2020 Jan: Bicycle Boy animation
自転車少年　自作アニメ

A short loop animation based on my watercolor illustration series.

For a better quality video file see the Vimeo upload.

Background:

The digitally painted background was divided into multiple layers to be later animated in Adobe Motion. The city scene consisted of four layers of buildings, each moving a bit slower to create a depth effect. Apart from the city, about 15 layers of trees, clouds, guardrails, stairs, etc. are also moving throughout the animation. Below a composite version of the background showcasing most of the content used:

Animation:

The whole character animation was done digitally, in Photoshop, beginning from a rough test animation, through the rough line-art stage, to clean-up and coloring. Photoshop's timeline functionality was used to break down the animation cells into multiple layers and to preview the looped sequence in the application. In the last step, shadows and gradients were added to increase the realism of the character.

Tools used:

• Animation and Background - Photoshop with AnimDessin2 plugin
• Compositing - Apple Motion
• Final video and sound - Apple Final Cut Pro X

Hardware:

• MacBook Pro 16 inch and Wacom Intuos Pro tablet

Music used:

• Epidemic Sound: Trans Siberian Express - Luella Gren
• Sound effects from Freesound.org

Thanks to Kana for moral and technical support on this! I nagged her about many decisions during the making process.