How to animate someone dancing
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
24fps x 60 seconds = 1440 frames/minute
This table shows how, at some tempos, the frames per beat is a fractional number. This is one of the problems of a fixed frame rate. The best thing to do in this case is to round up or down to the nearest number and animate at that rate. Unless the shot is extremely long, the characters should sync up within a frame or two, which the audience will not notice.
To give it a bit more life, you can mirror the extreme pose to create a pose with the character's hip out to the left, as shown in Figure 2. This gives you the opportunity to animate among the three poses and also create patterns. You could simply go from right to left, or you could get more complex, such as right-right, left-left. The possibilities with these simple poses are endless.
One thing about dancing is that it needs to be fluid, not mechanical. Simply moving between two poses will not be very fluid and will give you something that looks more like calisthenics than dancing.
When you're posing the upper body, be sure to keep the poses balanced. If the character has weight on the right leg, for example, the left leg will be bent. This means that the left hip will be low as well, forcing the shoulders in the opposite direction to compensate.
In this simple dance move containing a single step, the character starts on both feet, executes a quick kick, and then returns to the original position. This dance is based on a walk. The character adds extra twist to the hips on each step and also steps to the beat of the music.
This simple dance is accomplished by pivoting on the toes. The character first pivots on both toes to the left and then pivots back to the right.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
4 frames/beat
In this case, you will never be more than a half frame off on your sync. 
In this case, it is probably best to discuss the moves with a choreographer or videotape them as a reference.
Animating between these poses can create the foundation of a simple dance.
As was mentioned before, no dancer can hit the exact same pose twice. These poses are simply a foundation[md]be sure to mix it up by varying the poses and overlapping the motions of the legs and hips. 
Adding a bit of arm motion expands on this foundation.
One good way of looking at dance steps is as a stylized walk: When the hips move, the character takes a step. A conga line is one example of this type of dancing. Many times, dance steps happen to the beat, but the patterns vary widely. A common variation might be a sequence in which the hips bounce twice for every step, shown in Figs 4 and 5.
Animation Tutorial: Looping, Dancing Girl by Tielmanc
17,436
Tielmanc
Sketching the Figure
The best way to start is with a sequence of rough sketches.
Draw the extremes, where your character is the most stretched out or compressed. Include any moments where the character has a major shift in motion or direction.
Tip: Make sure onion skin is enabled, so you can always see your previous drawing.
Tip: Don’t use “New layer” in the layers palette to create your sequence. This will create a layer, but the new layer won’t be added to the Timeline. You won’t be able to edit until you add it to the timeline. Instead, click “New animation cell” in the Timeline.
Tip: Be fast and redraw often. Try to keep the proportions the same from sketch to sketch. This simple sequence will be your best guide for the next couple of hours.
Drag your frames forward and back on the timeline to adjust timing. Redraw where necessary. Add or remove sketches where necessary.
For my dancing girl, I used a simple rhythm, so I was able to place one reference sketch every 6 frames. I drew only the apex of each jump, and the lowest point of each rebound.
Getting the Motion Right
On the Timeline, create a new animation folder. Name it “Right hand” or something similar.
Within that folder, create a new animation cell. Pick a color and draw a circle over the right hand of your character.
On the Timeline, click “Enable keyframes,” then “Add keyframe.”
Make sure the Object tool is selected, then drag the center of rotation (That small “+” icon in the middle of your canvas) to the center of your new circle.
Advance to your next reference sketch. Drag the circle to the new hand position. A new keyframe will automatically be created. Continue through all of your rough sketches.
When you push play, you’ll probably see something like this:
Work with your timeline, moving the circle with the object tool, adding or deleting keyframes until you have smooth, natural motion.
Something more like this:
Now make a new folder for each expressive body part. For this dancing girl, her hands and hips move the most, so I made a folder for each of those. I added three more for feet and head because those parts moved somewhat independently of the others. I ignored her arms, legs, and torso, but feel free to add them if you don’t think you can visualize the motion properly without more reference.
