How to Animate With a Bamboo Tablet
Computer drawing tablets seek to emulate the experience of working with a variety of mediums in the digital realm. By combining the agility of a pen and the precision, speed, and flexibility of a computer, these tablets offer artists a creative outlet and a way to craft amazing forms of art, including animation. Wacom’s Bamboo tablet is a consumer-priced drawing tablet that makes it simple to draw and animate your concept.
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Instructions
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Open Adobe Photoshop and select “New...” from under “File” in the menu bar. Select the dimensions and resolution of your canvas, and click “OK.”
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Open the “Layers” palette from under “Window” in the menu bar using the Bamboo's pen, and click on the “Create a New Layer...” button. Create and appropriately name a new layer for each component of your drawing that will be animated, such as layers for each leg, each arm, and a head if you were to animate a person walking. Then, create one final layer for your initial sketch and name it “Sketch.”
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Select the “Brush Tool” from the “Tools” palette, and right-click anywhere on your canvas to change the brush size to one you are comfortable drawing with.
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Select the layer named “Sketch” in the “Layers” palette and sketch out the object you wish to animate using the Bamboo’s pen. You can flip the pen around and use the digital eraser on the opposite end if you make mistakes in your drawing.
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When the sketch is complete, click on the first of your new layers, and use the Bamboo pen to trace the component of the drawing associated with it. For instance, trace the head of your drawing on the “Head” layer and the left leg on the “Left Leg” layer.
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Change the brush shape and colors and color each component on each of their same layers once the tracing is completed for each layer.
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Select “Window” in the menu bar, and then select “Animation” to open the “Animation” palette.
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Click the button in the lower-right corner of the “Animation” palette to display “Animation (Frames),” which shows each individual frame of movement for your drawing.
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Select the “Duplicates Selected Frames” button in the “Animation” palette to create a duplicate of the current frame of animation.
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Select the first point of movement of a component of your drawing with the Bamboo pen, for instance the “Left Leg,” and select “Edit” from the menu bar, followed by “Transform” and then “Free Transform.” Use the “Free Transform” tool to create the first point of movement for your animation. As an example, if you are drawing a person, use the Bamboo pen and the “Free Transform” tool to rotate the right leg so that it is halfway through a step.
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Select both of the frames in the “Animation” palette with your first point of movement selected, and click the button named “Tweens Animation Frames.” This will create all of the intermediary frames of animation between your initial frame where nothing had moved and your first point of animation. Select the number of frames you wish to insert, and select “OK” to have frames created that fill in the rest of the motion for that component of your animation.
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Continue to move parts of your animation with your Bamboo pen, followed by using the “Tweens Animation Frames” button to fill in the missing frames.
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Select “File” in the menu bar once all your frames have been created, and then select “Render Video” under “Export.” Name the video, select its location and file options, and then select “Render.” Once done, your animation will be a fully rendered, animated video.
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References
- Photo Credit Comstock/Comstock/Getty Images
