Blender Tutorial: An Intro To Grease Pencil (and some super secret tips!)

Hope you enjoyed this lil tutorial! Sorry it got pretty off the rails, but I hope you can dig up some helpful nuggets of knowledge in here : ) (also see the comments for important stuff that i somehow completely forgot to bring up hahaha)
Download my lil default drawing file and consider supporting me over on Patreon!
/ brysonmcbee
Check out my work on instagram!
/ brysonmcbee
Download Blender!
www.blender.org/download/
Download the storytools add on for easier grease pencil menus!
github.com/Pullusb/storytools
Download these sweet custom Grease Pencil brushes (for cool textures and stuff!)
cloud.blender.org/p/gallery/5...
Check out these other awesome Grease Pencil Tutorials that have helped me out so so much:
Worthikids! This is a long one, but it really digs into everything you need to know to make a 2D cartoon in Blender! watching a master create a little toon start to finish is a treat!
• How To Make A Cartoon ...
Dedouze! This is one of the greatest grease pencil artists you've probably already seen and wondered "what the heck how'd they make that". For awesome tutorials on using 2d grease pencil in 3D, check these out!
• Blender 2D/3D for begi...
• How this 2D/3D animati...
Sophie Jantak! Sophie is really one of the pioneers of grease pencil, and she has some of the most creative applications of grease pencil I've ever seen! Check her out!
• Grease pencil trick: d...
• Grease Pencil trick: c...
Chapters
00:00 Intro
03:15 Navigating in Blender
06:09 Grease Pencil Objects
08:26 Blender Modes
14:20 SUPER SECRE TIP #1
20:15 Grease Pencil Modifiers
22:30 SUPER SECRET TIP #2
25:40 Grease Pencil Effects
28:00 Keyframes and Animation
30:36 Outro

[@indmych]

7 minutes in, when you said "I didn't even know it was called 'Data', I thought it would be called 'Layers'," was a fantastic lesson for us all who are learning from you. If you watch enough tutorials on different topics Blender can seem overwhelming. But if you focus on what you want to do, you can learn what's necessary. Thanks. Grease pencil is a new interest for me.

[@KuncanDastner]

it's so cool to see your style come through in both the 3D and grease pencil methods, both are so full of character

[@brysonmcbee]

thx u duncan 🙏💛

[@RogueAstro85]

Woah, didn't expect to see you here

[@20000dino]

Couldn't have found a more random video to find Duncan of all people lol.

[@KuncanDastner]

@@20000dino bryson's a crazy talented artist i wanted to see this knowing full-well idk what Blender is

[@20000dino]

@@KuncanDastner They're indeed really good, but I had no idea you were into this stuff too 😅 Then again, I know you're also a Nintendo fan like me because you're constantly subtly using Mario and Zelda samples and tracks in your videos, so I shouldn't be too surprised.

[@brysonmcbee]

Imagine spending like 5 hours making a Grease Pencil tutorial and not mentioning the Eraser once hahahah: - Use the eraser tool to erase strokes. - by default it's set to Eraser Soft, which will have a soft fall off that will create some opacity variation when erasing strokes. - I recommend setting this to Eraser Point so rather than just reducing the opacity of strokes, it will completely delete the points making for a cleaner erase - with the pencil tool selected, you can hold ctrl while drawing to quickly switch to the eraser tool! Also Layer things! - You can lock layers similar to in photoshop to prevent certain elements of your drawing being manipulated by proportional editing junk - also layer masks can be super helpful for creating cool lighting effects and stuff on your illustrations! - with strokes selected in edit mode, you can press M to move these strokes to a different layer in your grease pencil object! - You can also press P in edit mode with strokes selected to separate the selection into its own grease pencil object! [will probably add to this as I think of more helpful info I forgot to mention hahahah]

[@neilmarshall5087]

Just do part 2......

[@brysonmcbee]

@@neilmarshall5087 part 2: "the eraser" lololol

[@neilmarshall5087]

@@brysonmcbee 🤣

[@tellnate29]

Oh thank you so much! I've been looking for a way to switch from the pencil to the eraser for a while

[@levimijaresochoa456]

Dude this has been an eye opening for me. I've been interested in learning blender for a few years but I've always feel overwhelmed by the default viewport. I'm definitely giving it a chance. Thanks for this. I'll look forward for more of your content 🐝

[@hammerheadcorvette4]

If you are into GreasePencil, check out Sophie Jantak's Bonsai tree tutorial as well.

