DYNOHEOS - [Animation · BTS] Cologne Major 2026 Watch Party

What’s up, DYNOS!This week, I wanna share some BTS stuff from my latest animation.

Just remember, this is NOT a professional production pipeline. This is basically me wandering through the forest, nonstop Googling and YouTubing while trying to solve one puzzle after another XD. Real industry workflows are way more complex than this.

It’s gonna be a long post, but I’ll try to keep each section as straightforward as possible. I also think this is a great chance for me to look back, collect my mistakes, and figure out what I can do better next time.

In this post, you’ll get to see:• My thought process• My amateur workflow• Some source files

I hope this helps inspire some of your own ideas, because even though everything might look... wonky af at first, it’s still a really fun journey XDLet’s start!

TOOLS I LEARNED & USED:• Top row: Adobe Photoshop, Audition, After Effects, Premiere Pro• Bottom row: Clip Studio Paint (CSP), Spine2D, Blender, Source2Viewer

A — PRE-PRODUCTION

A1 — GOAL

Sally’s Halloween 2025 animation was a small but successful test. This time, I wanna get serious. I want to make something well-crafted in every aspect. It’ll set a new standard for my work and give my precious DYNOS the quality you deserve for supporting me.

A2 — IDEA

IMO, the idea should be short, clear, relatable, and straight-up horny. If it doesn’t sound interesting within 1-5 sentences, it probably doesn’t work. Any longer and it starts to feel like overkill. I literally use Windows Notepad

A3 — STORYBOARD

This is where I start polishing the idea. Camera notes are super useful here. By doing this, I can get a rough idea of how big the project is going to be: number of shots, backgrounds, animation density, etc., and adjust the scope much more easily.

A4 — ANIMATIC

This is the step where I put the whole storyboard into motion to get a rough sense of the visuals and timing. By the time I was doing this, I’d already started polishing some scenes... which I probably shouldn’t have I just threw everything into CapCut quickly; not much editing needed at this stage. MEGA HERE (or watch attached directly in Patreon app)

Near the end of production, the Cologne Major 2026 happened. I was so happy for NiKo that I just had to change the story into what we have now hahaha XD.

B — PRODUCTION

B1 — CHARACTER SHEET

This is a crucial step for keeping the character consistent throughout the animation, although what I made here is way too simple. It only works for me because I’m handling the whole animation by myself. A proper character sheet should be much more detailed, with a complete turnaround and plenty of facial expression notes.

B2 — KEY ART

Key art is the visual guide for the animation – basically, how I want the final piece to look and feel. Based on the storyboard, I knew I only needed to establish four main atmospheres:• Outdoor Inferno• The bar• Ava’s room (SEGGGGG)• The Twist

B3 — BACKGROUND ART

I used the lighting from Inferno’s Night Workshop map as a reference. It looks really cool; you should check it out.

For the outdoor scenes, I captured screenshots using Source2Viewer and overpainted them.

For Ava’s room scenes, I extracted assets from around Inferno using Source2Viewer, then rebuilt the room in Blender. Having a 3D background really helped me visualize different camera angles and made the overpainting process much easier.

B4 — ANIMATION

The real fun begins!

For this project, I used two types of animation:

• Skeletal animation in Spine2D for segg scenes. I learned this technique last year while working on Sally’s Halloween animation.

• Hand-drawn animation in CSP for the rest. This was my first time using CSP for animation, and holy shit, it’s sooo much better than PTS . Some YouTube channels I recommend: Dong Chang and moderndayjames.

C — POST-PRODUCTION

C1 — COMPOSITING

This is the first time I’ve learned the CSP → Adobe After Effects workflow in a more industry-standard way. And compositing is wayyy harder than I expected . What I did is still fairly simple, but I’m happy with the result. I suggest checking out these YouTube channels: Dong Chang and Manu Mercurial.

Here is the raw frame setup, characters in base colors, and the BG here is just a reference for color adjustment.

After compositing and combining all the effects into a comp, the final shot looks like this. I learned the anime-style filter from Dong Chang’s channel. Doing this makes it easier for me to just copy-paste the effects/filters onto similar shots. It also helps me quickly double-check each shot before combining everything in Adobe Premiere Pro.

C2 — WORKING WITH VOICE ACTORS (VAs)

A detailed script like this really helps the process go smoothly . VAs are wonderful ppl . They really breathe life into the animation, and everyone I worked with is adorable!

Cutting audio in Audition takes hours because I can never decide which take to use

C3 — COMBINING SHOTS

This step combines the shots into the final film, adds transitions, and mixes the audio.

The first two parts are ezpz. But audio ? I’m completely lost here, rofl. I’ve never worked with so many types of audio before. It’s way more complex than last time! • What volume should each sound be at?• How do I mix the music?• How do I tell the story with sound?Too many questions to figure out !I swear to God, next time I’ll hire a professional to save me from this agonyyyyy

D — MARKETING

Once the final animation is all wrapped up, I start making a teaser and trailer. After that, I have to break it down into multiple shorts and start a marketing campaign. This is a crucial part for a fresh-out artist like me to get some exposure!

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That’s pretty much my whole journey of learning a bunch of stuff over the past few months XD. I tried to keep it as straightforward as possible.

Thank you for reading this! I really appreciate all your support. I couldn’t have done this without you . I hope this can also inspire someone to start their own project. I attached some of the PSD, CSP, Spine2D, and After Effects files for you to play with.

If you have any questions, feel free to comment or DM me. I’ll try to answer as best as I can with what I know. If the puzzle is too hard, maybe we can figure something out together!

Enjoy, DYNOS~I’ll be back with you very soon hehe