Interested in learning 2d animation: questions

Von Wulfen

Hello all.
I like to draw and paint both digitally and using traditional methods.
I have been inspired by the artwork of a number of PC games to learn simple 2d animation for fun and my own use.
I would like to create my own scenes and wallpapers with creatures and characters that have simple idle animations, not really interested in game type control but as an example " A village scene with people standing around or coming and going from the village in a set animation.
I have no experience whatsoever of animation so please bear with my questions.
Will Autodesk Sketchbook be ok for creating my scenes and characters?
Do I have to draw my characters in pieces, like arms and legs separately in order to animate them?
Could anyone please recommend some tutorials on the process of drawing characters for the purpose of animation?
What file types are best used when saving a character ready to export to Spine?
Will the essential version of Spine be ok for my limited needs?
Cheers 🙂

Erika

Von Wulfen wrote
Will Autodesk Sketchbook be ok for creating my scenes and characters?

I haven't used it ever, but it's easy to tell: if it has layers, and if you can export from it in a format that uses layers such as .psd or .tiff, (so that you can later use the photoshop to Spine script to export, otherwise you'll have to manually export each layer on its own, which is quite time consuming) then you should be free to use it for creating your characters.

Von Wulfen wrote
Do I have to draw my characters in pieces, like arms and legs separately in order to animate them?

Yes, if they are all in one piece, you won't be able to animate them, especially if you plan to use Spine Essential which doesn't feature meshes.

Von Wulfen wrote
Could anyone please recommend some tutorials on the process of drawing characters for the purpose of animation?

Sure! Here are a couple of them:

This one explains how to structure the files, and there are also downloadable psd examples:

Here you can see the whole process in real time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLwGl7Ikd_6GTpd2PnWqqIZVsqotxtrtaE&v=ULhgQD9HvBI

If you choose the tag "Asset creation" you can find all the streams that feature them at this page:
Spine: Twitch

Von Wulfen wrote
What file types are best used when saving a character ready to export to Spine?

The recommended format is png because it's transparent, retaints good quality and it's reasonably small.
The fastest way to export for Spine is to use one of the featured export scripts: GitHub - EsotericSoftware/spine-scripts: Scripts to export from PhotoShop and other tools to Spine's JSON data format.

Von Wulfen wrote
Will the essential version of Spine be ok for my limited needs?

You can try, sure! with Spine Essential, it is best to have more separate images so you can add more bones to control each part. Personlly, I'm a huge fan of meshes and I find that they work amazing with static illustrations, but since you're creating a scene from scratch, you should be able to plan it to work best for Spine Essential 😃

Von Wulfen

Erika wrote
Von Wulfen wrote
Will Autodesk Sketchbook be ok for creating my scenes and characters?

I haven't used it ever, but it's easy to tell: if it has layers, and if you can export from it in a format that uses layers such as .psd or .tiff, (so that you can later use the photoshop to Spine script to export, otherwise you'll have to manually export each layer on its own, which is quite time consuming) then you should be free to use it for creating your characters.

Von Wulfen wrote
Do I have to draw my characters in pieces, like arms and legs separately in order to animate them?

Yes, if they are all in one piece, you won't be able to animate them, especially if you plan to use Spine Essential which doesn't feature meshes.

Von Wulfen wrote
Could anyone please recommend some tutorials on the process of drawing characters for the purpose of animation?

Sure! Here are a couple of them:

This one explains how to structure the files, and there are also downloadable psd examples:

Here you can see the whole process in real time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLwGl7Ikd_6GTpd2PnWqqIZVsqotxtrtaE&v=ULhgQD9HvBI

If you choose the tag "Asset creation" you can find all the streams that feature them at this page:
Spine: Twitch

Von Wulfen wrote
What file types are best used when saving a character ready to export to Spine?

The recommended format is png because it's transparent, retaints good quality and it's reasonably small.
The fastest way to export for Spine is to use one of the featured export scripts: GitHub - EsotericSoftware/spine-scripts: Scripts to export from PhotoShop and other tools to Spine's JSON data format.

Von Wulfen wrote
Will the essential version of Spine be ok for my limited needs?

You can try, sure! with Spine Essential, it is best to have more separate images so you can add more bones to control each part. Personlly, I'm a huge fan of meshes and I find that they work amazing with static illustrations, but since you're creating a scene from scratch, you should be able to plan it to work best for Spine Essential 😃

Awesome, many thanks for the reply 🙂