Transcripts
1. Class Introduction: Hi. Welcome to this class
on animated Mandalas. In this class, you'll be learning how to create
animated mandalas, which can be used for
any number of use cases, like using it as your own personal digital
product to be sold online or to be used at the therapeutic backdrop for your videos or just
a personal project. My name is Tiari. I
have over four years of experience in kind of
distialillustrations, and creating Mandlas
in specific. So in this class,
we'll learn step by step onto how to
create a mandala. What are the philosophy behind
what Mandala is all about, and we'll create mandalas and animate them in three
distinct animation styles, which is inward to outward, outward to inward, and
then the rotation. And even we will give you
multiple tips and tricks which I use in my kind
of day to day practice. So for this class,
you might need only an iPad and
appropriate app installed, and preferable Apple
pencil as stylus. You might not need any
drawing experience because all the lessons are
step by step structure, so it's easy to follow. But if you have drawing
experience, that's good for you. As part of class project, you'll be completing or creating three distinct mandala designs
with animation styles, which can be used on your
own portfolio or even be sold as a digital product
for different use cases. I'm so excited to
share everything I know about creating
animated mandalas, and I see in the
class section below.
2. Procreate Animation Foundations: Your Digital Animation Studio: All right, let's dive right into Procreate animation
as this feature. We'll open a new file first, go to the plus icon on top
right hand corner. New Canvas. We'll go for the dimensions
of 2048 by 2048. Okay. And the DPA pixels
will be 300. Why square? Because mandalas are inherently circular and
symmetrical in nature, and a square canvas gives us perfect balance for
our radial designs. Now we press the tick icon
and we have the canvas ready. And now here's where
the magic begins. Go to the action
Stab. I'm sorry. Go to the action stab and then this little ch
icon animation assist. You mark it selected. See how you can see
how the interface is transformed into this box
which we get in the bottom. You have now a timeline
controls at the bottom, and this is where
we'll orchestrate our animation meditation. And now let me show you the three animation styles
we're going to master. First one is frame
by frame animation. So let's say there's
an animation style and there's an
animation going on. So you'll be designing every single frame of a
video or animated thing. So basically, all
these images will be played down in kind of
a short span of time, which will appear to be
like you're animating it. That is first, which is
frame by frame animation. This is the traditional
cell animation where each frame is
a separate drawing. It gives you complete control but requires more work of it. Right? So we'll see an
example for this now. Delete this layer,
add a new frame. Okay, first first, we'll have a simple circle
on one frame, right? And the next frame, we'll
add a bigger circle. Again, this is just to show what kind of animations
you'll be doing using mandalas to add kind
of a few more frames so that you could see clearly how the animation functions, especially the frame
by frame animation. We'll add at least six
frames. And the last one. So now you can go to
the settings here and ensure the frame per second
is either 12 or six, we'll go for 12 now,
the entire animation will be only of half a second. Play. Can you see? This is the animation style
which we're talking about, which is actually a
traditional one where every frame of the animation
is being drawn hand drawn. Pause. This is one kind
of animation which you'll be learning and we'll be implementing it in
the Mandela aspect. Right? And the second style is onion skimming or
onion skinning. So let's see the ghost images of your previous and
the next frames, making it easier to create
your smooth transition. So if you see the onion
skin frames, right? This is something where it will help us to
create our animation. So let's say you're
in frame three now, you will see the previous
frame where it is, right? Can you see it now? Basically, the frame
you're drawing in, let's say we're adding
a seventh frame here. So you will know exactly
where the sixth frame was. And this particular technique
is called onion skin. And here's something
which is very crucial about
mandala animations, they should loop seamlessly. The last frame should connect perfectly back to
the first frame, creating an endless
and meditative cycle. This is what makes
them perfect for meditation apps
and social media. Okay? So in this case, if you see the circle
which you already taken off, it doesn't loop well. Okay? It again goes
back to the start. But what if we again duplicate these and place
it on the other side? Right? So now if you play it, the first and the last
frame sum, right? The first and the
last frame sim. So it'll feel like a loop. It doesn't feel like it's
going back and forth. Okay? So that's the whole idea, especially when you're
doing Mandala animations. And this is actually
something which is kind of a pro technique for
testing your animations. Always use the
preview section here. Yeah, like this,
you can skim and see how things are going on. Don't have to wait to see the finished product to
see how it works. Animation is all about
timing and flow. So you need to feel the
rhythm as you create, not only at the end
of the product. And here's something
most people miss. Your animation should breathe
just like in meditation. So there should be
moments of expansion and contraction,
activity and rest. And this creates
a natural rhythm that draws viewers
into meditative state. So your practical exercise
for this lessons, you'll be creating three
simple test animations. Okay? For the styles
which we have shown, don't worry about
making them perfect. Just get comfortable with
the tools and the workflow. Start with something
very simple, maybe a circle that
grows and shrinks, kind of just like
how we have done or a line that rotates. Goal is to understand
how the animation tools work even before we dive into the complex
mandala designs. Again, the action
step is complete your three test
animations and save them. Play with the frame raves
and timing until you find the rhythm that feels kind of more meditative and
calming in nature. This foundation will become very supportive on everything will be building in the
coming lessons also. I'll meet you in
the next lesson.
