Procreate Animation: Animate a Personalized Holiday Greeting Card

1. Intro: Hi guys. I'm Isaiah Cordova and I'm an art director and motion designer in Kansas City. And I have worked with a wide range of clients to design, illustrate, and animate content to help brands connect with their audience on relatable moments in life and to take part in the celebration of the holidays. And in fact, I have created a lot of holiday content for brands on social media. And I have found that using the Procreate app on the iPad has helped speed up my hand-drawn illustration process and allowed me to add animation, making it even easier now to create animated holiday greetings. In this class, I'm going to share a fun, easy way for animating your own holiday greeting with an iPad and Procreate app. And through this class, I will walk you through beginner level strategies to help you learn how to use the Animation Assist tool and how to export your animations. With all of these skills, you will gain the confidence to create even more easy animations for yourself using Procreate. This class is perfect for designers, artists, social media managers, and anyone else who's interested in creating a digital holiday greeting. I look forward to seeing you in class. So let's get started. 2. Project Overview: In this lesson, I will walk you through the project overview and the different steps needed to complete the project. For the class project, we will be creating a holiday drawing with a personal greeting and adding some animations. I will be demonstrating a Christmas greeting that you can follow along with, but you're welcome to personalize the holiday to you like Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or even St. Patrick's Day or Valentine's Day. In order to create a holiday greeting, we will set up your file, draw your holiday illustration, add your greeting, add animation, and export your animation. To help you get going I've included my color palette, links to font, and brushes used in the resources section. Now it's time to gather your iPad, download resources, and get ready to get started. If you run into any problems downloading resources, please reach out to me via the discussion board and I'll be happy to help you out. In the next lesson, I will show you how to set up your file. 3. Setting Up File: In this lesson, we will set up our file. First thing I'm going to do is open Procreate app. From here, I'm going to create a new document. So hit the plus button at the top, and then I want a square canvas. Since that works generally across all platforms. And the dimensions are big enough that I can crop into a different size if needed. Next step I'm going to do is import a sketch I made. I have found that it helps to sketch out your idea first and use the sketch as an underlay to draw your illustration. To import a sketch, tap the wrench icon at the top right. Under that, go to Add, and then go and tap Add Image. Next I'm going to resize the sketch and position in a place I want it to be. Next, I'm going to import my holiday Swatch palette by going to the circle at the top right and clicking on the swatches icon at the end, and then tapping the Plus to import a new swatch. Last step is to create a brand new layer to draw on. And now we're all set. To recap. We walk through setting up our file, importing a swatch into procreate and how to add a reference image to our file. Gathering materials and setting up the file in the beginning is so helpful with streamlining the process and improving the final product. As you can just focus on drawing a refined visual and not need to stop in the middle of your process to figure out color per keep reworking your drawing. Now, it's your turn to take some time to set up your file. If you run into any issues, feel free to post in the discussions forum, and I'll be happy to help. In the next lesson, we will start drawing our holiday illustrations. 4. Drawing Holiday Illustration: In this lesson, I'm going to walk you through drawing a simple holiday illustration. The first thing I like to do is focus on the outline of the major shapes and my illustration, I'm going to start with drawing the Christmas tree. Going to select the prickly brush as pine trees or prickly. I want to reflect that in my drawing. You can also get this style by using the six B pencil that comes with Procreate. And then as I go, I will focus on the smaller details I might illustration. This is incredibly helpful as it allows me a color block my illustration composition. So I get things placed correctly before spending time on the smaller details, so I don't waste time drawing elements I could change. I'll start with the tree body, then I'll draw the tree trunk. Then I'll go to the tree topper, which is the star. Next, I will draw the string for the Christmas lights than the ribbon around the tree, The candy canes, and then the individual Christmas lights. Once I'm happy with my final illustration, I'm going to group all the layers, which will be my static background. Grouping layers is an important aspect of using the Animation Assist tool and it's a great way to organize your file. In a later lesson, I will walk you through how the layer groups and packed animation. To recap, I walked you through my creative process for drawing illustrations and gave some helpful tips like color blocking the larger shapes of your illustration first, to make sure you have the placement right before you go into the details of your illustration. All these skills are helpful for any illustration project in Procreate. Now it's your turn to draw your holiday illustration. As always, if you run into any questions, you can always post them in the discussions board or you can post your work in a project with your questions. And I'll be happy to help you out. And in the next lesson, we will add our personal grading. 