If you have to increase the size of an image, the best place to do that is on the scanner; blowing up a bitmap in a software program is always a bad idea.
Paint = Bitmaps, Draw = Vectors
Computers handle images in two ways: as bitmaps, or as vector images (also known as object-oriented graphics). When working with objects and vectors, the computer keeps a display list that describes a series of points in space and their attributes.
What size should you work at? That depends on your finished product. Will the artwork ever be used for other purposes? Remember, it is always easy to make the image smaller, but it is very difficult to make it bigger.
The rough draft for the fish was done in Corel PHOTO-PAINT. Once the client approved it, the image was recreated with shapes so it could easily be resized for various uses.
The finished design created with vectors.
Unlike vector images, bitmaps cannot always be easily resized without loss of quality.
Bitmaps are resolutiondependent. If you blow up pixels, they just look more obvious. Note what happens to the letters when they are blown up. It is all right to reduce a bitmap, but it is almost never acceptable to enlarge one.

Understanding vectors

A vector is a mathematical description of a location in space; as such, it has no actual size. Images described by vectors are resolutionindependent. They can be rendered at any size and maintain their image quality. The image file only contains a list of vectors and display properties, making vector-based (object-oriented) files very small compared to bitmaps. Eventually, the file has to be converted to a bitmap output. When it is sent to a printer, the raster image processor
(RIP) usually handles that task. The display adapter in your computer interprets the image as a bitmap of pixels on your monitor. Some Paint programs like Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop let you import vector graphics and turn them into bitmaps (rasterize them) so they can be embellished with paint effects. Corel Painter combines the best of both worlds by letting the artist work with both bitmaps and vectorbased objects.
Vector-based graphics are easy to resize with no loss of quality. However, they tend to have a somewhat flat graphic style to them. If you want a painterly look, you will not be satisfied with working only with vectors.
An image like this one would be impossible to create with vectors.

Understanding bitmaps

Everything in graphics output eventually becomes a bitmap. Bitmap files are large! They have to bethe computer must keep track of the color values of every pixel that makes up the image, not just vectors and attributes. Bitmaps are also resolution-dependent. If you blow up pixels, they just look more obvious. To make a bitmapped image large and smooth, you have to have a finer grid of pixels defining the image. For best results, you must create your image at the correct resolution, or higher. A bitmap is a rectangular grid of dots used to describe an image. It has four basic characteristics: Dimension Resolution Bit depth Color model

Resolution

The word resolution can be used to describe different things. Spatial resolution describes the dimensions of an image in width and height. Color resolution often referred to as color depth or bit depth; refers to how many colors are available to define the image. Scanner resolution refers to the number of dots per inch (DPI). If you have to enlarge an image, it should be done on the scanner and not in Corel Painter. DPI is also used for the resolution of printers, describing how many dots per inch the printer can apply to the paper. Screen resolution refers to the number of pixels per inch (PPI). Computer monitors can be set for different screen resolutions. The setting determines how many pixels the monitor can display. A large monitor can accommodate a high setting. A small monitor may be easier to see at a lower setting. Line frequency also known as screen frequency; refers to the number of lines per inch (LPI) that a halftone screen uses to break down a continuous tone image into printable dots for reproduction on a printing press. Low line frequency (large dots) is used for porous papers like newsprint. Coated stock can hold more detail and can take a higher line frequency. Always ask your service bureau what LPI you should be working at. So how do we understand all these different references to resolution? Its all about dotsthe dots just come in different flavors! Whenever people are talking about resolution, they are talking about a grid of dots that are assigned or mapped to a given space, usually measured in inches or centimeters. The more dots you put in an inch, the more detailed the image will beit will have a higher rez.
Some software, games, and Web sites will stipulate the ideal settings for your monitor, so that you can see the images as they were intended.
An image must be broken into dots with a halftone screen to print on a commercial printing press.
When you are creating an animation with Corel Painter, consider the type of animation you are producing,
the requirements of any systems that will process the animation when you are finished with it in Corel Painter, the final delivery medium of the animation (video, film, Web, CD, QuickTime, AVI, etc.).
Dimensions or spatial resolution
Bitmaps have two dimensions. They are grids containing picture elements (pixels). The dimensions of a bitmap are described by the number of pixels the bitmap is high and the number of pixels the bitmap is wide. spatial resolution = width x height The spatial resolution of a bitmapped image is based on how many pixels in the grid make up each unit of measurement. In Corel Painter, you are working in pixels per inch (PPI). In other words, if you have a one-inch grid, how many pixels is this grid broken up into: 72, 96, or maybe 300? Which would look sharper and have more detail, the 1 grid described by 76 pixels or the 1 grid described by 300 pixels?

