Varied Line Weight in Animation

[Anonymous No.5033916]

Total /beg/ here, I’ve never been too deep into animation and was curious on line work while animating. I’ve always been under the assumption that all lines have to have the same line weight because obviously it would be difficult to constantly replicate tapered lines over and over again. I saw the digievolution clips from Digimon Adventure Tri and they managed to do varied line weight, as you can see the liens taper frequnetly although granted it’s used scarcely throughout the series and is only really there on closeups. So is it possible or not? Or is it only possible for level 100 animators and beginners shouldn’t even attempt it?

[Anonymous No.5033919]

>>5033916
Static examples of what I mean

[Anonymous No.5033920]

>>5033919

[Anonymous No.5033923]

>>5033916
>>5033919
Not hard to imitate, especially when animators of all nations use the likes of toonboom, CSP, photoshop, opentoonz, Adobe animate, the list goes on. I even see titmouse animation doing this depending on the project. I dunno why you ask this, most art programs have an option where you can limit the minimum and maximum amount of line density.
Whatever, good luck, god bless, and good night

[Anonymous No.5033924]

>>5033916
just draw

[Anonymous No.5033927]

>>5033923
Oh wow I genuinely wasn’t aware of this thank you

[Anonymous No.5033931]

>>5033916
I first noticed this in Demon Slayer. I'm sure it's one of the pros of using digital like the other anon said. I suspect they use vector lines or something similar that allows them to match tapers frame-for-frame.

[Anonymous No.5033955]

>>5033923
>>5033916
I'm an animator at Titmouse and it's possible but it fucking sucks. Tracking the line weight is super obnoxious. The example you posted isn't too bad since the character keeps changing to other dynamic poses so you really only have to worry about that one key drawing and the frames before and after it. You usually only see these sorts of thicker lines on movies, OVAs, or important sequences like your gif due to the difficulty. It's not so incredibly difficult that only the best of the best can handle it, it's just tedious to track.
As far as process goes, animators usually draw the outline of the outline, if that makes sense. It makes it easier for the clean up crew to understand what's an intentionally thick line and what's just rough line work. See pic, it's somewhat low resolution but you can see on the crown that there are two distinct lines with a space in between them to indicate a thicker line width. The same concept is used on the eyes, where instead of doing it in a solid black they draw the entire outline of the eye, even around the eyelashes.

[Anonymous No.5036221]

>>5033955
> As far as process goes, animators usually draw the outline of the outline
Could you elaborate on that? Just trying to do this whole thing right now, I assume you mean they lay down the intitial like work and then go over the drawing again with the varied and stylised lines? Sorry this is so late

[Anonymous No.5036259]

>>5036221
Like this.
Instead of drawing a single thick line, you draw two thin lines and then the colorist will fill the color between them.

[Anonymous No.5036266]

>>5036221
>>5036259
This should give you the idea
https://setteidreams.net/artbooks/panty-and-stocking-with-garterbelt-animation-art-works/index.php?pic=011.jpg

[Anonymous No.5036310]

>>5036266
Why do it in this way? Why not just use a larger brush?

[Anonymous No.5036322]

>>5036310
These are done on paper with pencil, not digitally with 'brushes.' It's done this way for the clean up artists so that they can tell the difference between an intentionally thick line and a line that's thick because it's rough. For clarity, basically. Having two lines to track instead of one thick one can be easier for inbetweening as well.