5. Adding Greeting: In this lesson, I'm going to walk you through adding a text greeting. You can either draw your greeting type or you can use a font. I'm going to use a font to make things a little simpler. To do that, I'm going to tap on the Action icon up here. And where it says Add, you're going to tap Add text. Then I'm going to write the greeting message I want, which will be happy holidays. Next, I'm going to select all my font, which is important to be able to edit the styling of the font. Next, I will choose my font, which is linked in the project resources. Then I'm going to the size setting and holding the blue dot and sliding my finger to the right to increase or to the left to decrease the font. You can also adjust the alignment the text. Next, I'm going to show you how to change the color. So I'm going to change the color to a dark blue. I choose this color because I want the text to stand out and be easy to read, but still match the rest of the color palette. I just walked you through my process to add texts and edit the text to align with your holiday theme. These skills are super helpful for all future projects where you may need to add text. Now it's your turn to add your personal greeting. And as always, feel free to reach out to me if you run into any problems. The next lesson, I will show you how to add animation to your illustrations. 6. Adding Snow Animation: In this lesson, I will walk you through using the Animation Assist tool in Procreate to add a snowfall animation to your illustration. To get started, let's go up and tap the Actions icon at the top left and then go to the canvas and toggle Animation Assist. This is going to give you a timeline. At the bottom, I like to think of the timeline as a layer. Select if you add a new frame, it will add a new layer. Selecting a frame will select a layer or layer group. And if you tap on the selected frame, you get the options to delete, duplicate, or hold the frame. If you're selecting the first frame which corresponds to the bottom layer, then you can make that group your background and will be behind the animation. If you click on the last frame, which corresponds to top layer, you can toggle foreground to keep the layer static above the animation. Now let's create our snow. I'm going to first change my brush color to white. And then I'm going to switch to the prickly brush as I want my snowflakes to have a rougher, more organic shapes and snowflakes aren't perfect circles. I always choose the brush that will give me the best texture to best depict what I'm drawing. Now, I'm going to tap around the screen until I filled it with snowflakes. And I'm doing this very loosely. So there'll be a range of sizes and shapes of the snowflakes, which will make the snow look more realistic. Next, I'm going to tap on my current frame and then tap Duplicate. I like to duplicate layers when I'm going to need the same frame, repeat it. Next. I'm going to tap Add frame to add a blank frame in order to create the appearance of snowfall, I need to have the frames alternate with the snow in different positions. When played back, it will look like snow is moving. So like before, I'm going to add snow all over my screen. In the settings here, we have all of our onion skins and playback options. There's onion skin opacity, which will adjust how transparent the onion skin frames are shown, which I will dial up now as it's hard to currently see the snow from the other frames. We can also use this toggle to colorize our onion skins. I'm going to change the skin to a reddish color so it stands out more. And now onion skins of the snow are showing up better. Next I'm going to go around with the eraser tool and fix any snowflakes that were drawn, kind of funky. Also, we can scrub through our timeline with one finger, which helps preview the animation, but the onion skins as distracting when I'm scrubbing through this. So I'm going to reduce the opacity is zero. And now I can scrub through better previewing the frame animation. I can also tap here to play back or pause the animation. I can see that the animation is going way too fast and needs to be slowed down, going back into the settings options outside of just the onion skins, it gives you options for adjusting the looping options so that I can loop animation, ping pong, which will play back the animation forward and then backwards. And lastly, the option to only play once. Also, I have frames per second setting, which I can use to slow down the animation by having fewer frames played per second. I'm also going to increase the onion skin opacity backup. Next, I'm going to tap play to review the new speed for your animation. I recommend that you try different speeds and playing back the animation until you find the right speed for what you want to accomplish. Lastly, I'm going to duplicate my current frame and drag it to the end of the timeline. And then I'm going to play back the animation. Then now this is creating that effect of the snow falling as you have the positions of the snow alternating between all four frames. To recap, I just walked you through my process for creating snow animation. This technique can also be used to create rain and falling confetti. So feel free to customize the drawing and effects to fit your holiday greeting and as always, reach out and the discussions if you've run into any problems. The next lesson, I will walk you through an animation strategy to create blinking holiday lights. 