How To Make An Animatic In Photoshop

Introduction

Welcome to my tutorial on How to Create Blitheness Avails in Adobe Photoshop. This tutorial will not teach you "how to draw" items specifically. Information technology's more concerned with how to think about the elements for animation. What does my animator demand and why? We'll embrace what Title Prophylactic is, and the importance of correct labelling.

Assets

• Futura Handwritten Font
• MagicPicker Color Wheel

Our Story to Breathing

For this tutorial I will be using Little Miss Muffet as our story.

Piddling Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet ,
Eating of curds and whey ;

Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet abroad.

Avails Nosotros Volition Exist Creating

To make asset creation like shooting fish in a barrel, nosotros will make a list of what nosotros demand to create. This will also help us set upwardly our Photoshop certificate in advance.

Little Miss Muffet

• Profile walk
• Profile run
• Seated
• Head
• Confront: eating, optics blink
• Arms
• Legs
• Trunk
• Hands
• Arms: no hands

Tuffet

• Large absorber

Curds & Whey

• Basin
• Spoon
• Cottage cheese

Spider: Side and Front On

• Legs 10 6; Artillery x2
• Tiptop hat
• Pikestaff
• Optics
• Mandibles
• Abdomen
• Upper body

Environment

• Tree
• Hill
• Sun
• Cloud
• Grass

PSD Setup: Storyboard

For our storyboarding, yous can really set up the document to whatever size you like. However, only to keep things in proportion, I have gone for 1920 x 1200 px at 72 dpi, with the Colour Mode set to RGB (Monitor Colour)

Here'south how I've gear up upwards the storyboard. Each line of the rhyme has been given its ain panel. For this we don't need information technology to exist really detailed—call up of it like thumbnailing. Nosotros but need a basic idea of the activity, which tin exist shown with arrows and comments if need be. This is useful for the animator to have so they know what has to happen. These frames can besides be used to work out how long each activity has to be on screen for and to make sure it matches up when gear up to audio.

Here'due south my roughed out storyboard, and the animator, Dave Bode, is happy with how it's looking, then I can become started creating the assets.

PSD Setup: Assets

Because for this the scene doesn't modify, we will be creating all of the .psds in the same document. After Effects is similar a time-based Photoshop, so it uses layers and groups in the same style. For more complex animations it would be appropriate to create characters, assets and/or environments in divide documents.

For this animation Dave would similar the certificate size to be 3840 x 2160 px at 72 dpi, which is 4K resolution. This is and then he tin have a little play room when it comes to zooms and pans if need be. I create a New Document by going to File > New.

In the Layers panel I have created Groupsto place our assets in. Groups can be created by clicking the folder icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. In this you can drag in or create New Layers.This keeps everything tidy.

As an added bonus yous can assign a colour to the group by right clicking on it and selecting a color. This volition automatically change all the Layer names inside that Group to that colour. You lot can change the colour of the Layers within the Groups by right clicking on them.

Being organised with Layers is a cracking time saver and is peculiarly important when you've got a tight borderline, it's late at night and you've merely drunk the final of the coffee.

The most complex element in the tale of Miss Muffet is the spider, mostly due to his number of limbs. Hither is how I have organised the layers in preparation for asset creation. This is our starting point, but we may add more layers in the futurity for extra expressions, props and so on.

There is a very good chance some of the layers may be changed, moved, updated, duplicated and removed, so don't take this template as verbatim. It'south just to requite an thought of how things can be set upwards. When creating assets it'southward easy to miss seemingly simple things, either by your own planning or from your client or (art) director, so await changes!

Championship Safe: What Is Information technology and Why Do We Need it?

What is title rubber? All over the world people are using devices that are of unlike aspect ratios and resolutions, and we have to account for the lowest common denominator. Well-nigh people will be viewing this animation on a sixteen:ix screen, but someone out in that location may notwithstanding accept a 4:iii monitor, then nosotros demand to brand certain that no vital info is cut off on the edges. Below is an case of title prophylactic bounds.

In this example the bluish surface area will exist seen on all devices, and the regal area is pretty much the limit of where any action should happen. We need to keep this in mind for our asset creation, so when working on an animation, ensure that yous have the title rubber bounds from your animator.

