Animate a 2D character in a 3D environment with Blender

[@BharatBoricha97]

The SPA Studios = sharing is caring .

[@thespastudios]

Thanks for your comment! Indeed, we like to share our passion and interest in animation with you guys :)

[@vipulrai5776]

Spa studio = god for beginner Animators

[@JayTheDevGuy]

It's so invaluable having real professionals embrace Blender. Not only because we have the most skilled artists in the world pushing the tools, but also truly adopting the free and open source attitude that makes Blender so great. I appreciate Spa's work and demonstrations of Blender/Grease Pencil SO MUCH! Thank you Alfredo :]

[@PinkPlume]

The way this work flow allowed for Dikika to stay in position even through different cameras is amazing! Can't wait for Ember, love your work

[@thespastudios]

Thanks a lot!

[@inquizitive1]

Is there a way to do this on a Mac?

[@MarcHendry]

there's so much potential in different ways of mashing up different techniques in cool ways. 3D and 2D don't need to be enemies!

[@rockon8174]

They never were! 🙄

[@MarcHendry]

@@rockon8174 that's true, Tarzan looked amazing 20+ years ago

[@PierrickPicaut_P2DESIGN]

Great video and demonstration. Super inspiring.

[@thespastudios]

Thanks a lot!

[@nosirve9458]

I'm super gratefull that an amazing studio like Spa use and help open source Blender!! I was a fan but now I'm a super mega fan!! :D

[@thespastudios]

Thanks a lot! We are glad you like our content :)

[@Aldi-xp5iz]

I've been using your spa blender for several months now, great program. Great lesson, thanks to the spa team, and Alfredo!

[@thespastudios]

Thanks for your comment and feedback!

[@alfredocassano3194]

Thank you so much!

[@Sindaj.]

Thank you for this tutorial, going to be reference this for when I'm doing the animation for my own projects.

[@jonathanhudson3795]

Fascinating breakdown of your working process in grease pencil.

[@Mlthompson]

Amazing Video! THis is exactly what im looking for. You got yourself a subscriber!

[@KieranQuinones]

Great job SPA! Love your work!

[@quiribro]

Muchas gracias por enseñar parte de su workflow! se agradece un monton!

[@sandrocleuzo8814]

Fantastic demo! I never tried Blender but now I am looking forward to it! Thanks for this!

[@alfredocassano3194]

Thanks a lot Sandro! Yeah join the party :D

[@thespastudios]

Thanks a lot!

[@JM3DArt]

WOW grease pencil from The SPA Studios, amazing video bros!!!

[@thespastudios]

Thanks a lot!

[@fransvischer1]

This is wonderful! As stated in the video, this gives 2D animators the ability to match CG (and live-action) camera movement in storytelling, plus all the advantages and freedom of tradional animation.

[@renatashp]

You can also achieve this with pure 2D animation, have you seen Richard Williams' work?

[@fransvischer1]

@@renatashp Yes, I worked with him on "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" But, thinking about how 2D can compete (financially and creatively) in this age of high technology, I think this development is really great!

[@renatashp]

@@fransvischer1 wow! serious? Fantastic! I'm a huge fan of this film! You did a good job together with the team behind this amazing movie my dream is to work in this industry one day, I'm putting together my latest animations for my Demo reel, I love the classic old school way, but you are right, combining the classic way with the technology we have today is the formula for creating a masterpiece. nice to meet you 😊

[@hayk_animation]

Great! I've done a combo of Maya and Harmony before but would love to test out this Blender setup.

[@thespastudios]

thanks for the comment! Yes, let us know how it goes :)

[@drewby4701]

Beautiful scene from a wonderful artist. And so informative too. Thank you for this!

[@alfredocassano3194]

Thank you so much!

[@SeanWickett]

Looks amazing! I've been wanting to learn Blender's Grease Pencil. Maybe I can get into it this summer. I hope Ember can be rescued as a production and we can look forward to seeing the completed film.

[@thespastudios]

Thanks a lot!

[@YoannDessin]

That was inspiring, thank you for sharing your workflow

[@thespastudios]

Thank you for watching! :) Glad it was inspiring

[@viniciusiutubiu]

I didnt know you guys had a Addon ! so cool! nice video

[@thespastudios]

Yes, you can try as well :) It's available through the link in the video description!

