Drawing

Importing PNG Layers from Procreate to Toonsquid

Procreate can export layers as individual files which is useful if you want to draw figures there and export them to Toonsquid.

Toonsquid’s animation tools are far superior to Procreate’s, especially the keyframing capabilities which Procreate doesn’t have. (Although will this change in Procreates upcoming September 2023 announcement? My bet is they’re about to announce a new animation app.)

However, importing layered drawings to Toonsquid has the problem of not automatically cropping the images to the pixel edges, but to the Procreate canvas.

This is good in one way, which is to ensure that when you add each element to the Toonsquid timeline, the layers will be in its correct position relative to the model as a whole. But it’s less good for keyframe animation, especially when adjusting anchor points or using transforms.

So here is the workflow I’m using:

  1. Export the model layers as PNGs from Procreate.
  2. Go to the Library in Toonsquid, and tap the + button.
  3. Select all the files and import them.
  4. Tap on each one to add them to the timeline. This will ensue correct positioning, but the bounding box will be the size of the Procreate canvas.
  5. Go back to the library, long press on the image you want to crop, then tap edit.
  6. Use the erase tool and draw on any empty pixels. This will force Toonsquid to crop the layer to the pixel edges. Tap the arrow tool to confirm that it has been cropped.
  7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for all the images that you want cropped.
  8. Keep tapping the previous image name in the breadcrumbs in the top left to return to Scene 1 (or whatever your main scene is called).
  9. All of the layers are still in their correct positions, but their individual bounding boxes are at a more useful size.

It is clunky and I hope Toonsquid addresses this in a future update, but in the meantime it does open up the full power of Procreate for design while still getting more sensible bounding boxes for keyframe animations in Toonsquid.

Approaching an Abandoned Gas Station

Going back to my run of abandoned gas stations. At some point I’m going to have to admit to myself that drawing dark, abandoned gas stations is no longer concept art for the game, but just a thing I like doing for fun.

Erin is Forty!

Illustration of Erin and I that I created as part of her fortieth birthday celebrations!

And Another Abandoned Gas Station

Another abandoned gas station concept.

This one was constructed from a plan and a side elevation using a perspective technique that, through the magic of a bazillion straight lines, projects these 2D renderings into a 3D space and this is now my favourite drawing thing ever.

Another Gas Station Concept

It’s been a long time since I posted any drawings which is weird because of how quiet and uneventful 2020 was. You’d think with basically nothing going on I’d have got more done. 🤔

Life Drawing 28/08 (2)

20 minute pose (with some additional refinement at home).

I wasn’t able to make it to this week’s session as I was nerding out at DevWorld, discussing (among other things) the finer points of adventure game dialogue text parsers.

Life Drawing 28/08

45 minute pose from from last night’s life drawing session. Very much enjoyed it and I’m happy with the solidity of the forms and the proportions but I ended up bearing down too hard on the shading and highlights to the point that she looked like she’s made of plastic!

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Life Drawing 14/08

Getting back in to the Life Drawing here in Melbourne. This is from last week’s session.

The Art and Science of Drawing: Week 8

One of the exercises from the Art and Science of Drawing pcourse on Skillshare was to accurately capture an organic object, like this here pepper.

This was from week 8. Previous post shows my work from week 1. Imma go ahead and say the course helped.