toon boom getting started

etting Started Guide
G

liability under the applicable License

at (SWF). Please refer to the License

te Headquarters address.

Legal NoticesCorporate Headquarters7 Laurier Avenue EastMontreal, QuebecCanada H2T 1E4Tel: (514) 278-8666Fax: (514) 278-2666toonboom.com

DisclaimerThe content of this manual is covered by a specific limited warranty and exclusions and limit of

Agreement as supplemented by the special terms and conditions for Adobe®Flash® File FormAgreement and to those special terms and conditions for details.

The content of this manual is the property of Toon Boom Animation Inc. and is copyrighted. Any reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited. For additional copies of this manual, please contact Toon Boom Animation Inc. at the Corpora

Copyright © 2008 by Toon Boom Animation Inc. All rights reserved.

TrademarksToon Boom Animate is a trademark owned by Toon Boom Animation Inc.All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

CreditsDocumentation Development: Peter Cawthorne.Content Development: Marie-Eve Chartrand, Anouk WhissellArt Development: Marie-Eve Chartrand, Anouk Whissell, Shabana Ali, Annie Rodrigue

Publication DateSeptember 2008Published by Toon Boom Animation Inc.

1

Contents

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Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................Your Training Outline ............................................................................Interface Highlights ...............................................................................Timeline View Legend ...........................................................................Buttons ..................................................................................................

Chapter 2: Creating Your Own Animation........................Creating a New Project .........................................................................Choosing a Colour ................................................................................Getting Ready to Draw .........................................................................Drawing a Butterfly ...............................................................................Animating the Butterfly ........................................................................Animating the Butterfly Layer ...............................................................Exporting Your Project..........................................................................

Chapter 3: Gathering Content..........................................Setting Up the Living Room ..................................................................Getting Your Show on TV......................................................................Get Limpa to Celebrate ........................................................................

Chapter 4: Designing a Character ....................................Drawing Using the Brush Tool ..............................................................Other Useful Drawing Tools..................................................................Adding a New Layer..............................................................................Tracing Over Your Character ................................................................

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Ch ................................. 45............................................ 46............................................ 48............................................ 50............................................ 51............................................ 52............................................ 53............................................ 54

Ch ................................. 57............................................ 58............................................ 59............................................ 60............................................ 62............................................ 64............................................ 66............................................ 68

Ch ................................. 69............................................ 70............................................ 73............................................ 74............................................ 75............................................ 76............................................ 78

Contents

Adding Thick and Thin Lines .......................................................................

apter 5: Painting Your Character .......................................Creating a Colour Palette ............................................................................Painting the Character .................................................................................Closing Gaps................................................................................................Creating Gradient Colours ..........................................................................Painting With Bitmap Textures ....................................................................Editing Gradients and Textures...................................................................Creating a Palette Style ...............................................................................

apter 6: Using Symbols to Animate a Skateboard.............Creating the Skateboard .............................................................................Animating the Smoke Cycle ........................................................................Creating Symbols.........................................................................................Adding Smoke to the Wheels......................................................................Building the Skateboard ..............................................................................Importing the Skateboard ...........................................................................Animating the Skateboard...........................................................................

apter 7: Creating a Simple Hand-Drawn Animation...........Sketching your Rough Keyposes .................................................................Marking Keyposes in the Xsheet .................................................................Completing the Animation ..........................................................................Setting the Exposure and Testing the Animation .......................................Cleaning Up the Animation .........................................................................Painting the Animation ................................................................................

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era............................. 115................................................ 116................................................ 118

Chapter 8: Building a Cut-out Puppet ...............................Getting Ready for the Breakdown ........................................................Breaking Down the Main Parts..............................................................Fixing Articulations and Gaps ...............................................................Breaking Down the Other Views...........................................................Converting Your Layers to Symbols ......................................................Cleaning the Timeline ...........................................................................Assembling the Puppet.........................................................................Ordering the Puppet’s Layers ...............................................................Setting the Pivots ..................................................................................Creating Hierarchies..............................................................................Ordering Layer Hierarchy......................................................................Storing the Puppet in the Library..........................................................

Chapter 9: Animating Your Puppet ..................................Getting Ready to Animate ....................................................................Repositioning the Character .................................................................Animating Using the Transform Tool ....................................................Motion and Stop-Motion ......................................................................Swapping Images ..................................................................................Inverse Kinematics Tool.........................................................................Easing ....................................................................................................

Chapter 10: Creating a Multiplane and Animating the CamBuilding a Multiplane ............................................................................Setting the Multiplane Space................................................................

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Ch ................................ 123.......................................... 124.......................................... 125.......................................... 126.......................................... 127.......................................... 128

Ch ................................ 129.......................................... 130.......................................... 132.......................................... 135

Ch ................................ 137.......................................... 138.......................................... 139.......................................... 140.......................................... 141.......................................... 142.......................................... 144.......................................... 145.......................................... 146.......................................... 148.......................................... 150.......................................... 151

In .................................. 153

Contents

Animating the Camera.................................................................................

apter 11: Sound and Lip-Sync............................................Importing a Sound .......................................................................................Decoding your Sound..................................................................................Assigning the Mouth Shapes .......................................................................Swapping Mouths ........................................................................................Playing Back and Exporting.........................................................................

apter 12: Morphing a Flag.................................................Preparing Your Morphing Keys ...................................................................Creating the Morphing Sequences .............................................................Adjusting the Ease.......................................................................................

apter 13: Creating Effects .................................................Painting a Starry Sky ....................................................................................Making your Stars Glow...............................................................................Fading your Stars .........................................................................................Lighting Up the Lampposts .........................................................................Making it Shine in the Night ........................................................................Keeping Your Distance ................................................................................Preparing to Hit the Switch .........................................................................Hitting the Switch ........................................................................................Shooting Star ...............................................................................................Putting On a Mask .......................................................................................Editing the Mask..........................................................................................dex ............................................................................................

5

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is guide is the absolute Toon Boom Animate survival covering all the basics of the software that you need get started on your own animation projects.

scover Animate in 12 lessons! Use the sample terial provided or if you prefer, use your own. The

mple material will help you follow the different ercises contained in this guide.

install the sample material provided, simply low the installation instructions on the tallation disc or wnload them m our website

w.toonboom.com

t ready to Animate!

hapter 1 Introduction

6

YoArou

ChGebu

ChLePS

ChLeas StaPa

ChGePropa

Using Symbols to Animate a rd

ncept of Symbols in Animate, and how to use reating a simple skateboarding animation.

Creating a Simple Hand-Drawn nferent tools and features available to you in t let you easily create paperless animation.

Building a Cut-out Puppetferent steps and tasks involved in creating a et, from breaking it down to rigging it.

Animating Your Puppet use the different animation tools available in le animating a cut-out puppet.

y scene, frame of film format. The TV ratio

Toon Boom Animate Getting Started Guide

ur Training Outlinee you ready? Let’s take a first glance at the training tline covered in this guide.

apter 2 Creating Your Own Animationt to know the basics of Animate while you create a tterfly from some simple shapes and animate it.

apter 3 Gathering Content arn how to import external content such as multilayer D and QuickTime movies to build a scene out of it.

apter 4 Designing a Characterarn to use the basic drawing tools available in Animate well as many helpful features for the design tasks. rting from the rough design through to the Ink and

int process.

apter 5 Painting Your Charactert to know the different painting tools, the Tools perties and the Palette concept in Animate while

inting a character.

Chapter 6SkateboaLearn the cothem while c

Chapter 7AnimatioLearn the difAnimate tha

Chapter 8Learn the difcut-out pupp

Chapter 9Learn how toAnimate whi

The aspect ratio is the relation between the width and height of anis 4:3 and the widescreen is 16:9.

Introduction - Your Training Outline 7

Chapter 10 Creating a Multiplane and Animating the CameraLearn how to use Animate’s different views and tools to create multiplane effects and give the illusion of depth and 3D space to your project.

Chapter 11 Sound and Lip-SyncGet to know the different sound and lip-sync tools while creating a quick lip-sync animation. Learn how you can share your animation by exporting it in a QuickTime movie format.

Chapter 12 Morphing a FlagGet to know the Morphing tools and features while you create an animation of a flag.

Chapter 13 Creating EffectsLearn how to enhance the quality of your projects using the effect layers in the Timeline view.

The Ease-in is a gradual acceleration in the action.

8

InIt’sintAnthewh

Noin

y is used to store and reuse Symbols and plates. Anything you create in Animate, you store in the Library.roperties View tains the options related to the currently cted tool. When you work with a tool, you

often use the Tool Properties view to either r a selection or change the tool’s behaviour.ne View is mainly used to add layers, change the

ing, create effects and order your elements. can also change the scene length, create bols and templates, enter Symbols and add

frames.Toolbar tains most of the drawing and animation

ls you will use when working in Animate.ra View is the centre of your operations. This is re you draw, paint, animate, position your ents, and view the animation playback and

lts of any effects you add.


terface Highlights important that you familiarise yourself with the erface before you start to navigate through Toon Boom imate. As you work through this guide and learn to use software, you can refer to the following section enever you need to identify a specific view or toolbar.

te: The numbers in this list correspond to the numbers the interface diagram on the following page.1. Top Menu

Contains most of the commands available in the software in the Top menu.

2. Playback Toolbar The is used to play your animation, loop it, change the playback range and temporarily modify the frame rate.

3. Workspace Toolbar This is used to customize and load different workspaces.

4. Colour View This is used to select, create and modify colours. You can also create specific palette and palette styles for your characters.

5. LibrarThistemcan

6. Tool PConselewillalte

7. TimeliThistimYouSymkey

8. Tools Contoo

9. CameThiswheelemresu

The Ease-out is a gradual deceleration in the action.

Introduction - Interface Highlights 9

3

4

5

6

ration of a motion. This can be a motion created mmon terms used are slow-in and slow-out.

1 2

7

8

9

In Animation, the Ease or velocity, is the acceleration or deceleby a function curve or a series of animated drawings. Other co

10

TiThtim

Re

Nonu

osed drawing is represented by a grey block. ing the drawing for several frames extends ey block. Exposing a second drawing displays grey block.

osed Symbol is represented by a small film Exposing a Symbol for several frames s the film frame. Exposing a second Symbol’s displays a new film frame.

a Morphing sequence is created, it is ented by a series of arrows. The key drawings ll represented as grey blocks, but the ed in-betweens are shown as a series of grey .

a Peg layer contains keyframes, they are ented by black squares. A Peg layer is a path which you can attach drawing layers to. an interpolation is created, a straight line is yed between the keyframes.

ing to appear in a scene. For a drawing to


meline View Legende Timeline view is the main view used to adjust the ing of your drawings, connect effects and order layers.

fer to the following legend to learn about the Timeline.

te: The numbers in this legend correspond to the mbers in the Timeline View on the following page.

1. Layers used in the Timeline view:

2.When position keyframes are added on a Drawing layer, they are displayed as black squares. When interpolation is created between these keyframes, an arrow is displayed.

3.An expExposthe gra new

4.An expframe.extendframe

5.When represare stimorpharrows

6.When represmotionWhen displa

• Drawing

• Peg

• Mask

• Camera

• Effect

In animation, an exposure is the number of cels required for a drawappear longer the number of cels must be increased.

Introduction - Timeline View Legend 11

5
2 3 41
6

12

BIn Eatoo

: The Paint tools are used to paint your ings.Closing: The Gap Closing tools are used to gaps while painting.ient: The Gradient tools are used to edit your ient zones.: The View tools are used to navigate in the era and Drawing views.ing Markers: The Drawing Markers tools are

to identify drawings in the Xsheet view.rs: The Layers tools are used to add different of layers in the Timeline view.en: The Flatten tools are used to flatten ing strokes.ack: The Playback tools are used to playback

animation.d: The Sound tools are used to edit and ack the sound.

: The Ease tool is used to adjust your ation’s velocity.ut: The Layout tool lets your organize your space.


uttonsthis guide, you will find tools that you will use frequently, ch tool has an icon, recognizing these lets you access the ls quicker. • Edit: The Edit tools are used to copy, cut, paste or

delete a selection and cancelling actions.• File: The File tools are used to open, close and

save scenes and import images.• Animation: The Animation tools are used to

position and animate your elements on your stage.• Morphing: The Morphing tools are used to set

morphing hint points in your morphing sequences.• Selection: The Selection tools are used to select

drawing strokes and modify them.• Drawing: The Drawing tools are use to draw and

design your characters and backgrounds.• Drawing Mode: The Drawing Mode tools are used

to change a drawing tool behaviour.• Onion: The Onion tool is used to view previous

and next images.• Light: The Light tool is used to see your other

columns in the Drawing view.

• Paintdraw

• Gap close

• Gradgrad

• ViewCam

• Drawused

• Layetypes

• Flattdraw

• Playbyour

• Sounplayb

• Easeanim

• Layowork

Introduction - Buttons 13

File

Morphing Selection

Drawing Mode Onion

Gap Closing

Markers Layers

Sound Ease Layout

Edit

Animation

Drawing

Light Paint

Gradient View Drawing

Flatten Playback

14

15

CreatinBoom can hayour sc

This chwill leadrawinexport

The to•••

••

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Cha

g a basic animation from start to finish in Toon Animate is child’s play. In a few easy steps you ve a colourful butterfly fluttering its way across reen!

apter contains the following topics where you rn how to create new projects, select colours, use g tools, animate drawings and layers, and finally your project.

pics are: Creating a New ProjectChoosing a ColourGetting Ready to DrawDrawing a ButterflyAnimating the ButterflyAnimating the Butterfly LayerExporting Your Project

pter 2 Creating Your Own Animation

16

CTofropro

If yWeco

Yo

Op

12

3

4

User Guide.


reating a New Project start any animation, you need to create a new project m the Welcome Screen. You can also create new jects from the main interface’s File menu.

To create a new scene:1. In the Welcome Screen, click on the Choose button

to select the directory where to save the project.2. In the Project Name field, type the name of the new

project.3. In the Resolution list, select a resolution for the

project. 4. Click on the Create Button.

ou need to reopen a project, you can open it using the lcome Screen and clicking on the Open Scene

mmand.

u can also open it in File > Open or by clicking on the

en button in the File toolbar.

To create a custom resolution for your scene, refer to the Animate

ng Your Own Animation - Choosing a Colour 17

our view can keep track of the colour you were e last time you were using either the Brush tool, e tool (Pencil, Polyline, Line, Rectangle or Ellipse)

tool.

ould prefer the Colour view to always use the

swatch, click on the Link button. the Colour List, select the colour you want to use draw the butterfly’s wings.

Brush FillPencil

nd modify the swatch’s colour. You can also click splay.

Creati

Choosing a Colour

The first thing you will do is to select a colour for your butterfly.

Toon Boom Animate has a colour palette which consists of a group of colour swatches. The important point to remember is that when a zone is painted with one of these colour swatches, that zone is linked to the swatch. This means that if you modify the swatch’s colour, the zone is updated at the same time!

The Colusing thPencil linor Paint

If you w

selected1. In

to

Double-click on a swatch to access the Colour Picker window ain the H, S, V, or R, G, B radio buttons to modify the picker di

18

G

ToTo

s a set of properties that can be found in the ies view. This way, each time you select a tool, ck access to the main actions performed with

n its shortcut key without the [Alt] key while


etting Ready to Draw

design the butterfly, use the following tools found in the ols toolbar:

• Rectangle ToolUse this tool to draw a rectangle.

