Old fashion hand animator

Forum|Forum|7 months ago
June 19, 2025
3 replies
198 views

I am an ancient hand animator from a very different era (the animation stand/16mm days.). I would like to import a large number of sequential drawn images to a software program and be able to assign different durations per image, ending with a simple but controlled animation. It seems to me to be a very straight forward action, and I can almost accomplish this on unsophisticated programs like Imovie on my Mac. However that program doesn't really give me the time duration control I need. I've tried to learn what photoshop has to offer in this regard as well as other adobe animation programs but these seem way too cumbersome for my simple needs. I fear that even if I were to conquer the steep learning curve presented on the many tutorials I've watched, I would still not enjoy the flexiblty I require for both image movement and frame by frame sync to sound. I would very much like to read any insights to help me with this problem. In the end, I can still make beautifully moving imagery but I do not have the means to put them to screen.

Others

rayek.elfin

Legend

For a classic paper-based workflow I would suggest OpenToonz. OpenToonz is a powerful free and open source 2d animation studio software and fits that workflow best. Credentials for OpenToonz are several classically hand-drawn animated features produced by Studio Ghibli. It is amazing that this is available for free.

https://opentoonz.github.io/e/

OT allows you to work with a traditional dopesheet (which you will like as a traditional hand animator who is probably familiar with these) or a modern frame-by-frame timeline, work on one's or two's etc, and import your drawings via files or directly via a camera/scanner. Even the camera function offers an onion feature to compare drawings when they are shot.

Controlling the time duration of each frame or group of frames is very simple in OT: either drag the frames out or use the built-in functions to automatically set up an animation on twos and so forth.

Also important: drawings can be cleaned up and even converted to vector or remain pixels. Then coloured with the ink and paint features in OT.

I would avoid Adobe Animate: too cumbersome for this type of classic paper-based workflow. Photoshop isn't meant for this type of work either.

Let me know if you need more information here. There are many OpenToonz tutorials on YouTube, although most tend to focus on digital-first workflows rather than the paper-based one.