[@lukeperkins1024]

It’s really cool to see the process here! It’s also really cool to see the main character of “Ember” now, despite the news of Netflix cancelling the film’s distribution. Is the film still getting made though?

[@diamondback7719]

that's what I'm wondering.

[@nikolailockertsen]

Fantastic!!!!❤

[@jeremywalton7917]

Thank you so much!! This was great. I am running with this and learning Grease Pencil. I downloaded Spa's version (and installed both addons) and have the main branch open as well for comparison. I have two questions so far. Stabilize stroke does not seem to work in Spa's version. Checking the option under Advanced has no effect and holding shift has no effect. Am I missing something? Also, what does the Pegboard option do in this? I saw the "transform Pegs" under "Shift and Trace".

[@graf_fridula3981]

Amazing quality and very cool that you shared this!

[@jmundart]

This is great I love seeing animation process from thee best of the best

[@thespastudios]

Thanks!

[@achesworth]

So inspiring! Thanks for sharing!

[@jeremy3ddave422]

more fun.. thanks.. SPA

[@thespastudios]

You're welcome :) Thank you for watching!

[@LukasDamgaard]

Absolutely inspiring ! Great video and thanks for sharing the addon 👌🏽

[@kuyajaypi]

This looks so good! the movement is so smooth, just incredible!!!!!!

[@siilih8156]

I'm really confused how your new drawings go nicely on top of the bouncing ball version into the correct depth. It says you're drawing on origin. Did you animate the origin first? Like do you place the origin on the spots where the drawing goes? I tired this with the spa blender (which is lovely), and even if I only move the origin on the z-axis the drawings still "drown" into the 3d meshes unless i pull it clearly in front of the 3d mesh. And even if first pass looks good(like the ball version here), what I draw on top doesn't sit on top of the fist drawing, unless i move it there manually

[@alfredocassano3194]

I constantly adjusted the depth even after drawing so that it's right. You can split the screen and check from a different angle in real time. The point where the lines "drown" into the 3d elements is exactly where you want to draw the feet. I suggest you make a scribble, like an oval, with more or less the same height of the character so that you can se clearly where the interaction (the "drowning") happens

[@siilih8156]

Thank you for replying! @@alfredocassano3194

[@samaan7]

Great tutorial! Thank you! This method is so useful!

[@WandererofArts456]

Is that Ember!? Looks great.

[@dondrapichrust]

Wow, cool technic, thank you for sharing

[@160thsoar6]

very informative thankyou for taking time out of your day to show us this. Your a big inspiration of mine, Watching all the way from Nairobi,Kenya.

[@guillaumecloutier5162]

This is so cool! Now I wanna do 2D animation on blender too

[@thespastudios]

:D Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Braingames24839]

This is great studio but so underrated

[@SpitfireStoryboards]

Beautiful example and demo. So full of charm, and a great example of variety in posing across the action. Thanks for sharing! Quick question on this example : are you using stepped(constant ) interpolation keys at the object level for each gp drawing?

[@alfredocassano3194]

The master himself! Thanks a lot. Yes, in the end. But for example when the character jumps I let Blender interpolate linearly between the object keyframes, so that the depth in the middle of the arc is inbetweened precisely. Then I make a new keyframe for the peak key, then a new one for the halfway inbetween and so on. In the end I fine tune the depth if needed, and usually yes I turn all the frames to constant. It depends if it's necessary and it normally is. By the way, I learned a lot from your tutorials, thanks for dropping by!

[@SpitfireStoryboards]

@@alfredocassano3194 Ha. Thanks for the detailed response. It's always something I'm trying to find the right solution for on different shots. I generally prefer how things look stepped, but it definitely requires more drawings on camera motion. Using a mixture where it suits is sensible. Again - GORGEOUS work. Keep em coming, when you are able. Would love to see a vid , if possible, in the future, about the shot sequencing side of the SPA setup, if that is something you use much .

[@alfredocassano3194]

@@SpitfireStoryboards Sure. I never used that myself, as last time I did storyboards I used Storyboard Pro. But it's only matter of time and I want to make use of the knowledge I built on Blender. One tool that I think could help and we had on the to do list was some function that could automatically look at the summary (or any layer) into the grease pencil object and replicate the keyframes timing on the object dopesheet. Imagine showing a rough to the director and you are asked a change of timing, you go in the GP timeline and move some frames here and there, it would be great if the object animation could automatically reflect that, at least optionally. But the reality is that 2d in 3d a complex mixture, so each scene is almost an individual case and it's difficult to find an ideal workflow that satisfies all the cases. So much yet to explore. Thanks again for your comments!