• Contour Editor Tool Use this tool to reshape lines.

• Select Tool Use this tool to reposition, scale, skew, rotate or delete drawing objects.

• Paint Tool Use this tool to paint the drawings.

Each tool haTool Propertyou have quithis tool.

If you need a drawing tool for a very short period of time, hold dowyou use the tool. Once done, release the hot key.

our Own Animation - Getting Ready to Draw 19

start drawing in the Camera view, select the cell here you want to draw by clicking on it in the meline view.

the Tools toolbar, select the Rectangle tool.

the Tool Properties view, enable the following tions:

Automatically Fill Inside Region

Auto-Flattent the tool size to 0 (zero) so you do not have any rder around the shape.

erences > OpenGL > Real-Time Antialiasing. For aliasing. In both cases uncheck the Enable box.

Creating Y

Most of the drawing, animation, design and scene setup occur in the Camera view. By default, when you draw in the Camera view, the lines are anti-aliased using the project resolution. To view the lines as plain vector, disable the antialiasing property in the Preferences panel.

1. TowTi

2. In

3. Inop

4. Sebo

Disabling the antialiasing preference. In Windows, Edit > PrefMac, Edit > Animate Preferences > OpenGL > Real-Time Anti

20

DIn Releadra

Tools toolbar, select the Contour Editor

an area of the drawing and move the gles’ contours to form a butterfly wing in the sition.

ify a shape by doing one of the following:irectly moving the point ulling the stroke between two points otating and pulling on a point’s Bezier handle

by holding down the [Alt] key and nudging g the [Ctrl] key and clicking.


rawing a Butterflythe Camera view, you will draw a butterfly using the ctangle and Contour Editor tools. This will help you to rn how to design characters out of shapes instead of just wing their contours with the Brush tool.

1. In the Camera view, draw two rectangles to form

the basic shape of the first wing.

2. In the tool.

3. Selectrectanup po

You can mod• D• P• R

1

2

With the Contour Editor tool, move one of the two Bezier handlesselected points using the arrow keys. You can add a point by usin

g Your Own Animation - Drawing a Butterfly 21

lect the butterfly wing and select Drawing > roup to group the wing as one element.ext, draw the butterfly’s body and duplicate the st wing by copying and pasting it.

ssemble the butterfly using the Select tool. ing the wings in front of or behind the body using rawing > Arrange > Bring to Front or Send to ck.

tcut [Ctrl]+[G] (Windows), [ ]+[G] (Mac) or

Creatin

4. In the Tools toolbar, click on the Select tool and select the wing in the Camera view.

5. Rotate and resize the wing. You can do this using the Tool Properties view or by moving the anchor points on the selection bounding box.

6. Using the Ellipse tool and different colours, draw a series of circles and ellipses on the wing.

7. Se

G8. N

fir

9. ABrDBa

You can group a selection by using the default keyboard shorDrawing > Group.

22

A

a second drawing with the wings in the down the trick will be done!

the Select tool, select the wings and flip ertically moving the bounding box’s anchor

. You can use Drawing > Transform > Flip al or the keyboard shortcut [5]. the wings using the Select tool.

Rotate

Skew Y-axis

selection. You can skew your selection by box and dragging the bounding box.


nimating the Butterfly 1. In the Camera view, select the butterfly drawing

and copy it using Edit > Copy.

2. In the Timeline view, select the third cell of the butterfly layer.

3. Paste the butterfly drawing into Camera view using Edit > Paste.

4. To see the previous drawing, enable the Onion Skin

button in the butterfly layer. You should now see a lighter coloured version of the first butterfly appear in the Camera view.

Next, createposition and

5. Using them vpointsVertic

6. Adjust

Scale X, Y axis

Scale Y-axis

Scale X-axis

Skew X-axis

With the Select tool, you can reposition, scale, rotate and skew a placing your cursor between two anchor points on the bounding

ur Own Animation - Animating the Butterfly 23

have an animation 60 frames long.

easily modify the colour or design of the butterfly, e. The looped drawings are linked to the original you can modify any of the butterflies with the the up position on the layer and all of them will You can also do the same for the butterflies with s in the down position.

Drawing #1

ecrease a selected cell’s exposure.

Creating Yo

7. In the Timeline view, make sure the second butterfly drawing is selected and then press the [+] key once to increase the drawing’s exposure by one cell. You now have a flapping butterfly wing.

8. In the Timeline view, select the four butterfly cells. Right-click and select Create Cycle.

9. In the Create Cycle dialog box, set the Number of Cycles field to 15 to fill the 60 frames length.

You now

You can if you likones, sowings inupdate.the wing

You can use the [+] and [-] keyboard shortcuts to increase or d

24

A

It’syo

Camera view, select the butterfly and move it left or right of your screen depending on how signed the butterfly.When you move the butterfly using the Transform tool a keyframe is automatically created in the Timeline view.e bounding box’s corner anchor points to t down.

should be small enough for it to be able to fly reen over 60 frames.

mode. If you want to reposition a layer


nimating the Butterfly Layer

easy to animate a layer, press two buttons, position ur drawing and you’re done!

1. In the Tools toolbar, enable the Animate mode. They default keyboard shortcut is [Shift]+[A].

2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Transform tool. The default keyboard shortcut is [Alt]+[Q].

3. In the Timeline view, go to the first frame.

4. In the to theyou de

5. Use thscale i

The butterflyacross the sc

To animate a layer, use the Transform tool and enable the Animatewithout animating it, disable the Animate mode.

n Animation - Animating the Butterfly Layer 25

lt, the interpolation is automatically calculated the keyframes. There is no need to do anything.

the Playback toolbar, press the Play button to e your animation.

the Playback toolbar, press the Loop button play your animation repeatedly.

.] keys.

Creating Your Ow

6. In the Timeline view, go to the last frame.

7. In the Camera view, move the butterfly to the other side. You can press [Shift]+[F11] to view the path.

By defaubetween

8. Inse

9. Into

You can move between the Timeline frames using the [,] and [

26

Ex

NoToforfor

rt the project as a SWF file:top menu, select File > Export > SWF.Export dialog box, click on the Choose to name and select where you will store your

.n the OK button to start the export process.

! You have just completed your first project oom Animate.

s, Flash movies (SWF) and Flash video (FLV).


porting Your Project

w that your animation is complete you can export it. on Boom Animate allows you to export to different mats. In this case, we will export the project as an SWF mat.

To expo1. In the 2. In the

buttonmovie

3. Click o

There you gousing Toon B

You can export your projects as image sequences, QuickTime movie

27

Toso

Yomuan

Yothe

Th

C

on Boom Animate allows you to draw directly in the ftware, and import external content.

u can import QuickTime videos, pictures, lti-layered PSD files, as well as AI, SWF

d PFD files.

u can use your own content or files from sample material package.

e topics are: • Setting Up the Living Room• Getting Your Show on TV• Get Limpa to Celebrate

hapter 3 Gathering Content

28

Se

FoyoAdlay

Tobatelontim

u must group your layers in Adobe

be Photoshop, group your layers. Each PSD ou want on a separated timeline layer must different group.If you want some of your PSD layers to be integrated in the same timeline layer, insert them in the same group.

our groups, their name will be preserved once the file in Animate.

n one group, the heads in another one and s own layer containing all of its own pieces.


tting Up the Living Room

r some of your projects, you will probably want to paint ur backgrounds in a bitmap editing software such as obe® Photoshop®. With Animate, you can import multi- ered PSD backgrounds and keep the layers separated!

start building the scene, we will import a living room ckground. This background has three layers; a wall, a evision and a chair. We will import the file so that each e of these PSD layers will be inserted in a separated eline layer.

To do this, yoPhotoshop.

1. In Adolayer ybe in a

If you name yyour import

To import a photo puppet in Adobe Photoshop put all the hands iso on, so that when you import it in Animate each body part has it

ering Content - Setting Up the Living Room 29

the Image to Load field of the Multilayer Image port Settings dialog box, select the All Layers age option.lect the Transparency Type if applicable.ess the OK button.

kground should now appear in the Timeline view new layers should be named as your PSD groups. thing left to do is to extend their exposure.

the Timeline view, select the last cell of all of the yers simultaneously and press [F5] to extend their posure.

r Guide to learn more.

Gath

2. In Animate, select Files > Import > Images.3. In the Import Drawings dialog box, browse for the

PSD file to import.4. In the Layer section, enable the Create Layer(s) and

the Create Single Layer Named options.5. Disable the Vectorize the Imported Items option.6. Click on the OK button.

7. InImIm

8. Se9. Pr

Your bacand the The only

10. Inlaex

To vectorize the images you import, refer to the Animate Use

30

G

If yproimvidfur

If yit tso

In tha

top menu, select Files > Import > Movie.Import QuickTime Movie dialog box, browse movie to import.n the QuickTime Settings button and choose format in which your want the movie to be

ted in your projects.e: that your movie will be transformed into mage sequence and a sound layer will be ed to contain the sound if there is any.

n the OK button to close the QuickTime s window.n the OK button in the Import QuickTime dialog box to import your QuickTime movie.

an image sequence. The sound is extracted clip’s timing.


etting Your Show on TV

ou have a live-action clip you want to integrate into your ject, you can do it with Animate! Using Animate you can

port QuickTime movies. This way, you can integrate your eos with your animation and push the envelop even ther!

our clip is not a QuickTime movie you need to convert o *.mov format first. You can do this using an editing ftware.

this example, we import a Happy New Year fireworks clip t we will position inside the television.

1. In the 2. In the

for the3. Click o

the fileimpor

Notan iadd

4. Click oSetting

5. Click oMovie

When you import a QuickTime movie in Animate it is converted tofrom it and placed in a sound layer. This way, you can modify your

athering Content - Getting Your Show on TV 31

the Timeline view, drag and drop the fireworks yer below the TV one.

11. In the Tools toolbar, select

the Transform tool and

disable the Animate mode.

12. In the Camera view, resize your clip to the tv screen size.

Hold the [Shift] key down to maintain aspect ratio of the movie.

ength or by dragging the Timeline view’s red

G

Once the import process is completed, you will be asked where and how you want to insert your movie’s images.

6. In the Import Drawings dialog box, enable the Create Layer(s) and the Create Single Layer Named options.

7. Name your new layer with a relevant name.8. Disable the Vectorize the Imported Items option.9. Click on the OK button to import your image

sequence.

10. Inla

You can extend the scene length by selecting Scene > Scene Llength bracket.

32

G

A timco

enjoy your Happy New Year celebration!

s a template in the Library. Refer to the


et Limpa to Celebrate

emplate is a small scene or container that you can port into any of your projects and its content will be pied in your scene.1. In the Library, select the Templates folder and then

select the Limpa.tpl template.2. Drag the selected template to your Timeline view.

3. Use the Transform tool to position Limpa on the stage.

4. In the Playback toolbar, press the Play button to playback your animation.

You can now

Now that the living room is ready for the celebration and the television is on, you can locate the Limpa character’s template in the Library and import him in the scene!Limpa was previously designed and stored in the sample library as a template.

Any drawing or animation your create in Animate can be stored aAnimate User Guide to learn more about creating templates.

Gathering Content - Get Limpa to Celebrate 33

34

35

With Aneed tdrawinAlthouallows projectboth w

This chwhere Brush tup the

The to•••••

Cha

nimate’s advanced tools, you no longer o draw on paper, scan and clean your gs. You can do all that in the software. gh, if you love to draw on paper, Animate you to import your artwork in your . Using Animate you get the best of orlds.

apter contains the following topics you will learn how to use the ool, add new layers and clean drawings.

pics are: Drawing Using the Brush ToolOther Useful Drawing ToolsAdding a New LayerTracing Over Your CharacterAdding Thick and Thin Lines

pter 4 Designing a Character

36

D

Thsev

Towit

ing similar to drawing on paper with blue can modify a colour swatch’s colour and . e-click on the colour swatch if you want to the tint.

dify the colour’s transparency, slide the Alpha to the right or left.

Optimization smooths the contour of your line has been traced.

he Layer’s editor.


rawing Using the Brush Tool

e Brush tool supports pressure sensitivity and eral brush tips.

keep your work organized, rename the default layer h your new character’s name.1. In the Timeline view, double-click on the layer name

and type the new name in the field.2. Press [Return] to validate the name.

3. Select the cell where you want to draw.

To get a feelpencils, you transparency

4. Doublmodify

5. To mocursor

The Contourline once the

Rename a layer by clicking on its name in the Timeline view or in t

a Character - Drawing Using the Brush Tool 37

now ready to throw all kinds of ideas onto your which in this case is the Camera view. the Camera view, sketch your character.you want to draw some shading on your

aracter, enable the Draw Behind option in the ush Tool Properties.

line. Increasing the value results in a line with tour of your line once the line has been traced.

Designing

There are several parameters which you can adjust in the Brush Properties:

• Minimum Size

• Maximum Size

• Smoothness

• Contour Optimization

• Brush Tips

You are canvas,

6. In7. If

chBr

The Smoothness option smooths the initial movement of yourless control points. The Contour Optimization smooths the con

38

O

Thpe

otate tool, hold down the [Ctrl]+[Alt] keys and [ ]+[Alt] on Mac OS X.

eyboard shortcut to reset the Camera view

ift]+[X]. Or press the Reset View button in view’s bottom toolbar.

g tools and their properties. Take a look at uce some world class animation.


ther Useful Drawing Tools

ere are several other useful drawing tools you can use to rfect your work such as:

• Select Tool The Select tool allows to reposition, scale, skew, rotate and delete a selection.

• Cutter Tool The Cutter tool allows to select a portion of a drawing to reposition it or delete it.

• Eraser Tool The Eraser tool allows to eraser any section of a line or drawing.

• Rotate Tool The Rotate tool allows to turn the workspace the same as an animation table.

To use the Ron Windows

The default k

rotation is [Shthe Camera

Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn more about these drawinthe other exciting and innovative tools available to help you prod

Designing a Character - Adding a New Layer 39

w.

Adding a New Layer

Now that your sketch is completed, you will learn how to trace over it to get a clean drawing.

1. In the Timeline view, click on the Add Drawing

Layer button to add a new layer for you clean drawing.

2. Rename the layer as clean or any other similar indication.

It is now time to clean your character!

You can add an unlimited number of layers in the Timeline vie

40

Tr

Th

He

an

Bru

DrTo

yolay

it confusing if all of the Colour swatches are entially, such as Colour 1, Colour 2, and so on. confusion you can rename your swatches by ing on their name. and then pressing the to validate the name.

turn], when you have a series of colour lects the next colour swatch.

ve Colour button in the Colour view toolbar.


acing Over Your Character

ere are many ways to clean up your character’s sketch.

re we will demonstrate how to use the Pencil tool

d the Polyline tool, although it is possible to use the

sh tool.

1. In the Timeline view, in your clean layer, select the cell just above your sketch drawing.

awing in the clean layer cell does not affect your sketch. make sure that you don’t modify your original drawing,

u can lock it by clicking on the Lock button of this er.

