ToonSquid Tutorial on YouTube
On my YouTube channel watch my new video on How to animate on top of a Live action video in the iPad animation app ToonSquid.
It is possible to import video’s into ToonSquid and animate on top of it. In this video I show you how to do it.
Setup
First make a new project in ToonSquid. Press on the + in the upper right corner. In the pop-Up window you can choose the Width and Height and frames per second. First I fill in the name of the project: Life Action
For this project I select the preset 1920 x 1080 at 24fps. When you tap on the preset it is automatically filled in. Tap on the Create Button.
You are now in the workspace of ToonSquid.
Import video
You can import video into ToonSquid.Don’t import large videos in ToonSquid. Especially on older iPad’s. Videos use a lot of RAM storage. If the video is too large ToonSquid might crash. Or the video start lacking in the timeline.
Edit video in Photos app
I have found the video I want, but it is a bit too long. Therefore I will first crop it in the Photos app.
In ToonSquid you can not edit videos. Open the video on the Photos app and press on the 3 little dots. I am first going to crop it and save it as a New video. Then I am going to shorten the video by using the sliders. Then Choose save Video as a new Clip.
I open ToonSquid again and import the edited video into the Library by pressing on the
Everything you want to import into ToonSquid you first import to the library. Tap on Library. A new window pops-up. Tap on the + in the upper right corner. You can choose between Import from Photos or Import from Files. I have my video in Photos, so I select Import from Photos. If you have a lot of files in your Photos app, scroll down and select under media Types Videos. In ToonSquid you can import videos with the extensions, MP4, M4V and MOV with the Codecs H.264 and H.265 with transparency and an Alpha channel. I select the video I just edited and tap on Add in the upper right corner. The video is imported in the library and placed on the timeline.
Transform Video
You can also use Transform to make your video bigger or smaller. In the Properties panel you can change the Opacity, Blend mode, the Frame rate and also Mute the Audio. For this video I’m going to Mute the audio by turning on the Toggle.
Animation
Now you can animate on top of the Life Action Video. There is an extra layer in the timeline. Just drag it on top of the video layer and you can start your animation. You can also import an animation you have already made.
Import animation
I already made a running cycle of Kane Crook It is a MOV file. The MOV file I exported with H.265 and a transparent background. MOV files with a transparent background and the H. 265 Codec can only be exported into the Files app. I have stored it in my ToonSquid folder. I select it and then press on Open in the upper right corner. The MOV is imported into the Library and on the Timeline. I now scale it with the Transform Tool. Then I expand the run cycle on the Timeline.
I drag the animation to the left of the screen. On the Timeline I tap on the keyframe editor. Now I position the animation. In the timeline you see a keyframe in Position. Now I go to the end of the timeline and drag the animation to the right of the screen. ToonSquid will make the inbetweens.
Import Animation Clip
You can also import an Animation clip from another ToonSquid project. I have saved it in the Files app. It is a run cycle of my character Horus Hippo. Go to the Library. Tap on the + and then on Import from Files. I have saved the animation Clip with the name Horus-Run-Mummy. It is saved with the extension .tsproj. This is the file extension of ToonSquid. You can export images, image sequences, animation clips and audio. Select the extension and then tap on Open.
The animation Clip is now imported into the library. Tap on it to import it onto the timeline.
hat creates a new layer. With the Transform Tool I scale the animation on frame 1. On the Timeline I tap on the keyframe editor. Now I position the animation. In the timeline you see a keyframe in Position. Now I go to the end of the timeline and drag the animation to the right of the screen. ToonSquid will make the inbetweens.
This is how you can animate on top of a live action video in ToonSquid.