Animating a gif on clipstudio

 this is my first serious attempt at any sort of animation. not really any prior knowledge besides theoretical speculation, there are surely much better techniques/methods to accomplish what i stumbled through, but every tutorial/instructional vid i found was overproduced clickbait bullshit, so i just winged it.

the main thing that was confusing me was clipstudio's layer/cel/frame naming system. in retrospect it does make sense, but its not intuitive after using the typical illustration layer system for so long.

making new cels is simple enough, but when you need to duplicate an older cel & move it, you cant just drag it. clipstudio animation workspace requires you manually rename the layer. you decide on the name by referencing the existing name of an empty cel you must create on the timeline ahead of time. once that empty cel has been created, you delete it, then rename your duplicated layer to whatever that deleted cel was named, then that renamed layer will become that deleted cel's replacement, automatically taking its' place on the timeline.

the deceitful alternative to this is using Alt to drag the frame to be copied & dragging to its additional placement. however this method is not a seperate duplicate, that is, a copy made with Alt cannot be edited independently of its parent frame. any edit done to any of the "alt-drag" copies will be synchronized across each parent/child frame. this may have useful applications, but for the purpose of duplicating for slightly changing or adjusting the child frame, the renaming method is more effective.

when doing normal illustration, i usually never use my keyboard or any external shortcut button device, i program the shortcut buttons i need to the buttons on the monitor tablet i draw on.

doing animation, i now need to keep the numpad handy at least while doing the initial roughs.

animation folders are also an interesting tool, each animation folder will only let you edit x1 cel per frame, so overlapping items/characters should be seperated into their own animation folders to make editing way easier. out of habit i drew the entire first frame on x1 layer, then had to seperate them later into: hair, hand, bg 1, bg 2 etc.

once you have existing drawn cels, you actually can drag those around to adjust the speed of any given motions or overall playback speed.

frustratingly, theres apparently no way to adjust the playback to simply review your work in slow motion. then if you arrange your timeline to play slower for this purpose, its not a simple button press to speed it back up to normal, so basically you are stuck reviewing your animation at regular speed.

My first inking attempt failed because i drew every frame, which looks jittery & unnatural. i learned it was better to duplicate then modify consecutive frames.

still jittery...

but i feel better about this version, & i learned alot. 

i learned that bad frames & good timing can look better than good frames & bad timing.

timing placement is not the same as frame timing. even if you plan to draw lets say 5 particular frames, the perceived time of the occurrence of each frame can change drastically by separating or clustering those same frames either intentionally or unintentionally, so then should be considered carefully during the storyboard phase or notated in advance.

i really spent alot of time adjusting frame placement on the timeline for different movement speeds.

also, the idea that all the items with movement should not be synchronized, that is, offsetting frames so that some frames reach a "hold" or resting position while others move, for example: allowing the breath action to finish just after the blink action begins instead of exactly where they end/begin respectively.

theres another theory about rocking motion or bouncing motion that i incorporated into the head. its something i had read about in Timing for Animation by harold whitaker & john halas that basically talks about how an object rooted in some way that is in motion will have an opposite return motion even if almost imperceptible or may have several rebounds in both or more directions depending on the strength of the force influencing the motion & the weight of the object & manner of rooting or anchoring.

i basically noticed the head looked odd taking a bite & coming to a hard stop, so i added a bit of bobbing. it also suggests a swallowing action.

lastly, regarding gif loop animations, i found an elegant solution to the hurdle of matching the last frame to 1st frame with onion skin. simply copying the 1st frame & placing it at the end of the timeline provides you with the next onion skin required to match for a loop. you also need to adjust for this timing by shifting all other frames the same fraction of time earlier to maintain mechanical precision. since i was animating natural motions, i did not feel the need to adjust too precisely for this.

edit: i guess you could also duplicate the first frame after the end of the timeline for the same effect & avoid other accompanying edits. 

High Resolution PNG 2D lineart shapes template

 Because apparently its impossible to create a tablet drawing app capable of creating a perfect polygon with adjustable number of vertices, & because apparently theres cocksuckers on this planet who think they can get away with charging mfs a dollar for a fucking hexagon thats bigger than 5 pixels or not watermarked.