Creating model sheets

The purpose of a model sheet is to give as much visual information about the construction of the character as possible. This is especially critical if other animators will be working with your characters. They will use your model sheet as a guide to drawing the characters. It is essential in any animated production for the animator to stay on model. The characters must be consistent from scene to scene. A good model sheet will give an indication of the characters personality and what the character should look like through a variety of expressions. A full turn of the character helps to visualize it as a three-dimensional object.
Academic Courseware: Chapter 3
Simplifying the character and breaking it down to show how it is constructed helps the animators to maintain the proportions and volume of the character.
The model sheet serves as a reference for the animators. It is critical they stay on model so the character doesnt lose its original look and feel.

Assignment 2

Creating a model sheet for your characters
Using a pressure-sensitive stylus, start sketching with a brush variant that feels comfortable to you. Experiment with a number of brushes and variants until you find the one that fits your sketching style.
It is a good idea to start any sketching session by going to Corel Painter IX > Preferences > Brush Tracking (Mac OS), or Edit > Preferences > Brush Tracking (Windows), and setting the sensitivity of your pen. This is especially helpful if you have a light touch, or if you prefer different settings with different variants. Some artists even like to tape sketch paper to their tablets so they feel the tooth of the paper.
The first sketch was created with Tapered Artist Chalk 10 from the Chalk brush category. The second sketch was created with Fine Detail Air 3 from Airbrushes.
Once you have your sketches, it is time to clean them up and create the model sheet. You can use layers, or even better, clone your drawing. 1 Clone your drawing (File > Clone). 2 Choose Select > All. 3 Delete the image in the clone (press Delete or Backspace). 4 Toggle on the tracing paper by selecting Canvas > Tracing Paper, or clicking the Toggle Tracing Paper button in the upper-right corner of the image window. 5 Trace your sketch using the Pen tools from the toolbox. 6 In the property bar, enable the Stroke check box and disable Fill. Clean up the drawings using the shape tools to get perfect curves.
Cleaning up a drawing with shapes has several advantages: Your characters can be easily resized, and parts that move can be created on separate layers and animated separately without you having to redraw the whole character. Shapes are also easily converted to selections, allowing you to add painterly effects.

Practice cel painting in Corel Painter
Cel painting is no longer limited to flat color. With the advent of Paint programs like Corel Painter, the range of techniques used to paint cels is limited only by your imagination. Experiment with different styles to give your work a unique look and feel. 1 Open a new file and copy one of your cleaned-up characters to the file. Save the file and call it ColorRef.rif. 2 Drop the copied layer to the canvas.
3 Select the black lines by using the Select > Auto Select > Image Luminance command. Copy the lines and choose Edit > Paste In Place to paste your lines on a new layer. 4 On the canvas layer, choose the Paint Bucket tool. Set the Fill to Current Color on the property bar, and fill the drawing with the appropriate colors. Depending on the tolerance and feathering settings, your fill will antialias to the line. 5 Once the fills are complete, set up your lighting using Effects > Surface Control > Apply Lighting. Set your lighting and remember to save it! You now have a painted and shaded cel. Keeping your line intact on a separate layer lets you control the integrity of your line. You may wish to keep the line or not. You may also wish to change the color of the line to match the painting.
A frame of animation created by John Ryan of DAGNABIT! for the National Black Arts Festival campaign.
Experiment with the many ways there are to mix color. There is no right or wrong way. Corel Painter allows many different approaches to match your personal preferences.
Colors were mixed using the Mixer palette and the Color Info palette, and sampling scanned watercolor studies.

