

I will teach you the entire process to create a similar animation; you'll see how entertaining and easy it is.

 

So, I invite you to watch the super tutorial called:

Video Tutorial: How to animate in Clip Studio PAINT (BEGINNERS)

The video is in Spanish, but remember you can activate subtitles in your language; you'll surely find it :)

What did you think of the video? We saw the step-by-step process to make a simple LO-FI style animation.

Animation Creation Process:

Now, I invite you to see the step-by-step again through images:

1. Project Creation

Go to File - New and choose the last option, Animation. In Preset, choose 1920 x 1080, change the story name, and most importantly, change the Speed to 8 and the Duration to 24 Frames. Once ready, press accept.

2. Timeline in Clip Studio PAINT

Remember to activate it at the top in: Window - Timeline.

3. Save Your Project

In File - Save as, you can save your project, choose your folder, and don't forget to always save in .CLIPSTUDIOFORMAT

4. Animation Layout

When creating the project, we will have some default items: an animation folder and the paper layer, which is the white background color. To start from 0, we will delete the Animation folder in the layer panel, leaving only the paper layer.

And we create a new raster layer named LAYOUT.

To draw the sketch of our animation on this layer, we will choose the pencil tool, with the Pencil sub-tool. If you want to sketch with another brush, you can do it!

And we achieved the following result:

5. Animation Lineart

Select the Layout layer and activate: Change Layer Color, then lower its opacity to 50%.

And we create a new layer to draw the line, but this time we will choose a New Vector Layer.

And with the Pen tool in Textured Sub-tool, we will draw the Animation line, but only for the area that will not have movement.

 

Why did I choose Textured Sub-tool? Because I want this animation to have an artistic touch.

And sometimes we will have to cut lines; for this, we have a great tool in Clip Studio. By choosing the Eraser tool in Vector Sub-tool, we can cut the strokes we don't need.

And if you want to modify the line width, you can also do it. You must go to the Line Correction tool and choose in Sub-tool: Modify line width. And in the Tool Property window, you can choose Increase or Decrease.

Being able to edit the line width in this way (Table Line)

6. Eye Animation

Now it's time to start animating. We'll begin with the simplest part: the character's blinking. To do this, we need to go to the timeline and create a: New animation folder.

And then we must create a: New animation cel

And now we're going to do a trick that I love! In the layer panel, inside the eye animation folder, we're going to create a: New layer folder, and give it the same name as the Frame, that is: 1.

And we can create different layers. In this case, we will create a vector layer called: Line. And a raster layer called: Color.

And now we select the line layer of the eye animation folder and draw the open eyes.

By making a frame a layer folder, we will create a new animation cel in frame 10, and when you create this new drawing, you'll realize that it creates a new animation cel respecting all the layers and names of the previous cel, which I love!

And on the line layer of the eye animation folder, we are going to draw the closed eyes.

Remember to activate: Enable onion skin, to see the previous drawing.

Now we create a new animation cel in frame 12.

But first, let's go to frame 13 and activate: Specify Cels.

And we select drawing 1, to make the open eyes visible again in frame 13.

And in frame 12, we draw the semi-open eyes.

And we see the animation we have achieved so far, just with the blink.

7. Book Animation

Now we are going to create a New animation folder, called 'hojas' (pages).

We create a new animation cel and we are going to repeat the same previous step.

We create a layer folder with the same name as the frame, to be able to create more layers within this folder. The layers we will create are: the line layer and the color layer.

And we draw only the book pages on the line layer of this animation folder, which is what we are going to animate.

Now we create a new animation cel in frame 2 and, as you remember, it creates a new animation cel respecting the number of layers and their names.

And by finishing the drawing in frame 3, we have the animation ready.

Now we need to reduce the duration of the book pages animation. To do this, we take this animation folder from the right end and set it to 3 frames.

Next, we are going to copy this animation within the same animation folder. To do this, place the cursor at the top of the book pages animation, right-click - copy.