7. Adding Blinking Lights: This lesson, I will walk you through my process for creating blinking holiday lights. To get started, I'm going to add a new layer and drag it to the first snow layer to create a layer group, which will replace my first animation frame. Next, I'm going to rename the frames. This is going to help me later on as I continue adding new frames, I'll be able to easily go back and find this specific layer. Then I'm going to reduce the opacity of the lights glow layer and start drawing around the red light bulbs to create the effect that the lights are glowing bright. I'm going to only light up the red lights. And then in another frame, I'll light up the green lights, creating a blinking effect so that you can see the light is blinking between the red and green light bulbs. And here I'm going to readjust the opacity. I find that I like to readjust settings after I've drawn it all out and I just decided that I want to actually name this layer red glow. I will duplicate it to the next frame. And then I'm going to drag the layer again to the third layer, creating a new group. But this time I'm going to rename it green glow and we'll clear the layer. I like using duplication. So all the layers can have the consistent opacity settings. And all I have to do is clear the content and replace the glows around the green light. Then I'm going to duplicate that layer and drag the final layer to create the final animation frame. Next, I'm going to tap play to review the animation and make sure that I'm satisfied with the whole animation. To recap, I just showed you my process for creating a blinking light effect. And this technique can also be used for candlelight and Jacqueline earns. So feel free a customized for your specific project. Now it's your turn to add a lighting effect to your holiday greeting card. And then the next lesson, I will show you how to add a twinkle animation. 8. Adding Twinkle Effect: In this lesson, I will show you my process for creating a twinkle animation by demonstrating a twinkling star on my tree. To get started, I'm going to turn on my sketch layer so I can use it as a reference, redrawing my twinkle lights. Next, I'm going to layer group that makes my first animation frame. And I will add a new layer and draw dots around the base of the twinkle lines. Then I will go up to the next group in add a new layer and draw the full twinkle lines, which will give the effect that the twinkle is expanding when it's played back. Next, I'm going to create a new layer and the third layer group and label that layer. Then I'm going to double-check my brush and will now draw dots at the end of the twinkle lines, which will give the illusion that the twinkle is fading out. If I didn't book in the lines with dots, it would just look like blinking lines when played, but now it will look like a twinkle. Now that I'm finished with my drawing, I'm going to turn off my sketch layer. Next, I'm going to play back the animation so I can review the full animation. To recap, I showed you my process for creating a twinkle animation. This technique can also be used to create fireworks or as a fun accent to highlight content. Now it's your turn to add a twinkling animation to complete your animate greeting card. And then the next lesson, I will show you how to export your animation. 9. Exporting: In this lesson, I will walk you through how to export your animation as a GIF or MP4. To get started, I'll tap the Actions icon at the top left and then tap Share. And then that will give you several options to export. I'll go down and tap Animated GIF. Here you have some options on the left to adjust your gifts settings and a preview on the right side. Now, I'll tap Export. Next, I'm gonna go down to animate mp4, which will give you a video. And then once I'm on there, I'll check the preview to make sure everything looks great. And then I'll tap Export. It's always good to review the animation, the pop-up before tapping export in case there's any problems and congrats, you've just finished your project. To recap, I showed you two different ways you can export your animation from Procreate. So now it's your turn to export your animation and upload it to your class project. As always, if you run into any problems, feel free to post on the discussion board, and I'll be happy to help. In the next lesson, I will show you how you can incorporate all these class skills and a Halloween example. This lesson helps show you how these skills can be applied to on their holiday animations. 