You may findnamed sequTo avoid thisdouble-click[Return] key

Pressing [Reswatches, se

To remove colour swatches from the Colour view, click on the Remo

g a Character - Tracing Over Your Character 41

une the lines you created with the Polyline tool,

Contour Editor tool.lick on the line to see the points appear.en, click on a point to select it and move its zier handles to reshape the line.

Pencil tool to draw the lines you don’t want to

the Polyline tool.

or Contour Editor tool, hold down the [Alt] key.

Designin

Using the Polyline tool to clean your drawing allows you to shape your lines easier than if you were tracing them

by hand using the Brush tool or the Pencil tool.

2. Click to set a point along your drawing and then pull away from it while holding down the left mouse button. You will see the line shape as you move the handles.

To fine t

use the 3. C4. Th

Be

Use the

do with

To move only one of the two Bezier handles using the Polyline

42

A

SinPocoyo

hod is to use the Brush tool to draw some nd change the tip to an oblique shape or use which provides you with pressure sensitivity ou to draw lines of variable thickness.

the Brush tool does not allow you to reshape easily as with the Polyline or Pencil tool. The eates contour vector lines (also known as fills) ctor points are situated on the line’s contour, re central vector lines in which the points ntre.of the line.

r lines do not support thick and thin lines, but e thickness throughout. Contour lines

k and thin lines, but take longer to reshape.

ontour lines. You can make an invisible line Line tool or Polyline tool to 0 (zero).


dding Thick and Thin Lines

ce you drew your lines as a central vector type, using the lyline tool and the Pencil tool, your drawing does not ntain thick and thin lines. There are different techniques u can use to add these lines.

The first metof the lines aa pen tablet and allows y

Drawing withyour lines asBrush tool crwhere the vePencil lines afollow the ce

Central vectohave the samsupport thic

You can convert contour lines to central lines and central lines to cby setting the size of the Pencil tool, Ellipse tool, Rectangle tool,

g a Character - Adding Thick and Thin Lines 43

er which tools you use to draw with you must tten the lines so that your character outline is a ape instead of being built out of many strokes.

kes it easier and lighter to manipulate.

the Tools toolbar, select the Select tool. the Camera view, select the lines to flatten.

the Tool Properties view, click on the Flatten ol.

u go! You now know how to design and clean a e character in Toon Boom Animate.

tep, you can decide not to flatten your lines for Puppet chapter for more information.

Designin

The second technique is to convert the central lines to contour lines and to add some thick and thin lines by using

the Contour Editor tool.

1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Select tool.2. In the Camera view, select the lines to convert to

contour lines.3. In the Tool Properties view, click on the Convert

Pencil Lines to Brush Lines button.

4. In the Tools toolbar, select the Contour Editor tool.

5. In the Camera view, push the points and contours to add the desired thickness.

No mattfinally flasingle shThis ma

1. In2. In

3. Into

There yocomplet

If you plan to use this character as a cut-out puppet in a later san easier breakdown process. Refer to the Creating a Cut-out

44

45

One ofAnimacreate characthrougat any

You cacharacThis chwill leaand, te

The to•••••••

Cha

the greatest benefits of using Toon Boom te are its colour palettes. With Animate, you can a group of colours specifically for your ter which will stay with your character hout your project. You can change the colours time.

n use the character you drew previously or a ter model from the sample material package. apter contains the following topics where you rn how to create palettes and palette styles xtured and coloured gradients.

pics are:Creating a Colour PalettePainting the CharacterClosing GapsCreating Gradient ColoursPainting With Bitmap TexturesEditing Gradients and TexturesCreating a Palette Style

pter 5 Painting Your Character

46

C

Insdracoyotogpa

ess the Palette List, in the Colour view, click

Show Palette List View button.

Colour view toolbar, click on the New Palette

tton.Palette Browser dialog box, name your with a relevant name.n the OK button to validate the palette’s n.

Colour view basics.


reating a Colour Palette

tead of using the default palette to paint all of your wings and animations, why not create a small group of

lours specifically for your character! This helps to keep ur work organized by keeping your character’s colours ether. These groups of colours are known as colour

lettes.

1. To acc

on the

2. In the

bu3. In the

palette4. Click o

creatio

Refer to the Creating Your Own Animation chapter to review the

g Your Character - Creating a Colour Palette 47

the Colour view, click on the Add Colour tton to add new colour swatches.

ouble-click on a colour swatch to open the Colour cker window and modify the colour.lick on the colour swatch’s name to rename it.

watch, the zone is linked to this colour swatch. it.

Paintin

If you are not using the default palette, remove it from the Palette List.

Note: The default palette itself will not be deleted and it can always be brought back later.

5. In the Colour view, select the default palette.6. In the Colour view toolbar, click on the Remove

Palette button.

You are now ready to add colour swatches to your new palette.

7. Inbu

8. DPi

9. C

Remember that when you paint a zone with a certain colour sWhen you modify the swatch, the zone will update along with

48

Pa

Tools toolbar, select the Paint tool.Colour view, select the colour swatch ponding to the zone your want to paint.

Camera view, paint the zone.t this process until the drawing is entirely d.

en, you will need to close it either with the


inting the Character

1. In the 2. In the

corres

3. In the 4. Repea

painte

With the Paint tool you can only paint closed zones. If a zone is opBrush tool or the Close Gap tool.

ting Your Character - Painting the Character 49

t the Paint tool’s painting option to Paint

Pain

There are many options available for the Paint tool. In the Tool Properties view, you can set the painting option to:

• PaintPaints everything it touches

• Paint UnpaintedPaints only unpainted zones

• RepaintPaints only already painted zones.

• UnpaintUnpaints everything it touches.

To quickly paint a series of drawings, it is advantageous to seUnpainted.

50

C

If ypadoGaPe

use the automatic close gap available in the roperties. You can choose the size of the gap t the system to automatically ignore while

p closing only occurs when you paint using the

he automatic Close Gap mode:

Tools toolbar, select the Paint tool.Tool Properties view, select one of the gap options from the droplist.

Camera view, paint your drawing.

ing Close Large Gap could result in not


losing Gaps

our drawing has a gap in a line, the Paint tool cannot int the unclosed zone. First you need to close it. You can this using the automatic Close Gap mode or the Close p tool. You could also use the Brush, Contour Editor or ncil tools.

To use the Close Gap tool:

1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Close Gap tool.2. Press [K] to display the invisible strokes.3. In the Camera view, trace a stroke close to the gap.

You can alsoPaint’s Tool Pthat you wanpainting. GaPaint tool.

To use t

1. In the 2. In the

closing3. In the

You can set the automated gap closing to Close Small Gap. Selectpainting all of the small areas in your drawings.

Your Character - Creating Gradient Colours 51

the Colour view, double-click on the colour atch to transform it into a gradient.

the Colour Picker window, enable the Gradient tion.

hoose a Linear or Radial gradient.lick on the gradient arrows and adjust their sition and colour.

gradient swatches.

Painting

Creating Gradient Colours

Animate adds life to your drawings by letting you paint with both gradient and solid colours.

Creating a gradient colour is so easy to do. You can even modify one of your existing colour swatches. And as a bonus you can see the result on your painted character as you adjust the gradient!

1. Insw

2. Inop

3. C4. C

po

Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn more about editing

52

Pa

Afpa

Colour view, click on the Add Texture .

e for a PSD or TGA picture.

Tools toolbar, select the Paint tool.

Colour view, click on the Paint Colour .Colour view, select your new texture swatch.Camera view, paint the desired zone.

int your animation with it. It only needs to


inting With Bitmap Textures

ter painting with solid and gradient colours, you can also int with bitmap textures.

1. In the button

2. Brows

3. In the

4. In the button

5. In the 6. In the

You can use any photo or textured image in your computer and pabe in PSD or TGA format.

r Character - Editing Gradients and Textures 53

the Tools toolbar, select the Edit Gradient/

xture tool. the Camera view, click on the gradient or texture ne to modify.

sing the tool’s anchor points, modify the gradient texture’s size, angle and position.

e the gradient position you did with the Edit

t/Texture tool, you can store it so that next time t with a gradient or a texture it will be positioned

e.

the Tools toolbar, select the Select tool and lect the desired gradient zone.

the Select tool’s Tool Properties view, click on

e Store Gradient Colour button. use the stored gradient, in the Brush or Paint ol Properties view enable the Use Stored

radient Colour option.

Edit Gradient/Texture tool. This can be very radient colours.

Painting You

Editing Gradients and Textures

After you paint a zone with a gradient or texture colour, you can reposition and adjust it.

1. In

Te2. In

zo3. U

or

If you lik

Gradienyou painthe sam

1. Inse

2. In

th3. To

To

G

Squash and Stretch

Rotate

Skew

Position

You can copy and paste a gradient/texture position using thehandy when you have a hand-drawn animation painted with g

54

C

YoDa

le is created by cloning your original palette. colour swatches to the same zones as the tte. This has the advantage of letting you olours in your cloned palette, and then by original palette with the clone the character’s pdate automatically without you having to

Colour view, click on the Menu button lect Palettes > Clone.Clone Palette dialog box, name the palette priately. We recommend keeping the suffixe as part of the palette’s name. For example, lone.Colour View, select the new cloned palette.

t once. You do not have to modify them


reating a Palette Style

u can create palette styles for you character such as a y palette or a Night palette.

A palette styThis links theoriginal palechange the creplacing thecolours will urepaint!

1. In the and se

2. In the appro -clonJoe-c

3. In the

Day Palette Style Night Palette Style

You can use the Tint Panel to modify all of your palette’s colours aindividually.

ing Your Character - Creating a Palette Style 55

Panel window allows you to offset or blend a all your selected swatches.

the Colour view, click on the Menu button d select Palettes > Tint Panel. the Tint Panel window, select the palette to odify, in this case, your clone palette. the Colour list, select the swatches you want to odify.hoose between Offset or Blend mode.you are using the Blend mode, increase the ending amount.odify the offset or blend tint.lick on the Apply button to apply the changes to ur palette or click on the Reset button to reset e changes.

u can store it in your library as a template. Refer lates.

Paint

You can modify the colours in your cloned palette by editing them one at the time in the Colour Picker window or you can offset all of the colours at once using the Tint Panel window.

The Tintcolour in

1. Inan

2. Inm

3. Inm

4. C5. If

bl6. M7. C

yoth

If you want to use your painted character as a colour model, yoto the Animate User Guide to learn more about creating temp

56

57

By intrspectaexampprops

This chwill leaand an

The to•••••••

Cha teboard

oducing Symbols, Toon Boom pushes Animate’s cular animation capabilities even further. For le, by using Symbols, you can build animated and manipulate them as a unified object.

apter contains the following topics where you rn how to create, combine, extend, edit, cycle imate Symbols.

pics are: Creating the SkateboardAnimating the Smoke CycleCreating SymbolsAdding Smoke to the WheelsBuilding the SkateboardImporting the SkateboardAnimating the Skateboard

pter 6 Using Symbols to Animate a Ska

58

C

Timeline view, add a new layer and rename it el.

Camera view, draw a wheel to match the f your board. There is no need to draw it in rticular location as you will reposition it later.

Layer button in the Timeline layer toolbar.


reating the Skateboard

1. In the Timeline view, add a new layer and rename it as Skateboard.

2. Using the drawing tools you learned about in the previous lessons, draw the board without the wheels. The wheels will be drawn on a separated layer.

3. In the as Whe

4. In the scale oany pa

To add a new layer in your Timeline view, click on the Add Drawing

a Skateboard - Animating the Smoke Cycle 59

sing the Onion Skin feature, draw the second and ird drawings.

e the number of drawings visible in the Onion Skin push or pull on the Onion Skin blue arrows.

n your animations. For example, you could add

Using Symbols to Animate

Animating the Smoke Cycle

5. In the Timeline view, add a new layer and rename it Smoke.

You will create a three drawing animation cycle. The animation cycle will be done later after you have imported the smoke symbol back into your scene. For now, just create the three main drawings.

6. In the Camera view, draw the first smoke drawing.

7. Uth

To changdisplay,

Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn how to add effects oa transparency and a blur on your smoke animation.

60

C

Ananpro

Toto

A garedracrecreyo

mbol is easy, select the drawings or layers you sform and drag them to your Library view.

r select:gle drawingral drawings in a row on a single layerral drawings in a row on many layers gle layerral layers

your skateboard:Timeline view, select the skateboard drawing ag it to the Library view inside the Symbols

the wheel drawing and drag it to the Library side the Symbols folder.

the three smoke drawings and drag them to rary view inside the Symbols folder. Or use fault keyboard shortcut [F8].

eboard elements should now be in the Library

bols and templates.


reating Symbols

imate has a library where you can store your drawings d animation for reuse in your scene or sharing in your jects.

reuse drawings or animation in another scene, you need create a template out of them.

ood example of reuse is shown in the skateboard you building, it has four wheels. However, you only need to w one wheel and then reuse it three more times to ate the three missing wheels. To do this, you must ate a Symbol out of the wheel and then reimport it into

ur scene.

Creating a Sywant to tran

You can eithe• A sin• Seve• Seve• A sin• Seve

To build1. In the

and drfolder.

2. Selectview in

3. Selectthe Libthe de

All your skatas Symbols.

Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn more about creating Sym

to Animate a Skateboard - Creating Symbols 61

e Symbols folder, you can add a new folder and

Using Symbols

By right-clicking in Windows (or [Ctrl] + click in Mac OS X) on threname it to organize your Symbols.

62

A

Totheall

Library, double-click on the Wheel Symbol. ould now be inside the Wheel Symbol where n edit it.

rting the Smoke Symbol, you will need to ymbol length.

Timeline view, pull on the scene length red t and extend it to frame 3.

import the Smoke Symbol:Library, select the Smoke Symbol.nd drop the Smoke Symbol into the

ne’s left section to create a new layer.

ow see the three smoke frames in your

acket to the left or right. Moving it towards right extends the symbol’s length.


dding Smoke to the Wheels

add the smoke to each wheel and cycle it, you will enter Wheel Symbol and add the smoke animation, this way

the wheels will receive the smoke cycle simultaneously.

1. In the You shyou ca

Before impoextend the s

2. In the bracke

You will now3. In the 4. Drag a

Timeli

You should nTimeline.

Extend or reduce a symbol’s length by sliding the Timeline’s red brthe left reduces the symbol’s length, while moving it towards the

a Skateboard - Adding Smoke to the Wheels 63

eel Symbol now contains your Smoke Symbol.

brary, click on the Wheel Symbol to preview it and

e Play button to view the animation.

d in your Library.

Using Symbols to Animate

5. In the Tools toolbar, disable the Animate mode and select the Transform tool.

6. In the Camera view, position the Smoke layer. If the smoke needs to be resized, use the Transform tool’s corner anchor points to resize it. The whole animation will be scaled together.

As you can see, the wheel ‘s exposure is only one frame long. You must change it to three frames long.

7. In the Timeline, select the wheel’s last cell and press the [F5] key to extend the wheel’s exposure.

Your Wh

In the Li

press th

You must save your project in order to save the Symbols store

64

B

NoSkyo

YoCa

rting the Wheel Symbols, you will need to kateboard Symbol’s length.Timeline view, pull on the scene length red t and extend it to frame 3.

he library, import four Wheel Symbols. Place the wheel layers above the Skateboard layer o below. Remember to rename your layers tly.

ortcut [Ctrl]+[E] on Windows


uilding the Skateboard

w you need to add the completed wheels inside the ateboard Symbol. This will enable you able to manage ur skateboard as a single object instead of many.1. In the Library, double-click on the skateboard

Symbol.

u will see the name of the Symbol at the top of the mera view. You should now be inside Skateboard.

