Toon-Time

Ormie the Pig

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:16:00 +0000

Excellent animation with a simple story: Ormie the Pig

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while! Life got in the way. But I promise to try harder! I really want to learn how to make great animations like Ormie ... Well, maybe that's too much to expect. But would, at least, like to make something cute and funny! ;-)

Introducing Anime Studio

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 06:48:00 +0000

Whether you're a digital enthusiast, a newcomer to animation, or if you want to create art for work or fun, Anime Studio provides what you need to create your own animations faster than anything else available!

Anime Studio Debut, the fun, quick and affordable 2D animation software solution, includes everything aspiring artists and hobbyists need to create and share quality cartoons, movies, anime and cut out animations from start to finish. Anime Studio simplifies the animation process, empowering artists to design their projects faster and easier than ever before.

Draw & Create: Make your own characters and objects with intuitive vector drawing tools or use the pre-made vector-based toon characters. Import your own illustrations or digital camera images, and turn your photographs into animated movies.

Animate & Publish: Just point-and-click to create a skeleton structure that is easily animated. Often referred to as "bones", this unique feature eliminates re-drawing to create movement. With Anime Studio Debut you can easily add sound and special effects to your 2D animation too.

The following video introduces the features of Anime Studio Debut. We'll have some how-to tutorials for this program in future posts.

How to Draw this Vector EggToon Bunny using Paint Shop Pro v.7

noreply@blogger.com (Kat) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 05:47:00 +0000

This tutorial was written for Paint Shop Pro version 7

Tutorial is offered here free of charge for personal use only!

Please read Terms of Use page

Note: Users of PSP 8 and newer,

click here for updated Honey Bunny tutorial.

~ Honey Bunny ~

Beginner Level Tutorial

PSP 7

The EggToon tutorials are a series of Paint Shop Pro cartoon drawing tutorials written especially for those just beginning to learn about the vector tools but I hope more advanced users will enjoy the toons also.

If you're not familiar with vector tools, please review the series of posts explaining the tools and how to make the "egg" Preset Shape before starting this EggToon character tutorial.

Color settings for this tut:

Select black for stroke color and any 'bunny' color of your choice for fill.
Pick a pastel, a bright color, a realistic color...doesn't matter...this is a cartoon!!
I'll be using color #F0C5A2.

Remember, in PSP 7, you must always use the Object Selector [OS] to select a vector object for editing.

Open new image 300x300 or 400x400. We'll use a large canvas, but don't make bunny so large it fills canvas! We'll need plenty of working room

Create with a white background layer. Click the 'new layer' button on the layer dialog box and add a 'new vector layer'. All vector drawing will be done on this layer.

MAKE A SET OF SHAPES

First thing we'll do is make all the Preset Shapes needed for Honey Bunny and then edit each one by one.

Select Preset Shapes tool and select the egg shape. ( (go here for step-by-step to create egg preset shape if you haven't created one already) )

Line width 1, style solid, retain style UNchecked, antialias CHECKED, vector CHECKED, colors as described above.

Draw an egg that is about 85x120 pixels in center of canvas.
Look in lower right section of PSP frame to see size of object being created or turn on rulers (View>Rulers)

Select ellipse shape and draw 3 ellipses, any size (same settings, same colors). Position them off to one side...anywhere on your canvas....they will become the ears, arms and legs later on.

CREATE THE EARS

Using the Object Selector, move one 'ear' ellipse over to the top of the egg-shaped body (this will be the left ear).

Zoom in as much as you need to clearly see those tiny nodes.

Pull up on the center top NODE to stretch the shape into a long bunny ear.

Right click and select Node Edit. The ear turns into an object with 4 nodes.

Select the bottom node (the node will change to solid black when selected). Right click, select Edit>Break. You now have 2 nodes in place of the one and the line has been broken.

Arrange those 2 new nodes to align with the bunny's head (so that it looks like ear is attached) Adjust/rotate the handles of bottom nodes to make the sides of the ear a straighter line (turn node handles so they almost line up with the line segment).

When you position the ear on the body as the left ear, the bottom nodes should line up with the outline of the body. You may have to right click, Node Edit to shorten or lengthen the lines for the ear. See screenshot of finished ears below.

Getting a smooth, gentle curve is made easier if you right click, select Node Edit, select one of the bottom nodes, right click, select Node Type>Smooth Tangent. If you want a perfectly straight line, you could also select 'line before' (or 'line after'). However, for the bunny ear, a slight curve to the line might look better.

To soften the curve of the top of the ear slightly, select the 'ear' shape, right click select Node Edit, select the top node, right click select Node Type>Symmetric. Lengthen the handle of this top node very slightly to soften the curve.

If Symmetric is greyed out, that means it is already the current Node Type.

If necessary, move the nodes in the middle of the ear outwards, just slightly, to fatten up the ear a little.

When done, right click, select Quit Node Editing.

Now we need to duplicate the ear to make the right ear. With OS select the ear, right click, select Copy. Right click again, select Paste New Vector Selection. To make the new ear a mirror of the other one, select the center handle on the right side of the boundary box and pull/drag it toward the left. It will pull the ear over itself and mirror it. See screenshot arrows.

Move the new ear into position on the other side of the head.

It's possible that this mirror action will distort the size and shape of the ear some. To fix that, select the first ear (left), then, while holding the Shift key down, select the 2nd ear. Now right click, select Make Objects Same Size>Both.

The 2 ears should now look alike.
De-select the ears by clicking in any blank space on your canvas.
Make any final adjustments to position of ears before moving to next step.

When you position the ear on the body as the right ear, the bottom nodes should line up with the outline of the body.

THE FACE

Click the double-headed arrow by the Styles box so that black moves to the Fill position. Also change the stoke to null.Ø (Click the small triangular arrow on the Styles box to open the flyout and view the options.)

Select Preset Shapes, ellipse, draw one small black circle 7x7 (this is an eye). Hold Shift Key down as you draw ellipse and you will get a perfect circle.

With OS, select circle, right click, select Copy. Move your cursor slightly to the right, right click again, select Paste New Vector Selection. Copying and pasting is an easy way to make sure both circles are the exact same size.

Arrange the 2 eyes close together and close to the top of the egg body as shown in the screenshot above.
To get them to line up perfectly with each other, select both eyes with OS, right click select Align Object>Vertical Center.

