Patreon Peeks 7: Animating Me! (Patreon)

Hello! This week I wanted to show a little behind-the-scenes ofthe behind-the-scenes video... You can watch it here! https://youtu.be/hH4kJlO3zjc

At around 6:30, while I describe the process of making visuals for my videos, I do something I've never done before: representing myself as an animated persona. While it's not going to become a mainstay of my videos, but whenever I need to represent myself, this minimalist doodle of me comes in handy.

I based it off of musical symbols, with curly braces on the side for hair (I just really like curly braces, they're fun shapes). But when it comes time for me to give this doodle some life—i.e. having it turn away and shield its eyes from a bright computer screen—I didn't turn to the usual Clip Studio Paint, but to Blender!

Blender comes with a versatile tool called Grease Pencil, which can create 2D brushstrokes in a 3D environment. It has a layering system, its own materials and effects, and now in 2.8, it's really easy to render it right alongside 3D stuff. I'd say the only thing that's easier for me in other animation programs is getting onion skins of previous/later frames to show up. There are a few convoluted steps to that in Blender.

Anyway, one thing that's really useful about this is that I can create 3D animation for reference! I'm not a character animator by trade; it's really hard for me to keep lines and proportions consistent as things move. So in this project, it was really helpful to have a 3D object blocked out to at least keep the nose consistent and the head the same size.

Not to mention the camera can also move in 3D space, lines can be drawn in 3D space, lines can be converted into 3D meshes or paths, and anything made with the Grease Pencil can be easily edited and sculpted akin to sculpting vector animation. I'm really hoping to use more of the Grease Pencil in the future... it can spice up the visuals when I get the urge and the time to make them spicy!