Reading the audio track

If the character is to talk, the drawing of the characters mouth must synchronize with the dialogue. This process is called lip synching. Although there are many references for creating lip synch, including specialized software, it is critical for the animator to act out the dialogue in front of a mirror. Acting out the dialogue helps the animator bring out the personality of the character. Sometimes there is reference footage of the actor who is doing the voice. The more the animator or actor is in character, the better the reference will be. The audio track has to be broken down and interpreted on an exposure sheet. This dope sheet indicates where the parts of speech (phonemes) occur frame by frame. Good lip synch is an art. Emphasis on specific sounds works better when the action anticipates the sound by a few frames.

By moving the background clouds only one arrow key press every two frames (animating on twos), you make them move more slowly than the foreground clouds, which are moved every frame.
Save versions of your animation regularly. You cannot undo once you forward a frame. You should copy your frame stack with a new file name and version number to keep track of your work.

Create the write-on

1 Open the Skytitle.frm file, the Whew.rif file and the Sky.rif file. Click the Fast Forward button on the Frame Stacks palette and make sure you are on frame 60 of your animation.
2 Using the Layer Adjuster tool, pull your text on top of the final frame of your animation. You may want to adjust the brightness and contrast of your letters in relation to the sky by using Effects > Tonal Control > Brightness/Contrast. I also chose to add a very thin drop shadow from Effects > Objects > Create Drop Shadow. 3 On the Layers palette, make sure the Preserve Transparency check box is disabled, and the Pick Up Underlying Color box is enabled. Click back one frame to deposit your completed text on frame 60. 4 From the Erasers brush category, select the Eraser variant. Erase a portion of the exclamation point. Click backwards to the next frame and erase a little more. Repeat until you are back to frame one, and your letters are completely erased. Delete the text layer. This is a good time to play your animation! Close the movie file and save a new version of your animation.
Timing is an important consideration when creating any animation. To create the WHEW! write-on, you must establish the following: 1) How long do you want it to take? In this instance, I decided that a 2-second effect would work nicely. Therefore, I created 60 frames. Video runs at 30 frames per second. I wanted a very smooth effect, so I animated on every frame. This is called working on ones. 2) How many times do you need to erase within each letter? I looked at each letter and calculated how many erasures I needed to make.
5 Reopen Skytitle.frm. Now lets add a special effect. Make sure you are on the final frame of the animation by clicking the Fast Forward button on the Frame Stacks palette. Then, press the Page Down key on your keyboard to move back to frame 59. From the F-X brushes, select Fairy Dust. Make sure your current color is white. Experiment with the size of your brush by painting a little, then using the Undo function (Edit > Undo). When you are satisfied with the brush, paint over the edge of the area that has just been erased from the letters in the current frame. Page down and repeat until you reach frame 1. Use the Page Up and Page Down keys to check your placement of twinkles. Play your animation! Close the file and save a new version of your animation. 6 Your are now ready to animate the final cloud layer. Reopen the Skytitle.frm file. From your Sky.rif file, click on the Clouds2 layer. Select all, and copy your clouds. Paste the clouds onto the first frame of animation and animate them as you did the background layer. Move these clouds a bit on every frame so they will move faster than

Academic Courseware: Chapter 6
The compression ratio is inversely proportional to image quality. The Quality slider allows you to set an optimum level between the amount of compression and image quality. For most work in Corel Painter, youll want Quality set to High.

Animation

This compression method works well with areas of continuous tone. If you set Quality to Best and make every frame a key frame, this compressor is lossless. For most Corel Painter animations, this compressor is a good choice.

Cinepak

This method produces acceptable motion and image quality at remarkably small file sizes. It is the preferred format for CD-ROM delivery and transfer across the Internet. Cinepak can take a long time to compress, and it can be difficult to find the best compression settings for certain image types and frame rates.

Graphics

This method is limited to 256 colors. It compresses the file at a greater ratio than the Animation compressor, but does not play as quickly.
Codecs make use of different techniques to compress images. Some are lossy, meaning that they lose data to make the files smaller. The JPEG format is lossy. This is a great format for the Web, allowing you to choose the amount of loss you are willing to accept. However, you should never save a JPEG twice. Each time the file is resaved, it will lose more data. Be aware of whether you are saving your work with lossy or lossless compression and choose wisely. With this setting, no compression is used, so the images retain all of their quality. With a large frame size, some computers might not be fast enough to play at a high frame rate.

