JWG PSP7 Tutorials:
Saphire's Blinking Dolls
As some people seem to be interested in how I make my dolls blink, I'm going to show you how I do this: Here we go: First of all you need to take your doll into animation shop. I will work out from the point that your doll does not already have an animation (like a name or anything). So now u have one frame. The first thing I do is blow her up (magnify), so that I can "clean" her up, but this is optional. You dont have to do that. Its just that sometimes I use heads and bodies that dont match in colour, so I have to recolour one of them. I also remove the shadowing on the dolls face and other parts where shadow is laid. I do so because I think she looks better that way.
So, onto the eyes. First I make sure that the black that represents the shape
of the eye and eyelashes are all black and not some dark green or brownish. I
use the dropper tool to catch the black colour, then I use the brush set to one
pixel to replace any green or brown colour. The next thing I look at is if there
has been a colour used to represent eyeshadow. In 9 of 10 dolls I change this
colour completely because often the colour looks too dark when the doll closes
her eyes. I tend to go for a lighter colour, or I choose some shade that goes
with the clothes. So pick a colour of your choice and using the brush set to
one pixel, carefully add the colour over her eyes. Be sure not to paint over
any of the black.
When you are happy with it, take it down to normal size to see how it looks. If you
are still happy, then you can go to Edit > Duplicate Selected. Blow up the
doll again, its time to work on the second frame. Use the dropper to catch the
black colour and use the brush set to one pixel. You are now going to paint over
her eyes. Let's say your doll has blue eyes, cover all the blue and white with
black. Use the dropper again and catch the colour u chose for the eyeshadow.
Use this to paint over some of the black, (not all)... leave some so you can
see that the eye is closed.
Take her back to normal view and click on the animation icon so you can get a preview
of what she is going to look like.
WOW she's blinking like crazy isnt she?! lol. Use the arrow tool to select the first frame. Go to Animation > Frame properties: A little dialog box will come up. Type in a number and press ok. I usually have this number from 150 and up. This will set a delay on the first frame and keep her eyes open for longer. Do the same for frame no 2 but choose a much lower number. I think something between 20 and 30 is fine, but you can play around with the delay, and find something you are happy with. Now try running the animation again. Much better this time isnt it? ~ I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial.
tutorial©saphire design reproduced with permission.
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