10. Case Study: Halloween Animation: So far, we've walked through Procreate animation tools and several animation techniques. In this lesson, I will walk you through applying those skills on a Halloween animation. In order to create my animation, I will set up my file and procreate. Then I will sketch out my ideas and then refine my design. Then I will apply the animation techniques. And then lastly, I will export the animation to create a new project. I'm going to tap on the plus icon in the top-right, and then I will tap the New Canvas icon here to select the dimensions. I'm gonna go with 1080 by 1080, as it'll give me a small optimized size that can easily be upload it to Skillshare since it has a file size limit. Next, I'll tap Create button and next is the sketching phase. Sketching is really helpful in coming up with ideas for your holiday design. And as you can see, I like to keep my sketches rough and quick. This stage is all about ideation, which can be hampered by focusing on details and perfection. And as you can see, I'm just playing with some ideas for what creatures I want to show. I will also explore different greetings Now I can use and how to draw them. Once I'm done sketching out all my ideas, our work on refining the design. So take a look at my illustrations. I'm going to go through and select what creatures I want to pull out and refine my final design. So I will circle the skull, the eyeball, the ghost. And then lastly, I'm going to choose the pumpkin. Next. I'll look at my type exploration. And I really liked this spooky night lock-up at the bottom. And then here is my refined illustration. As you can see, I've laid out my composition and refine the drawings as mentioned earlier, the refinement stage is where you can really fine tune your illustration to your liking. Once I'm happy with the outlines, I will add in color. And here you can see my final illustration where I added color. Now, let's dive into the animation. Once again, I will pull up the Actions menu and go to the canvas sub menu and toggle Animation Assist. Now I'm going to realign my layers to get my file ready for animation. And going and make sure to group all my stack layers and to either the background or foreground groups, and leave everything that will be animate in-between those groups. And I will select those static groups and the timeline panel and toggle on foreground and background. So those layers remain static and their respective positions. This is an important step as it will keep these layers visible on all frames. Next, I'm going to apply the blinking lights technique. So I'll duplicate money lantern light frame and reduce the opacity in the second frame. Then I will play back the animation, which is way too fast. I want it to look more like a subtle candle flickering. So I will slow down the speed and then once again play it back. I've decided to lower it again to four frames per second. Next, I'm going to create a new layer and group it with my first animation layer, which will now become the new first frame. And then I will change my color to red. And we'll draw in red lights and each skull size. And we'll repeat the action for the second frame. Then the first frame, I'm going to change the red color to black since the red light will completely go out, leaving the eyes dark. And I will play back the animation to review the look, this looks good. Next, I'm going to add a twinkle animation to a little stars in my illustration. Since the stars are in a static layer, I'm going to rearrange my layers so that the stars layer is in each frame so I can animate them. Next, I'm going to select all the stars and delete them. I will then go in on the same layer and redraw them as smaller size, the back-and-forth between the small and then the fully extended star frames as what will create that Twinkle. Next, I will play back the animation to review how things look. It's important to review the animation throughout the process to make sure the animation looks the way you want. Next, I'm going to export the animation. Once again, I'll go up to the Actions menu and then click the Share icon to get my export options. Then I will tap on Animated GIF and I will get a new screen with a preview of my animation to export a transparent GIF toggled transparent background and they'll remove your background. And I want my background. So I'm going to toggle this back off. Then I will tap the Export button. But what do you do if you want to export a video? I'll show you how to do that. All you have to do is tap Animated MP4 this time. And then once again, you'll get a new screen with a preview your animation. And all you have to do is tap, export to export the video. And there you have it. I just walked you through my process for implementing the class skills and to a Halloween animation, including how I sketch ideas and refine my design, and how you can adapt the animation techniques from this class for different purposes. And in the final lesson, we will wrap up this class. 11. Wrap Up: Congratulations on finishing this course. I really appreciate you taking the time to take my class and learn these skills along the way, which included learning how to set up file in your design for animation, how to use the Animation Assist tool to create several animation techniques, as well as how those techniques could be used in different ways for custom projects. To continue expanding your skills, I recommend that you take a moment to upload your project to the class gallery as sharing with the Skillshare community is a great way to help inspire each other. If you enjoyed taking this class, then consider following me on Skillshare and checking out my other animation classes. Thanks again for taking this class and I hope to see you soon. Bye for now.