This example is for a 2D cutout puppet, a method of animation that I often demonstrate and assign in courses at art school. This particular method centres on photographs (in this situation, a given subject is captured with a digital camera; a series of 8 poses or so in full rotation). By way of digital image preparation with Photoshop and After Effects, the following notes detail steps that involve painting over layers for eventual colour key to make the regions transparent, selecting distinct regions like heads and hands, copying and pasting the selections into new documents, and so on. This is all with the intention of preparing artwork to make a puppet that you can then animate with a program like Adobe Animate.
Of course, you can use other methods, such as drawing on paper and then photographing them. You then might want to paint and prepare mattes with Photoshop and After Effects. Or, you might choose to create elements directly with Photoshop or Animate, when you won’t need to do some of the steps, such as painting mattes for transparencies.
Nonetheless, it’s worth while to define what the processes are, in case you choose to do even variations. Furthermore, even for the purposes of illustration, the photographed sequences will present what is needed to make elements needed for a cutout puppet, both drawn and made with tactile materials like paper and paint, or with digital equivalents.
To begin, here is the process to pursue once you have photographed images with a digital camera, and once you have downloaded them to your workstation.
The typical procedure is, first, to organize a production folder, to include folders for original images, intermediate preparations, and final outputs, once you have applied effects and made adjustments.
Open the original image files with Photoshop
First, you will need to unlock the “background” layer. To do so, simply locate the layer in the Layers window, double click the layer and, from the New Layer window, either give it a new name or keep the default “Layer 0.” Press OK.
Then, save the image as a Photoshop file, or PSD. Referring to the Main Menu, choose Save. The image files should go in your production folder. From the Save As window, give the file a name; in the Format section, choose “Photoshop.” This will allow you to continue to edit the image. Press Save.
Edit the images
The purpose here will be to prepare the photos before you create digital 2D cutout puppets. You will need to make background regions around the figures transparent.
You will probably want to crop the image, to eliminate extra, unnecessary background space. To do use, use the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Click and drag around the figure. Then, context-click and choose “Transform Selection.” Manipulate the Bounding Box to fine-tune the selection. When you’re done, press Enter to commit to the selection.
To crop, with the selection still active (with “marching ants” moving around the rectangular selection), refer to the Main Menu, go to Image > Crop.
Press Save.
To eventually make the outer regions transparent, here is a procedure that leads to utilizing a chroma key in After Effects
To start, with Photoshop, paint a colour region around the figure. Go to Layers, at the lower-edge of the window, click the Create New Layer button to add a New Layer. Name it <paint_layer>.
On that layer, you should use a combination of the Pencil Tool, a bright Foreground Colour (a hue that will not be detected elsewhere in the image), and the Paint Bucket Tool. You would use these to make a region that, later, you will apply a colour key in After Effects to render the sections transparent.
Referring to the Tools Palette, click on the Colour Picker, Foreground Colour. From the Colour Picker, choose a nice bright colour, like neon green. If you wish to emulate green screen:
- RGB (Red = 57, Green = 255, Blue = 20)
- HSB (Hue = 111 degrees, Saturation = 92%, Brightness = 100%)
Again, from the Tools, select the Pencil Tool (not a Brush). With a pencil, you will create “strokes,” which do not have thick-and-thin qualities. This will be an advantage for filling colour, which you will do soon. When you select the Pencil, check the Tool Options, usually located at the top edge to the Photoshop workspace. There, you can adjust the Size and General Brushes. Choose “Hard Round.”
You will paint on the <paint_layer>, not on the image itself. As some of activity will require you to be precise, you may want to use the Navigator to zoom in and move around the image.
To fill in large regions, use the Paint Bucket Tool (shortcut, G).
How many images of the rotation will you need?
You will be able to do a lot with a little, such as.
- Profiles x 2
- Straight-on
- Behind
Or, with more positions, the character can turn and perform with more angles, allowing for gentler, subtler movement. You may want:
- Profiles x 2
- Straight-on
- Behind
- 3/4 positions x 4
At the least, you may want to isolate head positions:
- Profiles x 2
- Straight-on
- Behind
- 3/4 positions x 4
For example, 9 heads in the rotation.
The material you edit in Photoshop are meant to be starting points. After doing some preparation work, you will then be able to carry on with more creative work, for instance, with Adobe Animate.
Edit the photos to then make puppet pieces
A next step will be to select elements that will then become parts of the puppet; for example, the various head positions.
You will want to select the region you intend to copy and then paste as a new document; for instance, select the head, copy and paste it into a new PSD.
From the given Photoshop document, use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select around the region (like the head). Utilize the Transform Selection if you need to.
Select both the “paint layer” and the “background / original photo.” Referring to the Layers Window, click <paint_layer> and, while holding Shift, click also <background>. Then, referring to the Main Menu, choose Edit > Copy Merged. By doing this, you will copy and paste the two layers together.
You will paste into a new PSD. Go to Main Menu > File > New. From the subsequent New Document window, choose “Clipboard.” Refer to the Preset Details at the right-side of the window; under Background Contents, choose “Transparent;” and press the Create button. Doing so will make a new file with dimensions that are the same as the selection you made a moment ago.
Go to the Main Menu > Edit > and choose Paste. What was in the clipboard will now be Layer 1 in the Layers Window.
Save the new file as a PSD (for example <head_01>).
Arms, legs, torso, and pelvis
To make limbs with overlapping segments, you will need to make segments that overlap. For example, for an arm, you will require an upper arm portion and a lower arm.
To make an upper arm, select a section that is more than you need, to include part for the overlap. To this end, you might want to use the Lasso Tool to select. You will be able to edit the segment later on, once you paste the copied selection in new PSD document.
