Blender for 2D animation is becoming increasingly popular, and answering the question “is Blender good for 2D animation”: yes, it is an excellent choice. Blender, while originally a 3D software, offers strong tools like the Grease Pencil, making it a powerful solution for 2D animation projects. Its capabilities allow both professional and amateur artists to create impressive 2D work, backed by an innovative approach to mixing 2D and 3D techniques.
Table of contents
Blender’s Approach to 2D Animation
Blender is considered a very good 3d package for creating 3d animation projects but is it good for creating 2d animations as well unlike other specialized 2d animation software blender has a different approach to creating 2d animation projects in this video we will see what blender can offer for people who want to create 2d movies or those who want to use its drawing and animation tools in general blender to the animation projects.
Blender’s Breakthrough: Grease Pencil and “Hero”
A few years of working on the grease pencil tool the blender team decided to showcase the power of 2d animations in blender 2.8 through a short animated film called hero the blunder institute has released in 2018 this Steampunkish 2d animated short created entirely in blender it was created using an interesting mixture of 2d and 3d techniques as well as animating the characters using a traditional stroke based workflow the team was able to project backgrounds onto spherical environments and to arrange foreground elements on layers in 3d space.
Adoption by Japanese Studio Kara
The popular Japanese animation studio kara announced that it will be moving to open source 3d software blender for 2d animation purposes Cara is a motion picture planning and production company and it is currently working on evangelion 3 a film to be released in June 2020 they switch to blunder because it is open source and because it is free they were also intrigued by the new 2.8 release which provided them with a 3d creation tool that worked like paper and pencil.
Artists Embracing Blender’s Grease Pencil
In addition to the short film hero several animation artists are using the grease pencil tool in addition to other blender tools to work on good looking and smooth animations.
The Three Stages of 2D Animation in Blender
Pre-Production
The process of 2d animation like 3d animation in blender the process of creating 2d animation projects goes through three different stages first pre-production in which we are going to create the story script storyboard and animatics using the grease pencil as a primary tool for doing so.
Production
The second part is the actual production in which we create the characters rig them create all different types of animations line art coloring visual effects and drawing the details you need using the grease pencil of course.
Post-Production
And when we are done with that we can render the final result using blender’s render engine called cycles or we can use blender’s real-time order engine called eevee finally when we are done with the majority of the project we can go to post protection which is basically all about video editing transitions zooming color correction mixing the audio music and so on so generally speaking these are the steps and the processes you need to go through and skipping one of these can affect the 2d animation project negatively in one way or another.
The Learning Curve and Difficulty
The learning curve and difficulty i would say that learning to create 2d animations in blender is not harder than creating 3d animations but of course both require having artistic and technical skills in addition to spending a few hours every day trying to hone your skills for now since 2d animation using blender is relatively new there is a shortage when it comes to learning materials but there are some artists creating youtube videos and courses about 2d stuff in blender which will eventually a few years from now generate enough educational material for everyone from tutorials books video courses and so on.
Key Features of the Grease Pencil
The Evolution of Grease Pencil
Grease pencil features the grease pencil is a revolutionary tool in blender that is being used for different purposes other than making 2d animations the grease pencil actually started as a digital version of the real world the grease pencil a quick way for an art director to make notations and make changes on a 3d model or scene for the artist to refer to it when doing revisions today after a dedicated team of blender developers and artists worked on it for many years it is now a full 2d drawing and animation system.
Functions and Capabilities
And this unprecedented integration of 2d tools in the 3d animation will enable many artists to create next level concept art storyboards and animations for their 2d animation projects the grease pencil objects are native part of blender integrated with existing object selection editing management and linking tools strokes can be organized into layers and shaded with materials and textures besides a draw mode for strokes these objects can also be edited sculpted and weight painted similarly to meshes modifiers can be used to deform generate and color strokes commonly used mesh modifiers such as an array subdivide and armature deform have equivalents for strokes rendering effects like blur shadows or rim lighting are also available and the grease pencil has a special set of viewport real-time visual effects that can be applied to objects.
