Cheat Like a Pro: Create 2D Animations Without Drawing Skills

[@JP_as.telier]

YOUR VIDEOS ARE HELPING ME SO MUCH FOR MY UNI PROJECT, I was literally searching up how to get a model and draw over it for my short film today and noticed that you uploaded it. You need more fame man

[@PolyPaint]

Glad I could help!

[@kidfyt9054]

It's called rotoscoping,pro animation studios use it at some point

[@PolyPaint]

true. I saw some anime productions use that on 3d models of their characters. great tool for complex camera movements or action.

[@starinsky2873]

​@PolyPaint you don't even have to do this just do it on pre-made video and draw the walk cycle

[@PolyPaint]

@@starinsky2873 I think this method is more flexible than just videos. basically i can now do the same walk cycle or any other animation with added camera movement. so you have more control over the composition

[@DimiArt]

I was about to say this

[@SuperXzm]

Oh boy, we need Syncro-Vox back...

[@plasticshorts6972]

"without drawings skills" is such bait, OF COURSE you need drawing skills even to trace, otherwise it will look like crap

[@PolyPaint]

well. this is what people ask me all the time XD How to do 2d animation if they can't draw 🤷‍♂

[@InvasionAnimation]

Agreed.

[@bleachedout805]

No, you need dexterity to trace. Drawing skills is building from nothing with shapes and shading, a thing which resembles something. No skill in drawing tracing, like there is no skill in generating a.i. images. Heck, there is barely any skill required when digitally doing art as a whole when so many short cuts exist in modern software.

[@PolyPaint]

Some basic scull is required tho. The better you understand the shape the more useful tracing can become because you’re not longer trace what you see, you build on top of it through your own lens. For me tracing helps with muscle memory. You just memorize all the possible positions of things and proportions etc.

[@animation_craze]

​@@PolyPaintyou are completely right Your title is not bait Even if your animation will not look good without drawing skills But you will be able to do an animation you will be satisfied with and the more you trace the more you will get better at it And then can start doing from scratch You are doing great

[@lucyfaire1980]

"is this cheating?" by that logic we are cheating when drawing digitally in photoshop instead of a piece of paper. Or we are cheating the first cavemen that drew on rocks. Technology evolves, people who like to draw will still draw. Still needs talent to do both, anyway. Good tutorial, learned a few new tricks too, thanks

[@PolyPaint]

Well. I saw multiple times when people blamed some techniques as cheating and those are completely normal nowadays. Photoshop was considered cheating at some point, then using photos was considered cheating, then using 3d was considered cheating, and now its this new thing that we can't say out loud 😂 we have long history of that in digital art 😊

[@Blendercage]

Using the Freestyle SVG exporter addon that comes with Blender, you can export out the outlines of the original model in SVG for each frame of the animation with one render action. Then bring in each svg frame back into Blender or wherever and avoid tracing the original model all-together. The addon will automatically capture the obvious outlines of the model but you can also mark any edges you want to be captured in the render/export.

[@PolyPaint]

Cool trick. Thanks for sharing! I usually prefer the straightforward approach because it’s closer to the real drawing/skill and can be useful in general. But automation is cool on a larger scale projects

[@lolpoly3d]

I just found your channel, this is awesome! Even though I don't really do animation, I love watching techniques like this to bring characters to life. Thank you for sharing!

[@PolyPaint]

Thanks a lot for kind words!

[@Bats321]

this helps a lot with animation, normally my animation is more cartoony, but using a realistic 3d model can help me with key frames and animation timing, thanks a lot man, i have now new possibilitys with animation 👍👍👍 P.s: can you make a video on how animation organize their animations? right now i just kinda do the animation with one layer, and then i add more layers to fix the mistakes i made 😅😅

[@PolyPaint]

Thanks! You can still use cartoony models. The movement in mocap isn't that exaggerated tho, but sometimes you can crank it up with curves a bit

[@darklordsoma]

Im gonna use this with my current drawing skills. This method seems fire asf

[@luheartswarm4573]

rotoscoping, baby! its easy to spot, but an experienced artist can make amazing stuff with it!

