fancy painting for ANIMATION
March 25, 2008 10:23 PM Subscribe
I've been using Photoshop as a substitute for paper drawing, because the wacom sensitivity includes Opacity. In Flash & ToonBoom (the other options I've tried), there's no opacity-sensitivity. This makes them poor substitutes for a pencil.... (more inside)
...However, Photoshop doesn't have a Timeline, and getting the frames into one (in another program) is a hassle. I tried doing it in After Effects. It works OK when you "import as a comp.", but it's very clutzy getting everything into layers (I also tried painting directly in AE; it's vector-based, which is not good enough!).
I need an "all-in-one" program with PShop-like bitmap qualities, rather than Flash-like qualities...Something with onion-skinning. Otherwise, it's back to paper land...or Photoshop.
...However, Photoshop doesn't have a Timeline, and getting the frames into one (in another program) is a hassle. I tried doing it in After Effects. It works OK when you "import as a comp.", but it's very clutzy getting everything into layers (I also tried painting directly in AE; it's vector-based, which is not good enough!).
I need an "all-in-one" program with PShop-like bitmap qualities, rather than Flash-like qualities...Something with onion-skinning. Otherwise, it's back to paper land...or Photoshop.
Response by poster: again, this question is about animation...
posted by gorgor_balabala at 10:26 PM on March 25, 2008
posted by gorgor_balabala at 10:26 PM on March 25, 2008
You've just asked a computer-related question without specifying. It might as well be me who asks: Mac or PC?
posted by mumkin at 10:52 PM on March 25, 2008
posted by mumkin at 10:52 PM on March 25, 2008
What version of Photoshop are you using? CS3 does in fact have a timeline of sorts, as seen in this blog post.
posted by suedehead at 10:52 PM on March 25, 2008
posted by suedehead at 10:52 PM on March 25, 2008
Silhouette Paint is an add-on module to the industry standard visual-effects rotoscoping tool, Silhouette Roto, and is probably the closest thing to what you're looking for.
posted by melorama at 11:48 PM on March 25, 2008
posted by melorama at 11:48 PM on March 25, 2008
And amazingly enough, the venerable Amiga bitmap "natural" painting/animation package TVPaint still exists (even after being previously acquired, and then quickly abandoned by Newtek), and continues to be developed.
posted by melorama at 12:00 AM on March 26, 2008
posted by melorama at 12:00 AM on March 26, 2008
Corel Painter might meet your requirements. I've had some success with fancy-painting animation with it. it does have onion skinning and some other animation tools, though that's definitely not its primary focus. it's good for mac and pc's alike.
posted by prophetsearcher at 3:38 AM on March 26, 2008
posted by prophetsearcher at 3:38 AM on March 26, 2008
Best answer: If you're using Photoshop CS3 Extended, it does indeed have a timeline (the Animation window), and if you look at the popup menu for the timelime, you'll find onion-skinning controls. You can either import a Quicktime movie and edit the frames, or create one from scratch and export it from Photoshop.
posted by dbiedny at 6:42 AM on March 26, 2008
posted by dbiedny at 6:42 AM on March 26, 2008
Response by poster: Yes, I apologize for the vagueness of my question. I did find the animation window in CS3, but did not know about the onion-skinning, dbiedny! Thanks! I did have a limitation working in a Mac env. only in that I could not find TVPaint for download. I might also try Corel, prophetsearcher, thanks!
posted by gorgor_balabala at 7:27 AM on March 26, 2008
posted by gorgor_balabala at 7:27 AM on March 26, 2008
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posted by gorgor_balabala at 10:25 PM on March 25, 2008