Make sure you de-select the eyes before next step or the fill color will change.

Next he needs a nose! Click the double-headed arrow by the color swatches to move black back to the stroke position and pick a pink color for fill. Select Preset Shapes, ellipse, and draw a small circle for nose. Approx. 8 x 8 pixels. Remember, hold the Shift Key down as you draw and you will get a perfect circle instead of an oval.

Make sure you de-select the nose before next step or the fill color will change.

Now for mouth and whiskers.
Click the arrow for the Styles box flyout and change the fill style to null.Ø
Zoom in. Select Line/Draw tool with these settings:
Line style single line, solid, line width 1, vector and antialias ON (checked), close path OFF (unchecked).
Draw an upside down V shape for bunny's mouth.
Draw a line between mouth and nose.
Draw 3 whisker lines on each side of mouth. See screenshot for sample.

THE FEET (PAWS)

Next we'll work on the legs and feet. (You're still working with an enlarged canvas, right? It's always easier to zoom in on the nodes when editing.)

With the Object Selector, select one of the extra ellipse shapes made in step one and move it into position below the body. This will be his right leg (the one on our left). Right click, select Node Edit. Select the top node, right click select Edit>Break. This breaks the line in 2 and creates 2 nodes where there used to be one. Move the top 2 nodes up to connect to the body for a short, fat leg. There's now 5 nodes for this object and the leg shape starts out looking something like the ellipse in this screenshot.

Next we need to do some node editing and change some NODE TYPES in order to convert this lumpy shape into a bunny's foot. You should still be in Node Edit mode...if not, select leg, right click, Node Edit.

Select top left node, right click, select Node Type>Smooth/Tangent
Move this node up to connect to the body.
Turn handle vertically until you have a smooth line going to the leg.

Select the other top node, right click, select Node Type>Smooth/Tangent

Position this Node so overlaps the body and is a straight line but at a slight angle.

(You can select more than one node at a time by holding down the Shift Key.)

Select the middle right node. Right click, select Node Type>Cusp.

Create an ankle by arranging the node handles as shown above, creating a turn in the line.

Now, fine tune the shape of the foot by adjusting the angle and length of each node handle as follows:

For the node by heel: Right click, select Node Type>Cusp. Move the arrow end of the node handle points up and the rounded end of handle makes a turn to the right to give a little curve to the heel.

For the node by the toe: If it needs adjusting, check the node type, it should be Symmetric. Right click, select Node Type>Symmetric. If Symmetric is greyed out, it already is the selected node type. Move the node handle around and extend it's length a little to give a nice curve to the toe area.

If necessary, keep moving the nodes handles around some more until you have the shape of a chubby little leg and foot as shown in this screenshot. There will be a node at the top of each leg, a node for the heel, a node where the leg turns into the foot (ankle) and another node at the toes.

When done, right click, select Quit Node Editing.

Duplicate/copy this leg to make the other leg. . Use Object Selector, right click, select Copy.

Move cursor a little to the right, right click again, select Paste New Vector Selection.

Right click again, select Arrange>Send to Bottom.

Move the leg into a position so that it lines up with with body as shown in the image below.

THE ARMS

Bunny needs some arms!! We'll shape the arms the same way as we did the legs. Zoom in.
Use OS, select the remaining oval shape that was made at step one and move it over close to the left side of the body.

Right click, select Node Edit. Select the top node, right click select Break. This breaks the line and adds a node just like we did for the leg. Move these top 2 nodes into a position for the shoulder and the armpit. Arrange the node handles of both node so they create a straight line with no hook in the end. The 'shoulder' node should align with the outline for the shoulder/head.

For the arm and hand, the Node Type for all nodes should be Symmetric. Drag the mouse while holding left mouse button down to select ALL nodes in the arm shape at same time. Right click a node, select Node Type > Symmetric.

Add 2 nodes to create a thumb. Add one BELOW the node that is the armpit and add the other AFTER the next node. Counting clockwise, the new nodes will be #2 and #4. To add a node, hold the CTRL key down, hover near the line segment until +ADD appears next to your cursor and then click to add node. Zoom in as needed.

Change the Node Type on the 2 new nodes to Cusp.

Arrange the nodes as shown in the screenshot above. All nodes should make a smooth curve except for the 2 cusp nodes that create the thumb. Arrange the handles on the node that is between the thumb and hand so the 2 handles are close together and make a sharp turn. Refer to screenshot and shorten or lengthen the thumb or hand by shortening or lengthing the node handles.

Right click>Quit Node Editing

Adjust Zoom back to normal for the following steps.
Duplicate the arm to make the other arm. Select arm on left, right click, select Copy. Move your cursor over to the right side of the body, right click, Paste New Vector Selection.

Mirror the arm by pulling it over itself....the same way we mirrored the ear! Select the center handle on the left side of the boundary box and pull/drag it toward the right. It will pull the shape over itself and mirror it.

Now put the right arm behind the body by sending layer to the bottom. Select right arm, right click, select Arrange>Send to Bottom. Adjust position of right arm behind body so just part of arm is showing.

THE TAIL

With a stroke color of black and a fill color of white, draw a bunny tail (Preset Shape>ellipse) and position it appropriately. Using Object Selector, select tail, right click, Arrange>Send to Bottom.

THE TOES

Keep stroke color black and set fill to null.
Zoom in on the feet 3:1 or 4:1.

Use the Line/Draw tool, same settings as before except use Freehand Line.
Draw a short curved line to represent the toes. See screenshot.

Only one line needs to be drawn, copy/paste all others.

To make another line for 2nd toe, right the first line, Copy>Paste as New Vector Selection.

Paste as New Vector Selection twice more for toes on other foot!

.............................

Your Honey Bunny is done!! Hope you had fun making this EggToon!

Save original in PSP format. Use the Crop tool to reduce the canvas size to it's smallest possible size and export your bunny as an optimized GIF or optimized PNG.

If you want to resize your bunny, one option is to just merge layers and resize. But if you do that your vector objects will be converted to raster. The best option is to resize the vector image. Keeping the drawing in vector format allows sizing larger or smaller without losing image quality. Your Honey Bunny is built from many different vector objects, so to reize them all at the same time we need to "Group" all objects in your drawing.

