Right…so this is going to be my attempt at a tutorial on the animation function in Adobe Photoshop CS3…pretty nifty piece of kit when you combine it with a Cintiq.
First things first…open Photoshop (and it has to be CS3 extended version, otherwise none of this will work), create a new document (whatever size you want…I use various depending on what I’m doing, usually 1280x800 and 150dpi) and make sure the animation palette is open and in TIMELINE mode.
In this mode each layer is frame and you specify how long it appears for…1s, 2s, long hold etc. You can also have a layout as a layer which is the length of the timeline…kinda handy…or even a model sheet layer for reference. You can change the length of you shot by going into the document settings and just changing the frame length...you can also do other bits and pieces with this pop up menu...explore!
Anyway, everytime you create a new layer you are essentially grabbing another piece of 12-field and sticking it to the old peg bar…in laymen’s terms it’s another piece of paper. The thing with this is you have to treat it like paper to begin with. One layer, one drawing. Onto an favourite excercise...a right of passage for near enough every animator if you will…the good old bouncing ball.
So now it’s just like animating at a table, every new layer being a new piece of paper. So go on, get your dopesheet out and start animating…hopefully you don’t need me to tell you how to do that!
Once you have done the keys then you can put them in place on the timeline and begin the breakdowns and inbetweens. This is around the point that I start putting all the rough frames into the same group…it makes it easier later on.
And after you have your roughs done (and are happy with them) collapse the group to make it a bit easier on the eyes. Now comes something which is a bit more confusing, if you plan to get beyond the rough stage. You can create a VIDEO LAYER.
Basically this does away with having the need for separate layer/separate frame, and you could actually use is to animate straight ahead if you wanted. Create one and then have a blast doing clean up frame by frame and keeping it all on one layer! If you have 2s or a hold then you can duplicate a frame easy as.
Once you are all finished, go to File>Export>Render Video. That should bring up a dialogue allowing you to export as an image sequence (so you can put it into after effect or whatever) or just do a straight QuickTime file.
Hope that helps someone out there. I know it’s only a start point, but it’s a pretty basic technique and works fine for me and keeps it close to the way I worked with paper.
Good night!
So since the last time I blogged the awesome-ness that is the olympics has come and gone. Now I know some people will think this is sad, but I got my name down as a volunteer for the 2012 games...don't care what I do, as long as its something. Gotta find out which company is going to do the BBCs stings so I can get involved in that...but thats 4 years away.
Anyway, I read over the last post and realised I didn't really say much about what is happening. There are 10 of us (Me, Gabriel, Helen, James, Jess, Dave P, Dave B, Theresa, Jay and Oli) from around the UK who are being trained by the one and only Frank Gladstone (see image...i'll put some of the rest of us up next post). Apparently there is a lack of feature animation story artists over here so the whole point in this course is to knock us all into shape. The first week, we were all surprised by the fact that we have all got the brand new Wacom Cintiq 12 inch screens...very awesome piece of kit. Along side that we were lucky enough to have Christian Lignan (very talented French story artist) teaching us, so it was a hell of a start and alot of fun.And now I am on my second sequence...and its a speed test to see how we cope with rush deadlines, so I need it all ruffed by next Tuesday for a pitch, before final first pass pitch the week after...INTENSE! But its all good.
| 1. | a foot race over a course measuring 26 mi. 385 yd. (42 km 195 m). |
| 2. | any long-distance race. |
| 3. | any contest, event, or the like, of great, or greater than normal, length or duration or requiring exceptional endurance: a dance marathon; a sales marathon. |
A supporter in Waterloo station. You aren't allowed to take pictures in Waterloo station. I was told off.
Waiting...
After the front runners from the mens and womens races went through, the other elite racers started to filter across and this is how pretty much every one of them reacted. They'd run under the bridge entrance and break into smiles. 20km down, 22 left to go...just keep smiling
4 miles to go...
Big Finish, Big Smile