And in frame 4, which is empty, right-click - paste. And we do the same throughout the timeline until the end.

Obtaining the following result:

8. Animation Cleanup

This is the result we have achieved so far, the animation line.

9. Animation Color

It's time to add color. To do this, we create a new raster layer called COLOR below the animation line layer. Here we will paint all the elements that have no movement.

We choose the Fill tool and in Sub Tool, we change to: Refer to other layers. This way, we can paint on a different layer and it will read the border line to fill the fixed elements of the Animation with color.

Achieving it this way:

10. Book Pages Animation Color

Now we are going to paint the book animation. We select the first drawing of the animation, then the color layer, and paint with the pen, the same tool we used for the line.

11. Eye Animation Color

We do the same process: we choose the eye animation folder and paint the 3 drawings of the blinking animation.

We paint the light part of the eyes and the iris. And if you want, you can add an extra color to the eyes.

Achieving the following result.

12. Border Line Color

Now we're going to add an extra detail: we'll color the border line, and you'll realize that by doing this, our animation will look even better.

 

To do this, we create a new layer above the Line layer called: Line Color. And we go to Edit - Fill. But it's very important to have activated in the layer panel: Clip to Layer Below, as shown in the following image:

13. Animation Environment

Now we are going to play with the animation's lighting. We will create a new raster layer named: Environment. We go to Edit - Fill to paint the entire work area with the same color as the border line. And in the layer panel, in the blending modes, we activate: Multiply and lower the opacity to 70%.

14. Animation Shadow

While this animation will have flat colors, we need to create depth between the foreground and background elements. To do this, we will create a new raster layer above all others and name it: Shadows. And with the pen tool, we paint only the background of the animation. We will also leave the opacity at 70%.

15. Animation Lighting

As a final touch, we can create a new raster layer called: Light. To add some small touches of lighting to the scene, we change its blending mode to Add (Glow) and leave the opacity at 50%.

16. 2D Camera in Clip Studio PAINT

If you want to change the camera frame, you can easily do that in Clip Studio PAINT by creating a 2D Camera. But before creating it, we will activate the 2D camera rendering, which will truly show us the camera frame we will export as a video or gif.

 

First, go to Animation - Playback settings - Render 2D camera.

If we activate play on the timeline, we will see the real shot of our camera.

Now we will create a new camera to change the frame. To do this, go to: Animation - New animation layer - 2D Camera Folder.

And with the Operation tool, we can move the camera to the frame we want.

But for the camera to work, we need to move all the layers and put them inside the Camera folder, like this:

And if we activate play, we see the final camera frame that we have edited.

17. Light Animation

As a final detail, we are going to create a very simple light animation. To do this, we create a: New animation folder above all layers, and name it Light.

We take the previously created light layer and put it inside the new animation folder called Light.

And in the animation folder called Light, we activate the option: Specify Cels.

And we select the drawing called Light 1

On the timeline, in the area where the drawing is, right-click - Duplicate layer.

Now we have 2 identical drawings inside the Light animation folder. Now we go to frame 3 and activate: Specify Cels.

And we select drawing 2 called Light 2, finally changing its opacity to 70%.

Now we take the duration of the light animation, leaving it at 4 frames.

Then at the top of the light animation, right-click - Copy.

Then in frame 5, right-click - Paste. And we do the same with the rest of the frames.

Successfully completing the timeline with the light animation.

18. Export Animation as Movie

Go to File - Export Animation - Movie

Activate: Apply 2D camera effects and change the FPS (Frames per second) to 8. Then press accept to export our animation as a video. You can choose the .mov or .mp4 format.

19. Export Animation as Gif

File - Export Animation - Animated Gif

In Animated GIF export settings, we change the width and height if we want a large, good quality gif, press accept, and our animation will be exported as a .gif

20. Final LO-FI Style Animation

I hope this article has been very helpful and motivates you to make your first animation, as you could see, it's easier than it looks.

 

See you in the next TIP!