[@rickarroyo]

This is amazing! I still haven't been able to switch from Maya to Blender

[@LumaUruguay]

Hermoso! Gracias por compartir tu trabajo y tiempo. Me quedé con ganas de ver una edición final en la que. con la misma animación 2d, se puedan utilizar distintos encuadres de la cámara. Gracias!

[@Nonjola]

I'm curious if it's possible to animate characters using Moho within a 3D environment created in Blender, while incorporating traditional hand-drawn background designs on paper.

[@alfredocassano3194]

it sounds doable to me

[@michaelearnest]

amazing demo!

[@WeltenwandlerAgentur]

Incredible! Love it! 🥰

[@alfredocassano3194]

thank you!

[@gfrierbrand6962]

I LOVE IT! *Question* , how did yu make the Grease Pencil face the Camera all the time, in the right angle?

[@alfredocassano3194]

with this version of Blender it's easy, all you have to do is make a GP character from the proper tool and you can decide the distance, if the camera is parented etc. With normal Blender you can too, it's just longer to do as you have to arrange things manually. But if you look closely, the GP object is not always perpendicular to camera at all times. When she climbs on the tree I had to rotate the object a little as some parts of her were ending up into the tree trunk

[@rakeshjana3469]

Amazing

[@renatashp]

How did you make her walk around the set as if she were really there and to be different from what you did in Klaus?

[@alfredocassano3194]

Hi, I moved the grease pencil object in depth by going into object mode every time I wanted to place the character "card" somewhere in space. Then I changed the interpolation to constant, so the character stays there until the next keyframe.

[@renatashp]

​@@alfredocassano3194 Thank you very much😊, I downloaded spa blender and it's really cool, but I'm experiencing a bug. When I change brushes for some reason the line comes out dotted, then I have to restart the blender to get it back to normal, but this always keeps coming back the hug

[@alfredocassano3194]

@@renatashp Hi, that's not a bug. Some tools come with materials preassigned and you are probably selecting a tool that has a dotted material assigned to it

[@balgrimesart564]

Thanks for the demo, that looks very interesting as approach because you can still slightly adjust the camera afterward, anyone knows a good tutorial to use the greasepencil in this manner ?

[@TheWorldOfCreaturix]

Thank you for sharing your video, it is very useful. Greetings from Creaturix🐍🐗🦇🧙‍♂️

[@jamesloymartin]

Brilliant! Would love to see this implemented in film.

[@LOl-ng8ws]

very helpful🥰

[@exodusvr9543]

Hi is it possible to create your 3d environment in blender, then export the camera scene via video or image sequence... so that we can use it via another animation software such as toon boom, clip studio paint or krita to create our animations?

[@alfredocassano3194]

yes, Blender can export all sort of formats

[@renatashp]

It would be cool if you could offer a video showing the entire animation process without timelapse on KZbin for anyone interested in watching, or at least offer it on gumroad. Furthermore, I have a question, how did you manage to flip the canvas when you were drawing one of the frames?

[@alfredocassano3194]

Hi! Thank you :) I did a timelapse because otherwise the video would last too long (meaning many hours!)

[@renatashp]

​​@@alfredocassano3194 Thank you very much for answering my questions, you are a great teacher ❤i understand, on KZbin people wouldn't spend much time watching, but for me I would love to see your entire animation process, have you ever thought about setting up a course or do a demo on your channel? thanks again ❤

[@alfredocassano3194]

@@renatashp I'm thinking about that.

