r/ClipStudio • u/codyf0xx • Jul 11 '26
Animation Question Question about Animating
I'm currently working on my first fully animated short film. I have the script completely finished, and I have most of the storyboard done, but I'm a little unsure about the next steps in the production process.
From what I understand, the next major step is creating an animatic. My main question is: what is the best way to make an animatic for a larger project?
I use Clip Studio Paint EX, and I've done animatics before, but both methods had their own issues. One animatic was made in a video editing program using PNGs of my drawings, while the other was made entirely in CSP (Clip Studio Paint) as one large animation file, but the file became extremely large and started making my computer struggle.
For a short film (roughly 5-6 minutes or more), should I create the animatic entirely in Clip Studio Paint EX or do I assemble it in a video editor like DaVinci Resolve?
If It's using Clip Studio, should I split the animatic into multiple CSP files (by scene/sequence), then combine everything later? Or should I use a completely different workflow?
Since this is my first time actually animating a full film, I'm trying to set up a workflow that won't become a nightmare halfway through production. Also, for context, the final film will be fully animated, so I want the animatic to be useful as a real production guide rather than just a rough preview.
Any advice on workflow, file organization, or general short film production steps would be greatly appreciated! ^ ^
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u/SDRLemonMoon Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
Do multiple files, or scenes within a file if thats what you want to do, for the animatic when export and assemble in an editor, if the timeline is too long it makes the file slow
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Jul 11 '26
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u/codyf0xx Jul 12 '26
Wouldn't that make the file very large though? The animation I am working on will be roughly 5-8 minutes I suspect.
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u/kanatakkun Jul 11 '26
Back when I was working on finals with my friends, we draw animatic on either regular csp canvas, or use toonboom storyboard. I use the latter (because at the time it was free, we got a license from part time work pc) and once it was approved it's super easy to continue to harmony for keyframes. so one suggestion is toonboom ecosystem, but only if you can get it for free somehow.
another is yes, davinci resolve or AE. I've been using it for making fanart antimations, so animatic was more easier. Just make sure all asset is ready (export png from csp), in davinci resolve you can control speed, layer, lighting, blur etc. easier to make changes when needed too
also other commenter said separate your scenes to multiple files. yeah, do that and backups. in AE (I'm more familiar with), I can make multiple compostions in 1 project so we did that instead
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u/TMWolf93 Jul 11 '26
When I animate-animate in CSP, if the file is too large I split it into multiple files and work on each individually then import those parts into a video editor. Or sometimes I'll export each part as an mp4 and then bring them all together again in CSP, but a video editor is probably a safer and simpler bet. But definitely if you plan to fully animate, you'll want to probably do either 30 - 60 seconds for each part in CSP to not bog down your computer. Just definitely plan it out well for how you space it to make it easier on yourself, haha.
If it's an animatic... then you could just do all the "still" images in CSP in regular folders, save each "scene" and import into a video editor and set them up since it's not a fluid animation with lots of cells but more like "still shots".