Create an Animatic
After Effects is not only a top special effects app used by broadcast professionals, it's also a first-rate animation package in its own right. Nick Sneath reveals how to transform your Photoshop files into a professional animatic.
This tutorial will take you through all the necessary steps to create an animated scene that focuses on an essential animation technique: the walk cycle. You'll create the material for this piece using a hand-drawn sketch of a character already scanned in and cut out in Photoshop, then bring the result to life with the help of a QuickTime movie of a Poser animation.
Note that such a complex animation would be an arduous process without such a reference materials, which prove valuable when your budget is limited and time is pressing. As usual, all the relevant files are provided.
As a final flourish, you'll learn how to duplicate and set each figure within a 3D space with an animated background. The imagery used in this particular piece comes from an animatic created for a London-based advertising agency. Animatics are proving very popular in film production and advertising, because they're a quick way to see how well ideas work - and relatively cheap to make. Ad agencies often use them to pitch to potential clients. Before an inch of film is shot or a dab of paint added to an animation cel, the client can see clearly how the piece will look, and make changes accordingly.
Click here to download the tutorial for free
Get top Black Friday deals sent straight to your inbox: Sign up now!
We curate the best offers on creative kit and give our expert recommendations to save you time this Black Friday. Upgrade your setup for less with Creative Bloq.
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Join now for unlimited access
Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
The Creative Bloq team is made up of a group of design fans, and has changed and evolved since Creative Bloq began back in 2012. The current website team consists of eight full-time members of staff: Editor Georgia Coggan, Deputy Editor Rosie Hilder, Ecommerce Editor Beren Neale, Senior News Editor Daniel Piper, Editor, Digital Art and 3D Ian Dean, Tech Reviews Editor Erlingur Einarsson and Ecommerce Writer Beth Nicholls and Staff Writer Natalie Fear, as well as a roster of freelancers from around the world. The 3D World and ImagineFX magazine teams also pitch in, ensuring that content from 3D World and ImagineFX is represented on Creative Bloq.
Related articles
- Creating SPINE's cinematic gameplay is like making an "action movie within a game"
- Critics are wrong about the Disney Snow White remake's "nightmarish" CGI
- The 10 gaming trends for 2025 that will transform how we play and create
- The cute new logo animation is the best thing about the Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami rehash