First thing I'd do is duplicate the PSP image and leave original untouched. Window>Duplicate
Use the Object Selector, right click on any vector object in drawing, choose 'select all' and then right click again and select 'Group'.

Once grouped, a boundary box will appear around Honey Bunny. Pull or push on one of the corner nodes to resize without changing proportions. Use the other nodes to deform.

Now that you've got the vector tools all figured out .....
...why don't you try making your own original version of the EggToon bunny. You can make longer ears or legs, make him/her taller or fatter, add cheeks, clothes...etc. Here's an animated version of Honey Bunny with color changed, big teeth added and a few other small changes.

How to Draw this Vector EggToon Bunny using Paint Shop Pro v.8 or newer

noreply@blogger.com (Kat) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 00:17:00 +0000

This tutorial was written for Paint Shop Photo Pro X2 (v.12)

but vector tools in versions PSP 8 and all other newer are very similar.

Tutorial is offered here free of charge for personal use only!

Please read Terms of Use (see menu)

~ Honey Bunny ~

Beginner Level Tutorial

Note: Users of PSP 7 click here

for another version of Honey Bunny tutorial

If you're not familiar with vector tools, please review the series of posts explaining the tools and how to make the "egg" Preset Shape before starting this EggToon character tutorial.

Color settings for this tut:

Select black for stroke color and any 'bunny' color of your choice for fill.

Pick a pastel, a bright color, a realistic color...doesn't matter...this is a cartoon!!

I'll be using color #F0C5A2.

Use the Pick tool to select vector objects and the Pen tool for node editing.

Open new image 300x300 or 400x400. We'll use a large canvas, but don't make bunny so large that it fills canvas! We'll need plenty of working room

A new vector layor is automatically created when you start creating an object and 'Create as Vector' is selected on the Tool Options bar.

You can also click the 'new layer' button at the top of the Layer Palette and add a 'new vector layer'.

MAKE A SET OF SHAPES

First thing we'll do is make all the Preset Shapes needed for Honey Bunny and then edit each one by one.

Select the 'Preset Shape' option on the flyout menu for Preset Shapes Tool and then select the egg from the dropdown list in the Tool Options bar.

( Go here for step-by-step tutorial to create egg preset shape if you haven't created one already) )

Line width 1, style solid, retain style UNchecked, antialias CHECKED, vector CHECKED, colors as described above.

Draw an egg that is about 85x120 pixels in center of canvas.

Look in lower right section of PSP frame to see size of object being created or turn on rulers (View>Rulers)

Select the 'Ellipse' option on the flyout menu for Preset Shapes Tool and then select 'Draw Ellipse' on the Tool Options bar. Draw 2 ellipses, any size (same settings, same colors). Position them off to one side...anywhere on your canvas....they will become the ears, arms and legs later on.

CREATE THE EARS

Using the Pick tool, move one ellipse over to the top of the egg-shaped body (this will be the left ear).

Zoom in as much as you need to clearly see those tiny nodes.

Pull up on the center top NODE to stretch the shape into a long bunny ear.

Switch to Pen tool, select 'Edit Mode' either on the Tool Options bar or from right click menu.

Right click on the ellipse and select 'Convert to Path'. Right click again and select Node Edit. The ear turns into an object with 4 nodes.

Select the bottom node (the node will change to solid black when selected), right click and select Edit > Break. You now have 2 nodes in place of the one and the line has been broken.

Arrange those 2 new nodes to align with the bunny's head (so that it looks like ear is attached) Adjust/rotate the handles of bottom nodes to make the sides of the ear a straighter line (turn node handles so they almost line up with the line segment).

When you position the ear on the body as the left ear, the bottom nodes should line up with the outline of the body. You may have to right click, Node Edit to shorten or lengthen the lines for the ear. See screenshot of finished ears below.

Getting a smooth, gentle curve is made easier if you right click, select Node Edit, select one of the bottom nodes, right click, select Node Type>Smooth Tangent. For the bunny ear, a slight curve to the line might look best.

To soften the curve of the top of the ear slightly, select the top node of the ear, right click, select Node Type>Symmetric. Lengthen the handle of this top node very slightly to soften the curve.

If Symmetric is greyed out, that means it is already the current Node Type.

If necessary, move the nodes in the middle of the line segment outwards, just slightly, to fatten up the ear a little.

When done, right click and select 'Apply' (or select 'Apply' on Tool Options bar).

Now we need to duplicate the ear to make the right ear.

Use the Pick tool to select the ear, right click, select Copy.

Right click again, select Paste New Vector Selection.

Drag one of the side nodes to the right to reverse the object and create a mirror version of ear. See screenshot. Drag to right or to left, doesn't matter.

Use left mouse button to grab shape (anywhere) and move into position on bunny's head as right ear.

It's possible that this mirror action will distort the size and shape of the ear some. To fix that, select the first ear, then, while holding the Shift key down, select the 2nd ear. Now right click, select Make Objects Same Size>Both.

The 2 ears should now look alike.

De-select the ears by clicking in any blank space on your canvas or Select None.

Make any final adjustments to position of ears before moving to next step.

When you position the ear on the body as the right ear, the bottom nodes should line up with the outline of the body.

THE FACE

Click the double-headed arrow by the Styles box so that black moves to the Fill position. Also change the stoke to Null.Ø (select the Nulll symbol Ø on the Styles box to remove that Style.)

Select Preset Shapes, ellipse, and then select 'Draw Circle' from the Tool Options bar. Draw one eye then duplicate it.

With Pick tool, select circle, right click, select Copy. Move your cursor slightly to the right, right click again, select Paste New Vector Selection. Copying and pasting is an easy way to make sure both circles are the exact same size.

Arrange the 2 eyes close together and close to the top of the egg body as shown in the screenshot above.

To get them to line up perfectly with each other, use Pick tool, hold Shift key down, select one eye and then the other eye, right click, select Align Objects>Vertical Center.

Make sure you de-select the eyes before next step or the fill color will change.

Next he needs a nose! Click the double-headed arrow by the color swatches to move black back to the stroke position and pick a pink color for fill. Select Preset Shapes, ellipse, then select 'Draw Circle' from the Tool Options bar and draw a small circle for nose. Approx. 8 x 8 pixels.

Make sure you de-select the nose before next step or the fill color will change.

Now for mouth and whiskers.

Black for stroke and Ø for Fill Style.

