Easy Procreate Animation: Make Fun Gifs & Videos

1. Introduction: [MUSIC] You love drawing on your iPad and think it would be cool to bring your drawings alive. Then this is the class for you. Hi. I am Isaiah Caroona and I am a Senior Art Director and teacher on Skillshare and I have several years of experience working in advertising agencies, that's specialized in video projects ranging from animated explainer videos to social content and broadcast commercials and the best part of my job has always been being able to add hand-drawn animations to my client projects. Animation and scroll stopping, and has the ability to engage your audience. In this class, you will create a fun dynamic looping animation procreate while learning about traditional animation techniques, we will walk through the frame-by-frame animation process. How to make an image or texts wiggle, how to create a morphing animation, and how you straight ahead animation. We won't stop there. I will also walk you through how you can combine these techniques to create a more dynamic animation that will impress your family and friends. Lastly, I will show you how to export your animation for different uses so you can share them in any way you want. Adding animation to your illustrations is a lot easier than you think. You don't have to have any previous animation experience to take the class. I have designed this class to help illustrators and anyone else that enjoys drawing and has interests in adding motion. All you need is an iPad, Apple pencil, and a procreate app. Procreate makes the animation process simple and easy to pick up and as a teacher with several animation classes on Skillshare, is important to make animation accessible to everyone. Which is why I'm teaching this class with procreate instead of a confusing and complicated animation software. If you're ready to take your illustrations to the next level with animation, then let's get started. [MUSIC] 2. Class Overview: [MUSIC] Welcome to my class. I'm so excited to have you here. Your class project is to make a looping animation using one or more other techniques from this class. It can be anything from a simple text animation to a fun character animation. Just make sure I have fun with it. To help you create your personalized animation, I will walk you through three fun animation techniques: Wiggle Animation, Morphing, and Straight Ahead Animation. Once you have those techniques down, I will walk you through an example project so you can see my entire process for thinking through and animating a project. Next, we'll take everything you learned a step further, and I will walk you through how I combine multiple techniques to create a more advanced animation project. This way, you'll gain a strong understanding of the animation techniques and how you can apply them to anything you want. The animation possibilities are unlimited. Then in the last lesson, I will walk you through exporting your animation in Procreate as a GIF and a video. If you get lost or need any help anytime throughout this class, feel free to leave questions in the Discussion section of the class, and I'll be happy to help. For this class, you'll need an iPad with the Procreate app and the Apple pencil. You will also have access to my helpful animation guide and working files, which all can be found in the Resources section of the class. An important note, resources are currently not available through Skillshare's app, so make sure you use a web browser to download them. Once you've finished the lessons, I encourage you to take a moment to upload your project to the Project Gallery so we can all see the cool animation you made. I'm so excited to see what you all make, so let's get started with our first animation technique in the next lesson. 3. Wiggle Animation: [MUSIC] In this lesson, I will walk you through the wiggle animation technique. The first example I will walk you through is a text animation. To start out, I have drawn the word, I will be animating. Next, I'm going to activate Procreates Animation Assist. To do that, go up and tap the wrench icon, which will pull up the Actions menu. Next, you'll want to make sure you have the Canvas sub menu, select it as shown here. Now you will go here and toggle on Animation Assist. Then now we have the animation timeline, which you can see here at the bottom. In order to animate my text, I'm going to click Add frame, which will add a brand new thumbnail in the timeline. Since I want to just animate the line inside the text, I'm going to make my type layer the background, so it stays static throughout the animation. Tip; before setting up your animation, think through what parts you want animated in which you will keep static. This will help you save so much time so you can set up your animation correctly from the beginning. To make a layer, the static background frame, you will tap that frame to bring up the Frame Options and then toggle on background. But what do you do if you're not seeing the background toggle option? First thing you would want to do is make sure that layer is at the bottom of the layers panel. Likewise, if you want a static layer on the top of your animation, makes sure is that the top layer in your panel. In my next frame, I'm going to draw some wiggly lines inside the tags and then I will redraw my lines again in a new frame. Next, I will add a new frame and then repeat the process by redrawing my lines for the third time. Why am I doing this in threes? Drawing animation frames in threes helps create a purposeful animation look when it's loop. Next, I'm going to play back my animation. It's moving so fast. I'm going to tap the Settings and use the frames per second slider to reduce the speed to six frames per second. Then now I'm going to preview that animation and after seeing it, I'm going to adjust that up a little bit to nine frames per second. To find the right speed for your project, preview the animation at different speeds and see what looks best for you. There's no one size that fits all. For our next exercise, let's apply this technique to a character. I have the Animation Assist already enabled, and now I'm going to adjust my settings. I'm going to use the slider to reduce the onion skin opacity and onion skin frames to make it easier to redraw my character. Now I'm going to redraw my character. I'm just trying to make sure my lines match up with the previous frame as I just want a natural wiggle, not a drastic shift between the frames. Next, I'm going to add a frame and I'd like to move it in-between the existing frames so I can see where the o for those frames overlap. If you realize your lines are getting a little off, you can hold down on the screen after completing a line and then readjust it so it lines up better like I did here. Then I will finish drawing the rest of the character. Next, I'm going to play back the animation to review the end result. Once again, I'm going to tap Settings and reduce the frames per second and play back again. Watching back, I'm going to refine some of those lines and then playback again to make sure I'm happy. To recap. In this lesson, we talked about how to create a looping Wiggle animation by just tracing a drawing or texts two times. Then in then the next lesson, I will walk you through morphing an animation. 