Hello everyone, this time Meizi Oatmeal will share the technique of changing the short story cover I drew into a loop animation that can blink. I hope it can be helpful.

 

1.Organize the layers

 

First, distinguish the line drawing and coloring parts for animation production. Since this work has too many coloring layers, I put them in the same folder, which basically does not affect the work.

Organize the structure as follows: "Character-line work", "Character-coloring", "Background-line work", "Background-coloring"

In the [Layer] panel, select "Character-Line Engagement" and "Character-Color".

 

 

2.Select the eye layer

 

Click [Select Pen] from the [Selection Range] toolbar to select the entire part of both eyes. Don’t worry if the brush exceeds the range. You can use the [Select Pen Eraser] below to erase the excess parts. Deselect.

3. Organize and copy eye layers

 

After confirming that the selected eye area is tight, press [Cut + Paste] on the simple toolbar below, so that the system directly copies the selected area, which can be viewed in the [Layer] panel.

Select the two copied eye layers in the [Layer] panel and put them into the new layer folder to prepare for film animation.

After integrating into the new folder, change its name to "A"

4.Rename the copied layers respectively:

 

"Character-Line Drawing Copy" → "Eye-Line Drawing"

"Character - Colored Copy" → "Eye Whites"

5.Adjust the order

 

Move the layer folder "A" above "Character - Line Art".

6.After completing steps 3-5, you can cancel the layer selection.

 

 

7.Fix the parts that won’t move

 

Layer folder "A" = film animation part = moving part

Now I need to fill in the areas that were exposed during the painting process, so I unhide the small eye in front of "A".

After the operation, as shown in the figure, a white area will be empty.

8. Select "Character - Color" in the [Layer] panel, fill in the blank space with facial skin color and hair, and use the skin color area of the original image to color it. It is easier because my coloring layer Divide the skin color into 3 layers, so fill in the corresponding colors one by one. Divide the hair into 5 layers, and fill in the corresponding colors one by one.

9.Film animation setting preparation

 

[Window] → Call [Timeline] panel

 

10.Click the icon [New Timeline] in the red box on the lower left to create Timeline 1.

11.Set the blink animation to three seconds

 

Just set the screen update rate to "8", the playback time to "24", and leave the rest unchanged.

12.Add animation folder

 

After clicking the icon in the red box of the [Timeline] panel, the [Timeline Panel] and [Layer Panel] will pop up the "Animation Folder".

13.Red box part→Set the position of the "blink" animation folder

 

Rename the animation folder of the [Layers] panel to "Blink" and move it to the column below "Glossy" and "Eye Glossy".

 

14.Yellow frame part→position of layer folder "A"

 

Directly click and move the layer folder "A" to the lower layer of the "Blink" animation folder as the first film animation template.

 

 

15.Convenient[Timeline] editing

 

Click the yellow box icon to enlarge the timeline banner to make editing easier.

16.Add second and third film animation templates

 

Press the red box icon in the [Timeline] panel, click once = add a film animation template, click twice = add two film animation templates, please click the icon twice, two will appear in the lower track In the white box part, rename the two layers to "B" and "C" respectively. These two layer folders will copy the same organizational structure of the layer folder "A".

17.Enabling tracing paper

 

To facilitate the drawing of other templates for film animation, it is recommended to turn on this function in the [Timeline] panel below.

18.Tracing paper settings

 

When drawing three pictures, you can see the position of the first template in the third template. You can click [Animation]→[Display animation film]→[Tracing Paper Settings]

19.In the tracing paper settings, adjust [Front Frame] and [Back Frame] to "2".

20. Things to note when drawing film animation template BC

 

My method is to first draw "C", click "Eye-Line Draft" in the "C" folder of the [Layer] panel, and view the light line of "A" as a reference.

The part "B" is the half-closed eye. Also draw a description in the "Eye - Line Drawing" that matches the curvature of the eyeball. For the white part of the eye, you can use the [Eye Eyedropper] tool to absorb the "white eye" color of "A" to make the color consistent and color the white part of the eye.

21.[Timeline] panel adjusts smooth animation arrangement

 

Natural "blink" sequence ACBA

22.Free arrangement within 24 frames

 

For reference, my arrangement is frames 1-4, frames 13-16, and frames 21-24.

23.Use [Play/Stop] in the [Timeline] panel to view the effect.

24.Export works

 

After confirmation →[File]→[Write animation]→[Video]→Select file mode[MP4]→The screen update rate should be consistent with Timeline 1, here I set it to "8" .

25.Achievements display

 

As a friendly reminder, we are currently focusing on the "blink" loop animation display, and we will find time to teach the other backgrounds and effects.

The following video is on my channel. If you are interested, you can take a look. Today’s teaching ends here. I hope it can be helpful.