Zoom in. Select Pen tool with these settings:

Mode: Draw Point to Point

Connect Segments, Create on Vector & Show Nodes all checked.

Line Style solid, Width 1, Anti-alias checked.

Draw a line from nose to where mouth will be, select 'Apply'.

Draw an upside-down V for the mouth, connecting the point of V to the line just drawn. Click 'Apply"

Draw 3 whisker lines on each side of mouth. Click 'Apply' at end of each line, before starting next or they will be connected. (Or you can de-select 'Connect Segments'.)

See screenshot for sample.

THE FEET (PAWS)

Next we'll work on the legs and feet. (You're still working with an enlarged canvas, right? It's always easier to zoom in on the nodes when editing.)

With Pen tool, select one of the extra ellipse shapes made in step one and move it into position below the body. This will be his right leg (the one on our left). Right click, select 'Convert to Path', right click again select Node Edit. Select the top node, right click select Edit>Break. This breaks the line in 2 and creates 2 nodes where there used to be one. Move the top 2 nodes up to connect to the body for a short, fat leg. There's now 5 nodes for this object and the leg shape starts out looking something like the ellipse in this screenshot.

Select top left node, right click, select Node Type>Smooth/Tangent

Turn handle vertically until you have a smooth line connecting the leg to the body.

Select the other top node, right click, select Node Type>Smooth/Tangent

Position this Node so overlaps the body and is a straight line but at a slight angle.

(You can select more than one node at a time by holding down the Shift Key.)

Select the middle right node. Right click, select Node Type>Cusp.

Create an ankle by arranging the node handles as shown above,

creating a turn in the line.

Now, fine tune the shape of the foot by adjusting the angle and length

of each node handle as follows:

For the node by heel: Right click, select Node Type>Cusp. Move the arrow end of the node handle til it points up and the rounded end of handle makes a turn to the right to give a little curve to the heel.

For the node by the toe: If it needs adjusting, check the node type, it should be Symmetric. Right click, select Node Type>Symmetric. If Symmetric is greyed out, it already is the selected node type. Move the node handle around and extend it's length a little to give a nice curve to the toe area.

When done, select 'Apply' from Tool Options bar (or right click).

Duplicate/copy this leg to make the other leg. . Use Pick tool, right click, select Copy.

Move cursor a little to the right, right click again, select Paste New Vector Selection.

Right click again, select Arrange>Send to Bottom.

Move the leg into a position so that it lines up with with body as shown in the image below.

THE ARMS

Bunny needs some arms!! We'll shape the arms the same way as we did the legs. Zoom in.

Use Pen tool, select the remaining oval shape that was made at step one and move it over close to the left side of the body.

Right click, select Convert to Path. Right click again, select Node Edit. Select the top node, right click select Break. This breaks the line and adds a node just like we did for the leg. Move these top 2 nodes into a position for the shoulder and the armpit. Arrange the node handles of both nodes so they create a straight line with no hook in the end. The 'shoulder' node should align with the outline for the shoulder/head.

For the arm and hand, the Node Type for all nodes should be Symmetric. Drag the mouse while holding left mouse button down to select ALL nodes in the arm shape at same time. Right click a node, select Node Type > Symmetric.

Add 2 nodes to create a thumb. Add one BELOW the node that is the armpit and add the other AFTER the next node. Counting clockwise, the new nodes will be #2 and #4. To add a node, hold the CTRL key down, hover near the line segment until +ADD appears next to your cursor and then click to add node. Zoom in as needed.

Change the Node Type on the 2 new nodes to Cusp.

Arrange the nodes as shown in the screenshot above. All nodes should make a smooth curve except for the 2 cusp nodes that create the thumb and wrist. Arrange the handles on the node that is between the thumb and hand so the 2 handles are close together and make a sharp turn. Refer to screenshot and shorten or lengthen the thumb or hand by shortening or lengthing the node handles.

Click 'Apply'.

Adjust Zoom back to normal for the following steps.

Duplicate the arm to make the other arm. Select arm on left, right click, select Copy. Move your cursor over to the right side of the body, right click, Paste New Vector Selection.

Mirror the arm by pulling it over itself....the same way we mirrored the ear! Select the center handle on the left side of the boundary box and pull/drag it toward the right. It will pull the shape over itself and mirror it.

Now put the right arm behind the body by sending layer to the bottom. Select right arm, right click, select Arrange>Send to Bottom. Adjust position of right arm behind body so just part of arm is showing.

THE TAIL

With a stroke color of black and a fill color of white, draw a bunny tail (Preset Shape>ellipse) and position it appropriately. Using Pick tool, select tail, right click, Arrange>Send to Bottom.

THE TOES

Keep stroke color black and set fill to null Ø.

Zoom in on the feet.

Use the Pen tool, select Mode: 'Draw Freehand' from Tool Options bar.

Draw a short curved line to represent the toes. See screenshot.

Click 'Apply' when done.

Only one line needs to be drawn, copy/paste all others.

Switch to Pick tool.

To make another line for 2nd toe, right click the first line, Copy>Paste as New Vector Selection.

Paste as New Vector Selection twice more for toes on other foot!

.............................

Your Honey Bunny is done!! Hope you had fun making this EggToon!

Save original in .PSPimage format. Use the Crop tool to reduce the canvas size to it's smallest possible size and export your bunny as an optimized GIF or optimized PNG.

If you want to resize your bunny, one option is to just merge layers and resize. But if you do that your vector objects will be converted to raster. The best option is to retain the vector format and resize. Keeping the drawing in vector format allows sizing larger or smaller without losing image quality. Your Honey Bunny is built from many different vector objects, so to reize them all at the same time we need to "Group" all objects in your drawing.

First thing I'd do is duplicate the PSP image and leave original untouched. Window>Duplicate

Use Pick tool, right click on any vector object in drawing, choose 'select all' and then right click again and select 'Group'.

Once grouped, a boundary box will appear around Honey Bunny. Pull or push on one of the corner nodes to resize without changing proportions. Use the other nodes to deform.

Now that you've got the vector tools all figured out ;-)

...why don't you try making your own original version of the EggToon bunny. You can make longer ears or legs, make him/her taller or fatter, add cheeks, clothes...etc. Here's an animated version of Honey Bunny with color changed, big teeth added and a few other small changes.