Before impoextend the S

2. In the bracke

3. From ttwo ofand twcorrec

You can enter a selected symbol by using the default keyboard shor [ ]+[E] on Mac OS X.

ate a Skateboard - Building the Skateboard 65

eboard’s exposure is only one frame long. Change e frames long to match the wheel’s exposure. the Timeline view, select the board’s third cell d press the [F5] key to extend the skateboard’s posure.

have a complete skateboard which you can as a single object. Get ready to add it to your d do some tricks!

he word ”Top” at the top of your Camera view.

Using Symbols to Anim

4. In the Tools toolbar, disable the Animate mode

and select the Transform tool.5. In the Camera view, position the wheels. If the

wheel is the wrong size, use the Transform tool’s corner anchor points to scale it.

To modify the Wheel Symbol, double-click on a wheel. Once inside the Wheel Symbol, modify whatever you want to and the four wheels on your skateboard will be automatically updated to include the modification.

The skatit to thre

6. Inanex

You nowmanagescene an

When editing a symbol, go back to the scene’s root, click on t

66

Im

Yobu

YolibpeSpan

rting the Skateboard Symbol, you will need to cene length.

rt the Skateboard Symbol:Timeline view, pull on the scene length red t and extend it to frame 60.

Library, select the Skateboard Symbol.ragging the Skateboard Symbol toward your

ne view.own the [Alt] (Windows) or [Ctrl] (Mac) key.he symbol in your Timeline’s left side while g down the [Alt] (Windows) or [Ctrl] (Mac) key.

ou can delete it from your Timeline. Your


porting the Skateboard

ur completed Skateboard Symbol is ready to animate, t first, you must clear the content of the Timeline.

To clear the Timeline:

1. In the Camera view top area, click on the Top button to go back to the scene’s root.

2. In the Timeline view, select all of your layers.3. In the Timeline view toolbar, click on the Delete

Layers button.4. In the Confirm Delete dialog box, click on the OK

button.

u are now ready to import your skateboard from the rary, but before dropping it into your Timeline, you will rform an extra operation called: Paste Special. The Paste ecial command allows to expose the symbol’s full length d then create a cycle from it in a several different ways.

Before impoextend the s

To impo1. In the

bracke

2. In the 3. Start d

Timeli4. Hold d5. Drop t

holdin

Once your store a drawing or a layer as a Symbol in your Library, ywork will still be available as a Symbol in the Library view.

te a Skateboard - Importing the Skateboard 67

rgot to do the Paste Special command when you d, select the symbol’s visible cell, copy it and do ecial again. the Timeline view, select the symbol’s frame. the top menu, select Edit > Copy. the Timeline, right-click in Windows ortrl] + click in Mac OS X and select Paste Special.

is [Ctrl]+[B] (Windows)

Using Symbols to Anima

6. In the Paste Special dialog box, enable the Paste All Frames of the Symbol (full movie).

7. Set the Number of Cycles field to 20.8. Click on the OK button.

If you foimportePaste Sp

1. In2. In3. In

[C

The default keyboard shortcut for the Paste Special commandor [Shift]+[ ]+[B] (Mac OS X).

68

A

ToSy

Cut-out Puppet chapter in the Animate User


nimating the Skateboard

complete your project, you will animate the Skateboard mbol’s position.

1. In the Tools toolbar, enable the Animate mode

and select the Transform tool.2. In the Timeline view, go to the first frame.3. In the Camera view, select the Skateboard and

position it to the left side of the screen.4. In the Timeline view, go to the last frame.5. In the Camera view, select the Skateboard and

position it to the right side of the screen.

6. In the Play toolbar, click on the Play button to view your completed animation!

To learn more about animating with Symbols, read the Animating a Guide.

69

ThfunTim

YoorTh

C AnimationIn to animate paperlessly. Animate lets yo

is chapter will focus on the Xsheet view and its ctionality, but everything can be also achieved in the eline view if you prefer.

u can create your hand-drawn animation from scratch use the material provided to practice with. e topics are:

• Sketching your Rough Keyposes

• Marking Keyposes in the Xsheet

• Completing the Animation• Setting the Exposure and

Testing the Animation

• Cleaning Up the Animation• Painting the Animation

hapter 7 Creating a Simple Hand-Drawn Toon Boom Animate, you can take advantage of useful tools and featuresu create traditional looking animation without paper, pencils or scans.

70

Sk

ThskeYobefoc

w your animation, first switch to the Animation workspace.

at your scene is kept well organized, enable ent Frame As Drawing Name option. This uses rame number to name each new drawing.Ctrl]+[U] (Windows) or [ ]+[U] (Mac OS X) to he Preferences panel.Exposure Sheet tab, enable the Use Current as Drawing Name option.

Workspace toolbar, the Hand-Drawn tion workspace from op-down menu.

to learn more about Preferences.


etching your Rough Keyposes

e first step in hand-drawn animation is to draw a rough tch. This step let’s you create and test your animation.

u can concentrate on the flow of movement without ing concerned about the character’s details. You can us on the details during the clean up process later on.

To easily draHand-Drawn

To ensure ththe Use Currthe current f

2. Press [open t

3. In the Frame

1. In theselectAnimathe dr

Refer to the Reference Guide Chapter in the Animate User Guide

Animation - Sketching your Rough Keyposes 71

h the second keypose of your animation, you will nion Skin feature. The Onion Skin lets you see the

and next drawings in washed-out colours. This he effect of working with a stack of paper on an n disc and light table.

the Tools toolbar, enable the Onion Skin ature. the Xsheet view, select cell number 4, this will be e location of the second keypose. the Timeline view, click and drag the blue arrows decide the number of previous and next awings that will appear in the Camera view.

the Camera view, sketch the second keypose.

render style and washed out values in the Windows) or Animate > Preferences (Mac OS X).

Creating a Simple Hand-Drawn

4. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush tool.5. In the Colour view, select a colour swatch. This is

the colour you are going to use for your sketch. Sketching with a light colour helps during cleanup.

6. In the Xsheet view, select the first cell in the Drawing column.

7. In the Camera view, sketch your first keypose.

To sketcuse the Opreviousmimics tanimatio

8. Infe

9. Inth

10. Intodr

11. In

The first keypose in the walk cycle animation is the character with legs and arms spread apart.

You can customize the Onion Skin display options such as thePreferences panel under the Drawing tab: Edit > Preferences (

72

eypose is the highest point of the walk cycle. was pointing forward on the first one should ght beneath the character.

cture as a guide, complete the four keyposes walk cycle animation.

Keypose 2Cell 4

Keypose 3Cell 7

Keypose 4Cell 10


The second kThe leg that now be strai

Using this piof the simple

Keypose 1Cell 1

Animation - Marking Keyposes in the Xsheet 73

the Xsheet view, select the cell containing the st keypose. the Xsheet Tools toolbar, click on the Mark as

ey Drawing button. A Key marker will pear in the cell.peat these steps for each keypose.

do the same for breakdown drawings using the

Breakdown Drawing button. This places a wn marker in the selected cell.

k As In-between Drawing option will not add a n the Xsheet view.

great way to keep organized is by renaming your olumns. the Xsheet view, double-click on the Drawing lumn’s header. the Layer Properties dialog box, enter a relevant me for the column in the name field.

r in your Xsheet view, it is used to switch from a current marker.

Creating a Simple Hand-Drawn

Marking Keyposes in the Xsheet

Once your have sketched your keyposes, you should mark them in the Xsheet view so you can keep your animation organized. Doing this helps you to rapidly determine which poses are keyframes, breakdowns or in-betweens.

1. Infir

2. In

Kap

3. Re

You can

Mark asBreakdo

The Marmarker i

AnotherXsheet c

1. Inco

2. Inna

The Mark as In-between Drawing option will not add a markekey or breakdown to an inbetween drawing by removing the

74

C

It iadke

Xsheet view, right-click on any cell between yposes, and select Create Empty Drawing.

a new empty drawing in your layer ready for se to be drawn in.

ew drawings and h your poses with the f the Onion Skin

re. Continue until you lete the walk cycle tion.

ted animation should be f a total of twelve wings.

should look like this.

h the different poses to get a feel of the


ompleting the Animation

s now time to complete the rough animation. Do this by ding two in-between drawings between each yframes.

1. In the two ke

This will addyour next po

2. Add nsketchelp ofeatucompanima

The complecomposed odifferent dra

Your Xsheet

You can use the default shortcuts [F] and [G] to quickly flip througmotion as you sketch your animation.

tting the Exposure and Testing the Animation 75

esting the animation, set the exposure and reduce e length. The correct timing for this simple walk ample is a double exposure. the Top menu, select Scene > Scene Length. the Set Scene Length dialog box, extend the ene to 24 frames.

the Playback toolbar, click on the Loop tton to enable the looping feature.

o start the playback, click on the Play button in e Playback toolbar.

n the Xsheet view, elect your 12 rawings, right-click nd select Exposure > et Exposure to 2.se the [F] and [G] eyboard shortcuts to lip through your rawings.

back toolbar features.

Creating a Simple Hand-Drawn Animation - Se

Setting the Exposure and Testing the Animation

Testing your animation is a crucial step. You will finally see the motion in the Camera view and decide if it is good or not.

Before tthe scencycle ex

1. In2. In

sc

1. Inbu

2. Tth

3. IsdaS

4. Ukfd

Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn more about the Play

76

C

Whthe

sketch layer, start by cleaning up the key d then do the in-between drawings.

ou can use the Onion Skin feature to verify of the line between the different poses.

Xsheet view, click on the Add Column .Add Columns dialog box, name your column Walk_Clean .

Tools toolbars, click on the Brush button.

he Light Table feature to see your other


leaning Up the Animation

en you are satisfied with your animation, you can begin clean up process.

In the roughposes first an

Remember, ythe accuracy

1. In the button

2. In the Baby_

3. In the

If you are animating in the Drawing view you will need to enable tlayers. Simply press [Shift]+[L], the default keyboard shortcut.

awn Animation - Cleaning Up the Animation 77

the Colour view, click on the desired colour atch. Choose a darker colour that will contrast

ith your rough sketch. the Camera view, carefully trace the poses.

perfect your brush line using the Contour Editor

Creating a Simple Hand-Dr

4. In the Tools Properties view, click on the Auto

Flatten button and modify the minimum and maximum brush sizes.

The Auto Flatten option flattens your brush lines as you draw them. It also simplifies the process of perfecting your lines with the contour editor.

5. Insww

6. In

Refer to the Character Design chapter to learn more on how toas well as other useful tips on cleaning up your drawings.

78

Pa

It ithe

top part of the Colour view, click on the New

button. your palette in the Palette Browser window.e the default colour swatch and call it Line.

Tools toolbar, select the Paint tool.

Tools Properties view, select the Repaint and click on the Apply to All Drawings in

button.

mode will make sure that only the lines will , all the empty zones will remain.

All Drawings in Layer option lets you nes on all your drawings at once.

olour palettes features and helpful painting


inting the Animation

s time to create a palette for your character and repaint outlines using the colours contained in this palette.

1. In the

Palette2. Name3. Renam

4. In the

5. In the mode

Layer

The Repaint be repainted

The Apply torepaint the li

Refer to the Painting your Character chapter to learn more about ctips.

d-Drawn Animation - Painting the Animation 79

can add and customize the different colours that ainted in your animation. Be creative! You can work colour at a time or create them all at once. er, you can modify them anytime you want

repainting your drawings.

the bottom part of the Colour view, click on the

dd Colour button. the Colour view, double-click on the new colour atch.

the Colour Picker dialog box, pick the desired lour and rename your colour swatch.peat these steps for each colour. In this exercise, u will need a total of five colours, including the e.

out the Colour Picker dialog box and Palettes.

Creating a Simple Han

Use the Onion Skin feature to check that no part of the animation is left outside the selection.

6. In the Camera view, make a selection around your animation.

Now youwill be pwith oneRemembwithout

1. In

A2. In

sw3. In

co4. Re

yolin

R+

Refer to the Painting your Character chapter to learn more ab

80

Asthe

Tool Properties view, select the Paint

ted mode and click on the Apply to All

gs in Layer button.

painted mode will only allow the empty zone d, preventing lines from being accidentally

All Drawings in Layer feature is useful when paint the central body zone on all of your once. It can also be used on the head zone.

Tools toolbar, the Onion Skin

e.Colour view, select lour of the pyjamas.nside the central ou want to paint. the Apply to All gs in Layer feature

and repeat these for the head.


soon as your palette is completed you can start to fill zones.

1. In the

Unpain

Drawin

The Paint Unto be painterepainted.

The Apply toyou want to drawings at

2. In the enablefeatur

3. In the the co

4. Click izone y

5. EnableDrawinagain steps

d-Drawn Animation - Painting the Animation 81
Creating a Simple Han
To paint the final details, disable the Onion Skin feature so you can see one drawing at a time. Use the Paint tool in Paint Unpainted mode to speed up the painting process.

1. In the Colour view, click on the colour swatch.2. In the Camera view, click on the zone

corresponding to the selected colour.3. Flip through the drawings by pressing [F] and [G],

the default keyboard shortcuts.4. Repeat these steps for each colour until every zone

is painted!

82

83

In evantecco

Th

Th

C

Toon Boom Animate you will find all the tools you er wished for to build cut-out puppets with and imate them. A wide variety of breakdown and rigging hniques are available since Animate mixes the most

mmon and popular concepts.

is lesson contains two rigging techniques: • Basic Rigging with Symbols • Rigging with hierarchy

e topics are: • Getting Ready for the Breakdown• Breaking Down the Main Parts• Fixing Articulations and Gaps• Breaking Down the Other Views• Converting Your Layers to Symbols• Cleaning the Timeline• Assembling the Puppet• Ordering the Puppet’s Layers• Setting the Pivots• Creating Hierarchies• Ordering Layer Hierarchy• Storing the Puppet in the Library

hapter 8 Building a Cut-out Puppet

84

G

Topictur

Brepach

wn task will be easier if your turnaround views separated cells on the same layer and centred a view. If your puppets are placed one beside u final puppets will not align and will need to ed.

formation on how to build a cut-out puppet


etting Ready for the Breakdown

build your puppet, you will first need the character’s ture. It’s even better if your have a complete naround.

aking down a puppet, consists of cutting the body into rts and placing them on different layers so that the aracter becomes articulated.

The breakdoare placed inin the Camerthe other, yobe reposition

This tutorial shows you how to build a basic puppet. To get more infor a production, refer to the Animate User Guide.

t Puppet - Getting Ready for the Breakdown 85

Body

Left Armrm

eg Left Leg

art. You should be careful what your separate uth from the head or not.

Building a Cut-ou

Start by analyzing your character. What are the main parts? If you look at this sample character, Limpa, you can identify five main pieces:

• Body• Left Arm• Right Arm• Left Leg• Right Leg

Later on, you will break those sections in smaller pieces such as right hand, left foot, right eye, mouth, head, etc.