4. Morphing: [MUSIC] In this lesson, I will walk you through how to create a morphing animation. Let's start with our animated character from the last session. I'm going to tap "Add Frame" to create a brand-new frame and now I'm going to draw a new character that's within the same space as the original character. Now this is important as it will help make the morphing effect more seamless if they're relatively the same size. Next, I'm going to tap on the previous frame and then tap "Add Frame". You may be asking yourself, why did I add a new frame before the frame I just drew? This is actually a traditional animation practice of drawing the key frames or primary frames first and then going in and drawing the in-between frames. So for this project, I'm going to draw frames that will show the progression of the morph from the first character to the second. So the characters are going to be those primary key frames. So with the first in-between frame, I'm redrawing the first character as it starts to morph into the second. Then for the second frame, I want this frame to be a middle ground between the two characters. Then for the third in-between frame, this one will be closer to the second character and then I'm going to add in another frame. Then this time, I'm going to redraw the second character super close to its final form. Next, I'll play back the animation. Now, I'm going to repeat the wiggle process with a second character. So when it's played back, the second character will wiggle like the first character. As with the previous lesson, in order to have the second character have the wiggle effect, I will redraw that final character two times and then I will play the whole animation. This looks funny because the animation is just jumping from the final frame to the first frame. To create a true looping animation, we need to actually switch our settings from "Loop" to "Ping-Pong". Now when it's played, it actually will give the impression that it's looping back and forth between the characters. To recap, in this lesson, we created a morphing animation by drawing the two characters first which served as our key or primary frames, and then drawing the in-between frames which would show the progression of the character morphing into another character. In the next lesson, I will show you the straight-ahead animation technique. 5. Straight Ahead Animation: [MUSIC] In this lesson, I will walk you through straight ahead animation, which is when you draw out an animation sequence frame-by-frame from start to end. This technique is great for embellishments and visual effects where you want to create a liquidly animation or a spontaneous action. Since I will be only animating the light accents, I will make the light bulb layer my static background frame, and then the new layer, I will draw dots where the light accents will begin, and then I will add a new frame and draw a short line from the dots outward, and then in a new frame, I'll redraw the line a little further out, and then I will continue drawing the lines longer in a new frame. In the next blank frame, I will start my lines a little further out as I want the accents to taper off as they extend. To create a smoother transition, I will add a trail of dots from the lines to depict the tapering effect. This process of stretching and squashing is a principle of animation, which makes your animation look more realistic as it gives the illusion of gravity, and then I'm going to add a new frame, and here I'm going to reduce the onion skin frames to help me better see where the last frame leaves off, and I will repeat these steps from the last frame by continuing to have the line tapering off as it keeps extending outward, and then I'll repeat the steps again and another frame with the line continuing to get shorter as it goes out, and then in a new frame, I will continue to draw shorter. We'll continue the process until it's just a few dots at the end. In this last part of the animation is made using fewer drawings, which will give the illusion that the animation is speeding up as it goes outward. Playing with the timing of your animation is going to give you a more dynamic animation. Lastly, I will add a new blank frame, which will show the accents are completely gone. Next, I'm going to add a hole to the last frame, so you can easily tell the accents have vanished before the animation loops back to the start, and then I will play the full animation, and this looks so great. In this lesson, we discuss several animation principles. First, we talked about straight ahead animation, which is when you draw an animation sequence frame-by-frame from start to end. Then we discussed timing and how you can use the number of drawings from the start to the end of your animation to depict how the animation speeds up and slows down. Lastly, this lesson discussed stretching and squashing and how this principle of animation creates the illusion of gravity, weight, and flexibility, which makes your animation look more realistic. Then next lesson, I will walk you through my full process for creating your class project. 