Photo-JPEG

JPEG is an international standard for image compression. It allows high compression ratios while maintaining excellent image quality. However, it does not play at high rates.
This method is designed for recording and playing back digitized video at high rates. Because of the spatial compression method it uses, the Video compressor does not provide great results for images with large areas of continuous tone, such as those in most animations.

Assignment 4

Animating a Web banner
Using the write-on techniques you learned in the previous lesson, create a Web banner announcing your new Web site. Keep the following in mind: If you limit your color palette, your file will be smaller. If you stick with Web-safe colors, you wont have to dither the image. The fewer the frames, the smaller the animation file will be. Design your animation to loop so it looks good running continuously. 1 Create a file folder to hold all the elements of your Web banner. 2 Storyboard your animation first. Web banners are typically 468 x 60 pixels at 72 ppi, so storyboard at the correct size. 3 Based on your storyboard, plan all the separate pieces of artwork you will need to create to build your animation. Create them and save them to your Web banner folder. 4 Create a new frame stack, 468 x 60 pixels at 72 ppi and no more than 10 to 15 frames in length. 5 Create the animation and save it as a GIF. Make sure Loop is set to 0 if you want it to loop indefinitely. 6 Check the file size and open the file in your browser to test.

Chapter 7

Animating with Strokes
Imagine being able to animate simply with a stroke of the brush! Now imagine creating a brush that consists of the stages of a man walking. Imagine recording drawing with that brush, and automatically creating an animation of your character walking wherever your brush wandered!
Working with the Image Hose
To begin, we will create a simple cycle of a butterfly flapping its wings. Cycles are great for animating anything that needs to be repeated. Walks are especially good candidates for cycling, as well as birds flying, butterflies fluttering, eyes blinking, water spilling, flames flickeringall are worth animating as cycles.
Create a butterfly nozzle for the Image Hose
1 Open a new file, 320 x 240 at 72 ppi and call it Butrfly.rif. 2 Create a new layer and name it Butterfly 1. Sketch the first position of your butterfly using one of the brush variants. Experiment with a variety of brushes to get an ink line that you like. 3 Using the inbetweening skills you learned in chapter 3, create 8 positions for your butterfly cycle, each on its own layer.
Academic Courseware: Chapter 7
4 Paint your butterflies. Try using and making patterns for filling the wings. I used a pattern to make textured fills on my wings. I reproduced the pattern in different colors for different parts of the wings. To save time switching fills and colors, paint with one color or fill at a time on each layer. Shut off all the layers but the one you are painting on. Fill with one color or pattern. Shut off the layer and click on the next layer to fill, turn it on and paint. Continue until you are finished painting each layer with that one color and fill.
Make a separate file of the full color painting as a reference to paint and sample color from. This is especially useful if more than one person is doing the coloring.

5 Hold down the Shift key and starting with Layer 1, click on each layer on the Layers palette until all 8 layers of butterflies are selected. Choose Layers > Group to group the butterflies. 6 In the toolbox, click the Nozzle Selector. Click the selector menu arrow, and choose Make Nozzle From Group. Corel Painter will create a file with all the positions of your butterfly. Save the file as Butterflybrush.rif and close it. 7 In the Nozzle Selector, click the menu arrow, and choose Load Nozzle. Open Butterflybrush.rif. 8 From the Brush Selector bar, select the Image Hose brush category and try several variants. I chose the Linear-Size-P Angle-R variant. Butterflies flit around somewhat erratically. This variant allows me to change the size and angle of butterflies flight with the pressure I exert, helping me to draw a more realistic flight pattern. Try the sample butterfly brush (Buttrflybrush.rif).

