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Each frame of the cape’s drawing was colored individually (tedious right?). a frame is individual blocks indicated by an arrow in the figure below and so on.

The cape was drawn frame by frame which is very tedious but more realistic than cut out style. The onion skinning tool allows us to see our previous drawing which is indicated by the red outlines in the diagram below. The onion skinning tool in toon boom studio allows us to see a maximum of the previous three drawings or the next three drawings. You can ask me more questions on this if you don’t understand. This is where extremes and inbetweenings are done (refer back to terminologies in our previous pages).

The same approach was used in the other parts of the body below

See how the upper arm connects perfectly with the lower arm with the help of the stroke lines in the image?

The Image below shows ada’s upper hand in invisible mode revealing the stroke lines and how they connected perfectly with both brush lines indicated by the points.

The Image below shows ada’s upper hand with gaps that were able to be filled with colour because there was an invisible stroke line connecting both sides of brush lines together. This method is a must for cut out characters to enable all the body parts blend seamlessly so that there won’t be any weird and unnatural brush lines on the artwork as we’ll see later.

The result is as shown in image below. Notice that there was no solid black line on the area the stroke line was applied? This is because stroke lines are invisible lines just what I was trying to explain. We’ll see how this was applied in our drawing later.

Let’s toggle our circle from the normal to invisible mode by pressing the k key and locate the stroke line tool by going to the toolbar as indicated on image below and draw a line to connect the two open gaps causing them to be closed. We can now use our paint bucket tool to fill the circle with colour and return to the normal mode.

Now let’s use another scenario in the image below to illustrate how we can colour a circle with an open gap although it’s not really open. We can use the k key to toggle between the invisible mode and normal mode. The invisible mode allows us to see the lines that can otherwise not be seen with the naked eye. Just like not being able to see an invisible person. We use this mode to close gaps that will still appear to be there but really closed by an invisible stroke line. We can then add colour to our artwork without being bothered of open gaps.

Let’s take a look at the character design process. I started by drawing the character using the drawing tools located at the side bar. I use three circles below to illustrate how a character or object can be drawn in any toon boom software. Toon boom software is a vector program unlike Photoshop which is a raster based program. Vector programs allow artworks drawn in them to be scaled to any size or length without losing its quality and vice versa for raster. There are basically two drawing tools in toon boom, the pencil and brush tool. The difference is that the former has a central vector line and can be scaled uniformly through the Bezier points (more on this later) but the later does not. I used the brush tool to draw the circles. Now a drawing cannot be coloured If there are any open gaps as indicated by circle 2. So we must make sure that all our gaps in our drawing are all closed before proceeding to add colour as seen in circle 3.

munchi:
once is Nigeria idontbelieve it....

not rarely but he didnt get a B.

Kunle106:
@chubbyswit thanks for the tutorial.... i think think am getting to learn one or two things about 2d animation but i still find it complicated though. and what i noticed is that one must know how to use photoshop before talking about 2d animation

photoshop gives animators the ability to design beautiful and more realistic backgrounds, objects and even characters with the help of its numerous tools that you cant find in an animation software, otherwise you can still do all those things in an animation software like toon boom but not as good as photoshop. E.g take a look at the background of where ada is standing, you'll see how good the environment is, such cant be achieved in toon boom, another e.g, compare ada that i designed with photoshop and the one i did with toon boom and see the difference.

Sorry i ve not been able to post for sometime now. I have a couple of projects at hand but'll try to do updates from time to time. So looking at our very short animation above, we can see that ada came to life by a combination of frame by frame and cut out, this two methods is most of d time employed in same project by professionals in order to reduce the stress and length of time animation consumes. The production of the character started by first sketching out the form in toon boom with the drawing tools located at the left side of the, then drawing a line work of the different body parts on its own layer, painting it, and then rigging the different body parts, nb: the blinking of the eyes was drawn frame by frame just like the cape and the flame. More detailed explainaitions with Picture illustration coming up tomorrow.

women're the greediest beings on earth

Guys you can check the ada animation test above. Its now working

naijatoonz:
There are two gif formats one is image and the other video in flash its part of the export options I don't what the arrangement is like on you tube. Wanna seek your permission to do something crazy with your character will post the animation here.

you're free to do that, letme see if i can change the format and try post again.
i have changed it to an animated GIF in premiere pro but still not working

naijatoonz:
Nice one chubby keep them coming I have gained alot from your tutorial. The walk cycle I posted earlier is a gif video. I think you exported the animation as a gif image rather than video please recheck the format wanna see the animation. I am happy you are teaching cut out I have always been a tradigital person I see this as an opportunity to learn something new. Traditional animation is so so so tideous though if its done well its one of the most appealing form of animations.

yea u're right naijatoonz. Dont know if i can upload videos here without going tru youtube links. Plz do explain more on the process, i must overcome dat challenge lolz. Exactly its very tedious but the best form of 2d animation. It gives fluid and realistic movements, this thread is all about both styles not just one.

see wetin only this man dey enjoy

Step by step process leading to this animation coming up in my next subsequent posts. We'll also use that opportunity 2 learn alittle about toon boom studio before switching over to harmony for future animations.