Create this Animated Dancing Bear using Animation Shop

noreply@blogger.com (Kat) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 21:31:00 +0000

This tutorial was written for Animation Shop v.3

Tutorial is offered here free of charge for personal use only.

You're welcome to link to this site or use a single image and brief description to link back to any post.

Republishing posts in their entirety is prohibited without permission.... please read Terms of Use.

With this tutorial you'll learn a quick and easy way to animate some clip art to look like it's doing a little happy dance. This is about the easiest type of animation to make and a great place for beginners to start! All you need is Animation Shop and clip art that is posed correctly to create the 'dance' effect.

For this tutorial we'll use a teddy bear from the dingbat font "Teddies" created by fontfreak.com. I've added some color to the dingbat to dress it up. Click the image below to enlarge it to full size. Then right click save to your computer before proceeding. It might help you locate files to put it in a folder of it's own called Dancing Bear or Animations.

Note: This tutorial was originally written for Paint Shop Pro v.7 and Animation Shop v.3 (which used to be bundled together). Since that time, newer versions of Paint Shop Pro started using a different "File Type" but Animation Shop wasn't updated (and is no longer supported by Corel). Users of newer versions of Paint Shop Pro have to change file type to use with Animation Shop. Because of that confusion, we've revised this tutorial to use GIF images instead of importing PSP format images.

If you have Paint Shop Pro and would like to learn how to import Paint Shop Pro layers as animation frames, please see the original version of tutorial at ArizonaKate.com.

OK, let's get started! Open your dancing bear image in Paint Shop Pro or other graphics program. Duplicate the image 3 times and close original. It's good work practice to always work with a copy and save your originals in case you have to start over. ;-)

The animation will have 3 frames...so we need to have 3 copies of the bear...one for each of the 3 frames of the animation.
#1 copy: Save as bear1.gif
#2 copy: Mirror the image to reverse the position of the bear so she's facing opposite direction Save as bear2.gif
#3 copy: Mirror this image also. Save this one as bear3.gif
I know, I know, I could have done it the other way around but this matches original setup! ;-)

You should now have 3 images, 1 bear facing one way and 2 facing the other.

Launch the Animation Shop program (close PSP)

We'll be using the 'Animation Wizard' to create the animation.
Select the Animation Wizard button or select from the menu: File | Animation Wizard
Answer questions in dialog box as follows:

pg 1: Same size as the first image frame

pg 2: Transparent (or opaque if you prefer to use your webpage color)

pg 3: Upper left corner of the frame

With the canvas color

pg 4: Yes, repeat the animation indefinitely

Display time: 30

pg 5: Add image....browse to find your 3 files.....bear1.gif, bear2.gif and bear3.gif and add them to list one at a time...then select NEXT

pg 6: Finish

Each bear image will become a separate FRAME in Animation Shop. All 3 frames of the animation should be visible in your workspace. If only one frame is visible, use your mouse to grab the edge of the filmstrip and drag it to right until all frames are revealed.

To keep the animated dance from being too jerky, we must double-check each bear to make sure everything is properly aligned with the bear on the other layers. Because all 3 bears won't line up perfectly (after all, they are facing 2 different directions) we'll just make sure the shoulders are aligned with each other.

Enable the onionskin preview so you can make adjustments to each bear's position. Onionskin preview places a transparent overlay (a ghost image) of frame 1 onto frame 2, and frame 2 overlays frame 3, etc, for all frames.

Zoom in very close to see better. The shoulders on frame 2 should be close to the shoulders on frame 1 as shown in the screenshot below (see red arrow). The noses are also fairly close (see yellow arrow).

Now check frame 3 to see if shoulders align there, also. Use the Mover Tool to make adjustments ...remember, just one pixel out of alignment can make an animation look jumpy!

Now that everything is properly aligned...we're going to change things up a bit just to add a little interest in the animation. We'll add a little "hop" to the dance by moving the bear on the middle frame UP just a tiny bit...a graceful little hop (see red arrow in image below).

I think the animation would look better if we speed up the movement in just the middle frame (the one with the little hop)....but just a little bit! If we lower the Display Time to 20, it will speed up the movement.

To adjust Display time, first select frame 2 (click with pointer tool...a blue border indicates frame is selected) and then, on the menu, select Animation | Frame Properties. Enter 20 for the display time. Click OK.

Now select the View Animation button to preview how your animation will look!
(or use menu View | Animation)

If the dancing looks a little jerky, maybe the bears are a little mis-aligned. A few pixels can make a very big difference. Close the Animation Preview and make adjustments to the bear's position where needed.

Zoom in very close and, using the onionskin overlay as a guide,.use the Mover Tool to realign the bear where needed,

Click the View Animation button and preview again. Look OK to you? Good!

But, wait! Before we save the animation, let's crop it to make the canvas size and the file size as small as possible. The smaller the file size, the faster image will load on your webpage.

Select the Crop tool. When you do this in Animation Shop, three new buttons appear on the menu bar above the crop tool. They are....Options...Crop....Clear

Select the Options button. In the Crop Options dialog box, select Surround the Animated Area, then select OK.
A box, or lines, now appear in each frame to indicate crop size. ** Select the Crop button (next to Options) and your canvas size will be reduced to minimum.

**It should NOT encroach on any parts of the bear image. If it does, leave a comment and I'll explain how to fix.

SAVE your animation in GIF format. Select File | Save and a dialog box will appear to give your file a name. When you do that, the GIF Optimizer will appear.

Move slider to top for "Better Image Quality".
On this same page of the dialog box, select the Customize button.
Under the Customize tab the following should be selected:
256 colors (actually 255)
Optimized Octree
Select OK, then Next, then Next again.
A preview of the optimized file will display.

Select Next again and your final file size and approximate load time will be displayed. Then select Finish.
You're done and your dancing bear should look like this (except for my sig, of course!).

Hope you enjoyed making this dancing bear! Now that you've learned this easy mirroring technique, why don't you try making another animation using a different image! When choosing which image to use, the position of the feet is important. One foot upraised seems to work the best....like this jolly lamb!

Most of all.....have fun with the animations!! ......Kat

How Animations are Made; a Short Video

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 01:18:00 +0000

In this short film titled "Animando", we watch Brazilian artist Marcos Magalhães bring an animated figure to life on the drawing board. Using different materials and techniques, he manipulates his character to walk, jump and interact with his surroundings.

