SOFTWARE
From the very beginning, I already decided to use Toon Boom Harmony. I was aware that it is quite an industry standard for many studios. I haven't really used this software properly bedside from being briefly introduced to it near the end of my second year of Uni. For that reason, I thought it would be great to chance for me to learn this software for this project.
This series by Jessie J. Jones. was incredibly insightful and straight to the point. After watching it I felt like I know how already to animate even I never used this software before. Of course, I have watched other tutorials but this series is the one I kept coming back to when I'm confused.
Note-taking:
Watching it doesn't help me retain the information as much as writing down the notes. For that reason, I got out my notebook and started jotting down key points I learnt from this series which will be extremely helpful to refer back to when I'm stuck.
My notes:
TEST
I haven't really been doing many 2D animations last year so I just to recap some of the lessons I had such as going back to the basics: bouncing ball (as well as keeping in mind of the 12 principles animation).
Gif:
Gif:
I also created this tried walk cycle in my free time to start building my skills.
As mentioned before in the Project pitch, this is the style I aiming for, for the anxiety scene:
Artists: Shen Yi
This seems very challenging and of high quality for someone who doesn't have much experience working with abstract fluid techniques in 2D frame by frame. Therefore of course I won't replicate it exactly but I will use it as a guide for how I will tackle this effect.
To start off I watched tutorials. They recommend the best way to learn is to analyze the works of others therefore I did so.
The tutorial that I tested was by MotionCafe:
I found this much simpler. Once I tried it the technique was very similar to the bouncing ball with uses of stretch and squash and spacing.
The video below is not a tutorial it is a bunch of liquid tests which I had playback in 0.25 to analysis it frame by frame.
Video by Infilm After Effects Templates:
ANALYSIS
These shorts are a few of my inspiration for my short:
(For the anxiety scene)
Below is a Gif. of the scene:
I plan on expanding it as this effect is very spontaneous.
A short film called, 'Afternoon Class' by Seoro Oh:
This short will be the main influence on my film. His work was the first inspiration for the film when I was developing my film. Specifically in the scene where my character is absorbed by her anxiety where she kind of goes into another dimension. This is what I was intended to incorporate to emphasise the emotion of this uneasily feeling. I describe his way to this method such as the smear technique as very blobby and draggy.
A short film called, 'Don't Ever Look At Me' by A Minute Hour:
This is another film that caught my attention where the artist uses this technique in a different way. From my analysis, he creates this effect by dragging a wash of colour behind the key position of the character.
Testing what I've anaylsed:
Trying out the tutorial and experimentation on different effects after analysing those animations:
Although I am pleased with the result I can tell there is still some improvements as it's not as fluid as I wanted it. However, I don't expect to work on this as much as its just a first attempt.
Gif:
Aside from using the fluid technique, I plan on using the smear technique like the shorts I mention above. I found this video very helpful in terms of explaining what exactly this technique is and how it can be achieved.
Notes:
-There is no one way to create this technique
-As long as the direction of the movement is there it is good enough
-It's pretty much a frame shot of a motion blur
Jazza (Youtuber) in a video called, 'How To: Animation Smears' he recommend a site where someone has complied many smear techniques used by professional animators in films which I found extremely helpful.
Link to site:
Amazing resource for references that I will mention later on when I test the smear effect.
ANIMATING
When animating each action I always remind myself of The 12 principles of animation by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas.
Here below is these principle demonstrated in the video by a YouTuber by the name of, 'AlanBeckerTutorials'. I always come back and refer to this as a guide on how I could incorporate them into my movements. Later down the line, you will see me using these techniques in my drawings. I haven't found any demonstrations of this principle as greatly done as much as AlanBeckerTutorial:
From the description:
1. Squash and Stretch (2:07) 2. Anticipation (4:14) 3. Staging (6:33) 4. Straight Ahead/Pose to Pose (9:14) 5. Follow Through & Overlapping Action (11:17) 6. Slow In & Slow Out (12:57) 7. Arcs (14:38) 8. Secondary Action (16:11) 9. Timing (18:22) 10. Exaggeration (19:55) 11. Solid Drawing (21:38) 12. Appeal
Method:
The method I will be using the most is the pose to pose except for when the anxiety scene comes in it will be more spontaneous so I would use the straight-ahead technique for that area.