[@renatashp]

@@alfredocassano3194 ❤

[@piotrkrauze2208]

I like this approach, but I find it more problematic during cleanup, it seems to require more masking because of the clipping problems that often show up (the body gets cut of by ground, and parts are not hidden by something, or the other way, are hidden when shouldn't) I wonder how do you cleanup a shot like that, and are you facing similar problems For fast moving camera movements I like parent the GP layer to the camera, you can still animate on 2s, and you don't get the back and forth movement. (kind of like your old approach)

[@ValuDraw]

To clean up, you can just disable the 3D layer, at the top right corner of the screen. You can even make it more transparente to see through the 3D objects. The main advantage of Grease Pencil is that you can make the clean up inside the same "container" (grease pencil object) that you draw the sketch. Thare is not a problem to parent the camera to a a grease pencil object or the other way around. I holp it helps ^__^

[@thespastudios]

Hi, thanks a lot for your comment and for raising this important point! If the strokes being cut out by the 3d models are an issue while animating, a workaround is to tick the Grease Pencil object "In Front" attribute (viewport display). After animation, our process goes as follows (outside of Blender): - Characters and props that are not intertwined get split - They get individually cleaned (line and flat color) - They are masked and put back together with the environment in pre-comp This often involves masking, regardless of the space you animated in (Grease Pencil in "world" or "screen" space), the same way you would split your environment into an "underlay" and an "overlay" in a classic 2d workflow. The clip from Klaus below illustrates this (the 3d environment and props were done in maya and the 2d "on top" in Harmony). You can focus on the character's feet in the sledge. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jqrRq6Ftppelf68 Of course, there is not one single way of doing things, and different styles, skillsets or preferences might call for different approaches, but hopefully this answered your question :)

[@ClarenceTamakloe]

would there ever be a discord server for any spa blender related question?

[@alfredocassano3194]

Hi! I'm not aware of any plans in that direction for now, unfortunately

[@TripFontain]

WOOOOW Thank you for this.... I need this in my workflow.... Question,,,Can i use this file in a current version of blender like the Goo Engine to finish my post Processing like Light Linking and NPR Shading? And just use this for the animationg in 3d space part?

[@thibaultfrancois5088]

Hello, how do you make the model sheet follow the character/grease pencil? are you actually making transforms and moving the grease pencil object in space and then parenting the reference image to the the keyed transforms? And another question, are you using the 3d cursor to lay out the character in the first place? If you are doing that, it's a bit confusing because, i tried that and it seems like the grease pencil object didn't actually move and stays in place, I tried parenting the model sheet but still it remains in the same spot. Great video guys, thank you so much :D

[@inquizitive1]

Beautiful work and thanks for sharing. Am I wrong to assume the add on does not work on a Mac?

[@alfredocassano3194]

Thank you! Correct, unfortunately this is for Windows users only.

[@jmahonatam]

Very cool!! So many little tricks I saw in here, flipping your view horizontally, copy and pasting among different frames, I've never seen in blender before. You never really see documentation on that ... how can you do that????

[@SpitfireStoryboards]

They are features of the SPA version of blender, and the addons that you can get seperate. Links are up above in the video description

[@rubisco1452]

This is gold

[@eliwinston7987]

I hope your next movie comes soon.

[@footballexpert111]

Great Video! Could you make a video about what settings you use to make the look of the 3D background match the drawn figure? lighting, shading, etc.

[@alfredocassano3194]

Hi! I haven't touched much of the settings that you can find in any recent version of Blender. There are 4 render modes on the top right corner of your 3d viewport, which you can also recall with Z on the keyboard (wireframe, solid mode, material preview, render preview). I never use wireframe in this demo, but switched between the other 3 modes. Mind that the onion skin works only in solid mode and material preview.

[@footballexpert111]

@@alfredocassano3194 Many thanks for your response. Unfortunately I expressed myself very unclearly. I didn't mean in this video, but in general. In Klaus, for example, there were several 3D backgrounds that were perfectly adapted to the style of the characters. When I try this, my backgrounds usually look too realistic to use for hybrid animation.

[@alfredocassano3194]

@@footballexpert111 ohhh I see. Well that's research: you need the art director and lighting supervisor to work closely with the character designer and keep crafting until both world match. It might take months just to have that uniformity of style. But of course it depends on the style, final look etc. Maybe you get lucky and find it in a week :D but on movies like Klaus, man that's a lot of work.

[@footballexpert111]

@@alfredocassano3194 Oh ok. Was hoping to be able to fix this quickly, but that sounds like hard work😅But thank you very much for your answer!

[@michaelearnest]

Hello Alfredo, wonderful demo, thanks again. Can we use onion skin in this mode? if not, do we have any add-ons available in the market?