Before starting any breaking down, try to decide what will be separated from what. For example, to keep this puppet simple, we will keep the hat attached to the head, but you could decide to separate it from the head to be able to animate it independently.

Right A

Right L

It is wise to analyze your character before starting to cut it apfrom each part. For example, do you want to separate the mo

86

B

To

the

Yoyo

Staca

Usas layor

Onbre

Tools toolbar, select the Cutter tool. You

o use the Select tool.Tool Properties view, select the Lasso

ion option.Camera view, trace a selection around the rt to separate it. In this case, we will do the rm.You can hold down the [Shift] key if you want to create a second area.If you simply click on a line, it will be entirely selected until it meets an intersection.

ou the most commonly used. Refer to the uppet.


reaking Down the Main Parts

breakdown your character, use the Select tool and

Cutter tool.

u do not need to create new layers when you breakdown ur character, these will be created as you go.

rt by creating the main pieces of your character. In this se, the body, arms and legs.

e the Cutter and Select tools to extract the parts, such the arms, from the body and send them to a separate ers. It does not matter if there are bits from other parts gaps. You will fill and fix those later.

ly do the front or three-quarter view for now. You will akdown the other views later on.

Note: You could also decide to add layers manually and redraw over the model if this technique does not suit your needs.

1. In the

can als2. In the

Select3. In the

first paright a

There are several breakdown techniques. In this lesson, we show yAnimate User Guide to get more tips about breaking down your p

-out Puppet - Breaking Down the Main Parts 87

ur main pieces are separated, you can start to em down. the Camera view, select the hand from the new m layer. Do not select it from the model. the top menu, select Edit > Create Drawing om Drawing Selection. the dialog box, type the new layer name.able the Cut Artwork from Source option. You

ant to cut the hand away from the arm.lick on the OK button.peat the process for each part in the character to broken down.

e parts should now be in separate layers.

d it afterward. If you select it and use the Create xisting layer in the drop-down menu.

Building a Cut

4. In the top menu, select Edit > Create Drawing from Drawing Selection. The default keyboard shortcut is [F9].

5. In the dialog box, type the new layer name.6. Disable the Cut Artwork from Source option.

When you create layers out of your colour model, you do not want to cut out the artwork.

7. Press the OK button to validate.8. Repeat the process for each main piece: body, legs,

arms, head, etc.

Once yobreak th

9. Inar

10. Infr

11. In12. En

w13. C14. Re

be

All of th

If you forget to send something into your new layer, you can adDrawing from Drawing Selection option, you can choose the e

88

Fi

Notimart

the joints, make sure they overlap properly. hat the puppet will be animated and each part rotate, so make sure not to leave a gap in the ath.

twork nderneath wing.

own the parts, but since you will have to fix ether.


xing Articulations and Gaps

w that all your parts are in their respective layers, it is e to fix the rough cuts you did earlier and draw nice iculations. To do so, you will use tools such as:

• Eraser tool

• Paint tool

• Contour Editor tool

• Brush tool

• Select tool

When you fixRemember twill move andpart underne

The body arcontinues uthe arm dra

You could fix the gaps and remove the extra lines while breaking dthe articulations afterward you are better off doing everything tog

t-out Puppet - Fixing Articulations and Gaps 89

you assemble o parts, the seamless.

. Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn more

Building a Cu

The easiest articulation to do is the classical joint. The classical joint consists in removing a portion of the outline on the overlapping part. For example, the outline around the elbow can be erased on the forearm piece. The arm placed beneath the forearm will keep its entire outline.

When you assemble those two pieces together, the joint is seamless and it looks like a single drawing!

There are other ways to build articulations that are even more efficient. This one is the simplest and is often quite sufficient.

Top partBottom part

Overlapping Zone

Whenthe twjoint is

There is a great technique to build articulations called the Patchabout it.

90

B

Whyooth

Sinex

Thlay

Timeline view, select the cell containing your breakdown.

Tools toolbar, select the Cutter tool or

tool.

Camera view, trace a selection around the rt to separate it.

in layers while working. You can also enable


reaking Down the Other Views

en you have finished fixing your drawings and joints on ur three-quarter view, you can start breaking down the er views such as side and back views.

ce you already broke down a view, the layers already ist and are named. You won’t need to do it twice!

e breakdown principle is the same, except that your ers already exist.

1. In the view to

2. In the

Select

3. In the

first pa

In the Timeline view, disable the checkbox if you want to hide certathe Lock option to avoid selecting or modifying layers.

ut Puppet - Breaking Down the Other Views 91

ur timeline is completed it should look similar to ple.

reate Drawing from Drawing Selection feature.

Building a Cut-o

This time, you will add your selection to an existing layer, instead of creating a new layer.

4. In the top menu, select Edit > Create Drawing from Drawing Selection.

5. In the dialog box, select the desired layer from the Layer Name drop-down menu.

Disable or enable the Cut Artwork from Source option depending on what you are doing.

6. Click on the OK button.7. Once, the view is all broken down, fix the

articulations and gaps.8. Repeat the process for each view.

Once yothis exam

Refer to the Animate User Guide to find out more about the C

92

C

NoSyenexstiSy

you to do things such as a series of facial


onverting Your Layers to Symbols

w that your layers are completed, you need to create mbols out of each one of them. The Symbol will capsulate each drawing of the layer. Later on, even if you pose only the first frame, such as the front head, your will ll have access to all your head drawings you placed in the mbol. It will also allow you to add more drawings.

To create a Symbol:From the Timeline view, drag the layer to the Symbol library.In the Timeline view, select the layer to convert to Symbol and in the top menu select Edit > Create Symbol.

Creating symbols with each layer of your cut-out puppet will allowexpressions or lip-sync.

ng a Cut-out Puppet - Cleaning the Timeline 93
Buildi
Cleaning the Timeline

At this point, all your layers should be stored in the Library as Symbols.

Before building your puppet, you will need to remove all of the current layers in your scene. All of your work is saved in the Library. If you are not sure that you put everything in your Library, you can always perform a Save As on your scene and work on a new version.

To save your scene as a new version:In the top menu, select File > Save As.

To clean your Timeline:In the Timeline view, select all of your layers and

press the Delete Layers button.

To create a new version of your project, use File > Save As.

94

Aeline is cleared, you can import your symbols

ary. Animate offers many possibilities when it ging characters. First, you will perform a basic ur character using the Symbols which you

eated.

r’s head will contain all the Symbols related to tures. This allows you to quickly swap between cial expressions. You will create these later.

basic rigging, you will first assemble the Head t, you will import all of your Symbols into your lly, you will reorder your layers and set your

s.


ssembling the PuppetOnce your timfrom the librcomes to rigrigging on yopreviously cr

The charactethe facial feaa series of fa

To create theSymbol. Nexproject. Finapivots.

Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn more rigging technique

a Cut-out Puppet - Assembling the Puppet 95

ig your drawing layers:om the library, drag all of the body Symbols and e Head Symbol into your project’s empty timeline. rop them in the Timeline view’s left side.

be positioned at the same location they were

Building

To assemble the Head Symbol:1. In the Library, double-click on your Head Symbol to

edit it.2. From the Library, drag all the head elements to the

Timeline view’s left side.3. Rename your layers if necessary.4. In the Camera view, you can reposition your facial

features using the Transform tool. Make sure to

disable the Animate mode.

5. In the Camera view top area, click on the Top button to go back to the scene’s root.

To r1. Fr

thD

When you import a symbol from the library, the drawings willwhen the symbol was created.

96

O

It iup

ur layers drag them to a higher or lower level ne view. The top layer is displayed in front of d the bottom one is displayed behind.

Timeline view, drag the layer to reorder it and t inbetween the other layers. If you drop it on a layer, it will create a parent hy, so make sure to drop it inbetween layers.

Front

ere is no need to select all the layers.


rdering the Puppet’s Layers

s possible at this point your character’s pieces may show in the wrong order. There are two ways to fix this.

To reorder yoin the Timelithe others an

1. In the drop iNote: hierarc

Displayed in

DisplayedBehind

If you select a layer and reposition it, its child layers will follow. Th

uilding a Cut-out Puppet - Setting the Pivots 97

ollowing steps for each layer in the Timeline view:

et the pivots for the Body parts:

the Tools toolbar, select the Pivot tool. the Head’s timeline, repeat Step 1 to Step 4 of r each layer of the Head Symbol. the Camera view, click where you want to the vot to be. You can also drag the pivot marker to e desired location. set a different pivot for each cell, disable the Set e Pivot for Symbol on All Frames option in the ol Properties view. In the Timeline view, select the ll where you want to set the new pivot and in the

amera view move the pivot to the desired sition.

et the facial feature’s pivots: the Camera view, double-click on the Head mbol to edit it. the Head’s timeline, repeat Step 1 to Step 4 of e Body Parts pivot process for each layer of the ead Symbol. Do not set the pivot for the Head yer as it was previously set in the main timeline.

Guide.

B

Setting the Pivots

If you want your puppet’s pieces to rotate properly, you need to set the pivot points. You can either set a static pivot for the entire synbol or a different pivot of each cell of the symbol. Even the eyes and mouth require you to set their pivot.

You will set the pivot on the symbol’s cells and not directly on the drawings.

To set your pivots, you have to be at the Top level of your character building scene and not inside the symbols.

Do the f

To s

1. In2. In

fo3. In

pith

4. TothToceCpo

To s1. In

Sy2. In

thHla

For more information about pivots, refer to the Animate User

98

C

Annohieealay

e a hierarchy, drag the child piece (hand) and drop it ON rent piece (forearm). Then, you can drag the (forearm) piece on another parent piece

reate a hierarchy on your arms and legs and to s and legs separated from the body. This re animation freedom.

roduction rigging.


reating Hierarchies

imate let’s you extend your rigging techniques beyond rmal boundaries and set new standards, you can create rarchies without encapsulating your Symbols inside ch other by creating a linked structure between your ers.

To creat1. Simply

the paparent(arm).

You should ckeep the armgives you mo

Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn more about complete p

a Cut-out Puppet - Ordering Layer Hierarchy 99

the Tools toolbar, select the Transform tool.

ake sure to disable the Animate mode. the Camera view, select the element to reorder. move the element forward, user the default yboard shortcut [Alt] + [Down Arrow] and to ove the element backward, use the default yboard shortcut [Alt] + [Up Arrow].

Ordering Forward - Backward Ordering

ult keyboard shortcut [Alt] + Up Arrow to move ent forward.

Building

Ordering Layer Hierarchy

If you created a hierarchy on your arms, legs or other body parts, it is possible that you will want a part, such as the hand, to appear in front of its parent. If you move the hand layer above the arm layer, you will break the hierarchy.

To reorder a layer rigged in a hierarchy, nudge it forward or backward.

Animate allows you to move your elements in the three dimensions:

• Up and Down (Y)• Left and Right (X)• Forward and Backward (Z)

In the same way you can create multiplane backgrounds (depth), you can do a micro nudge on the part to be reordered and see it in front of the other elements even if its layer is behind the other ones in the Timeline view. The Forward-Backward position can also be animated over time.

1. In

M2. In3. To

kemke

Normal

To move elements forward and backward (Z-axis), use the defathe layer backward and [Alt] + Down Arrow to move the elem

10

Str character in the library you first need to ition keyframe on all your layers and finally emplate in a sharing library.Timeline view, select the first frame of every

top menu, select Insert > Keyframe or use fault keyboard shortcut [F6].Camera view, double-click on the Head l.Head Symbol’s timeline, select each layer’s ll and insert a keyframe as you did in step 2.

Camera view top area, click on the Top to go back to the scene’s root.Library view, select the Animate Library right-click (Windows) or [Ctrl]+click (Mac OS select Right To Modify.Timeline view, select all of your layers and hem into the Animate Library.

e a complete cut-out puppet!

he Animate User Guide.

0 Toon Boom Animate Getting Started Guide

oring the Puppet in the LibraryTo store youcreate a posstore it as a t

1. In the layer.

2. In the the de

3. In the Symbo

4. In the first ce

5. In the button

6. In the folder,X) and

7. In the drag t

You now hav

To find out more about sharing templates via the library, refer to t

101

It iAncoyo

ThanpoUsan

Yoprsa

Th

C

s time to show off your animation skills! Toon Boom imate was created for you to animate. It ntains a series of animation tools beyond ur expectations.

is lesson will cover the basics of cut-out imation, but there is an infinite number of ssibilities. Take a look at the Animate er Guide to discover more about imation.

u can use the a character you drew eviously or a character model from the mple material package.

e topics are: • Getting Ready to Animate• Repositioning the Character• Animating Using the Transform Tool• Motion and Stop-Motion• Swapping Images• Inverse Kinematics Tool• Easing

hapter 9 Animating Your Puppet

10

g Your Puppet - Getting Ready to Animate 103

tarting your animation, you may want to enable n Skin feature to see your previous and next s a reference.

the Tools toolbar, enable the Onion Skin tion.

You can also enable individual layer’s onion

skin by clicking on their Onion Skin icon in the Timeline view.

Onion Skin2

nion Skin1

rent Image

ransformed into a symbol, drag the symbol into nsform it into a template.

Animatin

Getting Ready to Animate

To do this lesson, import your character into a new scene. 1. Create a new Animate project.2. From the library, drag your character template into

the Timeline view’s left side.

Before sthe Onioframes a

1. Inop

O

Cur

To use a character you previously built in another project and tthe Animate Library or into any other templates folder and tra

10

ReN e and reyopu

Inyoorlayodescin

Aalwpathan


positioning the Characterow that you have your puppet on your stage, you probably need to resizposition it to fit your scene. When you need to scale down or move ur character it’s a good idea to hook (attach) the whole ppet to a trajectory.

Animate, there is a type of layer you can add to ur timeline allowing you to create a motion path reposition drawings. This trajectory yer is called a Peg. Any drawing or layer u hook to a peg will follow the fined motion path, rotation, aling and skewing formation.

ttaching your puppet to a peg will low you to scale it and reposition it ithout having to do it on all of your different rts and pieces. Only one layer will contain e position information, this makes your imation easier to modify and control.

Your Puppet - Repositioning the Character 105

u need to position your character on the stage by it and scaling it to the correct size. You will not ch layer individually. You either want to do it on the bol or top peg layer. the Timeline view, select the top symbol or the p peg layer (master peg).

the Tools toolbar, select the Transform tool

d disable the Animate mode. the Camera view, position the character.

es panel. In Edit > Preferences (Windows) or nd change the Onion Skin Render Style option.

Animating

If you do not have a top peg layer to control your character, you can add one at any time. A peg layer is a trajectory on which you can attach your character. This way you can scale and reposition your entire character for the entire scene or over time.

2. In the Timeline view, click on the Add Peg button. The new peg should be called Master.

3. In the Timeline view, select all of the layers you want to attach to your new peg.

4. Drag your selection right on the peg layer to parent all your character’s pieces to the peg.

Next, yomoving scale eatop sym

5. Into

6. In

an7. In

You can change the Onion Skin display’s look in the PreferencAnimate > Preferences in (Mac OS X) go to the Drawing tab a

10

A

Fromoansca

Timeline view, go to the frame where you o animate your first pose. At this point, it is lly the first frame.

