Animate folds with the Plastic Tool and other tips - OpenToonz Tutorial

[@DarrenTAnims]

*Thanks for watching.* Timecodes for each tip in the video and all links are in the description *All my OpenToonz tutorials:* kzbin.info/www/bejne/qZKnf3qMn5lpjsU

[@DarrenTAnims]

For help setting up and using OpenToonz, chat with animators & developers and enter animation challenges, join my OpenToonz Discord: discord.gg/FYy4Mg7

[@chesterhackenbush]

Excellent! Best cut-out tips ever!

[@DarrenTAnims]

🙂 Thanks buddy. Glad you found them useful. There's a lot of flexibility in the plastic tool.

[@Tan4500]

you can cut plastic tool meshes? what a lovely hidden feature that is. OT is just full of surprises! very nice indeed Darren!

[@DarrenTAnims]

Thanks buddy. I know! I was as shocked as you. Its seem the menu items, but hasn't figured out what they did until this past week when Beeheemooth told me about it. OT is still surprising me, after 2 years of using it.

[@Tan4500]

@@DarrenTAnims I burned myself out on OT because for a hot minute i wanted to learn all about it because i was so thrilled about a "real" competitor to flash or toonboom from the foss space. something open source and on the similar level of TB? i was thrilled! so i over exposed myself to it, and like OL, i too burned myself out. i still like the tool, and even tho grease pencil is a thing in blender now, i was really digging the raster drawing workflow with OT once i knew what was going on. i really do love the way Toonz manages pixels and rendering. the only thing keeping me from it, was the GP hype, and finally being able to make comics nearly effortlessly with clip. and clip has been easier to learn than krita, i still like krita alot, and its a wonderful app, but clip has become my favorite pc painting app of all time. what sold me was the comic specific tools, but it just made digital art so fun with all the little things, like its so easy to close a loop in clip, and if i draw a line, stop mid way, and if my cursor is close enough to a line, the program knows i wanna continue that line like magic. so those two things were quite a rush, and i over exposed myself to toonz, and i still need a bit of space, but i def plan on using it in the future, especially with all the effort i put in to learn it so that i could ditch adobe.

[@DarrenTAnims]

Yeah. I understand. And it's not like you can only use the 1 tool. Each tool has its purpose. So just come back to OT when your want to use its features again. I've been trying to get my head around some of the basic drawing features in Krita. I don't plan to animate in it, but I use it for my video thumbnails and the occasional background in OT. But there's only so many hours in the day.

[@Tan4500]

@@DarrenTAnims yea man, and i can only learn so much so fast, Krita, OT, Clip, and Blender still surprise me months/years later when i muck around in their uis. i feel like Blender is gonna keep surprising me for years to come. it can do so much its actually insane. but the cool thing is 1 set of hotkeys to so many different functions.

[@calogiga]

Thanks Darren for this incredible tutorial. It's very well explained. A pleasure !

[@DarrenTAnims]

Thank you my friend. That's very kind of you to say :-)

[@regularvids]

This is great. This can really make animating more easy and speed some things up. Thanks.

[@DarrenTAnims]

I believe it will. I'm looking forward to using this in an animation

[@ggabriel3d]

Great tut Darren! as always 💪

[@DarrenTAnims]

Cheers Gabriel

[@cointossofficial4775]

Excellent tutorial, thanks!

[@DarrenTAnims]

Glad you found it useful :-)

[@firestone_ա]

Thank you for your work! It’s very helpful!

[@DarrenTAnims]

Cheers 😊

[@Felix.Wingfield]

Excellent!

[@DarrenTAnims]

Thanks H 🙂

[@fairzanimations]

Nicely done

[@DarrenTAnims]

Thanks buddy

[@GCSEPhysicsExplained]

Tremendous tutorial 👌🏼

[@DarrenTAnims]

Thank you my friend

[@natrajkamboj]

Great, Thanks

[@DarrenTAnims]

🙂

[@jbishop72]

Great tutorial... just thinking is there anyway that you could avoid or fix that gap issue in case you wanted an arm to bend both ways with a crease whichever way? I know in ToonBoom this is possible. Cheers

[@DarrenTAnims]

Thanks. I think this method would be the best way, but I don't know how you'd do that in toon boom.

[@jbishop72]

@@DarrenTAnims what I meant is that in ToonBoom you can have a limb bend seamlessly both ways with using things like auto patch, or the different layers ToonBoom has. They do not have the plastic tool so probably not a fair comparison but I just wonder if there is a way to close/hide that gap if you wanted to bend the other way in Opentoonz?

[@DarrenTAnims]

@@jbishop72 You can build an auto patch effect to merge multiple columns using the fx nodes. I've shown this in a video, but I can't remember which one atm.

[@DarrenTAnims]

In fact, I think it might be included in the "aditional fx plugins" download in the links section of my Discord.

[@cointossofficial4775]

Darren, thanks of your tutorials, I think I understood how to use everything in the plastic tool, except one thing: What does happen when I uncheck "Global key"? What does it mean?

