Hello!

Have you ever wanted to make your drawings move but the thought of drawing cel by cel almost discourages you?

I got you! Hopefully!

 

I’ll show you how I did this, with one image:

 

 

A video version is right here if you want:

I made a very simple Simple Drawing Animation that involves no cutting of drawing and mainly focuses on Environment animation, right here:

I forgot how to make a series, but this is like the part two of the first one

 

Same with the first one, I’m using Clip Studio Paint Pro, only with 24 frames.

So anyone can do it.

 

This new tips focuses more on layering and organization of folders so we can use keyframes more.

 

Let’s Start!

PREPARATION – draft & drawing

First step, get your image ready.

Make a draft of what you want to see

I wanted his to make look sleepy and maybe started tilting to his side

⭐  Which will also involve some hair and blinking animation

Maybe add some light effects at the bottom as well?

⭐  Which may probably involve some shadow animation

I want the background to rain

⭐  I like rain :D

 

So we have our plan

 

Open up your Clip Studio Paint, load up your image.

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You have to cut the parts that you want to animate, I will not be showing that here.

I cut the character to eleven pieces

You can cut with as many as you need

Make sure you label your layers properly to stay organize

TIMELINE

Let’s get our timeline, go to [Windows] > [Timeline]

Click on [New Timeline]

I’m going with Frame rate 8 and Playback time at 24

 

REMINDER: Clip Studio Paint has a maximum of 24 Playback Time, if you want to animate longer, you need to upgrade to the EX version.

 

Let’s start animating

RAIN ANIMATION - cell animation

The title says keyframes — except for this part!

We’re making the rain with cels - to make our lives easier.

the rest will be Keyframes after this!

 

Let’s make a simple and quick rain animation using Cels

I’ll be using a RAIN BRUSH

 

I used this brush right here:

Let’s start with the RAIN ANIMATION

 

Make a [New Animation Folder] > rename that as RAIN

Reminder: Please rename your folders and layers so that you’re organized

On FRAME 1 – click on [New Animation Cel], a number or frame 1 will appear inside the folder.

Get your RAIN BRUSH and using your brush, just draw some rain

Move to the next frame, FRAME 2 – click on [New Animation Cel] > make another rain

Do that for FRAME 3 AND FRAME 4

 

Now let’s put this four animations for the entire playback.

 

Make sure you’re on the next blank frame,

example FRAME 5, got to [Animation] > [Edit Track] > [Assign multiple cels]

I went with [Assign by cel name]

Start by Cel 1 to Cel 4

 

Repeat 5 times

So that’s 4 multiply by 5 is 20, we already have 4 so that completes our 24 frames

 

Click OK when you’re done.

You see our RAIN Animation folder is now full of numbers (cels)

 

And when you click PLAY

This is what our Animation looks like

If it’s too bright, you can change the Opacity of the ANIMATION FOLDER

HEAD ANIMATION - head tilt

Next let’s animate the head, first make a new FOLDER – just a regular folder.

Name that as HEAD

 

Drag all the head elements on that folder

⭐ Eyes, Eyebrows, Face, Hair, Top Hair, and Head layer itself

Next, while the Head FOLDER is still selected, click on [Enable Keyframes on this layer]

 

Go to [Operation] tool > change the anchor point of the Head Folder, click and drag it - put it under the chin.

Keyframes will be added to the folder because you moved the anchor point, you can delete those to keep your timeline clean.

 

We will be animating the ROTATE here.

You don’t need POSITIONS and CENTER OF ROTATION, you can delete those keyframes

We’re gonna create a little BOUNCE

 

Click on ROTATE

It’s subtle, but you can see a change when you click the transformations

Keyframe Interpolation; keep it SMOOTH

The animation that I want is him getting sleepy (head tilting) then waking up (head tilts back)

 

Let’s lay down our first keyframe, I’ll go with Frame 6.

Add a keyframe at ROTATE – no movement, let’s just hold this position

Next key, Frame 12 – tilt or rotate the head a little bit the left, head is now starting to move.

Next key, Frame 14 – add a keyframe, don’t make any movement.

Basically we just copied the key on Frame 12.

Now we go to Frame 13 – we tilt the head a little bit more than the one on Frame 12

I did the same animation a few frames forward but this time the ROTATION is counterclockwise

 

Clip PLAY to check the animation

If the rendering starts lagging, zoom out to render in real time

 

Here’s the BOUNCE I’m talking about:

1. Copy your last movement

2. Paste it two frames forward

3. On the middle of those keyframes

4. Increase the ROTATION of your last movement (like exaggerate it, add more value)

EYE ANIMATION - keyframe

Eye Animations is usually with cels but since we’re already using keyframes, we might as well do the same with the eye animations.

 

Doing Eye Animations with Keyframes is basically playing with Opacity, it’s straight to the point.

It’s easy but can be messy.

 

It’s preferable to use HOLD Interpolations so that it HOLDS the key values until you put another key.

