How We Animate: Part II: The Software & The Method

Exactly three months ago, I had written a long ass blog post, which I never got to post, about the For Tax Reasons animation process. How we went from paper to digital with out the aid of Cintiq's. But then we ended up buying Cintiqs, and our process was turned on it's heads.

Anyways, so I'm going to post about our old method, because this is the internet- and the internet is for sharing information, and maybe this can help somebody out who wants to work on paper but still produce a sharp and clean animation.

So, with out further ado, the man with a million voices- "How We Animate" Part II. The process of taking animation on paper and putting it into a computer.

HOW WE ANIMATE(D): PART II: THE SOFTWARE & THE METHOD

Teh Warez

These are the programs you'll need.

Adobe Photoshop, for scanning, cleaning and coloring
Adobe Bridge/Adobe Illustrator, for cleaning (you're going to need at least version CS2 so you can use the Livetrace tool)
Adobe After Effects, for sequencing and compositing everything together
Final Cut Pro, for editing together each shot

So this software is kind of expensive, but I found this one website which has some really good discounts on it. So go and check that out if interested in trying out this method.


Step 1: Scanning
So first things first, Windex your scanner real good and tape a peg bar to it. This is how you're going to keep all of your drawings registered to one another. Remember, you're going to have to keep that peg bar taped in the same place, and use the same scanning marquee until you finish scanning a shot. So if you need to use your peg bar for something else, like stirring some lentil soup your making- go do that first, and then tape down your peg bar.

Do a preview scan and select the area which encompasses the entire shot and maybe a little more. It sucks to scan 80 drawings and then realize the last one is outside of your scaning area. Settings-wise. I suggest scanning everything at at least 300 DPI. It helps keep the detail for the Livetracing step later on, and if you ever decide to zoom in with a camera move things won't look shitty. If there are any level adjustments you can do no the scanner to improve your image go ahead and set them now, but most of your adjusting will be done post scanning.

So this is a good chance to introduce ACTIONS. Actions in Photoshop are going to be a huge help through this entire process. Open your Actions window, and click on the little menu thingy on the upper right hand corner to make a new action. Name your action, and then run through these scanning steps. Photoshop will record your each menu item you choose and everything, and later on, when you "play" the action, it will do everything automatically. Actions are big help for the whole process. So here's the scanning action:


a. File > Import > (Your Scanner Name) TWAIN

You'll be routed into your scanners own interface, hit Scan. After it imports the image you'll be back in Photoshop.

b. Image > Rotate Canvas > 90º Clockwise or Counter Clockwise depending what side of the scanner you're using.

c. Double click on the Layer to change it from a locked Background to Layer 0.

d. Then hit ⌘ Shift U to Desaturate the layer- or- Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation.

I do this because I don't need any of the color information, and it just takes up more memory.

e. Save your file. Now, to make a Save command appear in an action, you should go to your Actions menu, and select Insert Menu Item. Then choose File > Save.

For you newbies: Save it as a Photoshop file, not a JPEG, which would compress it and not allow for layers.

Now stop recording by hitting that little square stop button, and you've got your Scan action.

Here's what one of our scans looks like:

Step 2: Leveling(sp?)

So, you've got all your drawings scanned. Preferably in folder labeled Scans, in a sub folder labeled by shot number. I like to keep my raw scans around, just in case I screw something up. Now it's time to make those Scans look a little sharper by leveling them. Duplicate the Scans folder, and rename the copied folder "Clean".

It's time to use the Level tool in Photoshop. ( ⌘ L - or - Image > Adjustments > Levels)
Drag the Black and White input arrows back and forth, and try to get the white of the paper to be white and the line to be as black as possible with out crunching the image like this:

Click on the image for the full effect.

When you think you've got a decent level which will work for the drawings- make a Level Action with those settings.

Now you can go to File > Automate > Batch and you can Batch level a whole folder of Photoshop files using the Action you just made.

Step 3: Cleaning

This is where things get a little crazy. We're gonna use Bridge and Illustrator to vectorize the lines of your drawing. This is to get rid of the gray half pixels and make your lines more defined and solid black. This will really come in handy when you're at the coloring stage. When you're lines are sharp and solid black, you don't have to waste time zooming in and coloring over white specks by hand. I made a confusing post about this before, but I'll explain it again here.