[@VerikArt]

Nice and beautiful result! But I was waiting for Gotham with a frog at the end :D

[@PolyPaint]

lol

[@carlosalbertolealrodriguez5529]

Not cheating. This is the way Disney made the animated movie "Snow White and the seven dwarfs"

[@jarseev]

Very good joke.

[@carlosalbertolealrodriguez5529]

@@jarseev Not with computer, of course. I am refering to the act of rotoscoping from live action.

[@jonato5298]

​@@carlosalbertolealrodriguez5529 As a fun fact rotoscope was patented by Fleischer, so Disney used a technique called roto tracing, which was legally distinct rotoscoping. Unlike rotoscoping, where animators directly trace over live-action footage, roto tracing avoided making carbon prints of the frames adding more style.

[@unaddan]

can u make a beginer tutorial on grease pencil? sometimes I wanna make a filled color to be fade in the side but I don't know how to. your video will help

[@PolyPaint]

I haven’t used gradients with grease pencil yet. The tool is limited when it comes to painting or rendering the classical way. But it can probably do fading gradients, I hope so 😅

[@vivekb.s.491]

How to add grease pencil layer to the 3d animation?!

[@PolyPaint]

You can create a Grease Pencil object via Add-> Grease Pencil->Blank from the top panel. Then you can enter the Draw mode and start drawing. Pick your drawing planes based on your needs, You can select View plane for example to draw perpendicular to the view angle. And stroke placement is GP object's origin by default. Move your GP object somewhere where you want your strokes placed

[@SAVIOUR-p3e]

bro please upload a series on blender 2d animation basics for absolute beginners starting from scratch.......it will be greatly helpful for more people like me.....

[@PolyPaint]

Will see what I can do! Thanks for the feedback!

[@ArteavenGaming]

How did you switched directly to the 2d animation, how the 3d animation goes to the grease pencil 2d ???? Please tell me

[@PolyPaint]

Hey. You just create Grease pencil object place it at the character position or close and switch to camera view and draw. Super simple. You can set it to draw In Front in the display settings if the grease pencil object to ensure it stays on top of the model.

[@ArteavenGaming]

@PolyPaint Thanks brother 🫶🏻

[@DaniMartVTen]

This could be very useful to me. As a person of visual disability, my visual field is functionally limited to the top half of my left eye. As such, I have no symmetry. If I draw a basic heart shape, it is impossible for both halves to be drawn manually equal. From a stationary head position, it will always look perfect to me as a balanced shape until my head or the paper moves. Only then can I see the flaw. The same is true for any circle, square, triangle, etc. As a result, my drawings always slope in a distinct way, making it unusable for any commercial application. Having a tracing tool is the only way to correct for this, so this Blender technique may be a solution I need.

[@PolyPaint]

Wow. Thank you for sharing your story! I hope it will help 💪

[@Uhfgood]

You could do it the old fashioned way, and rotoscope actual video -- especially with video being quite ubiquitous on computer... That being said, using blender to pose a model for drawing practice would work.

[@PolyPaint]

Definitely

[@HinduNerd]

I am waiting for Surface Deform modifier for Grease pencil (Theoretically it can attach grease pencil on a mesh)

[@PolyPaint]

They showed something on their Blender festival about attaching strokes to the meshes.

[@HinduNerd]

@@PolyPaint Wow!!

[@newbossbro3180]

I still wonder if there is a proper way to have models in sketch format via shader manipulation or something. If not preparing a character so that it can be rendered such way. Regardless blender has long way to go to reach the level of Photoshop or other art software.

[@PolyPaint]

There are multiple ways to do that right now. Depends on the style you wish to achieve. Something can be done with shaders, you can use new Brushstroke Tools, you can use Lineart Modifier to generate lineart from the mesh. Regardless of the style, mimicking 2d in 3d space is a bit challenging and technical. I think the main difference that Grease pencil is a vector tool wont be able to compete with 2d raster editors. But it still has enough to offer for most of the commercial animation.

