Creating a 2D Animated scene with OpenToonz (FREE Software)

This course shows how you can put together a complete shot for your animation using the FREE 2D animation software, OpenToonz. The shot I chose, was to recreate the whistling scene from the classic, Steamboat Willie.

I'll show how you create the project and each of the scenes. I explain why I created multiple "scenes", and why YOU might want to create multiple OpenToonz scenes for the shot and how to combine them into your finished animation.

I'll draw the background, showing how you can use the Raster brushes to create an old-style pencil effect. I show how to use multiple layers to build up your background image and make it infinitely scrollable.

I'll add the soundtrack, so I can time the animation to match it.

Then I show the process for sketching, then inking your character animation; reusing drawings for the looping section, which saves redrawing the same action. Animation takes a long time, so you should reuse drawings when you can and take other shortcuts to speed up the process. I show as much of this as I can in this course. To help with reuse and animation, I separated Mickey into different parts and show how you can do this with your own animations.

Finally, as a bonus, I'll show how you can re-work the animation to create an engaging vertical style "short" video for sharing on your socials, using your work so far, by sliding different layers into view and re-sizing the camera to fit the new layout.