3. Sacred Geometry Meets Digital Art: Mandala Design Principles: Perfect. Now, so
welcome to Lesson two. This is sacred geometry
Mates digital art, Mandala design principles. Now, now we're going to dive deep into the
heart of mandala creation. And I want you to
understand that we are not just making
pretty patterns here. Mandalas have been used for thousands of years as
tools for meditation, healing, and spiritual growth. And when we animate them, we are honoring that tradition, making it accessible to
modern audiences, right? So let's start with the
fundamental principle. The word mandala comes from the Sanskrit world means
circle or completion. That's the overall idea of
what we are doing, right? So every mandala radiates from the center point representing the idea that everything the
universe kind of emulates. From the single source. That's the overall idea
which you always look for. Now in Procreate,
we're going to use the symmetry tool in honor to
use this principle, right? So we'll clear this off. Perfect. Now we'll go
to the action stab, go to Drawing Guide, edit drawing guide, go to the symmetry
option in the last, go for the options,
and go for radial. Now you see there are
eight different uh kind of segments in our canvas. So this is what we want.
To show an example, if I draw something
on the first segment, all the eight segments
will have the same thing. Right? So actually
this whole tool will become like
a friend for you, especially when you're
creating your mandalas. I usually start off with eight fold symmetry where
you can see right now, one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight. But you can go multiple folds, you can go even four or even 12. It depends on you,
whichever number feels right for
your design, right? Here's something important about traditional mandala structure. Most mandalas have
three main zones. First is the center, okay which represents
the self or divine. The second one is a middle zone. This middle zone, right, which represents the journey or transformation, goes
outward, right? And then the outer zone, which represents the world. Let's say we are
creating something, this represents
the world aspect. So when we animate
these three zones, we can tell a story. Maybe it's actually maybe the
center pulses the life out. Okay? The middle zone rotates
the journey of growth, and the outer zone breaths
with rhythm of universe. So see how animation
can actually enhance the spiritual meaning
of designing a mandala. Now let me show you how to
create the foundation of a mandala and again,
clear this off. First, we'll start off with
something a simple.in center. In Sanskrit, this
is called a BinduR? Ensure the animation layer
assist is on drawing assist. Only then you'll be able to have this symmetry tool, right? It's actually a
point of creation. From here, everything
else will grow. Okay? Now we're going to add
the first ring of elements. These might be petals or geometric patterns or
even abstract patterns. The key is that they should
feel balanced and harmonious. Remember, symmetry is doing
most of our work for us. So we just have to focus on one particular aspect of
the entire canvas, right? So ensure the bindu
is exactly circle. Which gives us a
symmetrical look, right? Perfect. Now we'll
have the middle zone. We are creating
something like a flower. Again, we'll add a
symbol of flower with a second layer of uh thing. Yeah. If in case your lines are not accurate,
that's totally fine. We can always correct
it. As of now, we're just looking at the form, what kind of form you want. Right? Yeah. We can
darken this also. Right or you can even
continue doing this. This is where the
entangled patterns come in beautifully, right? Zentangles are those
intricate repetitive patterns that are perfect for filling
in the mandala sections. Let's say you have kind of
section here with lemon tea, you can add zentangle
patterns here. You can add shapes like this and then create
flowering elements. Something like this or Do you see it? So the idea of Zentangles are perfect when it comes
to mandalla drawing. And this particular pattern
is called flows, right? And you can even add few kind of inverted tressents which goes
very well with mandalas. Can you see this? It's
beautiful, right? Again, keep continuing them. Right? So it's actually
completely an intuitive process. Sometimes you feel
what is required and you just add on
those things, right? And now let's talk about
the spiritual significance of colors and mandala, okay? I'll give you a basic kind of overview so that
we can follow. Whenever we are kind of
coloring our mandalla. Red always represents
passion and strength, right? So the bright reds are
always passion and strength. And the blue color,
mostly all the shades of blue represents
peace and healing. Yellow shades or yellow color represents wisdom