The Character Ada (thats what i call her) together with the background i designed also in Photoshop to make the animated short complete. Photoshop will be the essential tool that we'll be using for all our background/environment designs as it gives us more flexibility. But ofcourse all these things can also be done in just toon boom but not as good as photoshop. Its also essential to have a reference when designing your character or background for example i took my reference for the environment design in the second image below.

ok here are the body parts which was drawn individually as a cut out and glued together to form the character. In the GIF above, the cape animates and blows with the wind. but frame by frame drawing of the cape was created in order to simulate that movement. we can see that most of the body parts where drawn together except the hands, head and facial features, this is because i didnt have any intention of moving those parts that where not drawn separately like the legs. this is the basis of cut out animation. the more parts you need to animate e.g earrings, eyes, hands, head etc, those parts must be drawn seperately. Please comment your questions and contributions if possible. Someone should also endeavor to direct me on how to upload animated gifs here so that people can see the animation.

Below is a GIF of a very short animation of the character i designed above as our concept for the illustrations that is to come. The character has to be redesigned in toon boom studio so that i'll be able to manipulate it fully and also add a painted background rather than use a gradient like the concept above. Also we can notice that there was no form of rendering (shadows and highlights) on this animation just like the one above as this will take more time to prepare this character. NB: will talk more on enhancing a character with 2D rendering as we move on. Notice that the animation is very low in terms of quality and that because i used a very low resolution (400 by 220) to reduce the size to fit nairaland image limit, otherwise the animation was rendered in full 1920 by 1080 HD video resolution. (will talk more on this later) This animation is not meant to impress anyone but to serve as an illustration for what is to come.

reidkrugger:
The drawing in itself is not perfect so "perfect" isnt what i'm talking about. So far u've listed principles and prior to applying that is knowing how to draw. Ankles and toes are just as important to d leg just as the nose is to the head. So, u r telling me that drawing d nose upside down or sideways can be regarded as a concept art? I dont think so. It was a mistake, say yes it was and move on, simple. U've got a lotta ppl reading this u know n they r all not newbies.

I'm not here to teach people how to do a perfect drawing but rather to enlighten them on different animation workflows. I don't see any reason why you should be bothered on how perfect the drawing is. But hey nothing is perfect in this life especially cartoon characters. Please try do more positive contributions to make the thread more lively bro

reidkrugger:
You might want to check on the toes of the lead leg again before you proceed, oh and maybe the ankle and knee angle.

this is just a concept art that i want to use for my next demonstration, i wasnt trying to be precise or perfect when i was sketching it so yea it shouldnt be perfect. Thanks for pointing it out though. Hope to see more of ur contributions.

Kunle106:
thanks bro, will download and keep tab

i would recommend u download animate pro or harmony

Make una allow the like button rest small nah, infact if ah no get atleast 10likes here ah don win be dat

In the next tutorial, i will give a little motion to the female character sketch i made below. from the design process, how i combined frame by frame and cut out style of animation in its workflow. And also point out the principles of animation that it employed in its creation. i used just Photoshop to do the concept art. its going to be just 3-4seconds of animation anyway.

7. SECONDARY ACTION: They’re actions that are not necessary but help to add more interest and realism in animation. E.g a character looking at his watch while walking down the road, a character whistling while washing cloth etc.
8. FOLLOW THROUGH AND OVERLAPPING ACTION: It is like anticipation just that it is the final action that takes place prior to a major action like the arm and feet coming back to rest after throwing a ball.
9. STRAIGHT AHEAD AND POSE TO POSE ACTION: straight ahead action is one where the animator draws or sets up objects one frame at a time in order. E.g the animator draws frame by frame sequentially until the action is complete while in pose to pose action, the beginning and end frames are drawn first the in betweens are created to fill in the gaps.
10. STAGING: The way an action in a scene is organized so that it will look interesting and understood.
11. APPEA[/b]L: Means anything that a person likes to see. It can be the the way a character is designed or animated, or the environment design.
12. [b]SOLID DRAWING: Simply means drawing a clean line work of a character or object.

6. SQUASH AND STRETCH: It is a way of deforming an object to show how rigid or flexible the object is. E.g a ball flattens or squashes when it hits the ground and stretches when it starts to bounce off from the ground. An object should still be able to retain its volume after deforming.