Exploring Toon Boom Harmony's watercolor textures and effects with animator Anja Shu

To showcase all the capabilities of its Harmony 20 software, Toon Boom invited seven artists and teams to produce a demo video, each with scenes inspired by a short message. These teams were handpicked by the Toon Boom Ambassador program and the company's international community and were given full creative freedom in their scenes.

Anja Shu is a 2D cheerleader from Kiev, Ukraine, who has contributed to a series of animated feature films, short films, series, commercials and games and has been selected to be Toon Boom Ambassador for 2020.

The aesthetic style of its frame-by-frame animation is directly inspired by traditional art materials. Toon Boom interviewed Anja about the scene where she contributed the demo pack for Harmony 20, as well as her recommendations for experimenting with texture and watercolor effects in animation. Then they share the interview with the Cartoon Brew community.

What was the advice they gave you and how did you interpret it for this project?

Anja Shu: The whole project is about discovering the creative sides of the personality. My phrase was: "You can sing, you can dance" and I had the idea that the character of an opera singer was creative both at work and at home.

I wanted these two parts to be contrasting, so at work our character wears a smart dress, wig and red lipstick. He is on stage, his gestures are sweeping and he is putting his heart on the steady. The background is in warm tones, there is gold and candles around.

At home, everything is backwards: wear simple clothes, no makeup or hairstyle, the background is in cold tones and the candles become simple electric lights. But she is not losing her creativity and is dancing in front of the mirror.

We note that every element in the transition between the opera and the singer's domestic movements. How was the planning process for this transition?

I also think deeply as a live character. Wallpapers should always serve the story and actions of the characters on the scene. So I carefully plan the transition: the lines and colors move separately, the warm candles turn into cold electric lights and the chandelier on the ceiling turns into a simple lamp. But he also wanted some elements to remain the same and tie the two contrasting configurations together, such as how the roses that fall on stage are then put together in a vase.

Curtains too: at first it's a red curtain and then a curtain on the window.

What was the most technically or artistically challenging element in your scene? What is the thing you are most proud of?

I think the small details are very important, although sometimes we don't notice them on the scene. In this project, I spent a lot of time on bright candles and small reflected lights dancing on the singer's face and clothes.

I used the overlay blend mode and a glitter knot, and I'm very happy with how it turned out.

We enjoy his visual style and his sense of design. What sources do you draw inspiration from in your work?

To enjoy the watercolor drawing in animation more, I suggest you see: Ernesto and Celestina directed by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner (2012), The big bad fox and other stories directed by Benjamin Renner and Patrick Imbert (2017), Adam and dog directed by Minkyu Lee (2011) and The red turtle directed by Michaël Dudok de Wit (2016).

Which features of Toon Boom Harmony were most useful in this project? Have you used tools in this project that you wouldn't have explored otherwise?

I am very happy with the wide range of textured brushes and pencils that Harmony has to offer. There are so many styles to try, such as watercolor, pastel and chalk.

The composition tools too: I was able to find all the effects I needed for the project within Harmony, and it's convenient because you can see the final result immediately in the render view.

How does the scope of this sequence compare to other projects you've worked on in the past?

Here they gave me complete creative freedom and I was very happy.

I had an idea and a character and I had a wide range of tools to realize my vision in this project. I had so much fun and was so happy to meet other artists and learn about their amazing work.

Was there anything in this project that surprised you?

I was impressed with Harmony's speed. Most of the time it's animated in the render view and I was very pleased with how quickly Harmony rendered each frame as it animated it. I was able to see the final look of the frame immediately, even though there were over a dozen large textures in the project.

Do you have any advice for artists who want to experiment with plots in their animation?

First, draw some concept art to get a clear view of what you are looking for.

Prepare your plot files. They can be digitally painted or handmade on canvas or paper. You can import its texture into your project and experiment with blending methods, or you can replace any color in the project with a texture file using the color replacement node. The plot file can also be animated using the transformation tool.

You can try various brushes and pencils of your choice, be it watercolor, pastel, charcoal or a mixed style of everything.

Are you interested in seeing more about Anja Shu? You can find Anja's work on her website, Instagram and Behance.

If you have any further questions about this scene, be sure to join Toon Boom on Thursday 9 July at 16pm. EDT for a live discussion with Anja Shu on the Toon Boom Twitch channel.