[@mics361]

OKAY. FIRST OF ALL, this is beautiful. the art. the style, the frame. SECOND OF ALL. best concise tutorial about everything i wanted to know before getting started. THANKYOU

[@jeffosaphat]

this is a great video to go hand in hand with the worthikids grease pencil tutorial

[@brysonmcbee]

yes yes!! I super recommend the worthikids tutorials! I linked a bunch of other tutorials that have helped me immensely in the description : )

[@Pakkuwakku]

Bro when the geometry section came up and I took a look at my little blob I made, I can not tell you the amount I was SHOOK finding out it was way more than it has any right to be. Thank you so much and I very much appreciate how much this has helped me!

[@valiquette089]

I'm the noobiest of noobs and have also jumped straight in to GP. I'm an elementary teacher with a big idea but absolutely clueless until you, my darling saviour, just taught me *everything* I wanted to know for my project. I cannot thank you enough! May your stache always be mighty, and your life full of bliss!

[@Trevor_Exley]

Love waking up to a new Bryson video! Keep up the great work!

[@lesliemartinez3303]

Dude you dont understand how grateful i am for this tutorial! You been one of my biggest inspiration for blender to see you break it down is just so AMAZING & INFORMATIVE !!!!!!!! Thank you so much this resource

[@fercferrer]

This is great Bryson! Thank you so much man, so helpful. Love your channel!!

[@Emelineeeeeee]

I actually really appreciate this tutorial taking its time. I don’t like watching guides that throw tons of info at you in the space of a few minutes and I’m left having to pause the video and replay every few seconds to understand. This was clear and slow enough that it’s easy to follow without getting overwhelmed

[@maia_hugthecactuss]

Thank you! I love your style and what you do and I was hoping for a tutorial like this so thank you so much :) I want to get into grease pencil so much and this is my sign to try it finallyy

[@ashliza]

This tutorial is AMAZING!! Thanks so much for sharing your tips with us :)

[@Ax3l_Art]

Loved this video so much! thank you!

[@Valentina-kb8wf]

I loved this tutorial! so fun🐌

[@rebeckeronie]

This is a great video!! It’s so refreshing and easy to watch, but super informative at the same time. I’m SUCH a fan of your overlay assets and things, thank you for sharing!

[@joelwalden5504]

Thank you for taking the time to make this. Really thorough instruction and well put together!

[@lonelymanslazarus]

I had no idea you had posted a tutorial !!! This is amazing!! Thank you for sharing I have learned a lot ❤❤❤

[@lovecherryzoldyck]

this is such an excellent overview!

[@literallygrass9123]

Thank you so much for making this video! Its helped me understand the basics of grease pencil like no other!

[@mareca98]

fabulous tutorial!!

[@AnabolicAcolyte]

This is so wonderful! I am new to Blender and this has helped so much, thank you!

[@alananras293]

Great introduction tutorial ! I've gotten into blender (and really enjoys it as an illustrator) last year with 3D modeling and sculpting, heard from my teacher about the grease pencil and seeing you in action really motivated me to try it out ! Keep going with your art it's awesome !

[@en2336]

You are a delightful teacher! Loved every second of the video, thank you for sharing!

[@LillieAtkin]

This is such a great tutorial!! I found you through a drawing of Kirby you did on instagram and it got me so inspired. Blender has always been so daunting but this had been super helpful! :D

[@chimpobox]

Best tutorial for blender 2d beginners!!! Thank you so much

[@studio_fudelio]

i just started learning and messing around with Blender & grease pencil so this was super helpful, tysm :, )

[@randosmallfoot2132]

this video was very helpful. you've be a help and they way you styled your video art is an inspiration.

[@lacruzo]

Wonderful video Bryson! You blew my mind with the real time mirror trick haha, I tried finding a solution before but never did so thank you! ✨

[@brysonmcbee]

heck yeah!! the wild thing about it is I don't even know why it works hahahah

[@jamescandyland]

Thanks so much for this Bryson! I'm getting back into Blender and have wanted to learn grease pencil for so long now. It was great following along with this tutorial and making something along the way!

[@mrbigh36]

thank you so much for this!

[@arkanimation9833]

This is very helpful, I have confidence I may switch over for the ease of compositing

[@mikaonisuka8274]

thank for cute and interacting tutorial, love your yellow!

[@zuzuechachacha]

THANK YOU SO MUCH. I just started my student shortfilm and i wanted to use blender. You explain everything in the perfect way. Id love to see more tutorials of yours about grease pencil. you just saved my life

[@ishegeek]

Thanks for the tutorial! I'm getting back into blender and this time, my focus is going to be on 2D animation, so this tutorial was super helpful!!

