Quick Guide to Creating Animation in Krita
Animation and 2D drawing are fantastic ways to express creativity and engage viewers. Let's look at how to start learning animation and, most importantly, how to animate in Krita.
How to Get Started with Animation
How do you make animation? With tools like Krita! Essentially, animation is the process of taking frames — still images — and making a character or object move using various methods.
Before you start working with programs like Krita, layers, paint, applications, and all the rest, you need to start with animation. How do you achieve that? Can you start producing the next best animated series?
About Krita
So, what is Krita? Krita is a small graphics editor. Artists and designers primarily use Krita for animation and 2D drawing.
Developed over 15 years ago, it is open source and available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, Chrome OS. It uses C++ and Qt as programming languages. This is a great example of high-quality open source software development.
Krita has several outstanding tools that we'll explore next.
How Good Is Krita for 2D Animation?
Is Krita good for animation? Yes. It's a fan-favorite program, perfect for frame-by-frame animation. Overall, it's an invaluable resource for all beginner animators and 2D artists.
To introduce you to Krita before downloading, let's look at some of the program's most unique settings, aspects, and workflows.
Animation Curves
The Animation Curves docker in Krita allows you to make comprehensive changes to your work. It incorporates mathematics, as Krita recognizes animation as a variable or value. This is called tweening.
Workflow
Let's briefly look at some great tools Krita offers for workflow.
Timeline Docker
The Timeline Docker is the primary way to measure animation timing and drawing. This is where you set up and edit your work. Want to add sound to your animation? Here you can preview your work and insert other aspects.
Animation Docker
In the Animation Docker, you'll see the playback of your project. According to your settings, frames will start at 0 and loop up to 10.
Depending on your hotkeys and animation settings, the next few options may differ. Let's look at the rest of the Krita workflow.
Onion Skin Docker
The Onion Skin docker shows animation frames overlapped on top of each other. This allows you to see the frames and their relationship to each other.
How to Draw in Krita
Okay, enough stalling! Let's go through the basics of drawing in Krita.
Layers
You've already heard about layers. Whether in Adobe Photoshop or other art programs, layers allow you to combine your work. Layers let you draw, animate, and create various aspects of art and combine them into a cohesive piece.
Brush Tool
The multiple Brush tools in Krita allow you to control the size and opacity of brushes in your digital paintings. Want a heavy brush? Choose a larger size, opacity, and other settings.
Shape Tools
The Shape tool in Krita is quite impressive. It's perfect for vector graphics. You get fantastic control over shapes and movements in your work.
Selection and Transformation
Selection and transformation allows you to enlarge, move, or resize an object. Want to rotate objects? Want to crop? This is exactly the option you're looking for.
Saving a File
So, you've put a lot of work into your file. Now it's time to save it. Simply click the 'Save As' button, similar to other files in almost all major computer programs. However, keep in mind that you need to save your Krita file in its native format, represented as '.kra'.
After that, you can export your objects and work to any format, so don't worry about compatibility issues.
How to Animate in Krita
So, now that you know the basic ways to draw in Krita, let's get to animation.
Setup
Those familiar with the now-discontinued Adobe Flash will immediately recognize Krita's user interface. They have a lot in common.
Right-click to create a new frame.
Right-click to add a new frame to your base animation. Nothing special!
Your Second Frame
Right-click again to add a second frame. A useful aspect in Krita is the 'Auto Frame Mode'. It automatically adds frames to an empty workspace.
Onion Skinning
Remember 'onion skin'? It's the overall view of all animation frames on one screen. It allows you to see the whole picture, both literally and figuratively. Think of it as a 'bird's-eye view'.
Start Animating
Now that you can use these fantastic tools to create, edit, and transform frames, get to work! The only limit is your own creativity.
Export the Animation
Don't forget to save the animation in '.kra' format. Then choose to export the animation to the format you need. You can also export to the web.
Introduction to Animation: How to Make a Walk Cycle
A great exercise to start animation projects is learning how to create a walk cycle. A walk cycle, as you might guess, involves creating a character and moving it.
There are critical aspects in walk cycle animation. Let's look at them:
- Arcs
- Timing and Spacing
- Squash and Stretch
- Ease
- Overlapping Action
- Secondary Action
- Exaggeration
- Appeal
All these animation principles ensure that the walk cycle is not only realistic but also convincing. Using tools like shapes, you'll need to manipulate the legs, arms, head, and torso to make the animation look realistic. No matter how cartoonish your art design is, you need to understand the basics of movement to make it truly believable.
How to Add Sound to Krita Animation?
After mastering some essential animation techniques in Krita, you need to think about sound. Sure, you could make a silent film, but let's be realistic: you need good sound.
If you check Krita's documentation, you'll see how easy it is to add sound to animation. First, you need to decide which audio format is suitable for your animation: WAV, MP3, or OGM.
You simply take an audio file, load it into the animation, and place it on the animation timeline at the desired location. Just hit the play button to see how the sound matches your frames.
Conclusion
There has never been a better time to learn animation techniques, art resources, and other programs to help you create.
Krita can be a great program for beginners and even a stepping stone to more significant animation paths in the future. Since it's open source* and free, there's no downside to trying it.
And since it's free, maybe it's worth dropping a few dollars to the developers to show your appreciation! Either way, Krita will be a great resource for animation and drawing for years to come.
If your plans go beyond a ready-made tool and you want to implement your own software product idea, check out the guide on hiring a remote development team — it will help you organize the process of creating software of any scale.