Open up one of your leveled Photoshop files in Illustrator. Select the layer with the image on it, go to Object > Live Trace > Tracing Options.

Click the "Preview" button so that you can watch how Illustrator traces your image as you change the settings. These are two of the settings I use.

This for a more rounded approximation, but smoother line.
And this for a closer match to your pencil line, but rougher.

You might have to tweak these settings to fit how you're drawings look. It's not perfect, but it really helps the quality of your final image, at the sacrifice of some details. Like these little Flash looking lines the computer makes.
Once you've figured out a setting which works with your scans. Open up Bridge. Select your Clean folder. Go to Tools > Illustrator > Livetrace

Select your Preset, Basic RGB and Choose your Destination.

And BOOM Bridge will Livetrace the whole folder for you. See, not that hard.


Step 4: Almost Coloring

Now you've got a Clean folder full of AI (Illustrator) and PSD (Photoshop) files. Copy those AI files into a new folder called "COLOR". You're going to bring these Illustrator files BACK into Photoshop to color them.

Open up Photoshop and import the .ai files. Make sure you're importing at atleast 300 DPI, and using the Media Box, not the Bounding Box as your selection area. I dunno, Illustrator is weird with it's boxes. Sometimes you also have to rotate your page set ups in Illustrator too if things are like coming in tall ways and they should be wide ways. You'll figure it out.

Save, these new PSD's. These are what you're going to color and stuff. But coloring of course is another post, because this one is all ready way too long.

THE END FOR NOW

So, that was our process for getting a scanned drawing to have a clean sharp line for easy and quasi-professional looking color. This was our work around for both: not having the skillset for drawing directly into the computer using Wacom tablets, and not having the advantage of the more expensive Cintiq, where you can draw directly onto the screen. In some upcoming posts I'll talk about how we color, and how it's been working on Cintiqs. Until then, I'm gonna shut the fuck up cuz this is way too much writing.

How We Animate: Part I: The Equipment

My inbox and the For Tax Reasons inbox have received a lot of emails asking about how we do our animation. "A lot" being a relative term. We've gotten more spammy notices about Comicon than questions about animation in our For Tax Reasons account. But whatever. I thought I'd do several posts about How We Animate. I decided not to say "How To Animate", because I think that's a bit too forceful if not completely arrogant. There are a lot of ways to animate, we're always looking to streamline and perfect our process- so the For Tax Reasons method is neither preferred nor perfect. It's just what we get away with. So if you can accept that into your heart- then we can begin.

The Equipment

Drawing Utensils. For the initial drawings, I use Col-Erase erasable colored pencils. They allow you to rough out out drawings and discern between multiple layers, and then roughly clean up with a black line over top. I sometimes use 2 HB Mirado Black Warrior pencils for the clean up, but lately I've been experimenting with these Rapidomatic mechanical pencils. They help me keep a thinner and more consistent line.

Peg bar. In order to keep each drawing "registered" with one another, or in the same place, you're going to need specially punched paper that fits to a specially molded peg bar. These can be hard to come by in a brick and mortar art store. In NYC, I get mine from the the New York Central Art Supply, but you can find them online. Just do some searches. I use the plastic Acme peg bars.


Hole punch. These things can be fucking expensive. Most of these items, aside from the computer stuff, you can get for decent prices. But animation hole punches are such a niche product, so they always seem to be high priced. CartoonSupples.com/Lightfoot Ltd. has one for $599. There might be some cheaper ones out there, maybe on eBay. I'm lucky enough to be borrowing one from a co-worker.

The upside to having your own hole punch is you don't have to wait for a ream of punched paper to ship. And when you're pretty lax on stocking supplies like myself, it really helps to have a puncher at your side.

Paper. So if you don't feel like shelling out 600 bones for a punch, you'll have to buy pre-punched paper. (I could make a link again to Cartoonsupplies/Lightfood but I'm not sure if they have the best prices for punched paper).

If you're going the hole puncher route- any 81/2x 11 copy paper will do. I usually buy recycled, even though it sometimes has a rougher grain and some more flecks in it. It's worth it, planet wise, since I've resisted the jump to the paperless animation route- mostly due my lack of skill on a Wacom tablet and the expense of Cintiqs.