and enlightenment. Green color represents
ruth and harmony. So when you animate,
color changes, right? So you're creating
a journey through a different emotion
and spiritual states. And here's the technique I love for creating depth in
the digital mandala, which is layering, okay? So imagine that your central layer is
a bit lighter, right? The second layer
is more thicker. If you add on to a third layer, make it more dark or more
thick in nature, right? So you will see a
transition here, okay? You'll see different layers. The central part is very thin
in terms of line weight, a second or the middle
part is a bit thicker. A third or the outer part
is far more thicker, right? So this is where the
layer organization comes in when you're
planning your mandalas. And actually, one
more advantage of redesigning things in
a layer basis is we can animate them
separately so that we can have different kinds of
animation styles in our mandala. And here's something that makes
digital mandalas special. We can incorporate elements that would be impossible
in traditional media. Let's say like gradients or
shift and flow or patterns that morph and transform colors that cycle through
the entire spectrum. So these are add ons
which we can have, especially when we are
designing the digital mandalas. But remember, just because we can do something
doesn't mean we should. The most powerful
mandala designs maintain the meditative quality of
traditional mandalas, right? So they should be calm in
mind, not overstimulated. So the things which
we have seen of is how to plan your mandala before starting the
animation, right? So basically, I have kind of sketched out the basic
structure first, where it will be the center, and then elements go in each zone and how they might move. This planning phase saves a
lot of hours of work later. So a practical exercise
for you in this lesson is, you need to create
a static mandala using Procreate's
symmetrical tool, which we have used right now. Focus on creating at least
three distinct zone, like central zone, middle zone, and the outer zone. Okay? And don't animate it yet, we'll create a beautiful
balanced static design first. Okay? You can use at least two different
zentangle patterns and incorporate meaningful colors
if in case it's required, actually, even if you want
multiple patterns to use, you can always do so, right? But make sure the design feels
balanced and harmonious. The static version will become the foundation for your
animation in the next lesson.
4. Bringing Mandalas to Life: Core Animation Techniques: Welcome to Lesson three,
bringing your Mandalas to life. Alright, this is where
the real magic happens. You're going to
take this beautiful static mandla which we have created in the previous lesson
and breathe life into it. And I'm going to show you my
core animation techniques that will make your mandalas absolutely mesmerized, right? So first, we'll have a copy of this mandalla so that we always have the original to
work upon, right? Now, we'll take the copy now. So in this panel which
we have in the bottom, select the mandla which you have and place it as background. So that we can draw on it. And if possible, you can reduce the opacity of it so that it's clear what we are
drawing on top. Perfect. Add a flame. All right. So first technique is what I
call as progressive reveize. The first technique which I call is progressive revelation. Okay? This is where the
mandalla appears to grow from the center to outward, like a flowed, how
it blossoms, right? Or thought kind of thinking of expanding
into a consciousness. And this is incredibly powerful for kind of
meditation because it mirrors the natural progress
of awareness expanding. And actually here's
how you do it, right? So first, so this is actually a frame by frame animation which you
always planned for. So first you start
with the center. You start with the Bindu
which you always talked about and go to the next frame. Ensure each and every frame
is in drawing assist, so that it will be emulated in all the other eight
things, right? You'll notice that
when you add a frame, the drawing assist
won't be coming up. So you can either do it manually or you can duplicate
the recent frame for which you have added
the drawing assist the second frame
which we are having. You see, you'll
continue drawing this. But it'll be, again, as a background, you have the basic original
mandala design, right? You can add multiple
duplicates of the empty frame so that it's easy for you when you're
continuously drawing the frames. I can increase the onion
skin opacity and reduce the number of skins to
one is also good enough. We'll continue with the same thing which we're always doing. Go to the next frame.
It's like you're kind of, like, re tracing what
you've already done, right? And you can see the animation
how it's progressive. It is very important.