Now, you should have a pretty busy animation:
Drawing It All
(Tip: You’re going to be creating your character piece by piece. If you don’t have a good idea what colors and styles you’re going to use, take the time to draw her on another canvas in your normal style.)
In the “Right hand” folder, select the layer on which you drew the circle.
Erase the circle.
Right click on your layer and select “Create folder and insert layers.” Now, instead of one single layer acting as your animation cell, the folder becomes the cell. It should be named “1,” just like your layer, and should be visible on the timeline. Within that folder, you can create and draw on as many layers as you like.
(Tip: Try to keep your layers to a minimum here. While you can copy, drag, and transform multiple layers at a time by dropping them all into a folder, you’ll be doing twice as much drawing if you have twice as many layers. For this project, I just used 2 layers: Lines and colors.)
Using the rough sketch as reference, draw the right hand.
On the timeline, still in your "Right hand" folder, advance to your next reference drawing. The motion of the hand should be just about right... thanks to the work you did with circles, the hand should be moved to its new position.
Click “New animation cell.” This will create a partner cell to the one that precedes it, so if the cell you just finished was a folder named “1” containing two layers named “lines” and “colors,” the new animation cell will be a folder named “2” containing two layers named “lines” and “colors.”
Draw the right hand in its new position. Make sure onion skin is enabled so you can check your proportions against the previous frame.
Continue through all your reference sketches. When I was done with this, I had just four unique hand drawings spread across the 24-frame sequence. On playback, it looked smooth enough for me, so I didn’t draw any more.
Make a new animation folder underneath “Right hand.” Name it “Right forearm.” Create the same layer and folder structure within that you did to draw the hand.
Draw the right forearm.
Remember that I drew four unique hands? I only drew one forearm.
The forearm doesn’t change shape enough to make it worth redrawing. It does foreshorten a little bit, but I just faked that by sliding the hand down a little further, covering up the end.
(Tip: make sure to leave open lines at the ends so that you have more flexibility when joining body parts.)
Keep going, creating folders for body parts as you see fit. Use motion, rotation, and the transform tool. These tools will save you from a lot of unnecessary drawing. If you can’t move, stretch, or rotate a body part to fit, create a new cell and draw the new position.
When you’re done, you should have a drawing that looks simple, but is actually built by many, many layers:
It takes some trial and error to learn how best to join these parts. Here she is exploded:
And here’s what my layers looked like.
I made a folder named “body” and dropped everything into it to help keep things simple.
Here are some of the simplest layer folders exploded. I was able to get by with only 1 drawing for her right shoulder and bicep, but had to use 2 for her left.
Handling the Head and Hair
To keep hair simple, it will need to stay entirely behind the body. But some hair, of course, falls in front of the head. Here’s how I did it, in order to avoid generating multiple hair layers. Head in front:
Hair behind:
I redid the hair a few times, trying to find the best fit. This hair has 3 frames of animation:
Create a folder structure like this:
1: An animation folder, named “Head”.
Enable keyframes on this one.
2: A subfolder, named “Face.” Draw the face.
3: A subfolder, under “Face,” named “Neck.”
4: A subfolder, under “Neck,” named “Hair 1.”
5: Another subfolder, under “Hair 1,” named “Hair 2.”
That’s a lot of folders/layers to keyframe and move. Instead of moving each folder and trying to match them to each other, do the bulk of your keyframe animation on the “Head” folder. Since that folder contains all the others, they will all move together.
As of this writing, Clip Studio won’t let you copy and paste your keyframes from the layer on which you drew your reference circle, to a folder containing no drawing information. You’ll have to recreate them.
After animating the “Head” folder, feel free to add keyframes to the other folders to create more interesting, organic movement.
And to really give her liveliness and bounce, I added a second layer of hair:
And some headphones:
The Final Touches
The headphone cord is just drawn with no keyframe trickery.
I drew 12 frames instead of 24, used the onion skin, and redrew when it didn’t flow correctly. If you slow it down, you can clearly see in every other frame that the cord doesn't line up with her hand or ear:
For shadows, create a new folder above all the others. If you’re clever with folders, you can use “Clip at layer below” to keep from drawing on the background. In this case, I just set the layer to “Darken” instead of “Normal.” You can also set layer properties on this folder, which I used to add a screentone effect.
