Hi everyone. As you may know, I use a
program called Moho Pro for most of my 2D animations. This can be a large
investment, especially if you're just starting out. A number of people have
asked me if there are any affordable options, so today I'll be using a program
called Blender. This program usually focuses on 3D animation, but it can do a lot more. I already use it for sculpting, 3D modelling, rigging and animation. It is
an incredibly powerful tool, especially considering it's free and open source. It
is designed to be a bit of a one-stop shop to making a film including video
editing, which I use in all of my videos. But today I'm going to be using one of
its newer features, Grease Pencil, to be making a 2D animation similar to the
ones that are on this channel. So I'll demonstrate what I came up with. This video will show you what is possible with free software and a bit of
dedication. Keep in mind this is not a tutorial, however, I hope to step you
through the basics of Grease Pencil in more detail once I've finished my next
project. So here we go. Hello everyone this is me rigged in Blender Grease
Pencil. I kept it pretty simple but I'm also pretty dynamic. I even managed a
head turn and I'm lip-synced using "Rhubarb". If you're keen, I'll show you
around my rig. So here's my rig. I modeled this
character in the style of a show Hilda, an animated series that I would
definitely recommend. With this rig, I've simulated a simple head turn, using
"action constraints". I'll cover this more a bit later. I also use the same technique for the blinking eyes there are some eyebrow control bones to add
some expression a bit of movement for the eyes and I also use stretch and squash
controls throughout the rig, starting with the head, along with the hips, as
well as the shoulders, even a little jaw movement to help along with the
lip-syncing. With regards to the mouth, I opted to use a switch layer method and
set up a "pose library" to allow the Rhubarb addon to automatically lip-sync for me.
I use a similar system for the hands. The arms bend smoothly, much like you can
find in Hilda, but for the legs, I chose to use a sharper angle along with
inverse kinematics as I often do. I also have a knee direction control. So a bit more detail on the head turn
using "action constraints". I've made a simple example, here I've got a control
bone, the X location controls the left and right actions while the Y-axis
controls the vertical actions. I have four animations in the action editor,
down, up, left and right. I attach four "action constraints", one for each
animation, to every bone that should be affected, with the "control bone" as the
target. Also you must specify which attribute, of the control bone, should
affect the action, as well as to what extent. You can set this up with a single
bone, then copy the constraints over to the other affected bones. So that's it.
I'd love to hear any of your feedback. It was a really positive experience and I'm
excited to see what the future holds for Grease Pencil.
Thanks for watching. If you're new to Blender and this type of animation looks
a bit more complicated than you were hoping, remember you don't need a head
turn to bring your characters to life. A simple cutout rig is relatively
straightforward and I hope to step you through an example in my next Grease
Pencil video. Thanks again, I'll see you later.
