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2B's Sex Lesson - Process of an animation project + source files
🕑 Added 2024-09-02 15:12:08 +0000 UTCHello to my AWESOME T3 spicy soldiers! 🌶️
Here I am, back from vacation!
And as promised, with a detailed post explaining the process of creating an animation project, like the Nier one! I will also include source files that you can open in Clip Studio Paint. (attached files)
For those interested, I must inform you that to modify an animation file with more than 24 frames, the EX version of CSP is required. If you only have the PRO version, you'll be able to view the files in question but will unfortunately be limited in your ability to explore them.
With that said, let's get started!
Foreword:
This post only covers my personal approach to creating a spicy animation project spanning several minutes, with little help and limited time. It is by no means a step-by-step guide or the production method used by animation studios in the industry.
1: PREPARATION, SKETCHES, AND STORYBOARD
Once the series and character are selected, it’s time to gather documentation. For this, I mainly use a software called PureRef, which allows me to compile a lot of images in a single, easily viewable window.
This is an important step to ensure good references for characters, colors, backgrounds, poses, etc. Here, the images come from the video game, the animated series, photos of figurines, illustrations or fan animations by artists I admire, and a few photos of cosplayers.
Next, I create a character sheet for the subject, primarily to have a reference for patterns and colors for the upcoming animation. This helps me maintain design consistency from the beginning to the end of the project.
Next, I create several pose sheets, which I select to give you a preview of the animation or to let you vote on them.
🔺You'll probably recognize several of the poses featured in the final animation!
And to wrap up the preparation work, I finally create the animated storyboard for the project, based in part on the pose sheets.
Once all the shots are storyboarded, I create a preliminary edit of the entire video. This allows me to have a fairly accurate preview of the final product and to show it to the voice actors so they can start working before the video is completed.
I make sure that the pacing, transitions, and duration of each shot (and the entire video) are well thought out and finalized at this stage. This helps minimize (or eliminate) any last-minute changes during the final edit.
STORYBOARD VIDEO LINKS:
Storyboard intro/bj
Storyboard segs
You may notice that some shots were modified during their final execution, but I strive to stay largely faithful to the original storyboard.
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2: THE STAGES OF CREATING A CUT
You can probably guess that I won't show you, step by step, ALL the shots from the project (around 35 plus dozens of variations). Therefore, I’ve selected certain shots with different characteristics that I find particularly interesting to illustrate each point. The source files attached to the post correspond to these specific shots.
In this type of spicy animation, there are 2 types of sequences (and one bonus):
The looped animation, which typically consists of 4 to 12 frames for me. It involves creating a series of frames that will repeat as many times as necessary, smoothly.
🔺fucked.clip
This sequence was created with 8 frames that loop continuously. The challenge here is to ensure that the last and first frames connect smoothly, without creating the impression of a jarring cut with each loop.
Organic animation, which contains no loops or repetitions. These are obviously the longest sequences to create, as no frame is reused, and each image in the entire sequence is made independently.
🔺start_anal.clip
This sequence was created with 38 frames. As with many of them, to save time during the project, I only drew the keyframes—those are the most important frames that guide the movement—and assigned one of my assistants the task of creating the inbetweens, which are the intermediate frames that make the final animation smooth. I'll show an exemple of this further below.
A mix of the two is also possible. This involves creating a relatively long organic sequence, but repeating one or two times it if the context allows.
🔺boob_grab.clip
In this sequence, the action lasts 17 frames and is repeated once. While few contexts are suitable for this method, when it is, it allows the shot to last a bit longer without having to spend twice as much time on the sequence.
Finally, here are the steps for creating an animation sequence, regardless of type:
1: Storyboard
🔺This storyboard cut, like all the others, is included in the animated storyboard I mentioned earlier.
2: Sketch
🔺You’ll notice that it changes a bit from the storyboard to the sketch, but the core idea remains the same.
3: Keyframes line
🔺As mentioned earlier, for organic shots, I first create the keyframes personally to guide the movement. There are 9 keyframes here.
4: Full line
🔺And here is the version with inbetweens created by one of my assistants. Pretty good, right? There are 1 to 2 inbetweens between each frame, which makes the final animation much smoother. The industry standard is generally around 12 frames per second for animation. The red and blue lines indicate lighting and shadow placements.
5: Color
🔺By following the color indications, I (or, in this case, the colorist who worked on this shot for me) can simply add the base colors, lighting, and shadows to each frame. I then add the background.
6: Lipsync (for cuts where a character talks)
🔺Base cut
🔺With lipsync
The goal here is to synchronize the lip movements with the audio file provided by the voice actor. I create mouth movements in the Japanese style, which means drawing a range of variations between "open" and "closed" for the mouth. Once these 3 to 6 mouth variations are created, I simply synchronize them with the audio. Sounds like "O" or "A" correspond to an open mouth, "I" or "T" correspond to a semi-open mouth, and "M" or "P" correspond to a closed mouth. For particularly close and/or slow shots, I sometimes create more than 3 variations to ensure smooth transitions between sounds.
7: Post process
🔺Once the shot is completed in Clip Studio Paint, I move on to post-processing in Adobe After Effects. For this shot, for example, I have:
- Modified the color grading
- Added a camera lens flare effect
- Added camera movement
- And, as with all the shots, added a slight chromatic aberration on the edges
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3: EDITING
Once all the shots are completed, they need to be assembled together, and then I add the voice acting, sound effects, and finally, the watermarks and credits. This is obviously a less exciting step but is essential for completing the entire video.
That said, I won’t hide that receiving and integrating the work from the voice actress is one of the most exciting parts for me 😏.
Between technical issues, assistants potentially slower than expected, last-minute changes, etc., I must admit that it never goes as smoothly as planned. However, for the sake of this guide, let’s assume that I have all the shots completed, and it’s just a matter of putting them all together.
The first step is to import all the shots into an Adobe Premiere project, without worrying about the voices and sound effects yet.
I sometimes need to cut or adjust the speed of certain shots to change the pacing or even recreate new ones at the last minute. That’s why it’s important for the original storyboard to be as satisfactory as possible.
When the pacing and transitions of the video are 100% to my satisfaction, it’s time to move on to integrating the voice recordings.
Given that I’ve slightly adjusted the pacing of the video during editing, the voice recordings no longer match perfectly. I need to cut and adapt the audio to fit the final timing. I often have to tweak things a bit to ensure that the video and the voices align perfectly..
Now, it’s time to add the sound design, which was previously provided by a SFX artist.
For this project, there are 3 audio tracks dedicated to sound design, in addition to the 2 tracks already present for the character voices:
Sounds related to SPICY SEGGS (clapping, fluids, etc.) so dear to your heart and ears
Distant wind noises
A subtle background music track
And there we have a beautiful piece, 3:18 minutes long.
I then add it to its predecessor, which is 2:51 minutes long, resulting in a video that exceeds 6 minutes and was completed in over 6 months. If some of you haven’t seen it yet (though I doubt it, but you never know), scroll down a bit on my Patreon feed, and you’ll find it quickly.
I’ve obviously kept it simple and haven’t gone into detail, especially regarding the drawing stage. But you should now have a fairly clear idea of how I work. Feel free tgo ask me anything on Discord or in the comments!
If you’ve been brave enough to read through all of this, please leave me a little comment so I know! This post took quite a bit of time, but I promised you! I hope it sheds some light on the process!
Thank you for your support, whether you’re new or a veteran 🙏 Love you guys ❤️
In the meantime, before the next post, which will be a small set of illustrations, take care, my dear soldiers!
DISMISS 🫡