The shadows were the only element of this 24-frame animation that I had to draw 24 times. Depending on how much motion you have, you might be able to get by with less. Clip Studio is incredibly flexible in this regard... if you have a few frames that need unique drawings, you can do it, and if you have a few frames that will bear a single drawing, you can do it!
More Fun
The beauty of animating with keyframes and transformation tools is that you can very quickly swap out drawings! Here she is again, with a new head!
With just a little more drawing, you can turn a man:
Into a woman:
And don't forget that you can easily add a smooth, looping background to your animation:
If you want to view my original file of the Dancer animation, here it is:
I hope this helps! Clip Studio is growing more powerful by the month, and I'm excited to see new artists adopting it.
- Animation
- CLIP STUDIO PAINT
- #MonthlyTIPS202001
- #LoopingAnimation
- 17,436
Users who liked this post
The Art of Hearing the Dance: Practices of Foreign Schools of Audio Description / "Un Certain Regard"
Listen to the publication Tiflocommentary: color photograph.
The figure of a red-haired dancer frozen in a jump against the backdrop of the sea. She has lush red hair and a slender three-quarter body. The girl is wearing a short tight-fitting black top with a closed neck and bare shoulders, shorts and a long translucent black skirt fluttering in the wind. She lifts the edge of her skirt with straight outstretched arms. The dancer seems to be standing in the air on her left knee, her right leg is bent and raised high up. She tilted her head slightly and looked down.
"Dance is a poem, every movement in it is a word." This statement is attributed to the famous adventurer and dancer Margareta Gertrude Zella, whom the whole world knows under the name of Mata Hari. But the words of such a poem are not available to everyone. Already from the very definition of the word "dance" - the art of plastic and rhythmic movements of the body - it is obvious that vision plays a big role in its perception. What remains if you do not see the movements of the dancers? Music? Strained breathing? Rustle of clothes? The sound of footsteps? Can all this interest the viewer and give him pleasure?
Audio description (which in our country is called audio commentary) is a way to convey the beauty of dance to people who, for one reason or another, cannot see it.
Joel Snyder, one of the leading experts in this field, calls audio description a form of literary work and likens it to a haiku. With just a few words, the audio descriptor creates a verbal copy of the visual image, translates the visible into the audible. Bright, figurative words draw vivid pictures before the mind's eye of the listener.
“Dance is not just movement,” says Iris Permuy Hercules de Solas, audio descriptor for dance TV shows on a Spanish TV channel. “Dance conveys feelings and moods. This is artistic art. The dancer draws pictures with his whole body, creates ephemeral masterpieces that the audio descriptor must have time to consider and describe.
“The entire visible universe is movement,” said dance teacher and theorist Rudolf von Laban. To describe this movement to someone who does not see it is not an easy task. However, it is quite doable.
Anne Hornsby, one of the UK's first audio descriptions, has described many theater productions, including the famous Mamma Mia! and Les Misérables, believes that special choreographic education is not required: “Only the usual skills of verbal description are needed.
The ability to briefly, but figuratively express their thoughts; attentiveness and observation; the ability to convey the mood of the work; the ability to meet the allotted time - that's what really matters. At the same time, the soundscape and music cannot be drowned out – the viewer must hear their breathing.”
Do all dances need to be described? In the back of the hall, a barefoot girl is dancing a contemporary dance. She wears knee-high athletic trousers and a loose gray T-shirt. She stands on a straight right leg, the left straight leg is raised to the level of the waist and laid aside, the body is tilted to the opposite side, the right arm bent at the elbow is raised up, the left is wound behind the back. The operator shoots the girl's dance on a video camera.
If we are not talking about an independent dance production, but about an episode of a play or a film, then, on the advice of the leading specialist in audio description of dance, the author of the Talking Dance manual, Louise Fryer, you need to ask yourself an important question: what role does this dance play? Is it necessary for the development of the plot? Perhaps he somehow reveals the character of the characters? Maybe he tells about the relationship between the heroes of the production? Do these relationships change after or even during the dance? Or does the dance simply fill in a pause in the play so that the actors can change for the next scene? Does dance contribute to creating a certain atmosphere? For example, it can immerse us in a historical era.