[@KeelanJon]

Great video! I'm an avid Blender user, but have yet to really dip my toe into the grease pencil. As a tip for any beginners, I'm not a fan of a numpad as I prefer a smaller keyboard, so I've always prefered using the tilde key to open the views menu for quick navigation. Feels much quicker and more intuative experience imo, especially for sculpting.

[@iislagarcia]

Don't worry about this being a long tutorial, because it helped a lot. A LOT! Your explanation was very easy to understand and all of those secret tips were very helpful. Thank you so much for sharing this 💗

[@remzart2481]

That mirror trick very useful,thx

[@myopicdoll]

I stopped doing animation after using Photoshop and After Effects wasn't much better. Your tutorial gave me newfound interest! I tried it out in Blender and this process is so much cleaner and faster especially for adding noise. Thank you so much to both you and the Blender community this is amazing! 🤩🍓

[@brysonmcbee]

Absolutely! Blender is my favorite animation program ever, and Grease Pencil is just ONE tool that you can use to make some really awesome work within Blender!

[@artisans8521]

Oscar nominated movies have been made in the beta version of grease pencil

[@nathh1998]

thank you so much for this tutorial!!! i love ur work since forever and i have always been curious on how u use blender for illustrations :)

[@lollypopfiend]

Thanks for this! In the past, I've used Blender for sculpting, but I've wanted to learn to use grease pencil for a while. This was a very informative tutorial! Hope you have a good day

[@joeypouladi]

I've used blender for years but have always been a bit too intimidated to try and learn the grease pencil. This video made what it was and how it works very clear! Thank you!! 👍👍

[@otarikokojevs]

Amazing, thanks!

[@brandonjacksoon]

Thanks man, liked and subscribed!

[@yoyoflow59]

Great tutorial!

[@thedevincicode]

Great Video! Thank you 🙏🏽 😊

[@zinphyo368]

you are the best teaching

[@MrIckIsHere]

Great video! Thanks for the help. This overview was the "get my feet wet" I was needing for this side of Blender.

[@tuluhanbozkurt3225]

great vid. thanks

[@saru1410]

thank kiu so much, i really want to get into grease pencil but I kept putting it off, this tutorial really helps a lot

[@danimationn]

buscaba un buen tutorial, encontré todo lo que necesitaba solo en tu video muchas gracias¡¡¡¡¡

[@punwind7039]

awesome work - keep it up! you deserve more subs

[@151storager]

Thanks!!

[@kaojaicam]

Excellent video bro

[@ep4755]

whenever i watch blender tutorials theyre so angry but youre so jolly so thanks for that .great tutorial

[@chr1st0pher]

This seems like a pretty good intro, I’m trying to turn my 2d friends onto blender so will send this to people who are lookin for that!!! Thanks!

[@lynksdisease8795]

BEST FOLLOW I EVER DONE FOLLOWED

[@juanagustinromerobarbera1309]

I NEED MORE TUTORIALS LIKE YOURS

[@brysonmcbee]

thx! check out the links in the description for some ones i rly like!!

[@tiborostube1]

You taught me a lot

[@samdavepollard]

"I kinda ended up getting sucked into the 3d stuff as I went along ... " Oh yes. That can happen. That can happen big time. :-) Many Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[@nuzuru4847]

i feel like i discovered a forbidden treasure idk how to describe it but man this was SO HELPFUL. I feel like i finally understand this software.... thank u bro

[@nkanyisoinnocentkhwane3752]

*You're a legend* ❤ thanks for sharing brother. When I have a minute I'm gonna use this to do a little Pokémon and tag you 🤜🏾🤛🏼

[@MumuMundo]

Cool way to use stroked fills, thanks for showing it ^^ You can combine it with the Draw Strokes on Back feature and if using Color Attributes, click on the color on top, find the 'Mode' setting in the bottom and change it to Fill only. Thank me once you try it 😁

[@SpicyAl3000]

Great! Thanks :)

[@nicolonhoplus]

Thank you

[@wru-art]

nice. always something new to learn with GP. Would you ever do a tutorial on that luigi's art you did? my brain can wrap around how that's made

[@kenonerboy]

Funny, i just stared using the same fill+strokes method a few weeks ago

[@jamesburke5016]

I like the mirror thing you showed off. I am just playing around with it today but I was just using a Stroke layer. I was going to come back and fill it but unfortunately the left side is only side getting the line verts. The right side is just has the line, no verts. So no fill. BUT, I just added the Mirror Mod to it and Viola, or Velvet, or violet or. Eureka! I finally got a fill. I had to fiddle around little bit more because I has TWO Obj stacked on top of each other. Turned off the Collection and wham bam thank you (fill in the blank).