6. Animating Your Project: In this lesson, I will walk you through my process for creating the class project. First step is to set up your file. I'm going to use 1080 by 1080, but feel free to customize your file size to fit your purpose. Next, select your subject. For my example, I will be animating the words new class. Next, animate your subject using one or more techniques. Lastly, export your animation as a gift or video. Step 1, animating the outline. To start out, I'm going to redraw just the outline of my text animation twice to get a wiggle effect. It's important to start out the outline first and get that animation right before adding in the coloring details. Now I'm going to repeat the same process and redraw my text for the second time, which will create my third frame of animation. As with before, I will play back the animation and adjust my frames per second to get the right speed for my animation. Next, I will go in and fix any areas where the lines are varying too much or looking odd when played. In this step though, there will be a lot of back-and-forth of fixing and playing back the animation until I'm happy with the final look. [MUSIC] Step 2, adding color and details. Once I'm happy with the outlines, I'm going to add a new blank layer and drop in on my first text layer to create a layer group. Next, I'm going to choose my color tip. You can tap on the outline layer and select reference layer to allow you easily drop your solid color into your outlines on your new blank layer. Then I will reorder the layers within the group so that color is under the outline. Then I will repeat this process with the second outline form. Next, I'll repeat it again with the third text outline frame. Now I'm going to add a new blank frame to the layer group, and with a lighter color, I will draw highlights on my letters to give my texts some character and dimension. I will repeat this process with the other two frames and will quickly replay the animation. Now, I'm going to add a new layer and draw shadows on my text. These are simple details, but they really bring my text to live. Once again, I will repeat the shadow on the other two frames and playback to review the whole composition and make any refinements as needed. That's it. To recap the process we started by selecting something to animate, then we started our animation by just drawing the outlines and getting the animation right before adding in the color in details last. In the next lesson, I will walk you through an example of a project that uses multiple techniques. 7. Applying Multiple Animation Techniques: [MUSIC] In this lesson, I will walk you through a project that uses multiple animation techniques at once. To start out, let's break down the different elements of the animation. The first part we have is our static elements, which is the go time. Since they are above the wiggly lines, I will have this layer setup as my foreground. The second part of this animation are those wavy lines which use the wiggle technique. The third part of this animation are the sparkles, which are using the straight ahead technique similar to the light bulb animation example I walked you through earlier in this class. Let's walk through my process for animating the sparkle on top of the wiggle animation. To start out, I'm going to draw a diamond shape and the first frame, and then in the second frame, I will draw the diamond getting bigger. To make this easier, I'm going to add in the blank frames to each layer group. Going back to a third frame, I'm going to redraw the sparkle but have the points extend out. Then I will tap on the blank layer and the next layer group or layer frame and redraw the sparkle, rotate it a bit and the inner part a little bit smaller and the points more pointy. In the next blank layer, I will lower my stroke size and redraw the sparkle, rotate it a bit further and smaller than the previous frame. The next blank frame, I will redraw the sparkle, rotate it more and filled in. The next blank frame, I will draw a smaller rotated shape. Then the last frame, I will delete the blank layer as I want to show the sparkle has completely vanished. Now I'm going to play back my animation to see how it looks. That looks super cool. Next, I'm going to show you a technique that's going to allow you to duplicate any animate elements so you can save time and you don't have to redraw new animations. The first thing I'm going to do is go through and duplicate each sparkle layer. Next, I'm going to select all those duplicated layers that I just created. With them still selected, I'm going draw that sparkle from the bottom-left corner to the top right. Lastly, I will hit "Play" to view this final animation. As you can see, this is an easy way to duplicate animated elements, which makes your final animation more complex and interesting. To recap, we learned in this lesson how to use the layer groups to animate multiple elements at the same time, and even how to duplicate animated elements. You can utilize those animations in multiple areas. In the next lesson, I will walk you through how to export your animation. 8. Exporting Your Animation: [MUSIC] In this lesson, I will show you how you can export an animation as a GIF and a video. To start out, go to the Actions menu and then select the Share sub menu, which will give you all the options to export a project in Procreate. To export as a video, go down and tap Animated MP4. Here you will see a playback of your animation. Now tap the Export button here. Then to export a transparent animated GIF, we would need to go to the layer panels first and then turn off the background color layer, which will be the very last layer at the bottom on the layers panel. Now we have a transparent background. Next, go back to the Actions menu and under the Share options tap, Animated GIF. You can see we have a transparent looping GIF. Now tap the Export button and there you go. You've now exported your animation. To recap, in this lesson, you learned how to export your animation as a video, as well as how to export it as a GIF and how to make your animation transparent. Now you're all set to create your own animation project and export it to share it with the world. In the next lesson, we will wrap up this class. See you there. 9. Final Thoughts: [MUSIC] Congratulations on completing this class. I hope you have created an animation project that you're excited to share with the world. Throughout these lessons and exercises, we have discussed three fun animation techniques, walked through my process for animating a project, learned how to combine animation techniques to create more advanced animations, and lastly, how to export your animations. I hope this class has shown you how fun and easy animation can be and I hope it's inspired you to apply these skills to future animation projects. I'm very excited to see what you create. Make sure to post your work to the project section of the class. Sharing your work with the Skillshare community is a great way to continue growing and help inspire each other. If you enjoyed this class and found the lessons useful, then please take a moment to leave a review. Positive reviews like yours helps other students find this class. Thanks again for taking the time to take my class and I hope to see you in the future one soon. Bye for now. [MUSIC]