Tools toolbar, select the Transform tool

able the Animate mode.Camera view, select the part you want to te and using the Transform tool’s anchor , move it to its new position.

u are doing is automatically retained. There is et a keyframe before moving your parts. As move an element in your Camera view, a et on the current frame in the Timeline view.

nimation keyframes and drawings are not the If you swap a drawing, you do not need to ame in your timeline.

line view. In the Preferences panel, you can as Outlines to see through them.


nimating Using the Transform Tool

m now on, the Transform tool will become your st useful tool. You will use it do to most of your

imation. With the Transform tool, you can select, move, le, rotate, skew, squash and stretch.

1. In the want tgenera

2. In the

and en3. In the

animapoints

The pose yono need to ssoon as you keyframe is s

Remember, asame thing. insert a keyfr

To avoid selecting some layers, click on the Lock button in the Timego to the Camera view tab and enable the Show Locked Drawings

ppet - Animating Using the Transform Tool 107

also select your current selection’s parent layer by e default keyboard shortcut [B]. If you press on it dly, you will go up the entire parent chain until the eg or highest layer in the tree.

mmended that you collapse your master peg and yframe after your pose is set. This will lock all the place. You only need to do this once. the Timeline view, select the pose and press [F6].

[B]

[B]

pivot used by the Transform tool will be in the

Animating Your Pu

Once your first pose is ready, move on to your next key pose.

4. In the Timeline view, move to the frame where you want your second pose.

If you need to, you can temporarily move the Transform tool’s pivot to provide a better rotation or scale centre. Simply drag it to where you need it. Next time you select your element, it will be back to its original place.

You can using threpeatemaster p

We recoadd a keparts in

5. In

When you select a series of elements using the [Shift] key, thefirst selected element.

10

M

our keyframes will be created as Motion his means that Animate automatically e animation between your poses.

may not necessarily want that, you can set e creation mode to create Stop-Motion ater on, you will be able to convert the

rames to Motion Keyframes.top menu, select Animation > Stop-Motion me.

h between Motion and Stop-Motion e:

Timeline view, select the keyframes to rt.click (Windows) or [Ctrl] + click (Mac OS X)

lect Set Stop-Motion Keyframe or Set

n Keyframe .

button to see your animation.

] and [PgDown] keyboard shortcuts.


otion and Stop-Motion

By default, yKeyframes, tgenerates th

Because youyour keyframKeyframes. Ldesired keyf

1. In the Keyfra

To switcKeyfram

1. In the conve

2. Right-

and se

Motio

Press the

To flip between the keyframes of the selected layer, use the [PgUp

Animating Your Puppet - Swapping Images 109

the Camera view, with the Transform tool, lect the part you want to swap. the Library view, go to the Drawing Substitution ction.ove the substitution slider to the right or left to roll through the symbol’s frames or drawings. You n also use the keyboard shortcuts [ [ ] and [ ] ].

the [ ] ] keyboard shortcuts.

Swapping Images

Cut-out animation is not only about moving pieces around, it’s also about switching some drawings around. For example, the ballerina Giselle wants to point her toes. For that, we will need a new drawing.

Inside the Foot Symbol, pointed toes were added on Frame 6. In the project’s timeline, we will be able to access this new drawing. You can add as many new drawings as you want in your character parts’ symbols and use them in your current animation.

You do not need to remember the frame on which you drew them as you will be able to see them in the Drawing Substitution’s interface.

Note: You cannot swap a symbol for another one, only the symbol’s frames or layer’s drawings.

1. Inse

2. Inse

3. Mscca

To quickly swap drawings and frames around, use the [ [ ] and

11

In

Thyoan

work on your character, there are some s:character must have hierarchy chains, for nce, the hand is attached to the forearm and orearm is attached to the arm.character is not required to be entirely done hierarchy chains. You can have mixed ique and it will still work well. IK works with cters rigged with symbols, drawing layers egs.

ork at his best when you lock a part on the a foot on the floor, and then select the entire ther extremity and move it.

ce in place, you will use the IK Nail option.

any part.


verse Kinematics Tool

e Inverse Kinematics tool (IK) allows you to pull on ur character’s extremities, such as the hands and feet, d get the rest of the body to follow!

For the IK toprecondition

• Your instathe f

• Your with techncharaand p

The IK will wspot, such asbody or ano

To lock a pie

While using the IK tool, you can hold down the [Ctrl] key to select

ating Your Puppet - Inverse Kinematics Tool 111

sing the IK tool and the Transform tool, fine tune e character’s pose.

Using the IK tool, holding down the [Alt] key, you can rotate the selected part without moving the rest of the body.

nimate User Guide for more information about

Anim

1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Inverse Kinematics

tool.2. In the Camera view, hold down [Ctrl] (Windows) or

[ ] (Mac OS X) and click on the part you want to lock down.

3. In the IK Tool Properties, click on the IK Nail button.

4. In the Camera view, press the [B] key until the body is completely selected.

5. Click on the the pieces’ bone to reposition the character.

6. Uth

The Inverse Kinematics tool has a lot of options, refer to the Athem.

11

Eaotion Keyframes in your animation, you will t to add some ease in and ease out to smooth ements and avoid having a robotic animation.

o ways to set an ease on your animation: e function curve or using the Set Ease For

ameters script.

Timeline view, expand the layer ponding to the part you want to set the ease

clicking on the Show Functions button. If er is a parent, make sure to expand its

n by clicking on the Expand Hierarchy

e-click on the function corresponding to the ent you want to ease, such as Angle, for the

n of the thigh. This opens the Function

the function layers in the Timeline view.


singIf you used Mcertainly wanout your mov

There are twdirectly on thMultiple Par

1. In the corres

on by the lay

childrearrow.

2. DoublmovemrotatioEditor.

Slow

Slow

Fast

You can display function curves in the Function view by clicking on

Animating Your Puppet - Easing 113

the Timeline view, collapse the parent peg layer ntaining all of the layers you want to ease. The se will be applied on all the functions of all the

yers simultaneously. the Scripting toolbar, click on the Set Ease for

ultiple Parameters button.

the Intensity In% field, type a value from 1 to 10 indicate to strength of the start ease. the Intensity Out% field, type a value from 1 to 10 indicate to strength of the ending ease.lick on the OK button.

, enjoy your animation!

d toolbar.

In the Function Editor, you can see all of the keyframes corresponding to the thigh rotation animation.

3. In the function curve, locate the keyframe corresponding to the animation you want to ease.

4. Select the keyframe and pull on the Bezier handle.The more you pull on it, the stronger the ease will be.

This technique is good when you have simple ease to do. However, when you have a series of layers you want to set to the same ease it can be tedious and repetitive. Instead, you will use the Set Ease for Multiple Parameters script.

1. Incoeala

2. In

M

3. Into

4. Into

5. C

And now

To display a toolbar, select Window > Toolbars and the desire

11

115

OnAndecrelayadcacreillu

Yobausma

Th

C ating the Camera

e of the most exciting features in Toon Boom imate is the Multiplane, also called Z-pth. In the Multiplane you can ate backgrounds in several ers, spread them on the Z-axis, d depth, and then move the mera through this environment to ate an impressive perspective sion.

u can create your own ckground, use a layered PSD file or e a project from the sample terial package.

e topics are: • Building a Multiplane• Setting the Multiplane Space• Animating the Camera

hapter 10 Creating a Multiplane and Anim

11

B

Toentheobdelen

In in

nd it is moving faster and the plant in the s flying by really quickly.

ultiplane requires an understanding of your and which object should be placed in the rs. You want to separate all the main t not every small object.

, in this background, the main objects to be e:

towernd towern

me objects are not separated, such as the e front tower or the roof and the second

yer must be a complete drawing because even of the tower is hidden behind the plant and ter on in the scene, the hidden portions may

move at the same speed. If you move the different speeds, producing a depth effect.


uilding a Multiplane

construct a multiplane, you must imagine what a real vironment is like. Take a look at this picture and imagine camera moving across the space. You will notice that jects in the picture will move at different speeds pending on where they are in relation to the camera s.

this picture the moon is almost stationary and the tower front of it is moving very slowly, but the tower closest to

the foregrouforeground i

Building a mbackground different layeelements, bu

For exampleseparated ar

• Fern• Front• Seco• Moo• Stars• Sky

However, soplants and thtower.

Also, each laif the bottomthe ladder, lashow up.

If you move a camera over a drawing, all the objects in the drawingcamera across the room, you will see all the objects are moving at

imating the Camera - Building a Multiplane 117

vector drawings. You can zoom as much as you will result in pixelation.

Creating a Multiplane and An

Build your backgrounds in Toon Boom Animate so that they arewant on vector drawings, but zooming a lot on bitmap images

11

Sell of your layers are set at the same distance. ocated at “0”. You can see it better in the view. n the Perspective view, select ws > Perspective.

Tools toolbar, select the Rotate tool. The t keyboard shortcut is [Ctrl]+[Alt] for Windows [Alt] for Mac.

Perspective view, rotate the stage to view the ce.

Alt] in Mac OS X to rotate the Perspective


tting the Multiplane SpaceBy default, aThey are all lPerspective

1. To opeWindo

2. In the defaulor [ ]+

3. In the 3D spa

Use the default keyboard shortcut [Ctrl]+[Alt] in Windows or [ ]+[view.

the Camera - Setting the Multiplane Space 119

display the Top view, select indows > Top. display the Advanced Animation toolbar, select indows > Toolbars >Advanced Animation. the Advanced Animation toolbar, select the

aintain Size tool. This tool scales your layer as u move forward or backward in the Top view. the Top view’s left side, select the layer you want move.

the Top view’s right side, move the selected layer to push it backward, or down to bring it forward.

is possible that you will not see the selected layer, t you can still move it.

ards or backwards and maintain the original look ible once you move the camera.

Creating a Multiplane and Animating

To set your multiplane space, you will use the Top view.

In the Top view, you can see the camera cone and all the layers set at the same distance.

1. ToW

2. ToW

3. In

Myo

4. Into

5. InupIt bu

The Maintain Size tool will scale your layer as you move it forwwhich you set in the Camera view. The depth effect will be vis

12

ASinto elelay

Yo

RoAd

ate the Camera:

Tools toolbar, enable the Animate mode.Advanced Animation toolbar, select the

te tool.Timeline view, go to the first frame. the Camera’s Peg and reposition it in the Top nd Camera view.Timeline view, go to the last frame. the Camera’s Peg and position it closer to ckground in the Top view and Camera view.

te tool available in the Advanced Animation


nimating the Camerace you will animate the camera over time, you will need extend your layers’ exposure. The camera is a static ment, to animate it you will need to add a trajectory er called a Peg.1. In the Timeline view, select the last frame of each

layer.

2. Press [F5] to extend the exposure until the end.

3. In the Timeline toolbar, click on the Add Layers button and in the drop-down list, select Camera.

4. In the Timeline view, select the Camera layer.5. In the Timeline toolbar, click on the

Add Peg button.

u can animate the camera using the Translate tool,

tate tool and Scale tool available in the vanced Animation toolbar.

To anim

1. In the 2. In the

Transla3. In the 4. Select

view a5. In the 6. Select

the ba

You can animate the camera in the Camera view by using the Translatoolbar.

ating the Camera - Animating the Camera 121
Creating a Multiplane and Anim
7. In the Playback toolbar, click on the

Play button to view your animation.

12

123

Adquoftusqu

Yoau

Yochpr

Th

C

ding lip-sync to a project can really enhance its ality and storytelling. But animating a lip-sync can en be tricky. In Toon Boom Animate there are many

eful features available to help you complete this task ickly and efficiently.

u can lip-sync the traditional way or let the system tomatically create the basic detection.

u can use your own lip-sync ready cut-out aracter and sound file or use the ones ovided to you in the sample material package.

e topics are: • Importing a Sound• Decoding your Sound• Assigning the Mouth Shapes• Swapping Mouths• Playing Back and Exporting

hapter 11 Sound and Lip-Sync

12

Im

Thdiawhononex01

File > Import > Sound. Select Sound File browser, select your sound d press on the OK button.

yer will appear in the Timeline view and is a waveform. You can play your sound in the

and the Sound Editor.

Timeline view, double-click on the sound o open the Sound Editor.

Sound Editor, press on the Play button to o your sound.

files in Animate and to find out about the


porting a Sound

e first step in lip-synching an animation is importing the logue into your scene. The dialogue is a sound file ich only contains your character’s voice. It’s important to ly have the sound of the voice in this file as it will be the ly sound which the lip-sync process will detect. In this ample, the dialogue we will use is cartoon_monster-.mp3.

1. Select2. In the

file an

The sound ladisplayed asTimeline view

1. In the layer t

2. In the listen t

Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn more about using soundSound Editor features.

ound and Lip-Sync - Decoding your Sound 125

also detect your sound or fine tune the automated n using the Sound Scrubbing feature. This feature scroll through the character’s voice waveform in line view and listen to the sound one frame at a

the Playback toolbar, click on the Sound

rubbing button. the Timeline view, click and drag the red marker scroll through the scene and scrub the sound.

e Swapping Mouths topic to learn how to assign uth shapes as you decode your sound manually.

Lip-Sync Detection and Sound Scrubbing

S

Decoding your Sound

A great way to determine the timing of the mouth animation is to use the Auto Lip-Sync Detection feature. It automatically detects each phoneme and assigns a mouth shape to it.

1. In the Sound Editor, right-click (Windows) or [Ctrl]+Click (Mac OS X) in the Sound Element space and select Auto Lip-Sync Detection.

2. Press on the Play button to view the result in the preview space.

An X mouth shape appears when no sound has been detected for a frame.

You can detectiolets youthe Timetime.

1. In

Sc2. In

to

Read thyour mo

Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn more about the Autofeatures.

12

A

Noac

timing is now all set in the Timeline view, in the es layer.

Timeline view, lick (Windows) or Click (Mac OS X) sound layer and

Lip-Sync > Map nc. Mapping Lip-Sync box, choose the hat contains your ter’s mouths in the ation Layer drop-menu. Mapping fields, the name of each r layer’s mouth s drawing. In this example, the actual g names, match the mouth shapes

ntion, so there is no need to change it.on the OK button.


ssigning the Mouth Shapes

w it is time to assign the detected mouth shape to your tual character mouth shapes layer.

The lip-sync mouth_shap

The automatic detection supports seven sound mouth shapes and one silent mouth shape.

1. In theright-c[Ctrl]+on theselectLip-Sy

2. In thedialoglayer tcharacDestindown

3. In theenter of youshapedrawinconve

4. Press

Sound and Lip-Sync - Swapping Mouths 127

the Timeline view, select the cell containing the outh shape you want to swap. the Timeline view, in the Data view space, place ur cursor on top of the drawing name until it anges to the swapping pointer, and choose the outh shape you want to expose.

also use the Timeline view to swap drawings. the Timeline view, lect the cell ntaining the mouth ape you want to ap.

the Library view, in e Drawing

ubstitution space, ick and drag the ider to choose the esired mouth shape. This automatically swaps e current drawing for the one displayed in e preview window. You can also use the

efault keyboard shortcuts [ [ ] or [ ] ].

ng drawings.

Swapping Mouths

You can use the drawing swap feature to time your lip-sync from the start, or use it to quickly complete theAuto Lip-Sync Detection and Map Lip-Sync results.