You can reduce the frames for you to
be comfortable with. Now we'll go for the last
frame which we have. We continue the same way
for all the other aspects. First we'll complete the
inner circle, right? So in this frame, we'll actually add on and go
a bit deeper like this, right? A similar fashion. All right. So if you play
this now, can you see this? Now, in the last
frame, what you do is, uh, duplicate the last frame. Again, you fill up the center. Okay. There'll be one
like this coming up. The remaining four can
win the next claims. Y. So if you zoom out and play the
entire animation, you'll see that
it's starting from the center and going
all the way out. That's the overall idea
which we are planning for. Since the center part is sun, you'll continue the same
thing for the middle zone, right? Again, duplicate this. You see that slowly we are progressing into the
overall mandala. Okay. Kind of just to ensure that you progress
in a similar pattern, how you progress from the center where you started this aspect. A similar fashion for
the middle zone also, you start from the
corners and try to emulate and kind of finish off and then
come into the center. After you complete
the middle zone, again, you'll go
for the outer ring. Outer ring before doing that, you have to do um kind of like the semicircle or
the kind of crescent which you have to complete
on all the four sides. Right? So we'll dig deeper, then continue the same drawing. We can complete the
middle zone here. Perfect. So now we'll play
the entire animation again. It's important that you keep
playing and kind of, like, seeing how the
animation is going through because it's kind of like the process entices entire process is
iterative in nature. So you don't play
out at the end. Okay, you see the flow, how it's happening in every
step of the process. We go to this layer,
duplicate it. Yes, we'll finish off the
aspects which are here. We might avoid the
box here, right? Because that was a
guide box which fitted. How we have done
this floors pattern of sentangle in a
similar fashion, we'll do for the kind
of crescents also. First, we'll start with
the central crescent. We continue and follow along, so it's easy for you when
you're doing the process. Yes, so we have completed
the central zone also. Now we had to go to
the outer part, right, and then duplicate it.
We'll start off here. Look, there's no
shape like this, but still since we are
going from the interiors, it's better if you
have a shape like this which will grow outward. Almost completion, right? We just have one more path. We'll duplicate this and
we are good to go, right? So we are completed the entire
Mandala animation here. So we'll delete all
the extra layers so that while playing it out, we don't see any empty frames. That's very important. And now we will kind of disable
or hide the background. Okay. We can go through this
and hide the background, and we'll see the animation
throughout. Can you see it? So the entire mandalla
starts off from the center and moves outward. This is the first one which
we are talking about, right? So we'll pass
mandalla design here. And we'll go for the
second style now. Second style is
coming from outward to indoor or you can
do the rotation cycle. The second style is rotation.
We'll duplicate this. It's just a simple
rotation which you can do. This won't take much time also, but it'll give you a nice look. Like, we'll have to rotate
it too. That's a ten degree. Okay. We'll keep that constant, duplicate it. Again, ten degree. I need not be exactly ten, again, you can keep
it like 9.5 or 10.5. You can have that in range. So you don't have to
worry so much time on kind of making it
exactly ten degrees. As you see here, I'm just
averaging it out to ten, but usually it's like 9.5 or
10.2 or something like that, right? That's totally fine. Because you won't see
that difference majorly, especially when it comes to a very small angle difference. You continue the process again. The thing is more
frames you have, more the animation
will look smoother. And based on the
frame rate also. If you have, let's
say 12 frames and you have your animation set
to 12 frames per second, so the entire animation will last only for
a second, right. So it'll be finished in
a glance. All right. Now, since if you see all the frames of
encompassed a circle, you can go to the settings here and do ping pong or
one shot or loop. Here we'll go for a loop, you will see a difference
when you play it here. It's rotating, right? Now, if we do a ping pong
shot, it'll go back and forth. If you do a one shot,
it's just again, as the name suggests, one
shot. That's it'll stop. And you can increase or
decrease the frame rate. Let's say if you bring
into 12 and take a loop shot, we'll see
it keeps on going. Again, if you increase the frame to 24, let's say in our case, it'll be finished
in half a second, but it'll be a bit smoother compared to the
reduced frame rates. So yeah, these are
the two techniques that we'll be looking into, and you have a class
project on this. So I would want you to try
both these techniques. Let's say the mandalas,
which is starting from the center and
kind of moving outward, and then the rotation style. And the third one would be an opposite to the
first one, okay? Since the first one we worked from inside to outside, right? This can be an anti life theme where it goes from
outside to inside. Okay? I'll give you a basic
suggestion on that and then we'll actually work
on that and actually you can work on that
on a project section. Again, a similar fashion, you uh make it as a background
first, then add frame. Reduce the background opacity so it's clear what
you're drawing on. This I'll make it as
a six frame mandala, so it's easy to follow through. But it's better if you
have multiple frames, at least 12 frames in
the overall picture. I'm sorry, I can't ensure
you have the drawing assist on and duplicate
it multiple times. Again, it's
completely intuitive. You can choose which way you
would want to go, right? I started from the top corner. You can start from
the side corner also. That's totally fine. Again, if you feel, you
can change something, please do because that's the overall idea of doing
your own thing, right? As you see the outer
layer is done, when duplicate it again, we'll start with the crescents. While doing the crescents,
you can zoom in, then it'll be easy for us to fill in those parts
if it's zoomed in well. Or else the chance of
mistake will be more. The crescents are done now. I'll start with the
outer layer again. Outer layer of the middle part. But see the now the mandala is shaping up. Outwards to indoors or inwards. We continue the same
process which we always do. And you see that we have
missed this central part. It's okay. We can continue that. Since we actually the first animation style, we
went from right to left. We'll go from left
to right with style. I We're almost coming to the completion of the
third animation style, which we are learning
in this lesson. Perfect. Now we will delete the extra layers and then
hide the background. Now we'll play the
animation, right? Ensure it's in the loop mode, so it's easy for us to
see multiple times. Can you see the difference now? It's coming from
outwards to inwards. Is actually one kind of
mandalla style also. So as part of this class lesson, I would want you to try out all the three
techniques which we have learned here and try out even if it's not a
complicated mandala, even with a simple shape, you can do it from
invert to outward, outward to inward, and
then the rotation. All the three techniques,
whether you familiarize yourself with the techniques
and working on the tool.