Timing:
For my animation film, I will use the industry-standard 24fps.
WORKFLOW & TECHNIQUES USED:
My main working process:
Example: (Shot 2) Sofa scene
Workspace:
This is the layout that I work with. In order to keep things organise, each shot has its own folder as shown below. I also try to separate my scenes into different files so it's more manageable to move around and so the file doesn't get too heavy.
In Toon Boom, each layer has an overlay, line, colour and underlay layer within it (you can find it on the right panel of the viewport) which really helps to unclutter the layers on the left bottom side.
1. Rough drawings:
Before I do the rough drawing in the underlay layer, I make sure I completely understand the perspective and placement by setting the rough background first. I also use my animatic as my guide on how to set the scene. In this stage, it was important for me to get reference either first or second hand. Not only that I tend to act out the action while I draw each of the frames which I find more time effective.
(Tutorial feedback: The rough of the person on the sofa has a good perspective)
Method: keyframes> breakdown> inbetweens
2. Line/ Clean-up:
After the rough drawing is complete in the underlay layer I move on to the line layer to draw over the lines and clean it up. Since the skin line colour is quite light I like to substitute it with blue colour for the time being. This makes it more visible to the eye which I find much manageable.
(Note: In my film, my character lines match her fill colour compare to her background where lines are all black. This is intentional to prevent the character from clashing with the background).
Since my character lines are coloured. As shown below I would have to rearrange the lines above or below:
3. Colour:
Moving on to the colour layer, I transfer the line art points to the colour layer by selecting, 'create colour art from line art'. Then using the close gap tool which is very self-explanatory I find any open spaces between the line points and close them with a stroke. Most of these appear as yellow dots which was convenient however, they are not always accurate.
4. Shadows and touch-ups:
For the shadows depending on where I want it to be I either work on the colour layer or I would just create a new layer below/above. I created the shadows by using the selection tool and then fill in with the colour. The brush tool seem to work effectively too.
Here below you can see where I use the brush tool (with the blue outline indication) for the shadows on the sofa:
I also cleaned up the bg perspective, lines and colours. As you can tell the colours are tone down as it seemed too bright in the previous version which is not what wanted.
Background:
Line art-
After the feedback on the consistency of the thickness of the lines I make sure the weight of the lines are much clearer. The closer the object to the viewer the thicker and the further the thinner the lines are.
Gathering references and applying them:
For most of my shots, I tried to get as much first-hand reference to help me achieve a natural movement or position of the character. If I am unable to obtain it in time I refer to second-hand sources such as google images or as I mentioned before I would act it out on the spot while drawing the frame e.g. having a mirror on the side when I do the facial expressions for the character.
Below are a few examples on how used the reference materials:
(Shot 3) Phone:
Reference:
Excuse the lighting: had the motivation to do that scene at that time.
Note: I used this reference for my animatic as well.
Roughs:
Line and Clean up:
During this process, I asked Sarah if it will be better if the swipe to turn off the alarm rather than a tap as not only it be more realistic but it helps the viewer to differentiate between the snooze and turning off gesture. Sarah agrees and below is the final clean up:
Colour and lighting:
(Shot 10) Open fridge:
Reference:
Since my fridge doesn't have a handle like in the film I just used my door handle as my guide which I think worked perfectly.
Using the reference:
Similar to shot 3 (phone scene) rather than copying exact movement (like tracing) I like to just have it on the side (shown below) as a guide as I draw the action out, tweaking the shapes to match characters features etc.
Line:
I also added a small arc (white curve) to achieve a smooth movement
Colour:
Feedback: hand weight looks good and cation of opening works (Sarah)
Lighting and touchups:
(Shot 13) Laptop:
Reference:
After a couple of takes these ones are the main ones I referenced from:
1st attempt:
In the first test the part where the hand lifts the laptop seem off. For some reason, I acted out like that in my reference. However, looking back to my animatic the character grabs it around the centre and it looks more balanced. I also tried to act it out as I draw it so I can capture it accurately. Sarah (tutor) mention I should try to express the weight of the laptop stronger and the timing could be improved. For that, my plan is to emphasise the anticipation more.
Finished line:
I also adjust the size as well.