The cross on the blue square indicates the centre of the scene, and the perpendicular lines on the periphery point the halfway points of the scene.

Next what I will practice is select this paradigm and place it into my psd. This will vary depending on how your championship safe is provided to yous. A quick style to get this prototype is to have a impress screen from After Effects of a 4K scene with championship safe practical. This may not be as clean and crisp as the to a higher place example, so if you lot feel you are going to be doing a lot of animation work in Photoshop it may be worth cleaning up the lines.

Our Process

We start off with rough sketches of all the elements. Why do we practise this? This is so nosotros can get the relative sizes right. Things like: "Is the tuffet big enough for two to sit on?" "How big does the dominicus need to exist in the heaven?" "Is there enough room for the activity to happen?"

For each set of elements, I will show you lot the process from the sketch stage to the complete nugget phase. Permit's begin with the setting of the scene: The Background.

Outset Off With the Background

First of all I have roughed in the background with the tuffet, Little Miss Muffet and the Spider in the seated pose to brand sure everything fits. Each element of the sketch is on a split layer for convenience.

Next I turn off the character and tuffet layers and deal just with the background elements.

At present that we accept our basic scene roughed out, nosotros need to work out what nosotros need. The cloud will move, but there will be no form changes. All the same, I think it'd exist interesting to have the sun rays breathing, so I think we volition have ii sets of rays that Dave can fade or cut between.

With some animation projects there would probably be things like model sheets and colours pre-arranged with the client, but in this case as it'south for fun I'm but designing on the fly!

Here I have turned off any unnecessary layers and lowered the opacity of the sketch. Set up the sketch folder to Multiply in the Layer styles so it'due south easier to see.

I've decided to calibration the sun downwardly as it's too big. I exercise this past selecting the sun plus the 2 rays layers and pressing Control-T to Transform. We demand to make sure the scene elements don't overpower the activeness.

Here's how the surround layers accept been organised.

Tuffet

The tuffet is a fairly simple thing to add to the scene, just is also quite important, as both Little Miss Muffet and the Spider have to be able to sit on it. A tuffet is like a foot stool or a large cushion.

Below we accept the scene sketched out with the tuffet centrally, every bit this is where the majority of the action needs to take place.

When creating scenes, always plan them out. Characters demand to be sized relative to their surroundings and each other. As you can see, I accept too included a rough of the bowl for curds and a spoon for a one cease reference for us. A piddling planning can save a lot of piece of work after. Here we have drawn upwards the tuffet and using a rough sketch of the characters we can check that they will both fit comfortably. This tin be a useful image to transport to your animator.

Here is how the assets will be provided to our animator. I take fatigued some overlapping grass to ground the tuffet, but I have kept this on a separate layer in example the animator wishes to practise some furnishings on it in After Effects.

.

Spider Multiple Assets: Time-Saving Trick!

When it comes to things similar spiders yous're going to get repeating elements, and so why describe each one by paw? Here's an easy way to become multiple features in the blink of eight beady eyes!

Eyes

Stride one

Now spiders tin can have varying numbers of eyes, and we don't want to draw each ane individually. On aNew Layer paint out i eyeball.

Step 2

Past holdingAltand having theMove Tool (V) selected, elevate the center out a further seven times, and position all the optics onto the face.

Step three

On a New Layer, paint a airtight eyelid over i of the eyes. Echo the re-create paste process over the other seven eyes.

Step 4

Arrange the layers and then that the respective lids sit above the eyeballs. Hibernate the closed hat layers and select each fix of optics and lids. Next pressControl-T to calibration them, and repeat the procedure with the other sets of eyes and lids.

You should end up with a ready similar this. If you switch the lids layer on and off information technology looks as if information technology'due south winking at you!

Arms and Legs

Stride ane

Unless you're going to be animative a millipede, Mr Spider will probably be an case of the near leg assets you will need to create. Luckily spider legs are fairly uniform so nosotros tin save ourselves some time.

Below are our spider roughs: front on and side on. Because of the simple design we tin utilise the leg shapes for the front end and side views. Accept your model sail roughs on mitt for this department.

