RSA Animate style drawings.

[Angie Taylor]

Hi there,

There are a couple of things you could try to create a “write-on” type of effect like this although I’m not sure if they are the actual techniques used here.

One would be to Auto-trace the artwork in Illustrator and then copy and paste the paths to After Effects onto layers. Then use a combination of effects “Stroke”, “Write On”, “Scribble” and “Fill”. All of these effects will allow to you to use paths (or Masks) to animate a kind of “painting over time” effect like this.

It’s a lot of work though, as order of masks has to be considered as does timing the animation with the hand.If you need instructions on how to use these effects you can refer to the After Effects Online Help which is a great guide to start with.

Good luck!

cheers,

Angie

Angie Taylor animation & illustration for television, film, web and devices

https://www.angietaylor.co.uk
Twitter: theangietaylor
Linkedin: theangietaylor
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[Dan Mcguire]

I don’t want a “write-on effect”. I have an artist who can draw in real time – like the artist who draws for RSA animate. What I observed with RSA is that the artist would do one picture at a time, and they were assembled in a larger mosaic of images in AE. My question is how they sped up the drawing footage and put them altogether in sync with the voice, with a lot of moves in, out and to the side.
Cheers,DMCG

[Angie Taylor]

In that case Time Remapping is the answer to your question, probably synched using markers with the time remapping keyframes.

Hope this helps.

cheers,

Angie

Angie Taylor animation & illustration for television, film, web and devices

https://www.angietaylor.co.uk
Twitter: theangietaylor
Linkedin: theangietaylor
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Angie-Taylor/118378194869002

[Kevin Camp]

the zooms/reframing are rough enough that i think at least many were done with the camera as they were shooting… although with the first move, it looked like there was some drift between the first 2 pieces of art as the camera moved, so that was probably composited.

also, by the positioning of the artist’s hand and arm, i think a lot of it was drawn in place. in many places it looks like the artist is trying keep his/her arm from resting on the art work bellow it.

i’m not saying you have to do it that way… you could have separate drawings and parent them to a null, then animate the null to move it as a whole. or you could use a 3d camera to pan/dolly across the individual clips.

if you can, i’d try a test run both ways with the artist doing just a handful of drawings so you can determine which method would be easiest for you… planning on ‘fixing it in post’ when you’re not sure how you’ll fix it in post will often lead to the expense of a reshoot.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Dan Mcguire]

Thanks for the info. If anything else comes to mind, please pass it on…
Yours
DAN MCGUIRE