[@kianusteve9633]

great video as always. wish you all the best

[@PolyPaint]

Thanks a ton! Likewise!

[@pistoawita]

great Idea! damn... it would never have occurred to me. Thanks!

[@PolyPaint]

Thanks for watching!

[@senritsujumpsuit6021]

character animator and iclone combine to let you move a 3d model an in real time see its motion applied to a 2D character

[@PolyPaint]

Cool! Thanks for letting me know! You can do the same thing in blender too by creating a 2d or pseudo 2d character and rigging it. Then you can create or retarget animation from other sources. Although this approach doesnt work for frame-by-frame animation.

[@กิษณุพงษ์สุนันทา]

Thank You Very Much🙏👏

[@PolyPaint]

Glad you liked it!

[@antoniomuniz6118]

Sorry for this stupid question but… how can I get this tools in Blender? Somebody know the name?

[@PolyPaint]

The drawing one is Grease pencil. Its an object that allow you to draw in 3d space. You can check this video to get quick overview : kzbin.info/www/bejne/r5KydqZ3hNOkbdUsi=Hg8R9DX6C7ZN7YiS

[@maratomarov8346]

Thank you for the video 👍🏻

[@PolyPaint]

My pleasure!

[@KegaB3]

its about as much cheating as using a screwdriver to screw a screw into something

[@PolyPaint]

lol 😄

[@AchHadda]

well rotoscoping animation will only look good if you manage to exaggerate and add dynamics to the motion which means you need to learn animation

[@PolyPaint]

It's true. Learning animation is essential. Meanwhile, one can still get decent results using all the techniques

[@SuperRamtin]

To me, the part where you use a pre-made animation sounds like cheating cause it's not your own work. The tracing part is just a smart technique for making it 2D. Great tutorial overall! This might be helpful for me at some point.

[@PolyPaint]

Thanks a lot!

[@MrBrigadierArchived]

or... go crazy and: 1) Make technically bad 3D models with only good shading 2) Take care of the simpliest toon shading + grease pencil object (just make everything as flat as possible and analyze each favorite 2D>3D movie or series) 3) Practice on 3D camera (view, movements, transitions) 4) Do even more practice of previous step 5) Did you practice that one? I don't think so. Do MORE! ... ... ... N+1) ok, now you can add some... uhhh, I don't know... Geometry nodes VFX? Sound design? Yeah... You got it.

[@PolyPaint]

Nice!

[@1989johno]

this is how all animation is done ,

[@Sen3D]

"Cheating" without AI in 2024

[@UserSo4reUsu75ry]

This is nice, but probably it will be more efficient to film friend's acting or yours to rotoscope movements.

[@PolyPaint]

True, That's is something ppl already do. I wanted to explore new ways of doing the same thing with added flexibility. 3d also gives you more control, changing the camera position, animating camera etc or even swapping the character. Ideally, you could dress your friend in mocap suit and film them while capturing the animating 😅 that would be epic🔥

[@UserSo4reUsu75ry]

@@PolyPaint I hope AI will learn to make a mocap from a video shot on single camera without suit 😎

[@ariellaplays407]

Nothing is cheating everything is permited as long as you do your job done

[@PolyPaint]

True. But also I’d argue that you shouldn’t violate any ethnics or copyrights to avoid any drama

[@ariellaplays407]

@PolyPaint thats for sure

[@LOC-Ness]

People will do workflows like this and then shout “pick up a pencil” when someone so much as upscales a jpeg

[@SuperXzm]

I swear to god I will say "the abbreviation", but I'm afraid my feed will be filled with trash

[@PolyPaint]

lol

[@PolyPaint]

@@SuperXzm haha, so true. I'm hesitant to even mention that thing now. 😂

[@SIRECORDS1RD]

😮😮😮

[@drawmisu]

It's not cheating. Lying about doing it could be. If not careful, it can also be grounds for copyright issues. Personally I don't want to do it this way because it takes the joy out of drawing for me. Unless maybe when the deadline is super close. I'd shoot my own references though.