[@alfredocassano3194]

thanks! Yes onion skin is available in vanilla Blender already. In this add on you have a better interface for it and you can also filter through frame type which is essential to speed up things

[@michaelearnest]

@@alfredocassano3194 thanks a lot for the prompt response

[@noel_curray]

You need to adjust again the foot registration if you change the camera view. Otherwise, foot slip.

[@alfredocassano3194]

Hi! Thanks for your comment. Changing camera after the animation needs to be done with some caution, of course you don't have the same level of freedom as before starting the animation. But you'll be surprised at how much you can dare, and if the new camera is on the same line as the character, often no adjustment is required

[@michaelguimont]

Soooo is this little guy and those assets from Ember?? :p thanks for sharing!

[@alfredocassano3194]

yep :) you are welcome!

[@ahmedchawkibenrahmoun6731]

amazing video ! THANKS for sharing your knowledg with us :D ... how long did it take you to make this rough ?

[@alfredocassano3194]

Hi and thanks! I did it in bits here and there, so it's difficult to quantify. If you are in a production and work on it full time I'd say maybe a couple days? With the depth additional work maybe something more. But that's really subjective so it shouldn't be so important

[@ahmedchawkibenrahmoun6731]

@@alfredocassano3194 thank you for taking the time to respond :)

[@ahmedchawkibenrahmoun6731]

You are a real master at your craft sir

[@nosirve9458]

This video is really good by the way!! I should try grease pencil :DD

[@ramada_3w3_]

how can you position the character on the exact dimension on the 3D model? cuz every time i do it, it ends up like the last example u shoed (the old ways). do u go frame by frame sketching then spinning the view to see if u placed it right? if so, that will take forever!

[@alfredocassano3194]

Hi! You can duplicate the window and on the secondary workspace check the right depth for your GP object without having to go in and out every time. Also, if you establish the depth on important keys, you don't need to change it for every new drawing, especially if the character is touching ground with the feet. The depth snaps as soon as the next foot takes the weight. Still, it's a bit of work, yes, but there are a few solutions and workarounds (for example in some case you can make Blender interpolate the depth automatically and then break down the tween in keyframes.)

[@ramada_3w3_]

​@@alfredocassano3194 thank u for the answer, i will try the first method, its easier than spinning the camera after each drawing. is there a specific option for the "interlope" method? honestly i dont understand what you men by it or how would it work

[@renatashp]

I have some doubts: how did you flip the canvas horizontally? How did you make the 3D scenery opaque? and how did you use the grease pencil? origin? view ? very cool video ❤

[@alfredocassano3194]

I could flip the canvas horizontally thanks to a function that you can find in the Spa animation add on. The scenery gets opaque because I change the render mode (press Z and play with the 4 modes, you'll see, but mind that the onion skin works only in some). The third question is a bit unclear, please reformulate and I'll be happy to answer you!

[@inquizitive1]

@@alfredocassano3194I’m guessing they’re wondering how the greasy pencil stays aligned to the camera. I’m sure I’ve seen how but I can’t remember and sadly I’m on a Mac 😂

[@alfredocassano3194]

@@inquizitive1 oh ok, in that case I move the GP object around, meaning its origin. It's a pass that I did on the initial bouncing ball and fine tuned as I added more drawings of Dikika. The GP object animation keyframes are normally set on constant, but sometimes it helps having Blender inbetween the position linearly (or with any curve you might need).

[@BigTexasTony]

Do you use Blender all of the time?

[@alfredocassano3194]

hi, it depends on the project, but I use it every time I can. Sometimes productions impose Harmony, which is also great, so I really enjoy using both.

[@shim2822]

She's remind me of Suzanne

[@melenseethis]

Please, Please, Please can you make your plug-in compatible with Mac OS?!

[@alfredocassano3194]

hi, not sure this will come any time soon, unfortunately

[@jaysonfontela5761]

❤

[@robsonhenrique4346]

My dream is to learn 3D and 2D animation

[@BEPPEJHA]

Damn I cant draw, that monkey is so good drawn

[@alfredocassano3194]

Capote is a genius, but he practices a lot. Practice makes the difference!

[@yomama211]

hi alfredo!

[@alfredocassano3194]

Hi! Thanks for dropping by!

[@yomama211]

@@alfredocassano3194 this is my nom de guerre does the caricature look familiar? Great video man!

[@spaideman440]

at least show the final result...

[@alpizstudios]

[@anisnej10]

please shut up im trying to sleep 😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😒