Importance of Grease Pencil in Blender
The usual process of mixing 2d and 3d animations involves preparing the scene in one software and the 2d one in another you have to export the images in a file format sequence from one software and import them into the other software and if you need to make changes you have to switch between the two programs you are working on blender’s grease pencil allows you to draw directly in the 3d scene so everything stays in one place.
Drawing in 3D Space with Grease Pencil
You can either draw on flat planes that represent your canvas and then attach them to an animated object or draw directly on the surface of a complex 3d model it is possible to do that for the environments in animated seas which will generate great results you can model stairs houses walls furniture and the rest of the environments you have and then draw over everything with the grease pencil.
Unique Look and Animation Flexibility
The result will look different from a texture made in a 2d program such as photoshop or other animation software you can tell by looking at the animation that the pencil strokes are really physically there and not just a jpg texture on flat planes also they are animated all the lines can be animated so you can draw little things like moving grass blades or poster on a wall that are being moved by the wind for the animation part there is also a very cool tool to edit multiple frames at the same time if you are working on an animation of an object you can just deform the object in a single frame and the modification will be proportionally applied to the whole timeline.
Interpolation and Keyframe Management
Which is a huge energy and time saver and to create smooth transitions between frames you can draw the keyframes or main poses in 2d frame by frame and then decide if you should create the in-between images too or use the interpolation tools in blender there is an auto interpolation to make the smooth transition between two frames however auto interpolation produces good results only if you are just making a movement or rotation and small deformation of objects you can’t use it for the whole character that changes its pose.
Changing the Future of 2D Animation
Blender is changing how 2d animators work 2d animators come to blender because they want to have the advantages of a 3d program such as blunder 2d animators have many artistic skills like drawing anatomy proportions and so on because their skill set is not related to polygons rigging or anything related to 3d since they generally speaking know how to draw an animate in 2d when 2d animators start working using 2d tools in blender such as the grease pencil they will notice that they have additional 3d tools for modeling sculpting and 3d animation at their disposal.
The Motivational Shift Toward 3D Integration
That can be very helpful in their 2d workflow and this will motivate them to learn more 3d and integrate it into their work and this will helpfully help 2d animators appreciate how blender is giving this industry a very important advantage over the traditional ways of creating 2d animations.
Grease Pencil in Virtual Reality
The grease pencil in VR one of the very important directions the grease pencil development is going right now is towards virtual reality VR and extended reality XR because developers want to take the full advantage of what blender can offer using the mouse pen or VR headset in the same environment to be able to have more freedom and create faster with VR you can sketch in 3d create rough animations then start adding details as you make more progress it’s like a 2d animation but in 3d so basically you control in any frame and make changes to any part of the environment or a character.
Blender Compared to Other 2D Animation Software
Even though blender’s primary function as a 3d package is not to create 2d animations it has a great 2d animation tools nonetheless when we compare it to other 2d animation software in the market like adobe animate harmony tv paint and open tunes we can say that blender has come a long way in terms of 2d animation but these 2d animation software have been around for a very long time and they have been used to create amazing projects for anime web animations video game animations and so on so even though blender is good it has more room for improvements.
Future Prospects for Blender in 2D Animation
But what makes the future bright for blender is the fact that it has a different approach which involves working in 3d space and using 3d animation tools to speed up the process and create better looking 2d animations.
FAQs
Q1: Is Blender good for 2D animation?
Yes, Blender is good for 2D animation, offering professional-grade tools like the Grease Pencil that blend 2D and 3D techniques seamlessly.
Q2: Can Blender replace traditional 2D animation software?
Blender offers strong 2D animation capabilities, but traditional software like TV Paint and Adobe Animate remain industry standards. However, Blender’s innovative 3D-2D integration provides unique advantages.
Q3: What makes Blender’s Grease Pencil special?
The Grease Pencil allows direct 2D drawing within 3D scenes, offering unprecedented flexibility and eliminating the need to switch between multiple programs.
Q4: Is learning 2D animation in Blender difficult?
Learning 2D animation in Blender is no harder than learning 3D animation, though both require time, dedication, and artistic skill.
Q5: Can Blender’s Grease Pencil be used in VR?
Yes, the Grease Pencil development is moving toward VR and XR, allowing artists to create in an immersive 3D environment.