From Storyboards to Animatics
By Brian J. Immel
Preparing Images for Animation in Photoshop
Image cleanup
1. Stray lines, dots, fuzzies and so forth should be removed. We want to keep the image clean and readable.
2. Adjust the contrast as needed. Keep the white paper white and the black lines black. Nothing is more distracting than yellowish paper with gray lines on that is suppose to represent your storyboards. You can do this during the scanning process (decent scanning software allow have this feature) or fix it in Photoshop either by adjusting the contrast (Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast) or changing the levels (Image > Adjustments > Levels).
Cutting the Image for Animation
If a body part needs to move for timing purposes, you might want to cut it out and put that body part in a layer of its own.
Cutting Images in Photoshop
Marquee Tools
Good for selecting large rectangular or elliptical areas.Magic Wand Tool
Good for selecting large open areas. May need to adjust the tolerance level to select a wider area. Try not to select any part of the line drawings. We’ll suppose to remove the background color and fuzzies from the image.
Lasso Tool
- Lasso Tool
- Acts as a freehand selection tool
- Acts as a freehand selection tool
- Polygonal Lasso Tool
- Draws lines to select areas
- Draws lines to select areas
- Magnetic Lasso Tool
- Tries to select areas based on difference in pixel values. Example: if you have a black inked line drawing, the magnetic lasso tool will easily pick out the difference between the paper and the lines. If you drew with a pencil and made some shadows, eraser makers, and so forth, then the contrast between pixels won’t be as clear and easy for the magnetic lasso tool to pick up.
Layers
Naming each layer is very important. Helps you track cut parts for animation purposes later on in After Effects.
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