Am I reaching? Is there an alternative to colouring?

[Zemael]

I'm a complete beginner to not only TV Paint, but animation overall. My only "finished" TV Paint project was 3 seconds long, and it was only flat colours with sketchy lines, and my longest finished animation, done traditionally, was only 34 seconds long. I'm not more experienced than that. I am, however, very experienced with art, I draw characters at a constant, and my colouring skill lies within Photoshop. Terrible to animate in, I figured, as it slows down the computer immensely.

As I've done more animation with time, I've noticed that I quite like doing sketchy animations. When I first attempted to do an animation with clean lines in TV Paint I quite frankly hated it. It looks stiff and I just can't seem to get used to the tools.

My question is, am I reaching - am I just too inexperienced to start experimenting with the clean colouring area in TV Paint, or is there some way I can do the colours in Photoshop? If so, how? Are there any guides? If I could, I bet that'd make things so much more fun for me. I feel a little bit of a failure for not being able to do the one thing I'm usually quite good at - it feels very defeating.

[slowtiger]

I'm just puzzled that you want to switch programs, as TVP is really perfect for colouring.

Question is: are you confused about the workflow of colouring, especially with sketchy lines, or do you want to achieve a certain look in TVP? Coulouring isn't restricted to just flat colours inside a black outline, I did quite a lot of different styles over the years. Maybe you have a still image you could post to give us an idea what you're up to.

[Zemael]

I just struggle with the line control in TV Paint. I've tried to make it work by using custom brushes and using a stabiliser, but the lines come out as almost too bold? The airbrush tool isn't as delicate as I'd have liked either.

I don't have any exact stills I can show you right now, but I can show you an example of my linework for an illustration I recently did (I know I'd have to minimalise the details for animation, but you get the idea)

The colouring on this piece is unfinished, however, it shows the type of gradient I like using.

If I can find a way to get the lines to work a bit more delicately and with more pressure control, I'd love to do it in TV paint only. I just wondered if Photoshop was a possible alternative if not.

My inspiration has been oldschool anime such as Ghost In the Shell, Perfect Blue, etc. I just love the line sensitivity and the sense of shadow used - and I've been able to achieve this through photoshop, but I for some reason struggle in TV Paint.


I mean, I know I probably shouldn't be, since TV Paint seems amazing. But I just can't figure it out.

[slowtiger]

OK. Line quality.
This is a result of
- overall project dimensions
- pixel width of brush
- colour of line
- blurriness of line.

Usually you don't want to draw with a 1 px brush, because that's too thin and the line tends to break which makes colouring harder. A 2 px line is the thinnest I'd dare to work with. If I work in 4 K this will get me a decent fine line.

After colouring: try to reduce line opacity or use a small blur FX over the line layer, or both.

I suggest you should experiment with these parameters before you start your next project.

[Zemael]

Thank you so much for this, this is very helpful. I will try these things out. I felt very stuck and I didn't know how to fix it at all, and since I'm not familiar with TV Paint I don't really know the full potential of the program. I feel like I have a direction to go now!

[D.T. Nethery]

Thank you so much for this, this is very helpful. I will try these things out. I felt very stuck and I didn't know how to fix it at all, and since I'm not familiar with TV Paint I don't really know the full potential of the program. I feel like I have a direction to go now!

I would agree with everything that Slowtiger mentioned .

I think the key thing here is that you are not familiar with the program . Give yourself some more time to get used to it and spend some time learning how to adjust the brush parameters until you get brush settings that feel "just right" to you.

Also, check out the numerous custom brushes that are posted in the Contents Sharing section of the forum. You may find the brushes you're looking for have already been created by someone else (but keep in mind that any custom brush can have further tweaking done to it , if you want to change the parameters of the brush to your own preferences)

[Zemael]

Thank you so much for this, this is very helpful. I will try these things out. I felt very stuck and I didn't know how to fix it at all, and since I'm not familiar with TV Paint I don't really know the full potential of the program. I feel like I have a direction to go now!

I would agree with everything that Slowtiger mentioned .

I think the key thing here is that you are not familiar with the program . Give yourself some more time to get used to it and spend some time learning how to adjust the brush parameters until you get brush settings that feel "just right" to you.

Also, check out the numerous custom brushes that are posted in the Contents Sharing section of the forum. You may find the brushes you're looking for have already been created by someone else (but keep in mind that any custom brush can have further tweaking done to it , if you want to change the parameters of the brush to your own preferences)

That's fair. I mostly expected it to be my own inexperience more than anything, considering the beautiful I've seen made in TV Paint. This definitely prompted me to practice more.

Thank you for the suggestion, also! I will go have a look for custom brushes there!