Since our HEAD folder is already Keyframed Enabled and the EYES are already inside that folder, the eyes are also already keyframed enabled

 

UNHIDE ALL YOUR EYE LAYERS

Select the frame where you wanna start the animation.

You can use the HEAD keyframes as reference.

 

Change your Keyframe Interpolation to HOLD

Let’s say Frame 8, eyes will be open so:

 

Open Eyes is 100% Opacity.

Half Eyes is 0% Opacity.

Close Eyes is 0% Opacity.

Basically, if you need OPEN EYES - make the 100% Opacity and make the other EYE LAYERS 0% Opacity

 

And so on and so forth

Keep what you need 100% Opacity

Make what you don't need 0% Opacity

EYEBROW ANIMATION

I will be honest, this part is kinda unnecessary because you can do this on the individual eyebrows — I do want to show that you can animate the folder and the layers inside the folder and it’s still gonna be fine.

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Next, let’s work on the Eyebrows.

 

I will be animating the EYEBROW folder, folder itself - inside the folder are L_Eyebrow and R_Eyebrow

I will be animating on POSITION for the EYEBROW folder

 

The animation that I want for this is that I want him to frown a bit (eyebrows go down) before his head tilts back

Before we start, make sure your Keyframe Interpolation is SMOOTH

Place a keyframe, don’t move anything - just put a keyframe on POSITION at FRAME 14

Current position of the character is that his head is already tilted here, his eyes are close — eyebrows are in a chill position.

We just place a starting keyframe, the original position.

So we can prepare our next key before the head tilts back

Then at Frame 19, make sure you’re on [Operation Tool], drag the Eyebrows down – like he’s frowning.

Next is he opens his eyes so let’s raise his eyebrows.

 

Let’s copy the key on Frame 14, because that’s our original position.

 

Click the keyframe > open your Edge Keyboard > click on ALT and then drag your key to Frame 22

Remember to click again the ALT to disable that key button.

Let’s create a bounce when his eyebrows goes up 

 

Add the same keyframe to Frame 24

 

Now, the middle frame; Frame 23 is empty, make sure you’re on [Operation tool], drag it a little bit more upwards.

When you play it…

It looks off, yes. Something’s missing.

 

The eyebrows just go up and down but it doesn’t rotate or like frown.

Let’s work on that.

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Individual Eyebrows

I want him to frown just a little when his eyebrows went down – when he was about to tilt his head up.

 

I’ll be using ROTATE the most here, to make the eyebrows look like they’re frowning

 

Let’s work with L_Eyebrow first, make sure you’re on [Operation Tool] > get the anchor point and drag it to the middle of your eyebrow

Changing the Anchor Point automatically adds keyframes, please delete those, those are too many, we don’t need them

Let’s start animating

 

Using the Eyebrow Folder as reference, start with Frame 14, add a keyframe on ROTATE.

-- This would be our starting keyframe, the keyframe before the action

— You don’t need to move anything, just put a keyframe

Referencing the Eyebrow Folder – Frame 19, rotate the eyebrow just a little bit – make it look like he’s frowning.

Now we go back to the original rotation

 

Copy your keyframe on Frame 14

Select Keyframe > Edge Keyboard > Alt > Drag it to Frame 22

This copies the keyframe

 

 

Again, we’re making a bounce, so place the same keyframe on Frame 24

 

Now middle of the frame is empty, Frame 23, let’s add the bounce.

 

Let’s rotate the eyebrow a little bit going counterclockwise– making it looks like it’s going up, just for a little bit.

The action here is that the character’s head has tilted up now, his eyes just shot opened.

When you play that, it bounces a little

Do the same with the Right Eyebrow, when it’s done it looks like this;

I ended up putting keyframes on POSITION as well because I could not find the center of the right eyebrow.

The POSITION assisted me on keeping the eyebrows not move on random places while I ROTATE.

HAIR ANIMATION

Technically here, tiny hair animation. It’s that tiny hair on top of his head. But you can use this too if you plan on cutting your character’s hair into sections.

 

Let’s go to that tiny hair, make sure you’re on [Operation Tool] > get the anchor point of TOP HAIR > move it at the bottom end of the hair or where the scalp should be.

 

 

Remember to delete the keyframes from changing the Anchor Point, we don’t need those.

The animation that we’re gonna do here is that the hair will just be swinging back and forth as the head sways.

 

Scrub your timeline and check where the head tilts, when located move a few frames back. We will put a starting keyframe.

— a keyframe before the action.

— this is also our original rotation / value

 

Let’s say Frame 9, add a keyframe there on ROTATE

Move a few frames forward, let’s say Frame 14 - rotate the hair clockwise

The action is the character gonna be leaning to his side, so his hair is going down.

THIS SECTION WON’T BE VERY DETAILED

Because the animation that I did is basically,

 

⭐If the character is leaning to the right - hair rotates clockwise

⭐If the character is leaning to the left - hair rotates counterclockwise

 

but, there are also some little ‘bouncing’ or you can call it swaying.

⭐ Before I did the ending keyframe, I made multiple keyframes of the hair going left to right until the value lessen and it reached my ending keyframe

If you want to create a looping animation

Make sure that your ending keyframe is the same as you first keyframe!

