Design & Animation Tests

May 22, 2015 Manamations

Stage 1:

In this demo, I start to rough out a Hopping Mouse jump/hop cycle in Toon Boom Harmony 12.

During this stage, I am not concerned with the way the character looks. Everything is very loose and all I want to capture is the flow of the animation. If it works, I will then start to clean it up.

Stage 2:

In this demo, I tie down my key frames in Toon Boom Harmony 12. This is where I tighten up the key frames and try to create a good, but rough drawing.

Stage 3:

In this demo, I start breaking down animation in Toon Boom Harmony 12. I fill in the gaps between major keys with breakdown drawings. These help connect and describe the action between key frames.

Stage 4:

In this demo, I begin to add the inbetweens. I also tweak some keys and breakdowns to correct any issues I find.

Stage 5:

In this demo, I refine the animation. I have adjusted the frames so that they cycle in the centre of the camera view. I also tweak and correct any arcs and smooth out the animation with more inbetweens.

Stage 6:

Digital Inking in Toon Boom Harmony 12 with the pencil tool. Pencil Tool settings:
Maximum size: 5
Smoothing: 25

Stage 6:

Digital Inking in Toon Boom Harmony 12 with the pencil tool. Pencil Tool settings:
Maximum size: 5
Smoothing: 25

Stage 7:

Now after all the long and tedious clean up, I jump straight into Digital Painting in Toon Boom Harmony 12.

Stage 8:

Today I am animating the tail. I decided to do this using a curve deformer so I don’t have to redraw the tail in every single frame. The curve deformer saves heaps of time and I have been waiting a long time to you use this awesome tool!