Record a stroke

1 Open a new file, 320 x 240 at 72 ppi. 2 On the Brush Selector bar, click the menu arrow, and choose Record Stroke. The next brush stroke you make is saved in memory. 3 Adjust the brush size and using your butterfly brush, draw a continuous path across the canvas.
4 Open a new movie, 320 x 240 at 72 ppi and 60 frames. Name the movie Flight. 5 Select Movie > Apply Brush Stroke To Movie. Sit back and watch your butterfly flit across your movie! Play the Flight QuickTime movie.
Animate the butterfly through a field of flowers
1 Open a new file, 640 x 480 at 72 ppi, and call it Flowers.rif. 2 Using a variety of tools in Corel Painter, create a field of flowers for your butterfly to fly through. Create some of the flowers on a separate layer so the butterfly will appear to fly behind some of the flowers. Save the file and leave it open. 3 Create a new movie file of 60 frames at 640 x 480 and 72 ppi. Name it Lazyday.frm. 4 Copy and paste the background into the movie. Apply the background by holding down the Step Forward button in the Frame Stacks palette to deposit the background on each frame. When you are done, delete the layer and return to frame 1. 5 Open a new file, 640 x 480 at 72 ppi. Record the stroke of the butterfly Image Hose across the canvas. Close the file without saving. 6 Apply the stroke to your movie. 7 Record another stroke in a new file and apply that to your movie as well. Repeat this step until you have several butterflies flitting across the background. 8 Drag the next layer of flowers from the Flowers.rif file over your movie. Apply the layer by holding down the Step Forward button in the Frame Stacks palette to deposit the flowers on each frame. When you are done, delete the layer and return to frame 1. Remember to drop or delete the layer before playing back the animation. 9 Export the movie in the format of your choice. Try importing it into an editing program and adding some sound! Play the Lazyday QuickTime movie.

Assignment 6

Rotoscoping dialogue
1 Using the techniques you have learned in the exercises, videotape yourself or a friend speaking a brief phrase. 2 Save the footage as a QuickTime movie, or a series of sequential files. 3 Open the movie in Corel Painter and trace the elements you wish to use. 4 Design a simple character to match the mouth movements you have traced. 5 Combine your character with the lip-synched mouth movements. 6 Clean up, paint the final animation and save it as a QuickTime movie. 7 Play your movie!
Combining the best of both: Rotoscoping 3-D
3-D animation programs have changed the face of animation. Some of the best films are made by artfully combining 2-D and 3-D animation. Corel Painter can be used in many ways to tweak the look and feel of animation done in a 3-D program. The following image of a swordswoman, created in a 3-D program, was combined with a background created in Corel Painter. Combining 2-D elements with 3-D animation can save a great deal of time. Render unto 3-D what should be 3-D, and render unto 2-D what should be 2-D is an important lesson to learn. If your background is going to have to turn in space, by all means model it in 3-D. If it is stationary, save yourself a tremendous amount of rendering time by creating the background in 2-D in the proper perspective, then match the 3-D model to the background.
3-D model of street and swordswoman matched and rendered over the 2-D Corel Painter background.

Creating the background

The background was created in Corel Painter from a photograph.
Photograph of John Ryan by the author, Joyce Ryan.
The photograph was cropped, and cloning tools were used to remove John, the power lines and other contemporary objects from the picture. Next, the Effects > Surface Control > Sketch function was used to transform the photo into a line drawing.
Photograph transformed into a sketch using the Effects > Surface Control > Sketch function in Corel Painter.
Next, the original photograph was cloned into a new file using watercolor cloners. A lighting filter was added (Effects > Surface Control > Apply Lighting) to give it a golden storybook glow. The sketch was then copied and pasted into the clone.
Effects > Surface Control > Apply Lighting was used to impart a golden light to the image.
Finally, a surface texture of watercolor paper was added to complete the effect of a watercolor background.
Rotoscoping the 3-D animation
The next step was to select the wall from the original 3-D background and copy and paste it into the animation to get the illusion of the swordswoman running behind the building.
3-D programs can save sequentially numbered files that are easily opened as frame stacks in Corel Painter. The swordswoman was brought into Corel Painter for further rotoscoping.

Completed background painting composited with the 3-D animation.
The road needed some texture to match the rest of the background. In this case, I used the Magic Wand tool to select the road. The road texture and a tint of color were added by making a selection of the road and filling the selection with a color overlay (Effects > Surface Control > Color Overlay) set to Paper. This had the advantage of only adding texture and a color adjustment, preserving the shadow of the running figure on the road.
Play the Run QuickTime movie.