Pace ii

Draw the three sections of the leg: the thigh, the dogie and the foot. I'll make each on a New Layer then that Dave can breathing these sections independently. When drawing the three sections, I'll make certain they overlap slightly. He may cull to utilise the Puppet Tool in After Effects, so he may join the three leg sections together. In my experience it's better to give the animator options!

Step 3

Once you've painted up your three sections of leg, select the thigh, calf and foot and copy them a further iii times. Yous tin can do this past selecting the three layers by holding Shift and dragging them to the New Layer icon at the lesser of the Layers panel, which is a square with a folded corner.

Step 4

Select two legs and using Transform, which is Control-T, Flip them Horizontally by going to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. Group each leg individually and requite them a helpful name like Leg copy 2.

Step 5

We will be repeating the process of creating three sections for the arms: upper arm, lower arm and mitt. Recall when painting up the sections to permit a little overlap.

Step 6

Here are the completed front end-on Spider assets. He's in this pseudo T-pose for convenience and I'm certain Dave will discover it easier to get-go animating with him laid out like this.

Next copy all the legs and arms layers, paste them into the side-on group, and rearrange them as required.

Spider Asset Organisation: Front Facing Spider

Hither comes the non-creative, organisation section which, although not hugely fun, is very necessary. You lot will thank yourself after for checking everything is in club. Here'south a breakup of the front-on Spider assets.

The Cane

The cane is one of these wonderful avails where we can just re-create and paste it for the forepart and side views. We could just take this equally one asset just as the front-on and side-on spiders are in their own groups, this means that your animator will not have to search for the private sections.

The Arms

Suit all the arm sections into clearly defined folders. It tin be helpful to colour code them. Ensure the easily and the lower and upper arms for each group are labelled.

The Legs

As before, this is a labelling task and here'southward how I have laid this out for Dave.

The Eyes

The eyes! For this, make sure that the right closed middle corresponds with the correct open up center which should be directly below information technology.

The Head

This is, thankfully, a simpler one to organise! Here nosotros accept the base head and the spider's mandibles (if you're unfamiliar with arachnid beefcake, these are the $.25 around the spider's mouth). I accept these separately so that Dave tin animate them if he and so wishes.

The Body

Another simple department! Here nosotros accept the abdomen (the bum of the spider) and the upper body. Both are on separate layers for potential blitheness purposes. Keep parts labelled!

Spider Asset Organisation: Profile

Because most of the avails are copies of each other, the just differences betwixt the profile spider and the front-on are:

• The pupils of the eyes accept been moved to the front end of the eyeballs.
• There are only 5 eyes, equally some would not exist seen from this angle.
• The placement of the anatomy has been shifted.

I have included screen grabs of the layer setup for your convenience. Call back to keep everything conspicuously labelled!

The Pikestaff

The Arms

The Head

The Eyes

This is the only massive modify for the spider, where the pupil has been moved to the front of the eyeball in all cases and rather than eight eyes there are simply 5.

The Legs

Finally: The Torso

Here nosotros have our spider assets laid out in a clear way for Dave!

Call up: Proper labelling is very of import.

Curds and Whey

Whey-hey! The spider section is done and at present nosotros simply have Little Miss Muffet's lunch to exercise. This has been broken down into the bowl, curds, a spoon, and some curds on the spoon.

"Why?" y'all ask. Considering I thought information technology might be cool if when Miss Muffet gets scared, the contents of her basin become flying!

Group them, and so label as before.

Fiddling Miss Muffet'due south Side-On Assets

Now that the unproblematic elements have been created, we have the trickier tasks of making assets for things that move. For Little Miss Muffet we will need 2 lots of elements: profile and front-on. The forepart is for her sitting eating, and the side is for her running off photographic camera.

Miss M is a little trickier than the spider in the sense that she needs different anatomy and clothes, and thus volition await different in profile to being direct on. Hither's a breakdown of all the parts I've created.

Hither's how the lovely Fiddling Miss Muffet looks all painted up. They grow up and then fast! *sniff*

Clothing

Here are the main parts of her clothing, with the exception of her shoes and sleeves. For convenience I have kept the sleeves with the arms and shoes with the legs.

