Hello! In this article, I will teach you how to animate a starry sky in Clip Studio PAINT by creating a simple but very beautiful animation.

The Animation we are going to create:

We will start with this scene:

To finish with this Animation:

It looks difficult, doesn't it? Well, actually, it's very easy to do :)

 

That's why I want to invite you to watch the super tutorial where I show you step-by-step how to achieve this beautiful animation.

How to Animate a Starry Sky in Clip Studio PAINT (VIDEO TUTORIAL)

The video is in Spanish, but you can activate the subtitles; you'll surely find your language.

What did you think of the video? We saw the entire process to achieve this great animation.

Step-by-step Animation process

Now I invite you to see the animation process again.

1. Scene we are going to Animate

We have this animation scene where we are going to change the color of the paper layer, which is white by default.

With a double click, this window appears where we will choose a dark blue color.

And we initially have a dark sky.

2. Galaxy Background

We are going to download a material from Clip Studio Assets, which is the Galaxy background that we will use, and the best part is that it's free!

Once downloaded, we activate the window: Material.

Inside the Downloads folder are the available backgrounds; we will choose the blue-toned one. (Or whichever you prefer)

To best integrate the background into the scene, it is necessary to scale the Galaxy Background.

3. Animated Stars

On top of the galaxy background layer, we are going to create a new Animation folder.

Then, create a new animation cel on frame 1.

Now we are going to choose the Airbrush tool under Sub Tool: Soft.

In the layer panel, select the animation folder: Stars.

And in the blending modes, we choose Add (Glow).

With white color, we are going to paint some of the stars on the galaxy background.

In the layer panel, select drawing 1, right-click: Duplicate layer.

On the timeline, select frame 2 and activate: Specify Cels.

Select drawing 2 and click OK.

We have the 2 drawings for this star glow animation.

Change the opacity of drawing 2 to 75%.

We shorten the animation, leaving it at 2 frames.

With a right-click, activate: Copy.

And in the next frame, activate: Paste. To duplicate the star animation.

And by painting the stars, we make them even brighter.

Star Animation

We press play to see the animation we have achieved so far.

4. Animated Comets

Now we will create a new animation folder above the star animation we made earlier, and we will name it: Light 1.

Create a new animation cel on frame 1.

And we will draw the comet with the Airbrush tool, Sub Tool Soft.

Advance to frame 2 and create a new animation cel.

Activate onion skin to see the previous drawing and guide us.

And we draw the comet for frame 2.

And we continue making the animation; we will create the comet's movement path from frame 1 to 12. That is, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12.

It's very important to note that frame 12 will be empty.

 

Once finished, we set the animation duration up to frame 12.

Then we duplicate the animation on the timeline so that the cycle repeats 2 times. That is, we copy and paste the comet animation.

Achieving the following result, which looks simple and basic.

1 Comet Animation

But now we are going to do something that will take our animation to the next level.

Let's go to the layers panel to duplicate the comet animation.

We change the name to Light 2.

And with the Move Layer tool (K), we are going to move the new comet in the scene.

Additionally, we are going to delete the second cycle of this comet. (Right-click - delete)

We will leave it with only one comet and move it on the timeline to frame 7.

This makes it look this way, achieving a cool effect. Remember that it's the same comet, but they will appear at different times.

2 Comets Animation

Now we duplicate the animation of comet 2, change its name to Light 3, move the comet in the scene with the move layer tool, and place it on frame 4 on the timeline.

Obtaining 3 animated comets.

3 Comets Animation

Finally, we duplicate comet 3, change its name to Light 4, move it in the scene with the Move Layer tool, and place it on frame 10 on the timeline.

Achieving 4 animated comets.

4 Comets Animation

5. Effect for Comets

Once we have the 4 animated comets (actually it's just one but duplicated), we are going to create a new layer folder.

Named: Lights

And we select all the comet animations and put them inside this folder.

Select the Lights folder and in the blending modes, we are going to change it from Normal to Overlay.

Making it look this way.

Comets Animation with Overlay

For the comets to look even better, we are simply going to duplicate the folder containing the comet animations, right-click on the folder - Duplicate Layer.

Obtaining the following animation; the comets look subtle and bright.

Duplicated Comets Animation with Overlay

6. Animated Galaxy

Create a new animation folder.

Named: Galaxy

Duplicate the Galaxy layer that we previously downloaded and imported. (Right-click - duplicate layer)

We take this new duplicated layer and put it inside the Galaxy animation folder.

Now on the timeline, activate specify cels and select the drawing called Galaxy 1.

Now we simply go to the layers panel to duplicate drawing Galaxy 1.

We change the name to Galaxy 2.

On the timeline, go to frame 2 and activate specify cels, select drawing Galaxy 2.

Select layer Galaxy 2.

We leave the duration of the galaxy animation at 2 frames.

And we select the Galaxy animation folder.

In the blending modes, we change from Normal to Add (Glow).

Now we are going to duplicate the galaxy animation on the timeline; remember, we copy and paste until we complete all 24 frames, which is the duration of the animation.

Finally, we select Drawing 2 and lower its opacity to 75%.

And we have the following animation:

Galaxy Animation

To finish, we are going to duplicate the Galaxy animation.

We change its name.

We leave the animation above all layers and lower its opacity to 15%.

Achieving the following result:

Duplicated Galaxy Animation

Now everything is integrated and looks great!

7. Export Animation

Go to File - Export Animation - Movie.

We give the animation a name, and for the format, we can choose between: QuickTime and .mp4.

Then we have the size of the video to export; in my case, I will export it in Full HD (1920x1080).

8. Final Animation

9. Farewell

I hope this article helps you create your own animation.

See you in the next TIP.