October 23rd, 2018. Program: Clip Studio Paint

So once again working on the rough sketch.

I tried to use another 3D model in the animation, this time a model knife but I couldn't get it to move right with the character's had so I'll just have to draw it in later.

October 22nd, 2018. Program: Clip Studio Paint

So today I continued to work on the rough sketch.

I had some trouble with the sketch of the bigger group, I hadn't designed the characters before I started this project so coming up with the designs took a bit of time. I had to go back and add glasses to the main character because I forgot they had them. That consumed a bit of time.

I managed to get to the start of the fight scene, I couldn't get the poses right so I tried using 3D models. This has been a success so far but it takes a bit more time to do. I have to get the position right then the camera angle, plus I have to use multiple models which makes my computer a bit glitchy. I've kind of solved this by only editing one 3D model then rasterizing it, if I have to go back and fix the pose though it's not possible.

October 19th, 2018. Program: Clip Studio Paint

Last post I finished the story board version, so now I'm on to the rough sketch animation.

I created a new animation folder, I'll be drawing over the previous version with more detailed frames. For the starting bit with the city, I'll be keeping it the same for now. The main character turning was a little bit tricky to draw but not too bad, though I had to use the transform tool a lot.

This part is easier than the last because I'm just defining the motions more instead of creating them.

I've gotten about 17 seconds done for the rough sketch and that's where I'll have to stop for today.

October 18th, 2018. Program: Clip Studio Paint

I have made a decision, I'm not doing the whole song. It's taking too long so I'll be going to around 50 seconds.

So yeah back to work on the story board. Since I'm still working on the fight I've been using the onion skin function a lot. This allows me to see previously drawn frames in the timeline, it's super useful and helps me keep the actions consistent.

The timing is once again the hardest part, but I'm getting better at it with practice.

I had to readjust a majority of the frames by a few tenths of a second, just to fix a time discrepancy.

The main character fighting in the animation has a shadow manipulation ability, showing that in the story board is extremely difficult. It mostly looks like a bunch of random scribbles

I've actually gotten to 55 seconds, so that's where I'll stop. I'll start on the rough sketch portion next post.

October 17th, 2018. Program: Clip Studio Paint

Taking a small break from the song animation, today I watched a webinar by Brian Allen about the benefits of Clip Studio Paint. I wanted to use today's blog to go over what I learned from it and show some of my experiments with that knowledge.

#1 Custom Menu
The custom menu, also known as the quick access menu. It lets you add tools into a custom menu for quick and easy access. I've actually been using this for a while.



#2 Reference Layers
This is pretty self explanatory, they are layers that Clip Studio Paint will refer to when creating a selection. I still had no idea how to use this, this video taught me that to get it to work that I had to edit the tool settings so that it would only select referred layers and not editing layers. To make a layer a reference layer you just select the layer and click the light house button in the layer panel.




#3 Transparency Painting
I love drawing with transparency, it makes things a lot more simple for me. With it, instead of editing the size and softness of the eraser tool, I can continue to use the tool I'm already working with.

October 16th, 2018. Program: Clip Studio Paint

So once again working on the story board.

With this next part of the animation there is a one character vs grunt army fight scene so story boarding that has been a hassle. I've watched a couple of anime fight scenes as a reference.

 I'm trying to just roughly sketch the character's motion around the field and get a rough sense of their fight style. Keeping the fight in sync with the songs beats.

The grunts are kind of horrible I'll have to fix them later, give them more motion. Currently they're pretty much standing dummys with guns.

I really like how I've done the camera angle changes in the animation, I've been trying to use less panning shots and scene cuts. I want it to be like the church fight in the first kingsmen movie. Of course currently it's nowhere near smooth, that's the point of the story board animation though.

I'm at around 36 seconds now so that's where I'll have to stop for the day.

October 15th, 2018. Program: Clip Studio Paint

So today I'm starting a new animation project, this time I'll be doing an animation based on this song.

For a 2D animation first I'll have to draw the story board version, then a sketch, then I draw a refined sketch, after that I do a fine line animation, then a colored one, lastly I add shades and highlights. Today I'll work on the story board.

this part of the process is pretty easy, all I'm doing is sketching the important bits of the animation. Key backgrounds, character positions, and motions.

I had a bit of trouble getting some of the anatomy right, I just used the transform tools to fix that though.

Getting the animation synced was a pain too. Every time I created a new frame I had to perfectly time it to the song. I have to do it right now or else it will be harder later.

In one of the frames I decided to use the drawing this animation is based on, I wanted it to be on a photo graph. To do this I copied and pasted the photo, then used the mesh transformation tool to mold the photo on to the right spot



I'm at about 26 seconds into the animation, but I'm out of time for today so I'll just continue to work on it tomorrow.