Any good tool to animate 2D images?

[Badzone]

Does anyone knows a good tool to animate static images?

I'm looking for something similar to what Riot does in the splash screen of LoL:

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Also, another example here:

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I saw some tutorials using Photoshop or After Effects, but I wonder if there is a better and more specific tool to do this.

Thanks!

 

[Saki_Sliz]

I was able to generate similar effect using Blender, but you have to be technically familiar with blender to get it do do what live2D does for you (and it does a lot of things automatically for you, but blender is free)

In order to do it with blender, I'll have to make a video tutorial about this, since there isn't any good information about this. I am also busy doing another thing, but I may be able to get some work done with it this week if you are interested.

 

[somebodynobody]

Well those are 2 different things. The first is using Spine.

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This allows you to have a "skeleton" to the 2d art and then move it along those "bones/joints"

The other one is a squish and release technique. Where the art doesn't actually change or move, just becomes squished slightly and then reverses to mimic movement.

A game here that does something like these is https://f95zone.to/threads/love-of-magic-v0-4-11b-droid-productions.41188/
I can't remember what program he uses. You could ask him.

However there are a multitude of programs out there to animate 2d images.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

Well those are 2 different things. The first is using Spine.

You must be registered to see the links

This allows you to have a "skeleton" to the 2d art and then move it along those "bones/joints"

The other one is a squish and release technique. Where the art doesn't actually change or move, just becomes squished slightly and then reverses to mimic movement.

A game here that does something like these is https://f95zone.to/threads/love-of-magic-v0-4-11b-droid-productions.41188/
I can't remember what program he uses. You could ask him.

However there are a multitude of programs out there to animate 2d images.

true, and you can do both techniques in blender. in fact, with blender you can do a hybrid. you can break up some of the joints or parts of an image into layers and splines, and for other things, you can use squish and squash techniques. It often depends on the joints and how much they need to move to determine which technique works best for each joint.

 

[Badzone]

I was able to generate similar effect using Blender, but you have to be technically familiar with blender to get it do do what live2D does for you (and it does a lot of things automatically for you, but blender is free)

In order to do it with blender, I'll have to make a video tutorial about this, since there isn't any good information about this. I am also busy doing another thing, but I may be able to get some work done with it this week if you are interested.

Live2D looks really good, but It seems that the license goes by subscription, so I have to discard it

I didn't know that you could make this effect using Blender. Are you using grease pencil or something else?
A videotutorial would be very appreciated, but I understand you are busy. I have some experience with Blender, if you can give me some quick guidelines here I can do some research by myself.

 

[Badzone]

Well those are 2 different things. The first is using Spine.

You must be registered to see the links

This allows you to have a "skeleton" to the 2d art and then move it along those "bones/joints"

The other one is a squish and release technique. Where the art doesn't actually change or move, just becomes squished slightly and then reverses to mimic movement.

A game here that does something like these is https://f95zone.to/threads/love-of-magic-v0-4-11b-droid-productions.41188/
I can't remember what program he uses. You could ask him.

However there are a multitude of programs out there to animate 2d images.

Mainly, I'm looking for squish and release technique on images without too many or no layers.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

Mainly, I'm looking for squish and release technique on images without too many or no layers.

depending on how simple the edit needs to be, there is a quick trick I use in blender that takes about 10 minutes in total. it is usually to post edit images in blender, ie warping them. I'll add that to the list of things for the video. Do you have an image you would like me to test with?

 

[Badzone]

I don't actually have any image for my future project because I'm checking first tools and engines, but the images to animate will be something similar to the attached image (extracted from twitter account

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), to achieve something like this:

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[Saki_Sliz]

oh, yeah, than the quick technique will be perfect for your needs.

 

[Badzone]

I did some research, could the technique be putting the image into a mesh, then add bones attached to different vertices of the mesh and finally move these bones to animate the mesh and therefore the image?

 

[BurningFlowers]

I found Enve today. It's free, open source, and seems decent.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

I did some research, could the technique be putting the image into a mesh, then add bones attached to different vertices of the mesh and finally move these bones to animate the mesh and therefore the image?

Yeah, that's one way.
What I was going to show was also how you could create different shape keys for different things, using the edit mode or sculpt mode to make different transformation, ie moving the butt up and down. and then other effects such as spreading the ass, and then you could animate it by moving the shape key sliders around, this way by sculpting and editing you can ensure that it is smooth.