5. Creating Dimensional Depth: In this lesson, we'll be
looking into the colors and putting on colors and adding in different kind
of notation schemes. So this is the first
animation style we tried, which is from inward to outward. Now, either you
can add colors in every single frame while
doing the drawing itself, or you can start off with
the end frame, right? Now, since this is
done, duplicate it, and in this frame, we'll try
to add in colors, right? So for this, go to Alpha
lock and then go to colors. Duplicate. I'm sure that solc
is still assisted is on. You go same thing but all
the other elements also. If you see if you play
from here, right? So there's a process
of making a mandala, and then there'll be a
crass bit of coloring also. We can continue the same
for the inverts, right? Again, ensure its insect
an alpha lob and then you can kind of color fill
every single crescent. Or if you have time and
you see the worth of it, then you can even do this
small aspect of crescent and add in more colors
in the next frames. All right. In this frame, again, we'll start
with the red from top. Increase the size, so it's
easiest for you to draw. You can see that
we are following the same pattern of how we
did the black and white. It's just adding color
in a different frames. All right. So we have colored
the entire mandala now, we'll play the whole
thing, so to review it. I actually the
construction phase and then the coloring phase.
You understand this? Yeah. So always be mindful of
the number of layers also. The more number of
layers you get, animation might
slow down based on your iPad, so be
mindful of that. And once you get your final, you know, mandalla, you can add three D
effects also, right? So let's say you bring
in a white colour or light colored silhouette and
then add in highlights here. Duplicated. Right? So it makes a slight difference
on to what we are doing. And if you add a
green, you can add multiple the same
highlights layer. You can add in even
blacks, right? So for the first
highlight, you take a black color and add outlines. Ensure that the
Calfo lock is off. This is just an arrow
on which we have to the shortcut for switching
on or off alpha locus, two finger swipe to the right
on that particular layer. So we test the entire
animation now, construction phase, colors, highlights and shadows, right? If you increase if you
reduce the frame rate, you can see far more clearly. But again, it'll look
like a choppy animation. So it's completely up to you what kind of style
you're opting for. And if you want a more
smoother animation, then you can add in more frames.
6. Class Project: And now as part of the
class project, uh, you can bring in
multiple kind of creative variations
and even have a personal style
development process where you have your
own mandala styles. And when you say mandala styles, it can be like you can
have a set of mandalas which are circle kind of in
terms of majority shapes. Others can be like a
flower type, right, where it has four or six corners or it can be like hexagonal. Or octagon, whichever
you're comfortable with. Or they can be square
mandelas also, where you can incorporate
the zentangle style. Again, as we symbolize the mandala, it will
start from the center, but it will grow to the cordus, not necessarily in all
directions, right? So you can bring in your own style
developments like that. And then again, kind of, have your own
animation styles from inward to outward or outward
to inward or rotation. Or you can even try out with pan Zoom in and
all these effects, which we usually
do on the phone. You can even do it in
the mandala style. For example, how you do this is let's say this
is cream, right? And in the first scene, you have your mandla
in this position. The next frame, you move
it to the next side. The next frame, again, kind of two or three
pixels on the right. And at the end, you'll
have your mandalla here. So when you play
out that animation, it looks like you're panning
the entire mandala design. So as part of class project, I want you to do at least three
unique animated mandalas. You can incorporate
the styles and animation techniques which
we have introduced in this lesson and post it on the comment section or the project and download
section below, right? I'll be so happy to share your work to all the other
students at the same time, give my opinion on your design. But again, it's not
a criticism because everybody's unique perspective of creativity is different. So explore your style, explore your colors, explore your shadows and highlights
the way you would like to. And I would like to see your projects in the project section. I hope you kind of understood
the techniques and the philosophy behind this class and learned a thing or
two from this lessons. Thank you so much
and keep creating.
Srihari Muralidhar