TORSO ANIMATION

Let’s animate the Torso or the upper body

 

First, make a (regular) folder > Rename that as TORSO > put the Head folder and Top layer there

Put every thing that involves the upper half of the body

Make sure your TORSO > Click on [Enabled Keyframes on this Layer]

Use the [Operation Tool] > Move the Anchor Point and move it to the hip of the character

 

Keyframes will be placed because of the changed of rotation, please delete those keyframes, you don’t need them

Use the HEAD folder as your reference if you want

 

Put a starting keyframe on ROTATE at Frame 7

- just put a keyframe there, don’t do anything.

- that’s our starting keyframe to hold the rotation.

Using the HEAD folder as reference, we move to FRAME 12 > rotate clockwise, just a bit

I only move it by 1 value

FRAME 20 - rotate again clockwise, increase the value just a little

The action that we did is that he’s gonna be leaning more slowly

The rest of the animation for the TORSO is the same as the HAIR.

 

⭐ Make sure that ending keyframe is the same with the starting keyframe.

⭐ There were empty frames before the end of the timeline so I made him swing back and fort just a bit

If your playback is lagging, zooming in & out and/or disabling the other animation may help

My playback was lagging and I forgot to disable the rain, here’s a quick export of the current animation:

Nothing too extreme, the slowly leaning down and then a little bit of swaying at the end — those were the ending keyframes swinging back and forth (going clockwise-counterclockwise) until we reach the ending keyframe.

LEAVES ANIMATION

Make sure the LEAVES layer is selected > Click on [Enabled Keyframes on this Layer]

Move the Anchor Point of the Leaves at the far end right middle of the canvas — go outside the canvas if you have to

Think of the Anchor Point as a joint, how will the object rotate if I place the ‘joint’ here?

You will get keyframes because you moved the Anchor Point, please delete those.

You don’t need those.

The Animation that we’re doing here is that the leaves will just be swaying.

We’ll use ROTATE, select it

 

FRAME 1 - put a keyframe on ROTATE

- don’t do anything, just put it there, it’s our starting keyframe

Put the same keyframe at the end of the timeline on ROTATE, FRAME 24

- no changes, no transformation - just put a keyframe there.

 

Also, drag the ending keyframe to the very end of the timeline.

Select and drag it.

This will make the Leaves animation seamless.

For the middle of the animation, FRAME 13 > ROTATE the leaves counterclockwise, not too extreme.

Play to check

OTHER EFFECTS

I then just added some shadows and lighting using regular layers, no need to animate those.

For the BOKEH, I did animate those.

Only 3 keyframes maximum each transformation

 

For the Opacity, I started with 0% then middle is 100% ending again with 0%

- it went fade in and fade out.

 

Also I made two BOKEH, so I can animate both at different intervals.

- putting two many bokeh in one animation may look messy

For the POSITION, I just made it go up

- different timings

When finished, it looks like this:

SHADOW ANIMATION

I wanted to have a shadow at the back of the character, let’s try that!

 

Duplicate you Character Folder > Rename that as Shadow Char

*optional*

BLUR EVERYTHING INSIDE THE SHADOW CHAR FOLDER

— if you want softer edge shadow, you can blur the layers inside that folder

— you can delete the facial layers, you don’t need those here

— I used Gaussian blur at 10%

 

Disable the keyframing by clicking on the [Enable Keyframe on this Layer] > so you can edit.

— your keyframes will not disappear as long as you don’t merge it with any other layers.

Make sure you move the Shadow Char folder under the Character Folder.

 

Next, let’s make this a shadow

Go to Layer > New Correction Layers > Hue/Saturation/Luminosity

 

Lower the Saturation and Luminosity to -100

Make sure your layering looks like this:

⭐Character

⭐Correction Layer

⭐Shadow Char

 

Then Clip the Correction Layer to the layer below

After that just click [Enabled Keyframes on this Layer]

Increase the SCALE for a bit and just move the POSITION to make distance

 

Keyframes will be placed because you move the SCALE and POSITION - you can delete those, you don’t need to animate this folder

 

And now it looks like this:

*optional - CAMERA

You can add a camera if you want!

 

Go to [Animation] > [New animation layer] > [2D camera folder]

A folder named Camera 1 will appear on your Layer tab, put all of your layers inside of it

A blue box will appear on the canvas, that’s your camera

 

I usually SCALE down first to zoom - so that I have more room to work with when I pan the camera

You can delete this keyframes, we don’t need them.

 

Then I use the POSITION to pan the camera using 3 keyframes.

 

Start and End Keyframes are the same, the middle just moved a little — just a tiny bit, just to shake

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Camera is optional!

 

No camera looks like this:

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After that, just export your work

 

If you export it as Animated GIF, it’s preferred to enable Dithering.

 

⭐ WITHOUT DITHERING:

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⭐ WITH DITHERING:

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The layering and organization of folders (and layers) help this animation.

Also, stay organize!

 

I hope this helps somehow!