Helpful tip: Animation with smooth transition of colors (Photoshop) (Patreon)

Hello guys! Decided to do a sort of "useful tips section" for artists for the first time. It will be useful for those who haven't learned the toolset that well yet.

Topic: Animating character with soft gradient, fades, halftones.

Problem: One of the biggest problems for many artists is animating complex characters with smooth color transitions, and gradients. From frame to frame you have to try to make a similar shade, taking into account the pressure, transition radius and others. I myself have previously tried to find a solution on how I can make it easier and finally managed to come up with something.

Solution: Converting halftones into multiple smart objects can help you a lot. You will get the perfect hue from frame to frame, and all you have to do is crop it to the outline and make small changes depending on the situation. To do this, it is advisable for you to learn at least basic knowledge of the 2 tools "Smart-Objects" and "Timeline".

Draw the shade you need on a separate layer, don't worry about going beyond the outline of the character. Convert the layer to a smart object, so you can modify it effectively on the timeline (motion, mashup, rotation, perspective, distortion). Set the first keyframe on the timeline, and then modify the object in each subsequent frame. After that, split the smart object into separate frames and rasterize it so you can remove the extra area. Done!

I think this might help someone, as many people ignore Smart Objects, preferring to paint everything with just a brush, and also ignore Timeline, preferring Frame-by-Frame mode, which doesn't have as much flexibility.