Lightbox. You might be able to find Light Tracers and Porta-Trace's at some art stores around town since people can use them for photography and making stencils and stuff. If you search for these things on Amazon, they come up in weird categories like Home Improvement or Home & Garden. Strange.

I've got a Porta-Trace light box with two lights in it. It's great for seeing through 3 or more drawings, and I like not having a pegbar molded to the drawing surface. It gives you more free space and flexiblity. However, there are some great swivel light boxes that allow you to spin around your drawings; simulating a full on animation desk. Those are great for cleaning up. It's easiest for me to draw downward strokes, so having that option of spinning the drawing around so that I making the same general hand movements is great. It's a personal preference in the end.

If you're good with crafts and DIY building, you can make an animation desk with wood, a sheet of plastic and some flourescent lights. Works just the same. And you'll be much cooler or doing it on your own.

Camera & Tripod. To do pencil tests, you're going to need a tripod and any video camera that can send a feed to your computer. I use an old camera hooks up to my computer via firewire, and run the pencil tests using the demo of a program called FrameThief. I talk a a little bit about pencil tests in this blog post.

Scanner. Stores like Best Buy and the dying Circuit City barely have a selection of scanners that aren't those bigger print/fax/scan in one deals. It's kind of sad how electronic stores have turned into giant cell phone kiosks and TV dealers. Anyways, don't buy H.P. scanners. I'm sure they're just as high quality as any other scanner, but their scanning interface sucks.

Even if you're using Photoshop, you have to capture a scan via the scanners own interface. Since you're scanning hundreds of drawings, that have to line up with one another, you're going to want your scan marquee and settings to be the same each time- so you can just keep hitting SCAN. With the H.P. interface, the scan settings reset each time. If you want to save your scan settings, you have to make a little scan profile and load it each time you scan. It's just an extra, annoying step, and you've already got enough clicking to do.

I use an Epson Perfection. It's Advanced User interface allows for a good amount of tweaking, it saves the most recently used scan marquee and doesn't create some blown out auto setting each time you preview a new scan.


Microphone. If you're going to record dialogue for your shorts, you might want to invest in a semi decent microphone. I went down to Guitar Center and bought this AT4040 Cardioid Condensor mic at the advice of some sound engineers at my work. It's been working well for me, but I'm sure there's a myriad of models that'd do just fine.


MBox2 Mini. This piece of hardware allows you to record and edit in Pro Tools LE. It's the cheapest and smallest of their systems, but does in no way lack in quality. If you really need to, you could probably record using some shareware programs, like ones for podcasting, to capture and roughyl edit audio. I know that Final Cut has a Voice Over tool you could probably use to the same end. However Pro Tools is premiere audio program, and I make everyone do a billion takes and like to throw fancy ass compressors on my tracks to sweeten them up like sugar- so it's good for me.

Computer. Sorry Luddites, you're gonna need to borrow or buy one to do what we do, and it should probably be a Mac. I come from a Mac Family. Even though we started with a Commodore 64 (moving next to an archaic orange text on black screen laptop, then an Emerson IBM Compatible) we eventually made the switch to Apple and never looked back.

It was part of an entire childhood and adolescence as the secondary option underdog. I was a Jew, who owned a Sega Genesis and had Mac computers. How much more of an outcast can you get? My people suffered for years. I was persecuted in C++ class. The PC kids wrote "SMACK THE MAC" in binary on the white board. It was traumatic, but I made it through. And now I can stand proud and tall without fear of ridicule for my Apple Heritage. Complain about coffee shop hipsters all you want- we have survived.

Books. Ok, the last but most important part. If you're going to make animation like we do, you're going to need to LEARN TO ANIMATE. I can't go into detail on how to do that, I'm not smart enough. But if you want to learn, check out these books:

The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams
Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair

Or Animation Meat, as Smo pointed out to me. Other blogs and forums have some notes and practice stuff posted on them, all from much more reputable sources than myself. So search those out too.


Ok so that's part one. Sorry it was so long. The next step will be about scanning, cleaning and coloring your work. So look out for it soon. And sorry for all the unintentional product endorsements. If anyone asks, I told you to steal everything.

Everything but the peg bars.