I made this huge 600dpi template that anyone can download, & you can "select" your shape, copy/paste, then adjust size or stroke for outline thickness, or fill, or change color, whatever.

for free. Here you go.

custom Muk plush

These are the reference images i used, i wasnt sure if it was going to be more or less difficult than the gengar was, i thought since it was essentially amorphous it would be more forgiving, but i knew since it was asymmetrical, it would be 2x as much work at minimum.

 The first step was roughing in the form with paper & tape. The 1st version i wont even share, it looked closer to a bulbasaur. I had to really contemplate what defined muks shape. Its more of a head with arms than a blobby body. In retrospect i could have made the hands larger. I also underestimated how much i would have to needle sculpt, & could have simplified several complex shapes.

Next, i had to disassemble into what i thought would be the defined parts.

I tried to place the seams along naturally occuring creases & folds, or where i imagined a layer of dripping slime would be rolling at an edge.

After carefully labeling with names & orientations & proposed dart/cut positions, the next step was to flatten the parts to make the refined paper model. I traced the flattened shapes onto the same thin paper.

I make some last refinements after assembling the 2nd model, then mark any ambiguous borders with match marks. Then its time to transfer onto the final cardstock design sheets.

Next, i cut out all the shapes. Again, i dont cut the seam allowance because its too difficult to maintain the original shapes during cloth transfer, i just eyeball the seams later. They never end up exactly where you want anyway. The most carefully drawn design will still only remain 75% accurate at best.

After transferring & cutting all the cloth parts, its time to start sewing. I hate using pedestrian methods & materials, so i chose to challenge myself again & used some stretchy material with the odd reflective pattern i thought was the closest to what i imagine the surface of a muk would be like.

I used a basic backstitch for all of this, i tested it vs a zigzag & found it was stronger/tighter on this stretchy fabric. 

I also learned i had to pull the bottom fabric away from the machine while keeping the top piece in place because the dogs kept pulling the bottom to the right, fucking up my early seams, & the seams on this design were extra wavy & easy to fuck up.

I used a pic of the model to design the wire frame bones. This was especially tricky & i think i could have still improved it if i cared to spend more energy on it, but it was good enough for what i needed. I still had leftover foam gap filler tubing so i didnt use rubber hose.

I couldnt really accurately design the inside of the mouth until i could suspend the skin on the bones to take measurements to make a rough shape to refine. I also had to partially sew on the inner mouth before i could start stuffing.

I opted for a bluer tongue, i thought a pink tongue would be too kawaii for a muk.

Somehow, even with meticulous planning, my shapes always seem to be slightly mismatched, in this case, the back edge of the tongue was somehow longer than the back edge of the roof of the mouth, even though i made them together & cut them from a mated union. Fuck me, right?

I intended to design my shapes so i only had to needle sculpt the eyes, but i just couldnt leave it. After preliminary stuffing, it just lacked the layered/bulbous effect i was after. I did some eye sculpting but there werent ideal anchor points to work with & the nose bone complicated things, so i compromised.

I made the eyes same as gengar, with white vinyl & sticker pupils. Used pins for placement then hotglued to attach. Then after adding the last of the stuffing i sewed the velcro closure strips to the throat after the roof & tongue were fully sewn to the skin, but only sewn to eachother by 2" in each corner.

Now the payoff, some candids:

Turns out muks are great for getting rid of your trash.

Just dont bug it while its eating..

Dont fall asleep near a wild muk either, especially if youre out of trash..

I imagine muks can dissolve entire bodies in minutes.

Well, heres my x2 starters.

These are the only pokemon i really had an itch to have but wasnt satisfied with the plushes available on the market, so i just had to go out of my way to create them.

I didnt get much of a reaction from people i showed or where i posted online, so i guess i wont be making any more. I guess the next thing i sew will be the clothing for the HoA action figures.

I need to get back to drawing anyway, & finish up HoA ch02.