This whimsical film demonstrates a variety of animation techniques using the same character....some hand drawn, some not. The first example is a frame-by-frame hand drawn animation. This is the type of animation we'll be creating using Animation Shop. First we'll create some vector-drawn toons (in PSP) and then we'll create the different frames (layers) needed to make this type of animation.

Another type of animation is the one shown in the segment with the City background. This type of animation can be created with Anime Studio, which uses "bones" and separate body parts to create movement.

Claymation is also shown. Claymation is a form of stop-motion animation. We might get into that in the future, but first we'll start with the easy stuff! ;-)

Enjoy the movie!

Easy EggToon Mouse, Vector Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Kat) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 06:15:00 +0000

This tutorial was written for Paint Shop Pro v.7

(update for newer versions coming soon!)

Tutorial is offered here free of charge for personal use only!

If you are new to using vectors and haven't reviewed the beginner basics, please do so now by clicking the Paint Shop Pro and Node Editing PAGES in the menu. We'll be using an egg Preset Shape for all EggToon tutorials. A tutorial is provided for creating Custom Preset Shapes in the event you do not have the egg shape.

This Easy Mouse tutorial was originally written in 2001 and is probably one of the easiest toons to draw with vector tools. A great beginners project!

Color settings for this tut: Select black for stroke color and any mouse color of your choice for fill. Pick a pastel, a bright color, a realistic color...doesn't matter...this is a cartoon!! I'll be using #BBA5AD, a lavender gray....for no particular reason! *G* Both Texture boxes should be set to null.Ø

Remember, in Paint Shop Pro 7, to select any vector object for editing you must use the Object Selector.

Step 1. Egg Preset Shape

Select Preset Shapes tool, select the egg shape made in the Paint Shop Pro tutorial "How to Create a Custom Preset Shape".

Settings: Line width 1, style solid, retain style UNchecked, antialias CHECKED, vector CHECKED.

Draw an egg that is about 85wx12 pixels. (Look at the lower left corner of the screen to see PSP status bar display size of egg as you draw.)

Step 2. Create More Preset Shapes

Use the Preset Shapes tool to draw 2 ellipses, any size (same settings, same colors as above). They will become the arms and legs.

Change fill color to a pink or peach (I used #FF9681) and draw some circles. Draw 3 circles that are 40x40 ...these will be the ears. Hold shift key down as you draw an ellipse and you will get a perfect circle. Draw a third circle that is 8x8...it will be the nose. Place all these extra shapes off to one side until we need them!

Now click the double-headed arrow by the Styles box so that black moves to the fill position. Change the stoke to null Ø.

Draw one small black circle 6x6 (this is one eye..we'll duplicate it in a moment).

Your canvas should look like screenshot #2 above.

Step 3. Create face

Switch to Object Selector tool. All the following steps will be done with the Object Selector tool.

Select and drag the one eye into position as left eye. Next, right click the eye circle and select copy. Move your cursor slightly to the right, right click again and select paste new vector selection. Copying & pasting is the easy way to make sure both eyes are the exact same size.

Move the ears into position on the mouse's head as shown in this screenshot.

The right ear needs to be positioned behind the body. To do this: right click the circle that is the right ear, select Arrange>Send to Bottom. There ya go!

Move the nose into position near the eyes.

Your mouse should now look like screenshot above.

Now for some node editing!!

Step 4. Edit the Ears

Zoom in on your image so you're working at a 2:1 size....makes things much easier to see!! You can use menu, toolbar button OR the + key on numeric keypad to zoom in.

Select the left ear with the Object Selector.

Right click, select Node Edit. In Node Edit mode, the fill color does not show ... all you'll see are the nodes and line segments that make up the shape. This circle has 4 nodes, but I want to use only 3. We're going to do some node editing so that the shape looks a little more like an ear than a circle.

Delete one node: First select the bottom node, right click, select Edit, then Delete.

Now we have 3 nodes but only half an ear!! Use your left mouse button to grab and pull the left node down until the shape overlaps the body of the mouse as shown in screenshot below.

By pulling that one node down we've distorted the shape of the circle a little. To fix the shape of the ear and make it an ellipse again, select the bottom node. When you select node, it will turn black and 2 node handles will appear. One handle has an arrow on the end and other has a knob. Pull the top handle (the arrow handle) up and to the left until this shape looks like an ear again. See closeup in screenshot above.

Right click, select Quit Node Editing. The finished ears should look like the ears in screenshot above.

Notice that by deleting a node we have 'broken' the outline and there's no black line between the inner ear color and the body color, which improves the appearance of being attached to the body. This can be a handy trick to use when building complicated shapes!

Step 5. Shaping the feet

Next we'll work on the feet. With the Object Selector, select one of the ellipse shapes we already made. (You're still working with an enlarged canvas.... 2:1, right?)

Right click, select Node Edit. Select the top node of the ellipse, right click and select Break. This breaks the line in two and adds a node... creating 2 nodes where there used to be one.

Move those 2 nodes up to the body for the top of the legs as shown in this screenshot. Just select the node and drag into position.

Also move the 3 other nodes around until you have a rough shape of a leg and foot.

You should end up with a node at the top of each leg, a node for the heel, a node where the leg turns into the foot and another node at the toes.

Now let's fine tune the shape of the foot by adjusting the handles of each node.

Notice, as we move the handles, how the length and angle of the handles effect the shape and direction of the adjacent line segment.

(Note: You won't be able to select and see the arrows for all nodes at once as shown in this image....I had to combine 5 images into 1 to show this!!)

Move the handles that stick out of each node as shown in the screenshot above and described as follows:

Node #1: Both ends point straight up and down.

Node #2: The arrow end points straight up and the rounded end makes a right angle turn to the right.

Node #3: The arrow end points left and the rounded end points up and slightly to the right. This should make the toes more rounded and should make a perfectly straight line between nodes 2 and 3.

Node #4: The rounded end points up, slightly angled to the right. The arrow end points at an angle that also helps the toes be a little more rounded.

Node #5: This points straight up and down like node #1.

Right click, select Quit Node Editing

Step 6. Finishing the legs & feet

Use the Object Selector to move the left leg into position, if it isn't already (our left, not his). Duplicate the left leg to make the right leg. To duplicate: Right click, select Copy. Move cursor a little to the right, right click again, select Paste New Vector Selection.

But, oops! The leg is in front of the belly! To fix: Right click again. Select Arrange>Send to Bottom. Your mouse should look something like the one shown here. But he needs some arms!

Step 7. Shaping the Arms

We'll shape the arms the same way as we did the legs, but we'll need to add a few nodes to shape wrist and fingers!

Zoom in 2:1. Use Object Selector to select the one remaining unedited oval shape we made in Step 2 and move it over close to the left side of the body (again...I'm referring to OUR left! *G*).

Right click, select Node Edit.

Select the top node, right click, select Break. This breaks the line and adds a node like we did for the leg. Move the top 2 nodes into a position for the shoulder and the armpit. Arrange each end node handle so they point straight and line up with the line segment.

Next we need to add another node. Hover your cursor over one of the lines (near the wrist area) while holding the Control key down. When +ADD appears next to your cursor, click to add a node.

Don't worry about exact position of arm, you can adjust later, after editing fingers. You should have a total of 6 nodes for the arm and hand.

Zoom in 4:1 to see better when editing the following nodes.

Drag 2 of the nodes into wrist area and 2 nodes into area of fingers.

Change Node Type. Select all nodes for the hand by holding down Shift key, select one node and then select the other 3 nodes. Right click, select Node Type>Cusp.

Arrange the nodes as shown in screenshot above.

Right click, select Quit Node Editing.

Adjust Zoom back to 2:1 for the following steps.

Duplicate the left arm to make the right arm. Right click, select Copy. Move your cursor over to the right side of the body, right click again, select Paste New Vector Selection.

Oh-oh! The arm is facing the wrong way!
To mirror the arm to make it face the other way. Select it and grab the center right handle of the boundary box and pull it to the left and back over itself.
The arm shape will follow and mirror itself. Doing this may distort the shape...but that's easy to fix.

We should be able to easily correct any distortion caused by mirroring. First select the left arm, the one that is correctly shaped. Hold down the Shift key while selecting the right arm. Right click, select Make Objects Same Size>Both. Hopefully, that did it!

Now put the right arm behind the body by selecting the right arm, right click, select Arrange>Send to Bottom. Adjust position of right arm behind body. Your mouse should now look something like the mouse on the left! All he needs now is a tail and a snout!

Step 8. Editing Muzzle

Your fill color should still be black and your stroke color null. If it isn't, make those changes.

For the tail, draw a long, narrow, black triangle with the Preset Shapes tool and the same settings as before. Make triangle any size, any location. Set aside, we'll be editing it soon.

For the snout/muzzle, click the double headed arrow by the Styles boxes to put black in the Stroke position.

Select the Line tool and use these settings in the Tool Options box:

Line type: point to point, line style: solid, line width: 1, antialias and vector checked. Close path un-checked.

Draw a sideways V shape for the snout with the Line tool by clicking once between the eyes, once on the pink nose circle and once again below the eyes.

Now select the lines for the snout and make some adjustments to the shape, if needed. The first node should be slightly below and between the eyes and the 2nd node touching the pink nose circle.

Now add a little curve to the muzzle. Right click the 3rd node, select Node Type>Curve Before. Pull on the node handle to give a slight curve to the combination snout/muzzle/mouth as shown in above screenshot.

Right click, Quit Node Editing.

Next thing we need to do is position the pink nose tip on top of the snout lines we just made.

Right click the pink nose, select Arrange>Bring to top.

Step 9. Tail

With the Object Selector, select the triangle we made in previous step for the tail. Right click, select Arrange>Send to bottom. Right click again for Node Edit.

Move the nodes around until 2 of them are behind the body and the 3rd one is the pointed tip of the tail.

To put a curve to this tail, add 2 more nodes. One on each line. Holding Control key down, hover your mouse over the line until +ADD appears, then click on line to create a node. Repeat for other line.

Select one of the new nodes, hold Shift key down, select the other node. Right click, select Node Type>Asymmetric.

Click in any blank area of canvas to de-select both nodes.

Now select just one of the nodes. Slide it up or down as needed to position it at about center of line. Pull on the node handle until the tail curves similar to finished image. To change the shape and size of the curve, lengthen the node handle and move it slightly until curve looks smooth. Do the same for the node on other side of tail to get a similar curve. You may have to play around some with the node positions and node handles until you get a nice curvey mousey-looking tail.

There you have it!! I bet it seems like a lot of steps and that it took quite a while! But, once you get used to Node Editing, you should be able to create another mouse like this in less than 10 minutes. It just takes a lot to explain it!! ;-)

Step 10. Save, Duplicate, Change Size, etc

Save one copy of your EggToon mouse in PSP format to make more vector mice! You have many options with your finished vector image.

1. You can change colors by right clicking and selecting Properties. Both stroke and fill colors can be easily changed in the vector Properties dialog box. That's something you can't do with raster images. You can also change stroke to 2 if you want a thicker outline or change settings so there's no outline at all.

2. You can face him the other way by selecting 'ALL' and mirroring image like we did in Step 7.

3. You could also make some smaller mice, like those below. To resize, drag the Object Selector tool completely around your character to enclose...which Selects All. Push or pull on one of the corner handles of the selection box to resize.

4. All the separate parts of the mouse are a separate sub-layer on Layer Palette. You can select just one arm layer and rotate it so that's he's waving!

Export your EggToon as an Optimized GIF (or PNG). First, use the Crop Tool to reduce the size of your canvas to the smallest area possible (smaller area = smaller file size). Save a copy of image by selecting File>Export>Gif Optimizer (or Png Optimizer if you prefer that format).

Next time you're ready to practice, go to the page with the list of tutorials (see PAGES menu in sidebar) and select another EggToon character ....or invent one of your own!! The more you practice with vectors, the easier it will become. After a while, it will become the only way you'll want to draw!!! ;-) Have fun! ....Kate

How to Create a Custom Preset Shape in Paint Shop Photo Pro

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 01:37:00 +0000

Paint Shop Photo Pro , version 7 to current

This tutorial was originally written for PSP 7, but has been updated for newer versions with version notes included. (PSPP X2 screenshots shown)

All the EggToon cartoon characters will be built using Paint Shop Pro Preset Shapes. We'll start with the basic 'egg' shape and add other Preset Shapes as needed. You may already have an egg shape in your Preset Shapes folder, but possibly not. This tutorial will show you how to make your own custom shape and add it to 'Preset Shapes' for use over and over again to create some EggToon characters.

If you are new to using vector tools, please review the tool tips explained on the Paint Shop Pro & Node Editing pages (see menu at right) before starting this tutorial. Those pages will explain the basic vector tools and terminology. If you're ready.....read on....

Drawing the egg shape

Open new image, 200x200 pixels with transparent raster background and 16 million colors (RGB 8 bits).

The checkered background indicates that it is transparent....and we'll need to have a transparent background when we save our egg as a Preset Shape.

We'll want to save the Preset Shape with a transparent background, but if you prefer not to work with a distracting checkered background, go ahead and use white for background layer. Create egg on a separate vector layer, so you can just DELETE that white layer later, before exporting Preset Shape.

Set black as your stroke color.

Set fill color to null. The texture styles boxes should also be null.

Next, select the Preset Shapes tool, Ellipse.

Tool Options:

Mode: Ellipse. Retain style should be UNchecked.

Create on Vector and Show Nodes should both be checked.
Line Style Solid, Line Width 1, Antialias checked.

In Paint Shop Pro 8 and newer, the tool settings are located in the Tool Options Palette that appears above the workspace when the Preset Shapes tool is selected.

In Paint Shop Pro 7 and older, the tool settings are located in the Preset Shapes dialog box that pops up when the Preset Shapes tool is selected. Not all options mentioned for new versions are listed in older versions but that won't be a problem.

Draw an ellipse outline that is about 100 wide and 150 tall, similar to shape shown above.

Look in the lower margin of your workspace

where PSP displays the size of the object as you draw it

along with some other information.

Use the Pick tool to deform vector objects in Paint Shop Pro 8 and newer. (Some editing can be performed with Pen tool, but for this step, use Pick tool, located near top of toolbar on flyout with Mover tool.)

Below the Preset Shapes tool, in Paint Shop Pro 7 and older, is the Object Selector tool. This tool is used to select and edit all vector objects. You must always use the Object Selector to select a vector object for editing.

Select the ellipse shape.

A boundary box appears around the ellipse that has 9 'handles' or nodes (shown as small boxes).

The handles are in all 4 corners, plus one in center of each side and one in the very center of boundary box (which is the rotate handle).

Hold down your Control key while you select one of the top corner handles. A trapezoid shaped icon is displayed next to your cursor to indicate that you are now using the perspective deformation.

Keeping the Control key held down, move the top corner handle slightly toward the center of the ellipse until the shape gets a little narrower at the top, like an egg.

Now do the same thing on one of the bottom corners, except this time pull away from center until you are satisfied that your shape looks like an egg.

If you made the top or bottom too narrow or too wide, hold Control key down again and make adjustments by pulling a corner handle IN or OUT.

Preset Shapes Library

You should now have an egg shape that looks something like this.

Next we'll save this egg shape as our own custom Preset Shape.

You can save any vector object to your Preset Shapes Library and then re-use them anytime just like the Preset Shapes that come with PSP.

When you Export or Save a new Preset Shape, Paint Shop Pro will always save the shape to whatever folder is identified as your 'Save To' preference in the File Locations dialog box. I will discuss changing that preference in a separate post, but you can view your preferences for Preset Shapes as follows:

For PSP 8 and newer, the settings are found in the File Locations dialog box by selecting 'Preset Shapes' from the list on the left side of dialog box. (The File Locations dialog box is under File | Preferences | File Locations).

For PSP 7 and older, the settings are found under the Shapes tab in the File Locations dialog box (which is under File | Preferences | File Locations).

Look for the 'Save to' information to familiarize yourself with the file locations.

Saving Egg to Preset Shapes Library

If you used a white background when creating your shape, you need to delete that background layer now. The shape we are saving must have a transparent background.

Make sure your egg is the active image and choose File | Export | Shape. The Export Shape Library dialog box will open and ask you to same the file.

In the dialog box, type the name for the shape you are saving....egg. In newer versions of PSP, the file extension PspShape will be added: egg.PspShape

Click OK to close the dialog box and SAVE the shape. It will be saved to your Shapes folder.

When you make the menu choice to Export Shape, a warning box may pop up that says:
Note: Only those vector objects currently selected will be exported to the shape library. To export all vector objects, make sure there is no selection before exporting.

This warning is a reminder....it occurs because there can be numerous objects in a vector drawing.
PSP gives you the option of selecting only ONE of the objects or ALL the objects to export as a preset shape and this pop up box is a reminder to check your selections!

In this case, because our drawing contains only one object...the egg.... it's not going to make any difference. You can continue by hitting OK.

Test Drive Your New Preset Shape

Let's try the new shape to see if everything is working OK!

Open a new image, 200x200 same as before (with white background).

Leave the stroke color as black but make the fill color any color of your choice.

Select the PreSet Shapes tool and locate the egg shape in the drop down list of shapes on the Tool Options bar (or, for older versions, in dialog box).

Retain style should be UNchecked to use the fill color, but check the boxes for antialias and create as vector. Line style solid, size 1.

Now draw your egg preset shape, any size!!

Now draw it again, changing line width to 2 or 3 for a different look!

I hope eything is working well for you. Leave a comment if you have a question and I'll try to answer.

We will be using this egg shape combined with other shapes to draw some easy Eggtoons!! Future posts will have a number of beginner level toon tutorials and then we'll advance to more complex shapes, shading, and animating the toons! See you then!

It'll be more than EggToons now!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:10:00 +0000

EggToon Group

This blog is a collaboration between me, Mary "Teal" Blue and my friend Kat (Arizona Kate). Toon-Time is a new name and a new focus for our EggToons blog. In addition to the EggToon tutorials using Paint Shop Pro, we'll be adding GIF animation tutorials (Animation Shop) and cartoon drawing and animating with Anime Studio (export as GIF, movie or Flash with sound).

All cartoon drawings are designed to instruct beginners in the use of vector tools. We'll start with a series of easy toons and advance to more complicated drawings. We'd love to hear requests from our visitors. What subjects do you want to see?

If you ever have any questions, please leave a comment and one of us will get back to you! ;-)

~~~ Mary and Kat ~~~