[@PolyPaint]

Thanks for sharing your opinion! I totally agree with every point you’ve made 🔥

[@PutineluAlin]

There had been a scandal of DC animators using the footage of a independent fight choreography and aligned with certain shots it was blatantly rotoscoped and really most pro animators film themselves doing the action that they will later animate it for a feature animated movie. Animating is much an actors job as a craftsman job. Calling it cheating is just a marketing buzzword.

[@PolyPaint]

Yeah, that’s why I also mentioned copyright issue. Most of the stuff online is copyrighted and people seem not to understand that even in the professional environment. Regarding the method, it’s not a replacement to filming yourself and using that, but rather to enhance the customization if anyone needs it. You can basically add your design to the model and it will be your guide. Combined with mocap suit you can both perform and capture the movement. Might have some potential in the end imo

[@Jenjak]

It's cheating in the sense that you're not learning to animate so you can't see what's wrong with your janky animation in end. Just like tracing a drawing won't teach you how to make it yourself. In animation industry, we regularly trace drawings or reuse animations, but because we know how to draw a character and the principles of animation, we can do tweaks and adjustments to make it work. I don't have any problem with "cheating" even with using Ai to some extent, but learning and mastering the basics of drawing and animation will always make your work 10 000 times better.

[@PolyPaint]

Couldn’t agree more! Thanks for the insight!

[@notraiciono16]

salute from argentina

[@Senpaisxra]

I don’t think this is cheating at all I just think you should use your own 3d animations

[@randilaratnayake8701]

Old disney animations used rotoscoping method

[@PolyPaint]

True

[@CH-zp1zv]

Basic ezzz😎

[@sridrawings4510]

So is this how guilty gear animations were made?

[@PolyPaint]

I'm pretty sure latest games are fully 3d (NPR shading). Old ones were full 2d from what i remember. Idk if they used any 3d for that. I think they were skilled enough to make the animation completely in 2d.

[@shirotonbo6315]

0:00 "Lets be real" *My imaginary gf next to me disappears* What have you done😢

[@PolyPaint]

I’m sorry for your loss 😢

[@AFRShortsIDN]

make animation tutorial like lofi girl, please i needed beacuse i will make music chanel like lofi girl

[@SunnyMarwadi-f9h]

I want to make 2D animation like @hamid sahari. Anyone can help me🙏

[@robin47504]

time wasted 😥

[@HelvioAvelar]

[@DreamsAudio]

You can’t draw? No problem. Just learn how to use highly complicated 3d animation software. That will take you the same amount of time to learn as it would if just learned how to draw.

[@PolyPaint]

Ikr, Shortcut isn't it? XD

[@Cartoonish]

I appreciate your investment and the explanations, but you're a bit funny, why invest so much to download a model, make it in Blender, return it to the website and all this instead of simply searching for a reference of a walking man in advance and then drawing Batman on it as you explained at the end

[@PolyPaint]

Depends on the situation i guess. but I see couple cases where it may be useful - you need a custom camera movement or different angle (doing orbiting camera for example) - you need to retarget it to another model with different style/proportions - you need to modify an animation to fit your project You can still use video, this approach doesnt exclude other methods. Its just more flexible and controllable in some aspects. Depends on application

[@digicinematic]

Cheating? No. Neither is using a tablet, Mixamo, or AI.

[@Kyncaid84]

there's no such thing as cheating in graphic or animation ;)

[@jabumahlangu6830]

ROTO

[@PolyPaint]

yeah. 3d version

[@ruudygh]

Nothing smart here, every profesional is using this method everyday. And the pro dont even need to animate 3d character, they just use pre-recorded video. You are doing things more complicated than the pro.

[@tomtran5911]

Without drawing skills….. mofo here designing beautiful shapes on top of a moving wire frame, which is nicely designed also. No drawing skills in that. Mdr

[@PolyPaint]

That’s partially the point of the video to convince ppl to actually learn craft