[@kadiumz]

So awesome!!!!!! Dude, you're so cool and smart ....... 😭

[@brysonmcbee]

thx u Kaden 🐢🫶

[@artisans8521]

Super easy, barely an inconvenience. But pun aside, this is great tut. Blender is consistent, it's default settings are always dumb choices. And somewhere there is always a solution nobody knows about. Don't get me wrong, I love Blender. But I would love it more if they thought about just 5 minutes longer. But as a Dutch (retired) software quality manager, I recognize the tendancies. In Blender you can animate everything and the devil.

[@4U4U7]

Thank you very much!! This was great! Is there a way to use boolean operations on different drawn parts?

[@ilta222]

oh hey bryson! i didnt know u were on youtube 🌞 cool video!

[@mildlyinteresting1000]

thank you!! an amazing tutorial, can't wait to fully drown in grease pencil animations

[@PaladinVII]

I was today years old when I realized Blender had an art program in it. Blender is a rabbit hole I've fallen into!

[@embereclipse634]

sir you got my sub and my bell

[@guad2]

dude i love your brain

[@frogwav]

You have a good mustache bro, keep it up

[@scottyeddy2980]

set origin to different areas to rotate at different locations

[@thedirtydiddler8287]

"But then there's like a billion menus and they all have buttons". Me literally thinking this and coming to this video 🤣

[@XINN1X]

Great video! will you be making a video about your default 2d animation setup? Would also be great!

[@jeff3y214]

Amazing ! Is possible to create a scribled effect in blender too?

[@wege8409]

god i love squigglevision

[@eonacit4026]

Аааааааh!!! Thanks for the video, it was very interesting and informative for me, even though I don't know English well. СПАСИБО ОГРОМНОЕ

[@UlshaRS]

Thanks for touching on the processor load. Using a potato pc without a video card and need to optimize use every chance I get 😅

[@martinmerlo6033]

This is fantastic! Excellent tutorial, I'm going to download and try everything you taught haha. Can you tell us what is the name of the song that appears at the end? I loved it

[@brysonmcbee]

haha thanks! good luck with your blender journey!!! The song at the end is a lil song i wrote for my patreon! i have the full version on my yt channel tho : )

[@Novexy_]

Hello, how do you make your blue sketch pikachu go above the black stroke lineart ? 16:27 Thanks for your answer

[@WhimzyInteractive]

The thumbnail looks so friendly

[@nisagomez4366]

Learned some tips, so thank you!!!

[@chumaggotscaesar]

simple and informative, thank you

[@daviddoodlez]

WUUUU!!!

[@handsoaphighlands]

whooho!

[@unofficialnickcantu]

Any help with understanding why my bucket tool is not working would be appreciated. I keep getting "cannot fill unclosed area". I havent moved my canvas or view, SOMETIMES it works if i 'merge the outline in edit mode but im getting frustrating results.

[@soramirez5473]

Does anyone know why I have not visable stroke while drawing with the grease pencil? I see the stroke AFTER I stop drawing but WHILE I'm drawing no stroke. Im drawing blindly. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[@gilberthernandez2391]

I have a problem. Does anyone know why the pencil stroke appears only after releasing the mouse? I can´t see it as I make it.

[@katiedert]

Completely new to Blender. I set your default drawing file as my default (thank you!!), but when I use the pen tool to draw, it doesn't draw in symmetry - it creates only one instance, not two. How do I enable the symmetry to show by default at startup?

[@brysonmcbee]

oh yeah! there are multiple grease pencil objects in that file, so you'll want to go in object mode to select the one at the top that says symmys. be sure to grab it from the left side so you're selecting the gp object and not the collection instance mirroring it!

[@katiedert]

@@brysonmcbee i haven't tried this yet but tysm for your response

[@user-og6oz1yc6j]

hi// beginner here.... how do we "turn on/off" collection symmetry in the same drawing?

[@brysonmcbee]

you can hide/unhide objects or even entire collections/collection instances with the top right panel that lists all of your different objects in the scene. just select what you want to hide in the viewport, and it'll be highlighted in your outliner window! from there you can click the adjacent eyeball to hide it in viewport view or the camera to hide it in render view! hope that helps!

[@user-og6oz1yc6j]

ty!@@brysonmcbee

[@jojoeljefe]

YOU REMOVED PIKACHUS SKIN 😨😭😭 17:10

[@pintoleo]

why in the nine circles of hell someone would give wings to a rattle snake?

[@ceciliacorzo]

watching this as a traditional animator this is so cool! and crazy how easy and good those artificial boils look! wow wow