1. In the Timeline view, click on the Expand button to display the Data view.

2. Inm

3. Inyochm

You can1. In

secoshsw

2. InthSclsldththd

Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn more about swappi

12

Pl

Nofin

e your animation by exporting it to a ovie.

File > Export > Movie.Export to QuickTime movie dialog box, click Browse button to name the movie and select you want to save the file. if you want to export a specific frame range u want to export the entire animation.n set the Video and Audio parameters to suit eeds.n the OK button to export your animation to kTime format.

ns and parameters.


aying Back and Exporting

w it is time to playback the result and export the ished animation to a QuickTime movie file.

1. In the Playback toolbar, click on the Enable Sound

button. This will let you hear the sound of your scene during playback.

2. In the Playback toolbar, click on the Play button and view your animation in the Camera view.

You can sharQuickTime m

1. Select2. In the

on thewhere

3. Selector if yo

4. You cayour n

5. Click oa Quic

Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn more about export optio

129

Toanyodr

FosmMotoaucredrbeke

Yofro

Th

C

on Boom Animate has more than one tool to help you imate efficiently. When doing hand-drawn animation, u will spend most of your time creating in-between awings.

r a simple animation such as a flag, splashing water, oke or even hair, you can use the rphing feature

let the system tomatically ate the

awings tween your ys!

u can create your own drawings or use a project m the sample material package.

e topics are: • Preparing Your Morphing

Keys• Creating the

Morphing Sequences

• Adjusting the Ease

hapter 12 Morphing a Flag

13

Prg feature can be used to create computer rawings between simple shapes. Your have outlines or not. It is up to you!

wings have to follow these basic rules: rawings must be painted with the same r swatches. an have several colours in a morphing key.annot morph colour tints.rawings must have the same number of

s. If a colour zone does not exist in one of the ey drawings, it will progressively appear or h.ntour line (fill) must be morphed with a ur line, and a centre line (pencil) must be hed with a pencil line.drawings must be flattened.

ur first morphing sequence, try using simple ut an outline. Once you master the feature, riment as much as you want.

hing feature to create your in-betweens. It g to create longer or shorter animations.


eparing Your Morphing KeysThe Morphingenerated ddrawings can

Your key dra• The d

colou• You c• You c• The d

zonetwo kvanis

• A cocontomorp

• Your

To create yoshapes withoyou can expe

1

2

3

When you animate effects such as smoke, think of using the Morphas the advantage of being reusable and you can change the timin

ing a Flag - Preparing Your Morphing Keys 131

ur are done creating your key drawings, you can m your solid colour into a gradient to make the flag re interesting. You can then add several gradient

o simulate highlights and shadows.

e Tools toolbar, use the Edit Gradient/Texture eposition your gradient zones the way you want.

opy your first key drawing and paste it at frame .

gs with the Edit Gradient/Texture tool the

Morph

To morph the flag, first draw three keyposes and set their approximate timing. Note, once your morphing sequence is done you can always increase or decrease your timing.

We added a flagpole layer. You can do the same. 1. In the Timeline view, add a drawing layer and name

it “Flag”.

2. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush tool.3. In the Colour view, select a solid colour.4. In the Camera view, draw your first flag.

5. In the Tools toolbar, select the Paint tool and paint your flag using the same colour.

6. In the Tools toolbar, select the Select tool.7. In the Camera view, select your entire flag.

8. In the Tools Properties view, click on the Flatten button.

9. Repeat the same steps for the two other flags. Create your drawings on frames 10 and 20.

Once yotransforeven moarrows t

From thtool to r

10. C30

1 2 3 1

If you set two different gradient positions on your key drawinposition will be interpolated during the morphing sequence.

13

C

Yo

Yo

Asbuflainslike

Allclo

hing sequence, you need to control its th Morphing Hint points. Hint points associate e key drawings together so that the system

o control the drawings.

rol different aspects of your animation. Here, on controlling the contour using Contour Hint

a morphing sequence, you will add points all reen. This is done progressively. To fix the flag, three passes:ing the cornersating the wind wavesg the remaining details

To fix random results like this one, you will place morphing hints along the flag’s contours.

s almost like telling your assistant animator


reating the Morphing Sequences

u are now ready to create your first morphing sequence! 1. In the Timeline view, select your first key drawing.2. Right-click (Windows) or [Ctrl] + click (Mac OS X)

and select Morphing > Create Morphing.3. Repeat the process for each key drawing.

u now have three morphing sequence.

4. In the Playback toolbar, press the Play button to see the result.

you probably noticed, there are in-between drawings, t they are not necessarily going the way you want. Your g probably looks like a piece of cardboard bending tead of smoothly flapping in the wind. Also, it is most ly that you will have strange corners and points.

that is because the system is always looking for the sest similar line, corner or curve to morph the drawing.

To fix a morpbehaviour wiareas from thknows how t

You can contwe will focuspoints.

When fixing across the scwill take you

• Block• Anim• Fixin

The Hint points tell the system how to animate your drawings. It iwhat to do.

a Flag - Creating the Morphing Sequences 133

elect the existing hint points and snap them to the rresponding corners.

the first and second key drawings, associate the ind waves so that it will slide to the right instead up and down.

ing the corners and waves, there should only be a ils left to fix.t your hint points on the other morphing quence in the same way you did for the first one.

ve more than one morphing sequence, you will in two sequence, it will have two sets of hints.

Morphing

When you add points on the corners and tips, you will see that most of the shape problems are resolved. Fixing one big problem will often fix all the small ones.

1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Morphing tool.2. In the Timeline view, select the first key drawing.

3. In the Tool Properties, select the Contour Hint option.

4. In the Camera view, click in the screen to add a new Contour hint.

5. Select the hint point and snap it to your flag’s contour.

6. Position the hint on a corner to lock it in place.7. Repeat these steps for all of the corners.8. Press [F4] to switch to the other key drawing.

9. Sco

10. Inwof

After fixfew deta

11. Sese

A morphing sequence is composed of two drawings. If you haneed to set hint points for each sequence. If a drawing is used

13

This hint point associates these two waves together. It makes the wave slide from left to right instead of going up and down as it was originally doing.

many types of hint point types to control e User Guide to find out more.


This hint point associates these two corners together and so locks the flag’s corner on the spot instead of having it rotating around.

First set your hint points in the corners and intersections. Use thedifferent aspects of your morphing sequence. Refer to the Animat

Morphing a Flag - Adjusting the Ease 135

the Tools toolbar, select the Morphing tool. the Timeline view, select the first key drawing. the Tool Properties view, set the Ease In and Ease ut value by clicking on the Increase and Decrease rows.

now ready to explore the Morphing capabilities!

u need to enable the Flatten option in the

Adjusting the Ease

Once your morphing sequence is completed, you can adjust the ease so that your animation doesn’t look too mechanical.

1. In2. In3. In

Oar

You are

123 4 56

If you are morphing a drawing with holes, such as a donut, yoMorphing tool’s Tool Properties view.

13

137

In maim

In theco

Yomayoma

Th

g the Mask

C

Toon Boom Animate, there are ny effects you can easily use to

prove the quality of a project.

this chapter you will use two of se effects in a production-like

ntext to enhance your scene.

u can practice these effects on terial you create from scratch or

u can also use the sample terial.

e topics are: • Painting a Starry Sky• Making your Stars Glow• Fading your Stars• Lighting Up the Lampposts• Making it Shine in the Night• Keeping Your Distance• Preparing to Hit the Switch• Hitting the Switch• Shooting Star• Putting On a Mask • Editin

hapter 13 Creating Effects

13

Pa

Oflaya s

Timeline view, click on the Add Layers to add a Drawing layer on top of your

round. Name it Stars and click on its first

Tools toolbar, select the Brush tool.Tools Properties view, select the Star shape stomize the minimum and maximum size so that you have a range of star sizes when aw with your pen tablet.Colour view, pick a star-like colour.Camera view, draw your stars.

operties.


inting a Starry Sky

course, to build a starry night effect, we first need a er of stars. In Animate, select a star-shaped brush, pick tar-like colour, and draw stars on a new drawing layer!

1. In the buttonbackgcell.

2. In the 3. In the

and cuvaluesyou dr

4. In the 5. In the

Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn more about the Tools Pr

Creating Effects - Making your Stars Glow 139

the Timeline view, rename this new layer ars_Matte.

the Timeline view, click on the Add Layers tton and select Effect > Glow.

the Timeline view, double-click on the Glow layer display the Layer Properties dialog box.

t the Blur Radius value.ck a colour and alpha value. Double-click the lour swatch to display the Colour Picker.

the Timeline view, ick and drag the tar_Matte layer on e Glow effect yer.

d holding the Update preview button in the

Making your Stars Glow

Now that you have stars in your project, it is time to make them shine!

As you customize your effects, you can preview the final result in the Camera view. In the Camera view bottom

toolbar, click on the Render mode button. To update

the preview, click on the Update Preview button. 1. In the Timeline view, right-click (Windows) or

[Ctrl]+Click (Mac OS X) on the Stars layer and select Duplicate Selected Elements.

2. InSt

3. Inbu

5. Into

6. Se7. Pi

co

4. InclSthla

You can enable the Auto Render preview option by clicking anCamera view bottom toolbar and selecting Auto Render.

14

Fa

NosoSta

Timeline view, double-click on the arency layer to modify the transparency value r layer.

esult in the Camera view using the Render

Timeline view, click rag the Stars layer on ansparency effect o connect it to it.


ding your Stars

w that your sky is glowing with stars, you might want to ften them a bit. Try adding a Transparency effect on your r layer.

1. In the Timeline view, click on the Add Layers button and select Effect > Transparency.

3. In the Transpof you

Display the r

mode.

2. In theand dthe Trlayer t

eating Effects - Lighting Up the Lampposts 141

the Timeline view, select the bg layer’s first cell.

the Tools toolbar, select the Select tool. the Camera view, select the light bulb zones of e two lampposts. Press [Shift]+Click as you select e zones to create a multi-selection.ess the default keyboard shortcut [F9] to Create rawing from Drawing Selection. ame your new layer light_matte.

the Timeline view toolbar, use the Add Layers tton to create a new glow effect layer.

the Timeline view, connect the light_matte layer der the glow layer and customize the effect.rify the result in the Camera view, using the

nder mode.

ing on your objects in the Camera and Drawing

Cr

Lighting Up the Lampposts

Lighting up the lampposts is as easy as making the stars shine, only one step differs, as you have to create a lamp layer from the background layer.

1. In

2. In3. In

thth

4. PrD

5. N

6. Inbu

7. Inun

8. Ve

Re

You can make a multi-selection using the [Shift] key while clickview using the Select tool..

14

M

Adstaeff

Timeline view toolbar, use the Add Layers to create a new drawing layer.

this new layer Lamp_Highlight_matte.Timeline view, select the first cell of the new

Tools toolbar, select the Ellipse tool.

Tools Properties view, enable the Auto Fill

Colour view, select any colour.Camera view, trace a large ellipse around the rea, this shape will become your halo.

Timeline view, click on the Add Layers and select Effect > Highlight.

t effects available in Toon Boom Animate.


aking it Shine in the Night

ding a halo around the lampposts and a highlight on the tue is an easy and effective way to enhance the glow ect and integrate all of the elements in the scene.

1. In the button

2. Name3. In the

layer.

4. In the

5. In the mode.

6. In the 7. In the

lamp a

8. In the button

Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn more about the differen

ating Effects - Making it Shine in the Night 143

the Tools toolbar, select

e Brush tool. the Camera view, paint e highlight zones. the Timeline view, click

n the Add Layers utton and lect Effect > ighlight. the Timeline view, ick and drag the tatue_Highlight_matte yer on to the Matte of the ighlight effect layer and ick and drag the statue yer onto the Highlight. the Timeline view, double-ick on the Highlight layer to stomize it. the Camera view, verify the

sult using the Render ode.

ut other layers as the highlight effect will only

Cre

The Highlight layer, unlike the Glow effect, will only affect particular layers. This means you need to connect the mask as well as the layer it will affect. In this case, it will be the Bg layer.

1. In the Timeline view, click and drag the Lamp_Highlight_matte layer on to the Mask of the Highlight effect layer and click and drag the bg layer onto the Highlight.

2. As with the Glow effects, in the Timeline view, double-click on the Highlight layer to customize it.

3. In the Camera view, verify the result using the

Render mode.

The statue highlight effect will follow similar steps.

1. In the Timeline view toolbar, use the Add Layers button to create a new drawing layer.

2. Name this new layer Statue_Highlight_matte.3. In the Timeline view, select the first cell of the new

layer.

4. In

th5. In

th6. In

obseH

7. InclSlaHclla

8. Inclcu

9. In

rem

When painting a highlight zone, you do not need to worry aboaffect the layer you decide to connect into it.

14

K

A govhid

Timeline view toolbar, click on the Add Layers

tton and select Effect > Blur.

Timeline view, click and drag the Ol layer he Blur effect layer.Timeline view, double click on the Blur layer tomize the Radius value of the effect.

Camera view, verify the result using the

r mode.


eeping Your Distance

ood way to increase a depth illusion is by having an erlay which is out-of-focus. In this example we will be ing behind a broken structure.

1. In the

bu

2. In the onto t

3. In the to cus

4. In the

Rende

reating Effects - Preparing to Hit the Switch 145

the Timeline view, use the Add Layers button add three Transparency effect layers. the Timeline view, connect the lamppost’s Glow yer into one of the first Transparency layer and nnect the matte shape layers of the two Highlight fects into the two remaining Transparency layers.

se Transparency layers you will create a fade in aking the scene go from lights out, to lights on.

need to extend the scene so that we can animate cts! the Timeline view, make a multi-selection of all of ur layers’ last cell of the scene using [Shift]+Click d press [F5].

es and functions.

C

Preparing to Hit the Switch

All these effects can be animated over time. For this example, we will progressively light up the lampposts making their glow, halo and the statue’s highlight gradually appear. Now, let us prepare this nice effect.

1. Into

2. Inlacoef

With theeffect, mNow wethe effe

1. Inyoan

Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn more about keyfram

14

H

Nothalig

Timeline view, click on the Expand button lay the Data view.

Timeline view, click on the Transparency layer

d button to display the Transparency’s n.

sure that your timeline marker is on the first ick on the Add Keyframe button and enter st Transparency value. This keyframe should to 100 so that the lights are out.

o other keyframes on your timeline of equal


itting the Switch

w is time to create a function and enter the keyframes t will animate the Transparency effects and gradually

ht up your scene.

1. In the to disp

2. In the

Expanfunctio

3. Make cell, clthe firbe set

You can add a hold at the start and end of your scene by adding twvalue to the start and end ones.

Creating Effects - Hitting the Switch 147

view and previewing your scene as well as

4. Move the timeline marker to the last frame of your

scene and press the Add Keyframe button and enter the last transparency value. This value should be set to 0 (zero) to light up the scene completely.

5. Repeat Step 1 to Step 4 for the two other Transparency layers.

Follow these simple steps to preview your effect animation.

1. Select File > Export > Images.2. In the Export Images dialog box, enable the

Preview check box and press on the OK button.

Your frames will be calculated and the Play view will pop up.

3. In the Play view, press on the Play button and enjoy your scene!

Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn more about the Playexporting your scene.

