Hello everyone, welcome to my tutorial !!

 

In this tutorial, I will show you the easy steps for making a character art for an animated avatar or a rigging model !!!

This tutiorial is divided into 2 parts:

 

The first part will show you how to create character art for the animated avatar ,and

The second part will show you how to animate the avatar in Clip Studio Paint (Pro/Ex)

You can also export the art to another animation software to create a 2D rigging model for interactive avatar, such as game sprite or Vtuber model.

 

This tutorial also including the file cleaning process for that.

Let’s begin!!

Video Tutorial

Video version of this tutorial

Part 1 : Create the avatar model

The basic for making an animated avatar is simple.

Split the character into parts and move them to create animation.

The traditional way to do this is drawing a character then cut and edit the parts

If you draw the parts separately instead, planing for the part spliting will help you to work easier.

These are the process that I’m going to show you in this tutorial.

Step 1 : Creating the clear design

Sketch the art in front view and basic standing pose.

The art need to be clear with the detail for the tracing process

Optional : I also colored the sketch to use as the color reference in the drawing process

You may use the head model to help with the sketching.

The head model is in the [Material Panel > 3D > Head]

(You may access this panel by the menu [Window>Material:3D])

Optional : You may customize the face features to fit your design by adjusting value on the [Facial features] tab in the [Sub tool detail] panel

Create a new layer and sketch over the head model

The head model has clear details, you can use it as reference for face shape, ears and eyes position.

Step 2 : Planing for part spliting

when the design is done, split the art into parts.

 

The key for part splitting :

“Split where it will be animated” and “Start from the center line, big to small”

Note : in this tutorial, I will finish the body parts first, then work on the face features later to avoid confusing.

Start with the head (face +back head) and the body

Optional :

I split the head into 2 parts : the face and the back head

This will give a more natural look on head turning animation.

Split the furthur details around the center line, list them in the appearing order

you can see that some parts are symmetrical and some are asymmetrical

There are also the parts that has a mirror version on the opposite side, such as the side bangs or the twintails.

You can draw these parts once, then copy and flip them to make another side.

When finish the part listing, Create a new folder for each part

In this tutorial, I’ve set the color label by the type to show the working process,

you may set it to your most comfortable way

Note : I use the ‘-’ in the folder name to identify the part’s group. (ex : ‘hair-twintail-L’)

Step 3 : Drawing the parts # Body

Set up the workspace

I copy the sketch with color to use as the color reference.

You can also use the [Sub view] panel for it

Change the color of the sketch layer on the [Layer Property] panel

Now it’s time for The symmetrical ruler!!

 

Select the Paper layer,

Go to the [Ruler] and pick the [Symmetrical ruler]

Set the options:

[Number of line] : 2,

[Line symmetry] : checked,

[Snap angle] : 90,

 

Draw the ruler on the canvas, the ruler will snap to 90 degree

Make it show in all the layers :

Right-click on the ruler icon and [Show in all layers]

Select the ruler with the [Object] tool and align it to the center of the canvas

 

you may set the [Center X] option in the [Tool Property] panel to half of canvas width

Or align it with the align/distribute panel (Clipstudio 2.0+)

Adjust some part to align with the ruler line with the mesh transformation :

[Edit> Transform > Mesh transformation]

the canvas is ready, it’s time to start drawing!!

Drawing the parts#1 : Symmetrical parts

Let’s start with the face part.

Create a new vector layer for the line art

This is optional, you may use the raster layer for the line art too, but the vector layer will be easier to edit/change in later process

Make sure the [Snap to Special ruler] is enabled.

When you draw on the canvas, it will be on both side of the ruler line

Note : If the brush/eraser doesn’t work with the ruler, check on the [Enable snapping]

in the [Sub tool detail] panel, [Correction] tab

To fill the color:

Create a new vector layer and draw lines to close the area

For the face part, I draw a hair line

Create a new raster layer

Fill color with the [Fill] > [Refers other layers]

In the [Tool property] panel, set the option [Refer multiple] to [folder]

And enable the [Fill up to vector path] option

Delete the vector layer for the hair line

then lock the transparent pixel and shading on the part

the first part is done!

