Hello! In this TIP called 'Turn Your Illustration into 2D Animation in Clip Studio PAINT', you will learn in a simple, step-by-step manner how to animate your illustrations in Clip Studio PAINT. Ya sea que tengas la versión PRO o EX, este tutorial es para ti, ya que solo animaremos en 24 fotogramas.Whether you have the PRO or EX version, this tutorial is for you, as we will only animate using 24 frames.

What We Are Going to Do:

We will start with this Illustration

To transform it into this Animation

As you can see, it's easy to do, especially if you want to start in the world of 2D Animation. This can be a good start :)

 

So I invite you to watch the following:

Your Illustration in 2D Animation in Clip Studio PAINT (TUTORIAL)

Remember to activate subtitles in your language, you'll surely find it :)

What did you think of the video?

As you could see, it was very easy to convert an illustration into an animation; this was just one example, but you can add more things.

Step-by-Step Tutorial

Now I want us to look at the step-by-step process using images.

1. Duplicate the project

We are going to duplicate the original illustration file. To do this, go to File, Save Duplicate. And choose .clip (CLIP STUDIO FORMAT file)…

We change the name and save it.

2. Timeline

We open the duplicated Animation project in File - Open.

Go to Window, Timeline.

And we are going to create a new timeline.

With the following characteristics:

- Frame rate: 8

- Playback time: 24

 

This way, both Clip Studio PAINT PRO and EX users will be able to follow the step-by-step process :)

3. Eye Animation

We deactivate the light and shadow layers, the reflection, and the background.

We select the scene layer and activate Change layer color.

In order to draw on the illustration.

On the timeline, we create a new animation folder.

Inside the new animation folder, we create a new layer folder.

And inside the layer folder, we create the following layers:

• ColorLine(Raster layer)

• Line(Vector layer)

• Lights(Raster layer)

• Shading(Raster layer)

• Color(Raster layer)

Now, on the timeline, we activate Assign cel to frame.

And we select drawing 1 and click Ok.

We select the pen tool for drawing

In the Sub Tool, we choose Real G-pen or any other you prefer.

And we draw only the open eyes.

We go to frame 9 and create a new animation cel.

We activate onion skin to see the previous drawing.

And we draw the closed eyes

Now we go to frame 12 to create a new animation cel

And in frame 13, we activate Assign cel to frame

We select drawing 1

We return to frame 12 and draw the eyes almost open.

We move drawing from frame 9 to frame 10

It is also important to move the eyebrows of the Animation; we do this with the Operation tool, we take the strokes and move them.

Remember that it is important to have drawn the eye line on a vector layer, so we can move the strokes independently.

And so we get the following animation:

4. Sub View

Now we go to Window, Sub View.

We activate the eyedropper in this new panel

And in the folder icon, we select the initial project, that is, the original illustration.

And we can see our illustration in the Sub View panel; this will be very useful for what we are going to do next.

5. Eye Animation Color

We return to the layer panel and select the Color and Shadow layers, as we are going to paint the eye animation on these layers.

We activate the Sub View panel and will select colors from the original illustration to paint the animated eyes.

We can paint the eye animation with the pen tool.

We are going to do this with each of the drawings, achieving the following result.

Don't forget to delete the eye strokes from the static drawing, and you will also need to paint some areas to avoid errors.

 

This way, once you make the eye animation visible again, it will look fine.

As you can see below:

6. Background Animation

We activate the background layer as that's what we'll focus on animating now.

We select it with the operation tool and can confirm that it's a horizontally infinite background, which is perfect for this animation.

This background comes by default in Clip Studio PAINT, so we can use it without problems :)

To animate the background, we select the folder where we have our background and on the timeline, we activate: Enable Keyframes on this layer.

In frame 1, we activate the option: Add Keyframe.

And in frame 24, we move the background to the right; remember that you must do this with the operation tool.

 

Here we have to try to make sure the background is in the same place as in frame 1.

 

A technique I use is to extend the background animation, that is, until frame 25, so we move the last Keyframe to this new frame to achieve a perfect animated loop :)

Achieving the following result:

7. Phone Reflection Animation

We go to the layer panel, select the background layer, right-click and activate Duplicate Layer.

We position this duplicated layer below the girl's scene and change its name. And we create a new layer and put the duplicated background animation inside this new layer folder.

Inside the scene folder, where the girl's drawing and elements are, we are going to deactivate the phone screen, leaving it empty.

We select the folder where the duplicated background animation is and on the timeline, we activate Enable Keyframes on this layer.

And what we do is simply move this background down, so that the clouds are visible in the phone's reflection; remember that we will always move layers with the operation tool.

We lower the opacity of this folder so that the reflection looks more realistic.

Now we create a new layer folder above the duplicated animated background, and put the animation inside this new folder which we will call: Mask.

Now with the Auto select tool, we select the phone screen area.

And in the layer panel, we select the new layer folder called Mask and activate: Create layer mask.

Thus we ensure that the new duplicated animated background is visible only in the phone's reflection.

8. Light Animation

We make all layers of our project visible to focus on the scene's lights. To do this, we select the layer where we have the lights and shadows.

We select the lights layer and place it outside the folder, as we are going to do something with the lights separately.

On the timeline, we create a new animation folder.

We rename the animation folder to Lights, and place the light layer inside this animation folder; we do all of this in the layer panel.

We go to the timeline and activate Assign cel to frame, and select the light layer.

In the layer panel, we select the light layer

We activate: Enable Keyframes on this layer

On the timeline, we will discover a tool I have never taught before, but this is a good opportunity: the Graph Editor.

The timeline changes and we select Opacity.

In frame 1, we add a Keyframe.

We also do it in frame 24

And finally, in frame 12.

And we take the Keyframe from frame 12, lowering it just a bit, and in the scene, you will see that the light tends to be less visible; it will be a subtle light animation but will help add more realism to our animation.

Achieving the following result:

9. Details

We are going to the scene folder, selecting the line layer, and I will delete the time and elements from the phone screen.

 

Why am I doing this? Because if it's an animation loop and the illustration always shows the same time, it won't convey that the animation is progressing through time.

With the Selection Area tool, we select the elements and delete them.

10. Exporting the Animation

Go to File, Export Animation, Movie.

We can export it as a movie or as an animated .gif.

We can change the name

The size

And we wait for our animation to be exported

11. Final Animation

This is the animation we have created in this TIP; we went from an illustration to an animation. Try doing this with your illustrations, and you will realize that the world of animation is fascinating!

See you in the next TIP!