Introduction to Hand-Drawn and Organic Looks Tutorials

Introduction:

Products affected: Adobe After Effects CS6, Photoshop CS6

In the past, all animation was either drawn or moved manually every frame without the use of a computer to interpolate the in-betweens from key-frame to key-frame.  Now, computer animation tools are designed to smoothly fill in the gaps between key-frames with the click of a button.  To older generations of animators the computerized movement often looks extremely smooth and unnatural, whereas younger eyes are usually less critical.  Either way, in today’s fast-paced work environment we need to be able to recreate the desired technique or look as efficiently as possible.  And, more often than not, drawing hundreds of frames by hand for a few seconds of animation just isn’t feasible.  This is why so many young animators are resorting to computer-based animation tools to speed up and enhance their workflow.

The Hand-Drawn and Organic Looks Tutorials are a series of written tutorials in the form of blog posts.  These tutorials are intended to be a resource for both motion graphics animators with no training in manual animation as well as traditional animators, who are searching for time-savers and organic-looking methods that combine computer-based workflows with analog techniques.  The example videos within the tutorials are meant to serve as a catalogue of techniques that are possible with the use of Adobe Photoshop and After Effects CS6 and browsers should feel free to peruse the tutorials and watch the videos to see if any of the techniques are of interest.

Table of Contents:

Doing Hand-Drawn Animation using Photoshop and After Effects CS6 (PART 1)

Doing Hand-Drawn Animation using Photoshop and After Effects CS6 (PART 2)

Working With Image Sequences in Photoshop & After Effects CS6

Making Motion Graphics Animations Look More Analog in After Effects CS6

Creating a Puppet Made of Image Sequences in Photoshop CS6 (PART 1)

Rigging a Puppet Made of Image Sequences in After Effects CS6 (PART 2)