Optional : I change the folder layer mode to [Soft light] so I can see the sketch layer to work on another part.

Drawing the parts#2 : Asymmetrical parts

For the asymmetrical parts,

disable the [Snap to special ruler] option and draw the part

Drawing the parts#3 : Mirror parts

The left hair bang can be flipped and make the right hair bang

When finish drawing a part, select the part folder.

Then create a rectangle selection, cover the part and the width of the canvas area

Click on [Copy and Paste] icon on the floating menu to copy the part folder

On the floating menu, click on [Scale/Rotate]

and in the [Tool property] panel, click on [Flip Horizontal] icon

Rename the folder and add custom details

[Symmetrical ruler tips]

You may need another special ruler for drawing some part,

and when finish, the symmetrical ruler is no longer work

This happened because only one special ruler can be snapped in the same time

so, when you create a new special ruler, the old one will be disabled

 

To enable it, select the ruler with the [Object] tool, and click on the snap icon on the ruler

When all the parts are finished, select all parts and change the [Layer mode] back to [Normal]

You can notice the hard edge of some part.

To fix it, create mask with the [Mask] icon on the [Layer] panel.

then paint the transparent with the [Soft airbrush]

Step 4 : Drawing the parts # Face

Unlike the body that have to split the part by hair style and costume,

There is a basic structure that’s always the same

you may add some extra part (such as tongue or separate pupil layer)too,

but make sure it’s on the correct layer order

Move the sketch layer to the top and create folders for face parts

Create a [Rectangle] selection covering only half face, then mask it on the sketch.

It will be less confusing while drawing the face with the symmetrical ruler

When you draw the parts, you can also see the result on the finished parts

Tips :

For the Clip studio 3.0 user,

you can select multiple points on the mesh transformation to adjust on both side together

 

Note: you have to select the point in mirror position too

[Clipping problem]

Most animation software for the avatar animation has the clipping mask feature.

However, sometime it’s more complicate to use, depends on the software

 

You may have to research which way is more fit for your animation software

To draw the mouth, I draw the mouth line and inside of the mouth

I copy the mouth line and put in the folder for lower lips,

then paint the skin to cover the inside mouth area

When the face is done, move the layer folders down to over the face layer folder

You may paint on the layer mask with the transparent or soft eraser

to make the front bang translucent

Usually the left and right eyes are animated separately,

To split the left and the right eye parts :

Select the layer folders, make a selection over an eye

then click on [Cut and paste] button on the floating menu

Rename the folders and now all the parts are finished!!

Step 5 : Clean up the file

When your avatar art is ready, you may export it for other animation software or animate it in Clip studio paint. Some software may need you to merge layers for each part before export, this will be uncomfortable if you want to edit the part later

 

 

(Note : I use Spine 2d for the animating process. it may have different result in other software)

 

The Clip studio’s [File Object] feature can help you keep the part editable (in separate files) and you don’t have to merge the layers every time in exporting process!!

Let’s prepare the file.

 

First, delete everything except the part folders from the file

(Ex : Paper layer,sketch layer, reference etc.)

Covert the layer folder to a file object :

Right click on the layer folder > [File object > Convert layer to file object]

Set the area to [Drawing area] and save the file

 

The part is now saved in an external file

Tips : put the export menu on the [quick access] panel will save your time on converting

Convert all the folder into files.

The file name will be the folder name by default

Note : If the animation software require the .psd format (Photoshop Document) you can just save with the [Save as..] menu

(If you need to edit something, you will not able to edit from the .psd file with Clip studio. Just edit it in the .csp file then export to psd again)

To edit the part, select it with the [Object] tool

Then, in the [Tool property] panel, click on [Open the file ]

When you save the part file, It will automatically update in the main file

 

Now your avatar is ready to be animated

It has a clean file structure with clear name!!