Chapter 9

The Power of Scripting
Every good computer graphics program offers the ability to write scripts in one form or another. Tapping into the power of scripting greatly increases your ability to make software work for you. No matter how comprehensive the tools in a piece of software might be, there is always something the programmers didnt think of, or a feature that would have been too bulky or specialized to include, or a repetitive task you would like to automate, such as applying the same effect to each frame in a video clip. And that is where scripting comes in. You can literally write your own processes without having to learn programming. In Corel Painter, scripting offers you, for example, the power to have unlimited undos. If you record your work in a script, you can revert to any stage in the project by playing the script back and stopping it at the stage you want.
There are two kinds of scripts in Corel Painter. One type you use with the Record feature. The other automatically records your work session. Should your computer crash, there is a good possibility you can retrieve your work session in Painter by playing back the script from the time of the crash. You can specify how many days Painter keeps the automatically recorded scripts by specifying the number of days in the Preferences > General dialog box. The default is one day.

Play a script

1 Open the Scripts palette by going to Window > Show Scripts.
Should you have to play back a days script, you will be better off to open it and copy just the parts you need, then paste them into a new script and play that script back. 2 Play the Tim Warnock 1 script by clicking the Play button at the bottom of the palette. 3 Play the script again, this time using the Stop or Pause button to stop the playback.

7 Choose Select > All again to select the entire canvas. The rectangle recorded at the outset of the original script is referenced to the selected rectangle in this document. 8 Now play back the Hi_rez script you created. Corel Painter will play back the script in the new document while automatically scaling the brushes to fit the higher resolution.
Do not try to render your painting at more than 2 to 4 times the original size.

Assignment 7

Using a script to create animation
1 In the Script Options dialog box, enable the Record Initial State and the Save Frames On Playback options. Leave the default speed at 10. 2 Open a new file, 320 x 240 at 72 ppi. 3 Start recording your script. 4 Make a simple painting on any subject matter. Feel free to change colors and use a variety of brushes and effects. 5 Save your script. 6 Play back your script, name your frame stack and watch Corel Painter create the animation. 7 Save your frame stack as a QuickTime movie.

Chapter 10

3-D Effects
Many animators today find themselves moving back and forth between their favorite 3-D program and a paint program for creating textures and bump maps that they will use in their 3-D creations. Earlier, in the swordswoman animation sample, we looked at using Corel Painter to create a background for a 3-D footage.

Working with Bevel World

Corel Painter has tools that utilize 3-D principles in modeling, texture mapping and lighting. Although these models cant be exported into a 3-D program except as bitmaps, Corel Painter offers the tools to create a number of 3-D effects quickly and easily. Corel Painter itself has many tools that act similarly to tools in a 3-D program. The Bevel World dynamic plug-in is one of them.
Example of 3-D letters created with Bevel World in Corel Painter.
Experiment with Bevel World
1 Open a new file, 640 x 480 at 72 ppi. Using the Rectangular Selection tool from the toolbox, select a square approximately 200 x 200 pixels. 2 Click the Dynamic Plug-Ins button at the bottom of the Layers palette and select Bevel World. The square selection becomes a new layer, and the Bevel World dialog box opens. 3 Experiment with the controls.
Academic Courseware: Chapter 10

Bevel World controls

The Bevel World dialog box includes the following controls in the Bevel Controls area: Preview shows a real-time preview based on the options you set. Off prevents Corel Painter from applying the settings to the image. You can later turn the bevel back on by disabling the check box. Bevel Interior Edges lets you add beveling on the interior edges of the bevel area. Bevel Width describes the width of the bevel in relation to the layer diameter. Outside Portion controls the portion of the bevel that appears outside the layer. Outside Color determines the color of the outside portion of the bevel. This control applies only when Outside Portion is greater than zero. You can click the Outside Color chip and use the Color dialog box to set the color. Rim Slope specifies the angle of the rim (innermost portion) of the bevel. Cliff Portion describes the horizontal distance between the base and the rim.

About Corel Corporation

Corel provides innovative software solutions and services that help millions of customers worldwide improve their productivity. Founded in 1985, the company is best known for its leading graphics and office productivity solutions, including CorelDRAW, Corel Painter, and WordPerfect. With its headquarters in Ottawa, Canada, Corel has offices around the globe. For more information, please visit www.corel.com.
About Corel Painter Academic Courseware
If you have any questions about this document or about Corel Painter's educational resources, please contact: Sean Young Product Manager Corel Painter Product Line sean.young@corel.com 1-613-728-0826 x.5605