Caput and Expressions

Here are her side expressions, which are pretty much simply pure terror.

Arms

Pretty straightforward here. I painted out the arm direct to represent pure fearfulness.

Legs

Most of the leg will be hidden by the skirt, merely I've given Dave some extra but in case.

Pilus

I've kept her hair separate so that when she runs Dave can animate it abaft behind her!

Petty Miss Muffet'due south Face-On Assets

Rima oris and Pilus

To keep this really expressive I've created a variety of mouth and lip shapes and so Dave can animate her eating and shocked. The pilus is in there, equally the mouth parts are at the acme of the Layersstack and the hair needs to be over everything.

Optics

Much like the spider, Miss Muffet has open and airtight optics, but with the improver of eyebrows for expression.

Face Base and Body

I've grouped her torso and wear together here as they won't motility much while she's seated. If you note the skirt seated layer, there is a mask which I take included to let the legs to testify through, and if Dave needs the whole skirt it's in that location for him.

Artillery

Arms are as before, although I felt nosotros needed easily on their ain for when she holds the basin and spoon.

I've added arms without hands in a separate binder for animation with the hands.

Legs

Straightforward legs that can be used while seated or standing.

Pigtails

As with the profile run, I have put her pigtails as their own pieces to employ as another emotional tool.

That sums up our base of operations elements. Side by side to tweak the assets then they look as skillful at they possibly tin can!

Final Touches

We also need to footing Petty Miss Muffet and the Spider, and so I am going to create a layer of grass for the characters' feet to move backside.

Footstep 1

On a New Layer, draw in a rough line where you would like the grass to go. Make this in an obvious contrasting colour.

Pace two

Brainstorm painting blades of grass along the line using a brush of your choice.

Step 3

In one case you accept painted all along the line,Re-create the layer by pressing Control-C and and then Paste (Control-V). And then Transform (Command-T) and manually flip and rotate the grass to make it a little more lush.

Stride 4

Adjacent lock the transparency of the layer by pressing the minor chessboard icon next to Lock on the Layers console. Add in a multifariousness of greens to give variety. Unlock the transparency and have a soft eraser (E) and soften the edge of the grass base.

Step 5

I indistinguishable the grass layers and then flip, transform and warp them to make them slightly different. On the grass closest to the camera, I blur the grass using Gaussian Blur to requite the illusion of depth. Gaussian Blur can be institute past going to Filter > Mistiness > Gaussian Blur. I have blurred the horizon of the grass in the Environment folder slightly but to give a niggling depth, using the same Gaussian Blur method.

Hither I've changed to Lilliputian Miss Muffet to make sure that information technology looks proficient with both characters.

Step half-dozen

I'm really happy with how the grass looks, so I flatten the eight grass layers into four unproblematic grass layers and name them accordingly.

Credits

Dave will be taking intendance of the credits and so I take simply placed some text into the psd to save him time. The font I am using is Futura Handwritten.

For this I have created a title screen, Dave's credit and my ain credit. You can practice this by only selecting the Horizontal Blazon Tool (T), selecting your font of option and typing what yous need on each layer. Align the text in the centre of the screen by pressing Control-T to Transform and aligning the cross hairs of the text with the cantankerous hairs of the 4K title safe.

Final Step

Our final pace is to check all the layers are named and there are no layers that shouldn't be there, east.m. roughs, empty layers, colour palettes.

Relieve the .PSD to a folder such every bit "Dave Animation Avails". In this folder identify everything your animator will need, such as the storyboard, the script, a voiceover (if you are providing it) and any fonts (which yous can distribute and have rights to). If non, rasterize whatever text layers. Next evangelize that folder to your animator via FTP, USB drive or network, and so hibernate!

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed learning how to create animation assets in Adobe Photoshop. Once yous have the organisation side of this nailed, you can let your creativity become wild! I can't wait to come across what Dave Bode creates with my elements!

How To Make An Animatic In Photoshop,

Source: https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-create-animation-assets-in-adobe-photoshop--cms-23365

Posted by: frasersqueding.blogspot.com

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