[@DarrenTAnims]

If the global key box is ticked, then a key is created for every joint in the plastic mesh. Without it ticked, only the change made gets a key. There's 3 values that can be stored for each joint: rotation, distance & stacking order (SO). So if you only rotate 1 joint, only 1 key for that 1 value is stored.

[@metacats2017]

It is very usefull skill. Thank you

[@DarrenTAnims]

😊 Cheers

[@Crystalshot]

When it comes to character rigging how do i animate a character turning from left to right whereby the hand which was in front of the body move’s to the back and the hand which was at the back of the body moves to the front For example if a character walk in one direction (right) and then chooses to walk in another direction towards the left, the hand which was in front of the body when he was walking has to now come to the back and the hand which was now at the back of the body has to now come to the front I hope i am not confusing you tho I also have another question How do i draw raster outside the canvas of the animation is it in anyway possible

[@DarrenTAnims]

For me, the trick is to not try to create a rig that handles every situation. OpenToonz can help with rigging, but it's not a complete rigging solution. SO try to keep your rigs as simple as you can. And build them just for the situation you're in. Regarding moving hands & others in front of other columns, you can use the S.O. (Stacking Order) to move columns in front/behind other columns. This video might help: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jpm9g6awhpdnmdE You cant draw outside the canvas. The canvas IS the canvas, but you can draw outside the camera. This video shows how: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZyth4xun9-cjdE

[@Crystalshot]

@@DarrenTAnims thank you and God bless I will watch all these 🫂

[@nickabreu1862]

Using this method, how does the software know to move the arm in front of the body? I tried this several times and sometimes the arm goes behind.

[@DarrenTAnims]

It's usually based on the order of the skeleton joints. But you can change it or even animate it! Using the animate tool, change the SO value (Stacking Order). Take a look from 5:25 here for more: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jpm9g6awhpdnmdE

[@nickabreu1862]

Right! Missed that on the first watch through. Thank you!

[@chriseatsgood2819]

how do you have the mouth and eye animations within your mesh?

[@DarrenTAnims]

They are different drawings in the same column.

[@ulabruno5208]

Hi! Thanks for this tutorial :) It is helpful, but I have two questions - is it possible to make easy in and easy out, for a more natural movement? And is it possible to make the animation of mash on 2's? I would be very happy if you could answer this questions

[@DarrenTAnims]

Thank you. The simple answer is yes and yes. You can set the initial default interpolation type in the preferences in the animation section. And you can set the interpolation to be added on 2s by setting the step (on that same page) to 2. And you can change either of these by right clicking on the interpolation line on the xsheet and choosing the appropriate option or by using the function editor.

[@ulabruno5208]

@@DarrenTAnims thank you, I will try :D

[@kalelbolas2773]

I know I asked something like this but is there some kind of library of graphic things you can drag out on the screen I really hope it has this beacause I’m looking to do lip sync 😌

[@DarrenTAnims]

There is, but it might not be the best way to add your mouth shapes. If you want to add them manually and not set them up using an external tool, there's a few options. I've explained them in this video (part of a playlist. And you might want to checkout the timestamp links in the description of this video): kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z561fmyllNp4lZI

[@kalelbolas2773]

Thank you so much

[@onkarchoudhary2269]

Hey sir i have a problem When i move character hand after mesh animation it comes in the original form again and then i try to animate it, it fails. Hope you have understood my problem.

[@DarrenTAnims]

How are you moving the hand? Are you moving out with the selection tool or animation tool? And what part fails? Basically, once you've created you're mesh, you can't move the drawings themselves. You can use the animate tool on the mesh, to move the whole thing. Or you can recreate the mesh with your drawings in a new position, if you want to use the selection tool.

[@onkarchoudhary2269]

@@DarrenTAnims thanks for reply but when i recreate the mesh it shows on the different position from the hand. Just i recreated the mesh but the mesh was on the othe place and the hand on other position. And the hand dosen't animate.

[@DarrenTAnims]

@@onkarchoudhary2269 It sounds like you've moved the hand with the Animate tool. If so, delete that animation key and try again. If not, you'll have to share a screenshot of this scene with me. My Discord is the best place for this.

[@onkarchoudhary2269]

@@DarrenTAnims ok please send me your email or Instagram account user name/link so i can share my problem with you. Thanks a lot.

[@onkarchoudhary2269]

@@DarrenTAnims Yes I have animate the hand and after i reposition it but comes in the original form. Please send me your Discord link or id.

[@Car-toonz]

thanks

[@DarrenTAnims]

Cheers 😀

[@LorisSolic]

aha....didnt think of that!!

[@DarrenTAnims]

Me either until Beeheemooth pointed it out to me, which was why I had to share it. I'm sure there's still more you can do with it that I don't yet know about.

[@LorisSolic]

@@DarrenTAnims has he put out any animations lately,i remember them being very good.

[@DarrenTAnims]

They were excellent. I've not seen any for a while. It's probably retweet them if he did

[@tallboy8768]

Got tutorial

[@DarrenTAnims]

Thanks 🙂