Colour:
Updated colour:
-cut out the objects from the solo plate cut
Lighting and touch-ups:
When I was working on the other scenes I realise the angle of the plate was wrong/not consistent so I went back to change the position as shown below:
(Shot 17) Sitting:
In cases like this when the angle isn't accurate I would just act it out on spot. The character also has more long elongated fingers and arm so I adjusted to those features:
Slap:
Other shots:
I can't mention every shot in this blog because that would take forever and use a whole lot of space due to the length of the film. For that reason, these are specific scenes that are more challenging and had a lot of improvement done to them from feedback etc.
Ending Shot:
Feedback: During my tutorial with Sarah. Sarah mentions emphasising the lighting even more with the building lights turning off as well. Also during the last week feedback Aodhan the perspective is off a bit maybe bring down the upper winder lower.
Here below I achieve this lighting tuning off I started erasing the lights as I animate it. As for perspective rather than bringing down the window which will then I need to fix stairs etc which would be time-consuming I just fix the room perspective.
Other specific techniques used:
-PARALLAX
Used in my opening scene:
I used a technique as you can see from the right side of the image above called, 'Parallax' suggested by Sarah (tutor). Where you can position each plane to the desired distance. This helps to add depth by breaking/differentiating the distance between the brick wall, clouds, room etc. which will be evident when I use the camera to pan to the right.
Since I never heard of this technique below is a video Sarah sent me to describe the technique:
To understand how I apply this in Toon Boom I found this extremely helpful to the point video below that not only describe the tool but also demonstrates how you can use the camera to work with it:
Scenes where I used this Parallax effect:
Here I used it to separate the distance between the environment, clouds and brick wall.
Note: as you can I redone the city background so its more in the distance.
For this scene, I used it on the cake and the arm and then animated it so it goes behind the fridge.
PANNING
Below are two of the shots which has panning movements. In order to achieve this movement, I extend the drawings outside of the frame to allow movement around the board as shown below. I then use the animate tool and keyframes to drag the shot in the desired direction.
Panning to the left:
Panning up:
SLOW IN/OUT & ARC
Another way to this method is I could have used the transform tool and apply the slow in and out on one drawing. However, I did this manually as I wanted to play around with the small movements of the fingers so it's less mechanically looking. As shown not only in this scene as mention before other scenes I try to give the action some type of arc (the red curve) to create a more natural movement as I can.
(note: I have also used other principles such as overlapping throughout the animation)
Effects using the Node view:
BLUR
One of the things I applied in the node view is blur-gaussian to this particular shot below:
As you can see I applied to each layer (cake, laptop, bg) in that scene and animated the blur to seamlessly create a adjusted focus camera shot.
Result:
I'm very please with the outcome. Its just what wanted.
TRANSPARENCY
Another effect I used in node library is transparency. I use this effect to imitate the transition of a fade in Toon Boom. As shown below I used it for background of this scene when there was time skip.
Result:
SMEAR
I used this effect for the scene where Carly shakes her head.
Reference:
As mention before using this site https://animationsmears.tumblr.com/ that Jazza (Youtuber) recommended. I selected specific ones which I think will give the effect I wanted as shown below:
Attempt:
I also added some squash and stretch to exaggerate it more.
Result:
Looks great but I can tell I still need to practice more.
More Smears used in the film:
Result:
TIME MANAGEMENT:
Positions:
For time efficiently, if my animatic has a clear action I will bring it into Toon Boom to trace over then fix any minor areas for the rough layer. This saves me time from trying to figure out the placement again whenever it's already established in the animatic.
Angles:
Perspective is one of my weaknesses. Therefore I wanted to find alternative ways to make it simpler to draw. I remember watching a video on how animated films were made in the industry. Oftentimes they would use 3d models as a guide for the angles of the characters face.
Taking that method for precise angles shots, I created some quick basic block models in Maya so I have good freedom to capture the scene perfectly.
Maya 3D Model:
Below are a few examples on how used this method:
(Shot 4 & 6) Armrest:
(Shot 11) Fridge:
I actually scrap this shot but it was still a great guide.
Another method for quick angle reference is Sketchfab as it has an amazing 360-degree camera where I adjust the angle to my taste. It's way more time-efficient than modelling everything.
Example:
Here is a link to a Sketchfab model which I used as a reference due to the likeness to the design of my sofa: