Anime Studio Pro 7 - Creating a Character for Animation - 0

When you first open Anime Studio Pro you should see a layout like that shown below. In the centre of the

screen is the main work area with a default character visible called Thorn. On the left is the Tools Palette,

along the bottom is the Timeline and on the right are the Style Palette and Layers Palette. At the top of the

screen are the Main Menu Bar and just below it is the Tool Options Bar. The latter will open and offer extra

options when tools are picked from the Tools Palette.

Anime Studio Pro is so intuitive that you’ve probably already found the Manipulate Bones Tool in

the Bone section of the Tool Palette and had a go at moving the limbs of the character around. Feel free, of

course, to experiment some more but don’t spend too long as we need to get on with creating our character.

Close Anime Studio and either get out some paper and pencils or open up your favourite drawing software.

1. Create a sketch of your character either drawn on paper or    

in your favourite software. I designed this Flea for a film I’m

working on. Your character will probably be quite different.

Draw your character, as I have, in a fairly neutral pose as this

will make it a lot easier once you come to trace it in Anime

Studio. After all, you will pose it nicely later when you come to

animate it.

Are you happy with your character?

Let’s begin the tracing process now.

2. We need to create a new project to start

from so go to the File Menu at the top left of

the workspace and choose New from the Drop

Down Menu that opens. The new clean

project should look like the one on the Left.

Before you do anything Save your project by

going to the File Menu / Save and browse to a

suitable folder on your computer. Name your

project My_Character or something else

suitable.

3.Import your sketch to an Image Layer as described below.   

Note: If you sketched your design on paper you will need to

either scan it into your computer or photograph it with a digital

camera and get it into your computer that way

Make sure you are on frame 0 in the Timeline. All character

construction takes place on this frame. Click on the New Layer

icon at the top of the Layers Palette and choose Image. Browse

to where you saved your sketch on your computer and import it.

4. In the Layer Palette on the left of the work area use the                            

Scale Layer Button to scale your character to fill the work area.

5. Create a Bone Layer and name it Front by double clicking

on it. Our character layers need to be created inside this bone                  

layer in order for the character to be posed and animated later.

You can drag layers inside a bone layer at any time by the way.

6. Create a Vector Layer and drag it onto the Bone Layer by

placing your cursor over the Vector Layer, pressing and holding 

the Left Mouse Button and dragging. When the Bone Layer

turns red release your mouse button and the Vector Layer

should now appear under the Bone Layer as shown right.

Note: You can check your Vector Layer is under the Bone

Layer by clicking on the little arrow ( circled ) to expand and

contract the bone layer.

Rename the layer to Head by double clicking on it.

7. Click on your Head Layer to make it active and using the      

Add Point Tool trace the outline of your characters head

starting from the top centre. Leave the cheek area ( as shown in

the picture below ) as later we need to place the mouth on a

separate layer so it can be animated independently.

Note: To use the Add Point Tool left mouse click to create a

point and, keeping the mouse button pressed, move around your

head and release the mouse button. Click over the point just

created to weld to it and then repeat this process of click drag

click drag around the outline of your head.

8. Your head should look something like this. You want to use

just enough points to create a nice shape that closely matches     

your sketch.

Note: If you need to sharpen curves at a point select the point

then ctrl+P on the keyboard. To smooth again ctrl+M.

CMD+P and CMD+M on a Mac.

9. The shape should automatically be filled on completion. If

not then you need to make your vector outline a shape by using     

the Select Points Tool in the Tools / Draw Palette to

select your shape then clicking on the Create Shape Tool

Your shape is unlikely to be filled with the correct colour so you

need to change the fill to the colour of your choice.

10. Firstly let’s name our shape so that it can be selected easily   

if it becomes hidden beneath other shapes.

If the Style Window isn’t open go to the Window drop down

menu at the top of the screen and open it.

Click on the Advanced box at the lower left of the Style                

Window to reveal the advanced options. Note that there are a

few more options available in the Pro version of the software

than there are in Anime Studio Debut. More about that later.

Use the Select Shape Tool to select your shape if it’s not

already then in the Style Palette type Head into the name shape

field that opens. It’s then possible to select your shape at any

time by selecting it in the Shapes drop down list in the Style

Palette if it’s not easily accessible with the Select Shape Tool.

Thank you ...         TO BE Continue ......