You might find it easier to layout the selection first in its original document, to line-up overlapping segments, like upper-arm over lower-arm. Then, when you have done that, you can select and paste them in new documents.
To do this, when you have selected and copied a region, go to the Main Menu > Edit > Paste Special > Paste In Place. This adds the selection as a layer in the document.
You might find that you will need to turn down the opacity of layers below. To do so, select a given layer in the Layers Palette, and then turn down the Opacity. (But, remember to turn the slider back to 100% when you have finished.)
Utilizing After Effects to prepare files for Adobe Animate
An important feature with After Effects is the ability to key out the colour and therefore switch the colour region to be transparencies. The subsequent exports will be PNGs with alpha channels (RGB + Alpha, “Millions of Colours +”). PNG is a format that Animate prefers. Also, with After Effects, you can align segments and do intermediate preparations, by positioning and rotating various layers.
To begin, establish an After Effects project. As always, be sure to save the file in your production folder.
Note, you will import the Photoshop documents, and as still images. To this end, you will need to set the duration of the still images to be one frame. Referring to the Main Menu > After Effects > Preferences (or, if you are using Windows, Main Menu > Edit > Preferences), find the Import category. For Still Footage, enter <00:00:01>, which is one frame.
Import the images you have prepared. Go to the Main Menu, then to File > Import > File. Locate the items you need. To select a group, click on the first file, while holding the Shift Key, select the last. Press Open. On this particular occasion, you won’t be importing an image sequence.
After Effects will have imported the PSDs, which are now in the Project Window. As the file names are selected, context-click; choose “New Comp from Selection.” If you are importing a single image, the Comp should open immediately.
If you choose to assemble a sequence, like for a head turn or rotation, with the “New Composition from Selection” option, you will be prompted to make a few decisions:
- Create: Single Composition
- Check “Sequence Layers”
Press Ok.
The sequence of images will now be in a Comp, with layers that look as though they are arranged as a series of steps. You may need to adjust the dimensions of the Comp to allow for the varying sizes of individual images. To do so, first, for reference, use the Time Locator to find an example that will require resizing. Then, from the Main Menu, go to Composition > Composition Settings.
Here, you can change the name of the Composition if you like, such as <head_first_step>.
You might also need to change the duration, particularly if your comp only needs to be 1 frame. Otherwise, when exporting, you will get more images than you need.
In the Composition Settings, in the “Basic” section, refer to the Width and Height categories. Here, you can manipulate those values as sliders; by clicking-and-dragging those to the left or right, you can increase and/or decrease the size of the Composition. When you’re done, press Ok.
If necessary, you can go back to the Composition Settings to make periodic adjustments along the way.
You can also adjust size and position of individual layers. To do so, referring the Timeline, locate a given layer. At the left-side, to the left of the “Source Name,” toggle the Expand Switch. Open to Transform, and expand that to reveal Anchor Point, Position, Scale, Rotation, and Opacity. For example, you may want to adjust the Scale, down, shift the Position to line up and slightly Rotate the images.
Once you have done this, if you find the Comp is too large, when there is too much transparent area beyond the confines of the image and you would like to crop the dimensions, you can employ the Region of Interest. The button is at the lower edge of the Composition Window.
After activating it, when you click and drag its bounding box over the image, to select the ideal proportions, go to the Main Menu > Composition and select Crop Com to Region of Interest.
Next, you will want to key-out the colour from the previous Photoshop preparations. In the case of a sequence like a head rotation, you will have started with an initial Comp. The simplest next step will be to add that to another Comp, for the purpose of adding the chroma-key effect. To do so, refer to the Project Window, select the <head_first_step> Comp, context-click and choose “New Comp from Selection.” Right away, change the name of the new Comp. While you are still in the Project Window, context-click to open the Composition Settings. Rename it <head>.
To chroma key, or, to remove the colour regions to create transparent regions
Using the Head Composition as an example, select the Comp in the Timeline to make sure it’s active. Go to the Main Menu > Effect > Keying > Colour Range. It will appear in the Effect Controls Palette.
From the Effect Controls, click to select the Picker Icon. Drag that over to the colour you intend to “key out.” Use the picker to click on that, which should then key out all evidence of the colour in the comp.
If there is a bit of residue, apply another effect, Matte > Simple Choker. From the Effects Controls, expand the Choke Matte. Adjust the slider so the effect expands into the slight halo of colour that is residue from the Colour Range effect.
To export PNG images, ready to use in Adobe Animate
Use the Render Queue.
First of all, make sure to create a <puppet_outputs>. This is where the Render Queue will deposit the PNG files. It will be convenient for all of the files to gather in one place.
To export from from a composition, you will utilize AE’s Render Queue. First, click the Timeline to select the Comp, to ensure that it is active.
Referring to the Main Menu, go to Composition > Add to Render Queue. The item will then appear in the Render Queue tab.
From the Output Module category, click on the blue-text “Lossless” section, which will open the Output Module Settings.
In the “Main Options,” you will need to enter a few important settings.
- Format: Choose “PNG Sequence”
- Video Output, for Chennels, choose “RGB + Alpha.”
Press Ok.
Back at the Render Queue Window, you will need to define the destination for the output. In the “Output To” region, click the blue-text to open the Output Movie To Window:
- Find the destination folder for the export.
- For “Save As,” normally, you would provide a suitable name. But, this time, you might as well use the existing name, which is the Comp name.
Press Save.
If you like, you can set up all of the comps for rendering at one time. That is, go through the list of comps you made and prepare each one. This way, you can organize each process as a batch on its own. All the files will export at once.
Finally, to export from the Render Queue, press Render. Everything should go to the Output Folder that you organized previously.