During the same performance or film, we can see different types of dance that serve completely different purposes. The audio descriptor must understand the intent of the scriptwriter and director and, depending on this, choose a way to describe this or that dance. “The choreographer and director can help a lot by sharing their vision,” says Louise Fryer. “It’s also good to be present at the rehearsal.”
Photo: Tim Gouw
Tiflocommentary: seashore, cloudy sky and bright orange rays of the setting sun. Five girls dance on the platform, they run one after another in a circle: the left hand is raised up, the hand is turned with the palm to the sky, the right hand is bent at the elbow and directed forward with the palm away from you. All of them are in white corsets tightened on the back with thin straps. Four girls are wearing light long light skirts with a fluttering frill at the bottom, while the fifth girl is wearing a more fluffy light skirt with rows of frills along the entire length.
She rises high from quick movements, under the skirt of the dancer there are light tights with lace.
Audio description is a kind of translation (intersemiotic or intersemiotic, according to the classification of R.O. Jacobson). As Bruce Metzger wrote: “Translation is the art of choosing the right thing to lose.” These words fully apply to the description of the dance. Depending on its goals and the plot of the work, sometimes you need to focus on the technique of the dancers, sometimes on the costumes, sometimes on the behavior of the characters during the dance, and in some cases it is enough just to say that the characters are dancing without going into details, so how they can distract from the development of the plot.
The well-known film translator Aleksey Kozulyaev repeatedly emphasizes that the audio descriptor is part of the "collective author" of an audiovisual work, and each addresses the viewer in his own language: costume designers - in the language of costumes, the composer - in the language of music, actors - in the language of words, facial expressions and gestures, the director - in the language of images, etc.
All together they create a single work. The task of the audio descriptor is to merge into the structure of this collective author so that his “language” organically fits into the general choir.
It must be remembered that a person comes to a performance or a cinema to relax and enjoy. Therefore, you can not overload the viewer with an abundance of details. An overly detailed description can be accurate, but it also confuses viewers and distracts from the plot.
Choice of word
The dancers themselves say that when you dance for real, you involuntarily discover that you don't have enough words, and there are not enough concepts in any language of the world to convey your feelings. Isadora Duncan, for example, said: "If you could explain something in words, there would be no point in dancing it." No wonder they say that dance is like love: this state can be felt, but it is very difficult to describe.
“You need to create verbal pictures of the movements of the dancers,” says Ann Hornsby, “but in a way that does not sound like a dry description of physical exercises.
” Iris Permuy Hercules de Solas adds: "It takes a rich vocabulary to describe it colorfully, gracefully, energetically, sadly, just like the dance itself."
Tiflocommentary: color photograph. Scene. The dancer in a black suit stands with his back to the audience, his right leg is set aside on his toe, his left hand is extended to the dancer, who is flying back in a jump with her arms spread apart. She looks at the dancer and smiles broadly. She is wearing a white suit: a tutu with a flat skirt, a leotard with thin straps with golden embroidery in the center, white leggings and pointe shoes. The dancers are watched by performers dressed as villagers. In the depths of the stage, in the blue twilight, there are scenery with buildings and the silhouette of a tilted ship.
The choice of the right word is the most important moment in the description of the dance, according to all specialists. “For people who are far from choreography, the most terrible thing is the special terminology,” says Louise Fryer.
- Knowledge of professional terms will not hurt. Describing, say, architecture, we want to show the difference between the Norman arch from the Gothic or the Ionic order from the Corinthian. By the same logic, it is important for us to know whether this ballet rotation is a pirouette or not. Of course, not everyone may know what a pirouette is (although there may be experts in the auditorium), however, if we use a special term, we thereby emphasize that it is ballet on stage, and not ballroom dancing.
Anne Hornsby stresses that the meaning of the terms must be clarified. Sometimes, when describing a ballet, it is useful to make an introduction before it begins and explain there what the words “pirouette”, “arabesque”, “fuete”, etc. mean.