The part splitting art is usually animated with the rigging method (skeleton) for the interactive model for game or streaming avatar

If you don’t need the dynamic model,

You can simply make the animation in Clip studio paint and export as a video or gif animation too!!

Part 2 : Animate the avatar in Clip studio paint

You can use the [Layer keyframe] to create your avatar animation.

The face expression is easier to animate with the frame-by-frame animation.

Put the face feature parts in a layer folder

Select all the layer except the face expression folder, and click on [Scale/Rotate] icon

In the [Tool property] panel, set the mode to [Skew],

Then move the control point on the top away and back to its position.

Open the timeline panel ([Window > timeline])

 

Create a new timeline with Framerate : 8 and Playback time :24

(This amount of frame is compatible for Clipstudio paint Pro version)

Select all the layer this time, and enable the layer keyframe on the [Timeline] panel

The red tab shows the current active frame.

At the first frame, click on [Add keyframe] button

Note : the color of the Keyframe icon is by the type of the Interpolation

you may use linear for steady movement speed, smooth for exponential speed

and hold for fix the position of the object at the frame

When you select the part with the [Object tool]

in the [Tool property panel], you will see the [Transform] option appears to corners position. This is from skewing all the parts in the previous step

With the adjustable corner, the part can be more freely adjustable

Design the animation before the adjustment.

In this tutorial, I will make a wink pose, in loop animation

When map the animation to the time frame,

The post has to be set only for the start and for the wink position

Adjust the starting pose at frame 1

Note : I start with the body, then move other parts later

Add the end keyframes for all object

Select all the layers, click on last frame and add the keyframe to create the loop

Make the animation stop,

Create keyframe for all layers at frame 7, then set the pose for the stop frame

When finish posing, copy the keyframes to make the next animation stop

click and drag to multiple-select all the keyframe,

then right-click on the keyframe and copy

Select all layers, go to frame 13 and paste

Almost done

Shift the last keyframes to frame 19,

and now the character movement is the same as the design

Animation physic

Let’s make the more lively movement by adding some animation physic!

Right now, the cloth and the hair is moving all together with the character movement…

 

but in real, there is inertia effect that will make the attachment objects stop moving slower. Adding this effect to the animation will make it looks more natural.

Add more moving effect to the frame that’s the end of movement

There is movement on the frame 1 to 7, add more moving effect on frame 7

There is another movement on the frame 13 to 19

add the more movement effect also on the frame 19

The keyframes at frame 19 used to be the same as frame 1, and the animation is in loop.

Since there is adjustment at the frame 19, the animation will no longer be in loop.

 

To fix it, copy all the keyframes from frame 1 and paste on the last keyframe

 

 

This adjustment make the hair continue to move on the frame where the character is not moving

[Loop gap]

The animation has a little stop gap between the loop because the last keyframe is on the end of frame 23

To delete it, you must shift the keyframe to the end of frame 24.

 

This is how to easily shift it

[bouncing]

Adding bouncing effect to the animation makes a more natural look.

 

Insert a keyframe with the object moving/rotating to opposite direction,

between the inertia effect keyframes.

Tips : if you adjusted too much movement position and the animation looks flickering,

you may expand the gap between the keyframe instead of re-adjust the objects

Face expressions

It’s easier to add the face’s expression with the [Animation folder]

 

Select all layers and disable the [Layer keyframe], the parts will be at their initial position

In the face expression folder, merge all left and right eye parts(except iris/pupil),

and rasterize the mouth layers

Put the edited face parts into a folder

Copy the folder and newly draw or adjust the parts with [Mesh transformation]

I created 3 face emotions

Create a new [animation folder] inside the face expression folder

then move all the face emotion folders inside

Select all layers and enable the layer keyframe again, the keyframes will be back

Expand the face expression layer folder, it will show the animation folder

Expand the option for the folder with [+] icon, you will see the timeline for [cel]

Right click and select the face to assign to the keyframe.

And it’s done!!

I hope my work process and animation techniques is useful for your project!!

Have fun animating and see you in the next tutorial!!