Latest Clip/ More Callipeg Love

Part 1: Latest Clip

Being as my last Callipeg animation was something quite loose, I wanted to contrast this by doing something little tighter/ neater.

After exploring several styles (I usually start each piece like this if I don’t have an idea for it already- drag the clip into the timeline, draw around 5-7 styleframes and pick the one I like best/ haven’t used before/ suits the clip most), I decided to go with one which really played on the interesting parts of the clip, which to me, were the shadows and the movement of her jacket. I loved the cast shadow which she created as she walked down the steps and the lovely shadows on her trousers and coat as she walked. I wanted to make a piece which really accentuated this.

I also wanted to do something I’ve not done previously and though I’ve done pieces similar, I can’t recall one which mirrors it exactly. I also didn’t use an outline on this one, to set it even further aside from any other piece. I feel this one definitely looks different than my usual stuff due to the lack of outline.

I used block colours to make each shape really stand out and only went for adding just darks when shading, rather than a highlight colour (which is what I’ve been doing on my recent EbSynth animations). I definitely feel like I achieved what I set out to, even though this clip took a lot of time! The bold shapes really enhanced the shadows and her movements and made, in my opinion, a quite striking image.

Part 2: More Callipeg Love <3

Since my last post about Callipeg, they have released a new update (version 1.8) which has come with some brilliant new features. See those in detail in the video below:

The main one I’ve taken advantage of so far is the export to TVPaint feature (you can also export to Toon Boom, Blender and AE). I utilised it in this project (so I could finish off the colouring which is what I usually do in TVP) and wow, it saved so much time- I didn’t have to export the layer PNGs separately- it did it for you and ordered them in the timeline in TVP with the right timing and everything! Doing all that manually with this project would have taken ages as there were a lot of layers!

The interface has also changed slightly (mostly in a good way), though I did find the ‘add new frame’ button so close to the ‘back frame’ button quite annoying, especially at first. When I rotoscope, I don’t draw the full picture at once- I take one line, say the shoulder for example, draw that for the full length of the clip until I reach the end frame, then pick a new line, draw that pressing the back frame until I reach the start. I repeat this process until all the lines are done. This keeps my lines consistent and feels like a quite quick process. When doing so, I have my left ‘pointing finger’ hovering over the frame froward/ back buttons which I press each time I have completed a line. I’m not usually looking at where my finger is pressing as I’m keeping my eyes on the screen ready to draw the next frame, though I would sometimes miss hit the ‘back frame’ button and add a new frame by mistake, causing the frames I have just made to offset. At first I had no idea what was going on and was like why are all my frames going out of sync?! But then I realised! Since noticing this, I'm being extra careful, but still have full on ‘back frame/ add new frame’ anxiety! Anyway, maybe I’ve just wasted about 200 words to basically say I’m clumsy, or maybe I have a point about the buttons being a bit too close! Who knows…

Also, pro tip for any other rotoscopers out there reading this- if you import a video file into Callipeg which is stored in ‘photos’ on your iPad, the video will downgrade in resolution when imported into Callipeg. If you store the video file under ‘files’ instead and import it from there, the video imports in the correct quality/ res. This is the fault of how Apple stores files, rather than Callipeg, but just incase anyone is struggling like I was at the beginning, then this is how to fix it!

Also, contrary to what I put in my previous post on Callipeg, you can delete what you have selected- all you need to do is bring up the circle menu (two finger hold) and clear the frame like you usually would, though this time it only deletes what you have selected. Thank you to the super friendly and helpful team at Callipeg for helping me with these two issues.

Around a month in with almost constant use (ask my boyfriend if you don’t believe me!), I’m still absolutely loving animating on Callipeg and can’t wait to keep creating work with it…