Ann Hornsby explains: “The meanings of some words are clear without explanation. However, if possible, brief explanations do not hurt. But what you should not do is just list professional terms and dance moves. The viewer simply does not have time to comprehend all this in a short time.
In addition, such a technical description will not say anything about the quality of the movement, its speed, the plot of the dance, the emotions of the hero and his motives.
Laban's movement analysis
The well-known choreographer, dance theorist, teacher Rudolf von Laban developed a movement analysis system that is still used today. He discovered that any dance step exists in four dimensions, or factors: space, time, dynamics and flow. Therefore, the process of motion analysis begins with finding out the following main points: where the motion occurs; why the movement occurs; how the movement occurs; What are the traffic restrictions? All this will help the audio descriptor to find the right words.
It is relatively easy to describe a dance that has a story. However, as von Laban noted, “modern dance may lack a clear story. It is often impossible to convey the content of the dance in words, although the movements themselves can always be described.
He further explains: “An actress playing the part of Eve can pick the forbidden fruit in different ways, while her movements will express different emotions.
She can seize the fruit greedily and quickly, or slowly and sensually. But when we describe movement as “greedy,” “sensual,” or “dispassionate,” we are not really talking about what we see. The viewer at this moment sees a fast and sharp or slow and sliding movement of the hand. And already the imagination interprets the actions of Eve as greedy or sensual.
Joel Snyder notes that von Laban is essentially referring to the fundamental principle of audio description: "Describe only what you see." “It's important to be precise,” Snyder explains, “but the description needs to be alive so that the listener paints the picture in their own mind. You need to be objective, using precise and figurative words, while avoiding interpretation. That is, our Eve “plucks an apple with a sharp, impetuous movement of her hand,” and not “with a mixed expression of greed and guilt on her face.”
Tiflocommentary: color photograph. Light walls, gray door, padlocked. To the left, a diagonal of a metal staircase with a railing rises up.
Halfway up, a ballerina in a black leotard with lace-trimmed straps and a cutout at the chest. She stands on her right leg, with her right hand extended forward, holding on to the parapet, her left leg and left arm raised at an angle of 45 degrees and laid parallel back. The body is turned towards the viewer, the back is strongly concave. Her hair is pulled back into a bun, and on her feet are flesh-coloured pointe shoes.
Dance is the language of tradition
Description of traditional dances is a separate line of audio description. Dr. Doning Liang of the Hong Kong Audio Description Association has extensive experience in describing Chinese dances, in particular the famous Lion Dance. One of the difficulties is that completely different people will listen to the description: both those who are familiar with this dance and those who hear about it for the first time.
“I'm not just describing the dance,” says Doning, “I'm sort of acting as a teacher for blind people.
The Lion Dance is one of the world's most famous performances of Chinese traditional culture. Everyone should have the opportunity to learn more about him.”
Rudolf von Laban stated: "Everything that happens in the theater is not limited to what is happening on the stage and in the auditorium: between these two poles there is a continuous flow of magnetism." But what if this interaction between the stage and the audience is interrupted because the audience cannot fully perceive the action taking place? Audio description is a way to restore the lost connection and redirect this flow of energy from the actor to the viewer.
Singing photo: how to make and what application you need on iPhone or Android
The word “deepfake” no longer surprises active Internet users. And what until recently seemed like a joke, today seems like an interesting and promising technology. We consider a deepfake to be some alien character artificially embedded in a video using neural networks and machine learning.
But the meaning of this phenomenon is much broader.
| Apple in Telegram and YouTube. Subscribe! |
♥ BY TOPIC: Levitagram, or how to create a photo with the effect of levitation (flight) on the iPhone.
So, artificially aging photos using FaceApp is also considered a deepfake. This technology is constantly finding new applications that seemed unthinkable just a year ago. If earlier we were surprised at how an old photograph came to life, today you can make the character in the picture sing the selected song.
