Lost Boy: 2D Animated Experiments

When I am not working for Butch Auntie I have been spending my time doing 2D animated experiments. I downloaded a free plugin for photoshop called the animator's toolbar by Patrick Deen which utilises photoshop into a handy little 2D animation program. I prefer using photoshop opposed to animate or flash because I like the design capabilities of photoshop with the countless amounts of brushes that you can use.

The first two animations were tests with the melting one utilising the smudge tool in photshop, and with the second one I gave a whirl of morphing. The third and fourth animations I specified to the script of Lost Boy with the part "I felt like my eyes were bulging out of my head".  I have been reading some books which include Timing for Animation by Herald Whitaker which is really starting to help me understand what makes a good 2D animation, it has a lot of the technical jargon of old-school cell animation that I want to learn including bar sheets, timing and spacing, anticipation, and animating in firsts or halfs. I have also been reading another book called Hybrid Animation by Tina O'Hailey which is helping me understand and think laterally about what I need to get the look of Lost Boy with a lot of examples of animations that have done a good job of juxtapositioning 2D with 3D.

Further to animating in photoshop I wanted to do some tests in After Effects. I rendered just the lines from photoshop as a .png sequence and brought these into after Effects to play around with.  I think some of the effects could really capture the emotion that I am going for in that scene - by having the energy be in the line work,

To put what I am learning with 2D animation into effect with Lost Boy - I think my recipe will be as follows;

- Have the character models texture look sketchy/ illustrative,

- Render out the character doing its animation and if needs be render the background separately with passes.

- Import the render of the character into photoshop as frames

- Rotoscope over the frames by drawing in the linework in photoshop using the animator's toolbar,

- Export the drawn linework as a png sequence for transparency,

-Bring into after effects and if the emotion calls for it - add the effects that capture its essence - either on just the line work or the line work and the animated model.


Doing it this method with rotoscoping I think would really capture the style that I am going for with Lost Boy, it could be possible if I get the texture of the character model to look a lot like the designs to actually have parts of the animation be 2D - in that its not limited to just the linework, for example for the part where my head turns into a rocket I could 2D animate that part with the present Graeme talking before hand being animated in Maya and then having it switch to 2D. There is things I need to be wary of if going down this route - I have to make it leak seamless between the switch of 2D and 3D and not jarring for the audinece as I dont want the viewer thinking "what changed in this part", rather than being invested in the story.

I need to be really organised with Lost Boy especially with using my time efficiently as rotoscoping is very cumbersome to draw over every frame, which means I would have to have everything rendered with due time to draw over all the frames,

Next on the agenda...

- Start modelling the present Greame, followed by Young Graeme and Mrs Pratt,

- Start rethinkng parts of the stroy to amp up the exageration.

- Do desings, sketches, thumbnails of new story ideas

- I would like to continue with 2D animation and experiment with blending modes by adding the animated experiments here on top of each other, I would also like to

- Download a free trail of Twich by video Copilot to experiment more with 2D.

- 2D animate the head turning into a rocket
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1 Melt Morph - photoshop, Animators Toolbar

2 Crazy face morph - Photoshop. Animators Toolbar

3. "I felt like my eyes were bulging out of my head" Lines & Colour, Photoshop - Animators Toolbar

4: "I felt like my eyes were bulging out of my head" Linework Photoshop - Animators Toolbar

5: "I felt like my eyes were bulging out of my head" Photoshop - Animators Toolbar & After Effects - Wiggle Gelatin

6:"I felt like my eyes were bulging out of my head" Photoshop - Animators Toolbar & After Effects - Griddler

7: Photoshop - Animators Toolbar & After Effects - Displacment map with a scrathcy texture

8: "It was like a wave of axious energy"  Photoshop - Animators Toolbar & After Effects - Ripple 1

9: "It was like a wave of axious energy"  Photoshop - Animators Toolbar & After Effects - Ripple 2

10: "It was like a wave of axious energy"  Photoshop - Animators Toolbar & After Effects - Ripple 3

11:  Photoshop - Animators Toolbar & After Effects - Turbulent-Displace 1

11:  Photoshop - Animators Toolbar & After Effects - Turbulent-Displace 2

11:  Photoshop - Animators Toolbar & After Effects - Turbulent-Displace 3