Hello everyone, this is my first tutorial article, I'm a Illustrator, comic and 2d animator freelancer

Today I'll will teach you how to animate in clip studio as a beginner

 

In this tutorial I will use the Galaxy Tab s7 to work. But don't worry, basically clip studio is the same on all devices like (Tablets, smartphones, Mac and PC)

This is how the animation that we will create will be

1 - Creating a project for animation

in the same window where we start a regular animation we will select the last option which is animation, and we will use the following settings:

 

1 - File name (choose the name of your animation project)

2 - Preset (choose standard animation settings and resolutions in clip studio)

3 - Size of output frame (where you can choose more advanced settings such as the frame rate that you will use in the process of creating your animation)

 

in this case we will use the default settings of 1920 x 18080 (192dpi)... And we will use 12 frames per second

 

usually big companies use 24fps to 30fps, but in this case we'll make our jobs a little easier with 12fps

then it will open this clip studio window familiar to those who already do illustration

 

it will open with an animation folder and a layer as default

basically the animation folder has the same function as a normal illustration folder

Now let's add a "Timeline" to have a better control of the animation layers

 

1 - Window

2 - Timeline

 

At the end it will open a window identical to the layers window

2 - Sketching

let's create our first sketch. In this tutorial we will draw "Pose by pose", easier method for us beginners. We will draw each pose of the movement that we project in our mind and then draw in between.

 

let's start by adding the first pose

Now let's add the last pose at the end of the timeline.

 

Note: I duplicated the last pose "24" because I intend to make a slight change to the pose to be more fluid

Now let's also duplicate the first drawing and make a slight transformation using a tool from Clip Studio Paint, let's say it's a shortcut to animate

I like to organize the layers and rename them to be easier to use in the Timeline

 

Note: I'm using Galaxy Tab s7

Now let's add the duplicate drawing (Layer) inside the timeline. I named as 13

3 - how to add drawing (layers) to timeline

first click on the area of the Timeline where you want to add the new drawing and then follow these steps:

 

1 - Animation

2 - Edit track

3 - specify cels

Let's add the name or number of the design (layer) we want

 

Note: That's why it's important to name a layer to be more organized and easier

now let's use a shortcut to animate. we will simply use the "Free Transform" tool to create a moment.

 

Briefly, moment is when we anticipate a move before exercising the main move. example, in the animation of a jump, you will first have to draw the character to duck before jumping. We will use the same method in this animation but using a "Free transform" tool

If you use the shortcut CRT+T and then hold the CRT when you want to make the transformation, basically you will perform the "Free Transform" function

 

let's move the drawing slightly to the left to create a moment

Enable the Onion Skin to see what we are doing, using the shortcut

let's duplicate the first pose once more, remembering that we are not yet drawing over the poses

this time we are going to use a shortcut to add the layer to the timeline

and select the layer we want

Let's use the "Free Transform" tool to move the drawing more to the left

Now let's draw our last pose

 

if we click on the "Play" tool we will be able to play the timeline animation

 

this tool works just like a video or music player

Let's change the settings of the "Onion Skin" a little to improve the visibility of what we are animating

 

1- Animation

2 - Show animation Cels

3 - Onion skin settings

will open this window

 

1 - Number of skins (this is where you can select how many drawings you want to see when you activate the "Onion skin")

 

2 - View settings (this is the tool that interests us at the moment, where we can change the color of the previous and subsequent drawings)

Lets choose the red color

now it's better and more visible like this

Now lets Ink (Clean line)

 

to create a new animation folder, just follow the steps below:

1 - Animation

2 - New animation layer

3 - Animation folder

 

And name it (Ink)

4 - Cleanart (Ink)

Now lets ink

Decrease the sketch's opacity to have a better view of the cleanart

And this is how the animation will look after passing a clean line

 

Now, lets animating in between

And more in between to be more smooth

Now that we have the animation basically done, let's add some colors creating a new animation folder

5 - Painting the animation

Now let's use this shortcut "New animation cel" to create the layer directly from the timeline

And name it

I like to paint using a combination of the "Marquee" tool and then the "Fill"

Believe me, it consumes less time using them than using a normal brush

basically first I paint the entire drawing on the first layer to get an idea of how the final result will be, then I use a single color for each layer to consume less time (I believe it's psychological)

 

For example, I paint only the skin of the character in all layers , then I paint only the hair and so on.

A tip, if you want to paint using "Auto select" don't forget to use this function (Close gap) to work according to your liking

6 - Shadow

The process is the same

Lets change to multiply

Here's a tip, if you activate the "Clip to Layer below" tool, every painting you do will not cross the drawing below it

After you finish the shading you just need to decrease the opacity

7 - Background

We arrived at the bonus... The background

 

Background is what gives more life to the drawing, we are going to do it as if it were a normal illustration. In this case, instead of a normal layer, we are going to create a normal illustration folder and add this folder to the timeline, so that everything we draw inside it will be seen in real time

Let's see how fun it is to make Background

8 - Effects

I'll be honest, I don't know how to do compositing in third-party software like After Effects, I prefer to do everything right here in clip studio. So let's add some effects

I will use "Arbrush" to add ambient lighting effects and shadows

I will use a normal layer for the image where the effect is to be static

I added a "Gradient" to give it more effect

9 - 2D Camera folder

Now let's add a camera (2d Camera Folder) to be able to play with the movements of the animation

Put all layers inside the Camera Folder

This tool is known as "Keyframe" this is where we will adjust the position of the camera

This icon shows the principle of the "Keyframe". you can zoom out, zoom in or rotate the camera using the "Operation" tool

 

Note: It is important not to pass the translucent blue rectangle, because it represents the screen boundary

Now lets add the final icon of the "Keyframe"

And use the "Operation" tool to zoom out the camera

I decided to increase the timeline for the camera to run slower

10 - Final

And here's the final result, I hope it helps!! 😁