You probably remember how the pictures on the walls came to life in the Harry Potter films. It seemed like magic until services with similar capabilities appeared on the Internet. The pictures were run through neural networks, and a short video appeared at the output. But a moving person could live in those days when they didn’t even know how to shoot a movie.
♥ BY TOPIC: DMD Clone, or how to create a double in a photo (clone objects) in iPhone.
How to animate a photo and teach it to sing?
The Wombo application develops the concept of deepfake, allowing not only to revive the photo, but also to make the character's movements more active by teaching him to sing the selected song.
It is worth emphasizing right away that if your goal is a simple photo animation, then it is better to choose a specialized application for this purpose, for example, Deep Nostalgia. If you need voice acting in addition to photography, then Wombo will help. The service itself will do the main work. The user only needs to upload a photo and select a composition for it from the list.
1. Download the Wombo app from the App Store or Google Play.
2. After launching the program, give it access to the photos on your device.
3. Select a photo from the gallery or create a new photo to edit.
Selfies are best when the subject is looking straight into the frame and teeth are visible where possible. It is worth choosing the most appropriate photo for this criterion.
4. Tracks for performance can be selected in the application itself, even if there are few songs, but they fit perfectly on the performer's face.
5. Just wait until the photo is processed and converted to video.
pic.twitter.com/qi4ZSrxfqA
— Dima Mikhnevich (@nestanda) March 21, 2021
No way our species makes it another 200 years. #Wombo #WomboAI #WomboIfYouBongo pic.twitter.com/GoYhqQhysu
— Socialist Distancer 🌹 (@VideoMilitia) March 10, 2021
The true use of Wombo is posthumously expanding someone's taste in music. pic.twitter.com/Ur4SlUOV2d
— Sam Moore (@IAMSMOORES) March 11, 2021
This WOMBO AI is crazy lol pic.
twitter.com/A7aVT4ISBN
— heyben10 (@HeyBen10_) March 10, 2021
I think I win. :3 #womboAI pic.twitter.com/fvdO60wATv
— Kasai Everquill (MYST1F0X) (@MYST1FOX) March 12, 2021
LMFAOOOOOO #womboai pic.twitter.com/lAjGsyOMsF
— Bebop (@Beb0pu) March 10, 2021
I'm uncomfortable @WOMBO pic.twitter.com/6FERAp2zyB
— (trsh) birschbox (@birschbox) March 11, 2021
I always knew that the bee from the neighboring yard is a strong woman #wombo pic.twitter.com/YudhEnPviN
— Zoya Belova (@AliraSirin) March 12, 2021
Wombo is a good app pic.twitter.com/5vMsouLY90
— 🌈Wings & Strings (@TomColetti) March 11, 2021
The uniqueness of the Wombo service is obvious.
It’s not enough just to revive a photo – such services are no longer a novelty. But in this case, the characters are animated differently, depending on the song chosen for them. And the style of music directly affects the manner of performance, as a result, it can vary significantly.
♥ RELATED: Color Accent: How to change individual colors in a photo to black and white on iPhone and iPad.
How does this deepfake work?
Speaking about the merits of Wombo, one cannot fail to mention its key feature - support for Lipsink. That is, not just the animation of the photo to the music takes place, but the person’s mouth opens clearly in time, as if the song is really being performed. It is enough to get acquainted with some examples of processing even old photographs by a neural network, as you will see various lip movements and high-quality hits in words. On some songs, the effect is particularly pronounced.
It's hard to talk about a qualitative result for all the photos and songs yet - it's still a fun, but an experiment. However, by choosing the appropriate image, you can achieve a better result. And you can imagine as a performer not only yourself or your friends, but also public figures, politicians, and even animals, cartoon characters, sculptures and other inanimate objects.
In his interview, the developer said that his neural network uses pre-created choreography. A team of enthusiasts, not even in the studio, but in the apartment, filmed a basic video for each song. After that, on the basis of this, an animation was created, superimposed by artificial intelligence on the selected image. Only about 20 songs are available in the application so far. But as soon as the creators resolve copyright issues, the list will be expanded. But uploading and overlaying your song on a photo will not work. This is quite understandable by the Wombo algorithm.
Developers paid attention to security issues.