14

Sh

NostaSh

ate the shooting star:

Tools toolbar, click on the Animate button

en click on the Transform Tool button.Timeline view, click on the first cell of the ing_Star layer.Camera view, click and drag the shooting star irst position on the extreme left, outside of mera frame.Timeline view, click on the last cell of the ing_Star layer.Camera view, click and drag the shooting star the screen, ending at it’s final position.

ill automatically create the motion between rame positions.

B


ooting Star

w, to make things more interesting, let’s add a shooting r flying across the heavens. Use the collapsed layer ooting_Star which we have provided.

1. In the Timeline view, enable the Shooting_Star layer and drag it between the bg and the statue layers.

To anim

1. In the

and th2. In the

Shoot3. In the

to its fthe ca

4. In the Shoot

5. In the across

The system wthe two keyf

A

Creating Effects - Shooting Star 149

dd a velocity effect.

the Timeline view, click on the Expand button display the Data view. the Timeline view, click on the Expand Arrow d Expand buttons of the Shooting_Star layer display its functions.

the Timeline view, double-click on the Offset locity function of the shooting star layer.The Velocity Editor dialog box opens.

the Velocity Editor dialog box, click on the last yframe and drag the handle toward the centre to eate a velocity curve.

means that the system will automatically create

The shooting star now moves at a constant speed along the straight line from point A to point B. To add a curve and a velocity effect, follow these steps.

To add a curve to the animation:1. In the Timeline view, select the Shooting_Star layer.2. Select View > Control to display the trajectory.3. In the Camera view, position your cursor over the

trajectory and press [P] to add a control point.4. In the Camera view, click and drag the new control

point to create a curve.

5. In the Tool Properties view, adjust the Tension and Continuity values to adjust your trajectory’s curve.

To a

1. Into

2. Inanto

3. InVe

4. Inkecr

By default, the preferences are set to Motion Keyframes, this the motion between the two keyframes of the shooting star.

15

Pu

NoSincamawhof lam

Timeline view, enable the Lamp_Mask layer ag it on top of the Shooting_Star layer.Timeline view toolbar, click on the Add Layers

tton and select Mask.

Timeline view, drag the Lamp_Mask layer he Mask’s matte layer to connect it to it.

Timeline view, connect your Shooting_Star nder the Mask top layer.

star will now cross the screen behind the two

, Control Points and the Velocity Editor.


tting On a Mask

w the shooting star is all set, only one thing is left to do. ce the lampposts are part of the bg layer, the star

nnot pass behind them. For this reason, we will add a sk layer and drawing that will hide the shooting star en it passes in front of the lampposts, giving the illusion passing behind. For this lesson, a matte drawing of the pposts is provided for you.

1. In the and dr

2. In the

bu

3. In the onto t

4. In the layer u

The shootinglampposts!

Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn more about Trajectories

Creating Effects - Editing the Mask 151

the Timeline view, select the Mask layer.lect View > Control.

automatically render your drawing visible in the view. It will be displayed on top of all other layers, the editing easy to do.

the Tools toolbar, select the drawing tools you ed.

the Camera view, edit your matte drawing.lect View > Control to hide the matte drawing d return to the normal display of your scene.

nd Effects.

Editing the Mask

Once a matte drawing layer is connected to a mask effect the drawing will become invisible in the Camera view, as it will automatically be applied as a mask. If you need to edit your matte drawing after you create your connections in the Timeline view, you can easily make your drawing visible without breaking the connections.

1. In2. Se

This willCameramaking

1. Inne

2. In3. Se

an

Refer to the Animate User Guide to learn more about Mask a

15

Index 153

animationcleaning up 76painting 78testing 75

articulationsfixing 88

assemblingpuppet 94

assigning mouth shapeslip-sync 126sound 126

BBezier handle

modifying a shape with 20

bitmap texturespainting with 52

blureffect 144

breaking downmain parts 86preparation 84views 90

brushproperties 37

Index

Numerics3D space

rotating the stage 118

Aabout

camera view 8colour view 8dialogue 124IK 110inverse kinematics 110Library 8Motion Keyframes 108multiplane 115multiplane layer positioning 116palettes 17pegs 104playback toolbar 8swatches 17Symbols 57Timeline legend 10

timeline view 8tool properties 8tools toolbar 8top menu 8Training Outlines 6transform tool 106workspace toolbar 8

addingline thickness 42new layer 39peg 105Symbols 62, 64

Adjusting the Easemorphing 135

animatinga character 22camera 120camera over time 120layers 24smoke cycle 59Symbols 68using transform tool 106

Animating Your Puppettraining outline 6

Animationbutton 12

15

bru

Bu

Bu

choosing 17paint tool 17pencil line tool 17

colourschoosing 17create gradient 51gradient 131

combiningseveral Symbols 64Symbols 62

commandopen scene 16

Completingrough animation 74

contentgathering 27importing 27

contourhint points 132

Contour Editor tool 18Contour optimization 37converting

layers to Symbols 92

creategradient colours 51new project 16

4 Index

sh tooldrawing with 36

ilding a Cut-out Puppettraining outline 6ttonsanimation 12drawing 12drawing markers 12drawing mode 12ease 12edit 12file 12flatten 12gap closing 12gradient 12layers 12layout 12light 12morphing 12onion 12paint 12playback 12selection 12sound 12view 12

Ccamera

adding peg to 120animating the 120

camera viewabout 8

characteranimating 22drawing a 20painting 48tracing over 40

cleaningdrawings 40Timeline 93

cleaning upanimation 76

closing gaps 50collapse

master peg 107

colour palettecreating 46

colour swatchlinking 17

colour viewabout 8brush tool 17

Index 155

Select tool 38

drawingsmodifying colours 23updating colours automatically 23

EEase

button 12

ease 112adjusting morphing 135

editinggradients 53textures 53

effectsadding a curve 149adding glow 139adding glow effect layer 141adding transparency 140blur 144creating 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142depth 144editing masks 151highlight 142masks 150topics 137transparency 140, 145, 146velocity 149

palette styles 54skateboard drawing 58Symbols 60

create cyclesetting cycle length 23timeline view 23

creatingcolour palette 46effects 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142morphing sequences 132

Creating a Multiplane and Animating the Cameratraining outline 7

Creating Effectstraining outline 7

Creating Hand-Drawn Animationtraining outline 6

Creating Your Own Animationtraining outline 6

curveeffects 149

Cutter tool 38about 38

Ddecode

sound 125

Designing a Charactertraining outline 6

dialogueabout 124lip-sync 124

Drawingbutton 12

drawingbrush properties 37brush tool 36brush tool, using 36characters 20clean up 40modifying a shape 20preparation 18simulating paper feel 36

drawing exposureTimeline view 10

Drawing Markersbutton 12

Drawing Modebutton 12

drawing substitution spacelip-sync 127

drawing tools 38properties 19

15

Era

exc

Exp

grouping selection 21hiding layers 90Hint points 132, 133, 134IK options 111image formats 52importing in Photoshop 28importing Symbols 95keyframes 145maintaining size while scaling 119Mark as In-between Drawing 73masks 151modifying clip timing 30modifying colour swatch 17modifying Onion Skin display 105modifying palette colours 54Motion Keyframes 149move Bezier 20, 41moving elements around 99multi selection shortcut 141new projects 93ordering layers 96painting a highlight zone 143painting closed zones 48painting drawings 49Paste Special shortcut 67patch feature 89perspective 116

6 Index

ser tool 38about 38

hangingimages 109

ert’s Tipadding effects 59adding holds to scene 146adding layers 58adding to layers 87adding unlimited layers 39analyzing characters 85animating layers 24animating the camera 120animating with Symbols 68aspect ratio 6Auto Render preview 139breakdown techniques 86cell exposure shortcut 23closing gaps 50colour basics 46colour palette features 78colour picker 79Contour Editor 77Control Points 150converting contour lines 42creating in-betweens 130creating Symbols 60

custom resolution 16customize Onion Skin display 71cut-out puppets 84delete Symbols from timeline 66disable antialiasing 19displaying function curves 112displaying toolbars 113drawing selection 91drawing tool shortcut 18ease 9ease-in 7ease-out 8editing gradient swatches 51editing Symbols 64, 65effects 142, 151enable Light Table 76export as image sequence 26export options and parameters 128exporting scenes 147exposure 10extend scene length 31fixing articulations 88flatten option in morphing 135flattening lines 43flipping between keyframes 108flipping between poses shortcut 74gradient texture positions 53

Index 157

gapsclosing 50fixing 88

Gathering Contenttraining outline 6

Getting Ready to Animate 103glow

creating effects 139effect layer 141

Gradientbutton 12

gradientcreating colours 51

gradient coloursexample of use 131

gradientsediting 53

Hhint point

morphing 132

IIK

about 110

pivots 97Play view 147playback toolbar features 75preferences 70previewing scenes 147production rigging 98removing colour swatches 40renaming layers 36rigging techniques 94rotate perspective view, shortcut 118saving Symbols 63Select tool options 22selecting elements 107setting gradient positions 131sharing templates 100Smoothness option 37sound scrubbing 125storing templates 32, 55swapping drawings 127swapping drawings, shortcuts 109Symbol length 62Symbols and layers 92Symbols folders 61timeline frames 25Tools Properties 138trajectories 150useful drawing tools 38

using Sound Editor 124using sound files 124using Symbols 103using the Lock feature 106vector drawings 117vectorizing images 29Velocity Editor 150zones and swatches 47

exportimages 147

export to QuickTimelip-sync 128

exportingprojects 26

exposuresetting 75

FFile

button 12

Flattenbutton 12

GGap Closing

button 12

15

IK IK illuima

Imp

imp

impint

layersadding new 39animating 24Bg 143convert to Symbols 92highlight 142in Multiplane space 118morphing 131onion skin 22ordering 96peg 105used in Timeline view 10

Layoutbutton 12

LegendTimeline 10

Libraryabout 8storing puppets in 100

Lightbutton 12

lineschanging thickness of 42closing 50

linkingcolour swatches 17

8 Index

nail 110tool 110sion effects 144ges

exchanging 109swapping 109

ortcontent 27

ortmulti layered PSD backgrounds 28QuickTime movies 30sound 124template from the library 32

orting Symbols 66erfacecamera view 8colour view 8Library 8playback toolbar 8timeline view 8tool properties 8tools toolbar 8top menu 8workspace toolbar 8

Interface Highlights 8inverse kinematics

about 110

Inverse Kinematics Tool 110

Jjoints

articulations 88gaps 88

Kkeyframes

motion 108stop motion 108

keyposeguide 72onion skin feature 71

keyposesmarking in Xsheet 73sketching rough 70

Llayer positioning

multiplane 116

Layersbutton 12

Index 159

30

multi layered PSD backgroundsimporting 28

Multiplanebackgrounds 116building 116layers 118setting space 118

multiplaneabout 115

multiplane layer positioningabout 116

Nnew

project 16scene 16

OOnion

button 12

onion skinenabling 22

openscene 16

open linesclosing 50

Lip-Synctraining outline 7

lip-sync 123about 123assign mouth shapes 126decode sound 125dialogue 124drawing substitution space 127exchanging mouths 127export to QuickTime 128exporting 128import sound 124playback 128sound scrubbing 125

Mmain parts

breaking down 86

Marking Keyposes in the Xsheet 73masks

editing 151effects 150using 150

master peg 105collapsing 107

modifyingcolours 23

designs 23

modifying a shapedrawing 20

Morphingbutton 12

morphingbasic rules for key drawings 1ease 135hint points 132sequence 132timing in 131

Morphing a Flagtraining outline 7

morphing keys 130morphing sequence

Timeline view 10

morphing sequencescreating 132

motionkeyframes 108

Motion Keyframesabout 108

mouth shape chart 126moving points

while drawing 20

16

op

ord

PPai

pa

PaiPai

pa

Pai

pa

pa

pe

previewexport images 147

projectcreating 16exporting 26reopen 16

PSD backgroundsimporting 28

puppetassembling 94

QQuickTime movies

converting for import 30importing 30

RRectangle tool 18resolution

selecting 16

Rotate tool 38about 38using 38

rough keyposesketching 70

0 Index

tionstool properties 19

eringlayers 96

ntbutton 12

intusing bitmap textures 52

nt tool 18ntingAnimation 78

intingcharacter 48

nting Your Charactertraining outline 6lette stylescreating 54

lettesabout 17creating styles 54grouping colours in 45

gadding master peg 105adding to camera 120

collapsing master peg 107layer 105positioning character 104, 105

peg layer keyframesTimeline view 10

pegsabout 104

Perspective viewrotating the stage 118

pivotssetting 97

playimages 147

Playbackbutton 12

playback toolbarabout 8

Playing Back and Exportinglip-sync 128

position keyframesTimeline view 10

positioningcharacter on stage 104, 105

preparingbreaking down 84

Index 161

Ttemplates

importing 32

testinganimation 75

texturesbitmap 52editing 53

Timelinelegend 10

timelineanimating layers 24cleaning 93create cycle 23use when animating 22

Timeline viewdrawing exposure 10layers in 10morphing sequence 10peg layer keyframes 10position keyframes 10Symbol exposure 10

timeline viewabout 8

timingmorphing 131

Sscene

creating 16

Select tool 18about 38

Selectionbutton 12

settingcycle length 23exposure 75Multiplane space 118pivots 97

shortcutContour tool 18Paint tool 18Rectangle tool 18Select tool 18

Sketching Rough Keyposes 70smoke cycle

how to animate 59

Soundbutton 12

soundassign mouth shapes 126decode in lip-sync 125import in lip-sync 124

sound scrubbinglip-sync 125

stop-motionkeyframes 108

Storingin Library 100

stylescreating for palettes 54

swappingimages 109

swapping mouthslip-sync 127

swatchesabout 17zones 17

SWFexporting project to 26

Symbol exposureTimeline view 10

Symbolsabout 57combining 62, 64convert layers to 92how to create 60importing 66position 68

16

too

too

too

tootop

top

effects 145, 146

UUse Current Frame as Drawing Name 70Using Symbols to Animate a Skateboard

training outline 6

Vvelocity

effects 149

Viewbutton 12

viewsbreaking down 90

WWelcome Screen

creating project from 16reopen project 16

workspace toolbarabout 8

Zzones

swatches 17

2 Index

l propertiesabout 8Auto-Flatten 19Automatically Fill Inside Region 19options 19

lsbrush drawing 36drawing 38Ellipse tool 18Inverse Kinematics 110properties 18

ls toolbarabout 8ls transform 106 menu

about 8ics

animating your puppet 101building a cut-out puppet 83creating a multiplane and animating

the camera 115creating effects 137creating hand drawn animation 69creating your own animation 15designing a character 35

gathering content 27lip-sync 123morphing flags 129painting your character 45using symbols to animate with 57

tracingcharacters 40

Training OutlineAnimating the Camera 6Animating Your Puppet 6Building a Cut-out Puppet 6Creating a Multiplane 6Creating Effects 6Creating Hand-Drawn Animation 6Creating Your Own Animation 6Designing a Character 6Gathering Content 6Lip-Sync 6Morphing a Flag 6Painting Your Character 6Using Symbols 6

Transform tool 106about 106

transparencycreating effects 140

toon boom getting started

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