With the sketch exported as a PSD, I brought the file into Adobe Illustrator and laid out the vector shapes for animation. Marking and splitting the joints for the arm was a crucial step in this process to make sure the file was fully animation ready when I brought the vectors into After Effects.

With my references collected, I began sketching the basic composition in Procreate on my iPad. Working this way allowed me to iterate on the composition and experiment with different designs until I found an arrangement I was happy with.

Animation and Composite

With the vector artwork prepared, I used Battleaxe’s Overlord to bring the files into After Effects and sorted them in my timeline for animation. The animation process was fairly simple for this piece so that I could turn the project around quickly and repeat the process for more practice. Once the arm, watering can, and trees were animated, I applied the roughen edges effect to bring that hand drawn look back in and give the clean vector graphics a little texture. Then I added a posterize time, to give the animation a “2s” style look, and a bit of grainy texture on top of the whole piece for good measure.