Easy cut-out animation in OpenToonz (using the skeleton tool) - OpenToonz Tutorial

This video shows the basic way to setup a character (BB8) for cut-out animation (a puppet) in OpenToonz. I'll show you the basics to build a puppet and show how to animate it.

There's many methods that you can use, that vary in the amount of effort that you have to put in and the quality of result you get out of it. This week is the basics. Next week I'll show a few more ways to improve the puppets.

Cut out is really useful for keeping consistency in a character. You draw them once, then manipulate them using the animate and skeleton tools, so you haven't got to redraw them each frame; ideal for animators that can't draw characters consistently or want to produce episodic series. But you can also use frame by frame animation within a puppet to stop the movement looking too mechanical and I show both methods in this video.

I try to speed through my explanations as quickly as I can, speeding up the drawing where necessary, so you're not just watching me draw, but there's a lot to get through and I try to give out as many tips as possible along the way, but if you want to skip through the video, here's the list of topics I cover.

Contents:
00:00 Intro
01:17 Quick overview of the 4 steps
01:48 1 of 4. Sketch the character
02:17 2 of 4. Draw each part on its own layer
03:30 3 of 4. Connect parts on the stage schematic
06:04 4 of 4. Animate it - using the Animate Tool
10:20 4 of 4. Animate it - using the Skeleton Tool
12:54 4 of 4. Animate it - adding animation frames
16:19 Final animation

During animating, I also added:
- A shadow under BB-8
- A shadow & highlight effect on BB-8
- A "peg" to add a bobble to the movement along the ground
- Animation frames to show the head rotating

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Want to learn more about OpenToonz? Check out my Udemy course.
A complete guide to OpenToonz for traditional 2D animation: http://bit.ly/OpenToonzCourse

If you liked what you saw and want to help out, you can buy me a coffee or a Darren Tea ;-)
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/DarrenT

Check out useful OpenToonz-companion software you can download or purchase:
https://gumroad.com/DarrenTAnims

The kit I use and recommendations of useful books:
http://kit.co/DarrenT

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

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More about me: https://www.youtube.com/c/DarrenTAnims/about

outro music courtesy of Voltaire: https://www.youtube.com/user/VoltaireMusicPage

Видео Easy cut-out animation in OpenToonz (using the skeleton tool) - OpenToonz Tutorial канала Darren T