2D Animation

2D animation moves through a different set of hand-offs from 3D production. Storyboards, character designs, backgrounds, puppet rigs, animation scenes, audio, and composites can all live as separate Clustta assets while remaining connected through dependencies.

Compatible software

• Design and paint: Photoshop, Krita, Illustrator, and Affinity
• Animation: Moho and Adobe Animate
• Comp: After Effects, Nuke, and Natron

A cut-out or mixed-media production might move through the following stages:

Design and StoryboardPhotoshop, Krita, Illustrator, Affinity

↓

Character and Background BuildPhotoshop, Krita, Illustrator, Affinity

↓

Rig or Puppet SetupMoho, Adobe Animate

↓

AnimationMoho, Adobe Animate

↓

Scene Export and CompAfter Effects, Nuke, Natron

↓

Delivery

Not every production needs a puppet rig, and some teams may animate frame by frame. Dependencies can follow whichever stages are used, while review exports and approved shots move into a central output collection.

This works without a plugin/add-on, and no first-party 2D animation plugin/add-on is announced at present. Toon Boom Harmony and Clip Studio Paint projects that store animation frames as separate files are better left out for now. The overview explains why.

Example Workflow

Until a dedicated 2D Animation project template is available, a team can start with a blank Clustta project and register its character rig and shot files as asset templates. A visual development artist is assigned the storyboard and designs, a character/background artist builds the production assets, and an animator/compositor receives those approved assets and audio as dependencies. Review movies and approved shots move to Outputs.

Ignore patterns can exclude application auto-saves, backup files, caches, and temporary preview renders. Frame sequences that are part of the actual artwork should remain tracked rather than being treated as render cache.

Suggested collection layout; labels in brackets are asset or collection types:

2D Animation/
|-- Development/
|   |-- storyboard.psd [Storyboard]
|   \-- style-guide.afdesign [Design]
|-- Assets/
|   \-- Hero [Character]
|       |-- character-design.psd [Design]
|       \-- hero-rig.moho [Rig]
|-- Shots/
|   \-- Shot-010 [Shot]
|       |-- animation.moho [Animation]
|       \-- composite.aep [Comp]
|-- Audio/
|   \-- dialogue.wav [Dialogue]
\-- Outputs/
    \-- Shot-010-final.mp4 [Delivery]

Share Your Workflow

This example is a suggestion, not a rule. Improvements, additions, and new workflow examples are welcome in the Clustta Discord community.