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redminus
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How do YOU animate?!

Posted by redminus - November 23rd, 2010

So in mid-October I started work on a submission for the NG Hallowe'en contest, thinking that I had about enough time to wrap it up at least within a day or two of the 31st. Hells no! By the weekend of Hallowe'en, I was just getting to the VO recording and had to kind of admit to myself that I was pretty much screwed as far as making the deadline was concerned.
I'm still working on it though and the more I do, the more I start to realize how many different things are really involved when you try to tackle everything yourself. Not that it hadn't occurred to me, but actually doing it definitely kind of puts things in perspective.

Obviously there are lots of people on NG who have done (and regularly still do) solo projects, so I've been wondering how everybody balances their priorities within their animations? Like, we can assume that if you're animating something in the first place, then you have a story, or maybe a joke, or some kind of statement that you want to express visually. From that point, you probably work out the characters and scenery depending on what you feel is most important to get your idea across. Obviously everything in a film or cartoon matters somewhat, but we can all agree that no single person has time to make every aspect perfect.

That said, TELL ME--

1. Do you tend to think of writing, be it a longer story or a quick joke, as a means of putting your drawings into motion? OR do you think of animation as a way of bringing your writing to life?

2. Which elements do you feel are most important? whether it's voice acting, character design or movement, scenery, etc? What is the least important thing, or the one thing that you feel you can slack off on as long as everything else is right?

3. How do you plan and balance everything, what do you start with and what comes next?

TL;DR - HOW DO YOU DO IT!? GO!

Pic related, I guess.

How do YOU animate?!

Comments

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JonBro

"How I Do It, Go":
I turn on Onion Skinning, draw two to four frames or so, and add inbetweens for the FBF-ness. I only tween things that wouldn't look better FBF'd.

redminus

Agreed, as a rule I try to tween as little as possible too, unless working on the movments of inanimate objects or pans... sometimes you get screwed for time though, but for the most part I totally find character animations that are overly or obviously tweened to be pretty tacky-looking

JakBaronKing

Dude, your being too analitical about it.

No matter what you do, creativity isn't measured by these standards or questions.

You just do it cause you feel like it. No matter what it is.

We have a saying here....

"If can....CAN."
"If no can....I can!"

redminus

HERP DERP I accidentally deleted your other comment >__<

Though I agree with what you were saying about practice. There's really no substitute for that.

See I'm concerned about the idea of workflow, that is like, what kind of routines/systems will work best to avoid a lot of backtracking? Traditionally it's a good idea to make an animatic and you should at LEAST storyboard things, but after that where's a good starting point? I find that I spend a lot of time on scenery, probably to do with my fine arts background, and that my character animations are underpracticed as a result.

But, you're right, the more you do it the easier it becomes.... I've been getting faster recently. I definitely do owe a lot of that to planning ahead though, too.

LewToons

working with others is fun but i always enjoy having the chance to work on every step of the process myself - - that way i can pace it easier and i never have to wait for turn arounds or anything like that (albeit its way more work...but oh well)

if only i could program games!

redminus

I agree completely... group work is good because you get to see how other people operate and you benefit from the enthusiasm of others when having more people involved, but on the other hand you sacrifice some control. Personally, I'm not afraid of doing the WORK, but I always wonder where I could be moving faster and where I'm wasting time.... in particular, it always takes me some adjustment when changing gears over to doing the audio.

Knowing enough actionscript to make games is on my list, too. ONE DAY MAN

JakBaronKing

Me?

I sometimes like to draw whenever I listen to music. And I draw by how the music makes me feel.

It's a personal exercise I like to do whenever I don't know what to draw.

Try it! It's fun!

Listen to these some DIFFERENT songs and draw and finish a quick sketch. Then upload it to the NG dump and send me a link. Choose any one that inspires you most and tell me which song inspired the drawing.

Like...you listen with your eyes closed and image what the music is telling you. Don't watch the video just yet, just listen first.

Watch these FEEL GOOD musics
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1swdaCuam4">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1swda Cuam4</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuYSdx2CFuI">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuYSdx 2CFuI</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUY9OKUgopM">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUY9OK UgopM</a>

Watch these HEAVY METAL musics.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR7U1HIhxfA">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR7U1H IhxfA</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4an3rpucSos">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4an3rp ucSos</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UosmKd1krWU">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UosmKd 1krWU</a>

Watch these Techno-Pop-ish musics.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A67ZkAd1wmI">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A67ZkA d1wmI</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTAud5O7Qqk">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTAud5 O7Qqk</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eu-1H-W880">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eu-1H -W880</a>

redminus

Yeah I do listen to music pretty much non-stop while working. I find it hard not to....
I'll PM you once I do some of these, hah.

JonBro

To add to my other comment, since you were probably hoping for more than a straight-up animation answer:

When I want to make something new, nowadays I have a whole big-view approach on a project. I map out the whole concept, elaborating on it with whatever ideas I can manage, and I change it and change it and change it until--at the very least--none of it sucks and most of it I thoroughly enjoy. I'm not sure if that sounds self-centered or not, but I try to animate something that I love, and I hope others will feel the same way that I do. Of course, it helps to also keep a potential audience in mind; there are plenty of movies and games out there with a lack of clarity or organization because the viewers were not fully considered in the presentation.

To put it one way... Just make what you want to see, and make it well :)

redminus

Mhm... I do agree that it's important to do something that you can be proud of yourself and THEN consider the audience.

ASP

I start with a quick storyboard, to get the poses, facial expressions and timing right.

When I do the proper draft, I build the background, coloured and all (to help set the atmosphere).

Then a wireframe blocked animation (blocked meaning only a keyframe at major parts of the movement).

Then, the frames in between.

redminus

Interesting process. I see that you worry about the character nuances first, in the bare bones storyboarding draft, but then worry about the backgrounds first once you start working.... that's kind of how I do it, though admittedly I don't pay as much attention to the character stuff (not until later on, that is) and it probably bites me in the ass. On the other hand, I always feel that if the tone of your scenery and environment is done carefully, it'll do so much to speak for the rest of your story...

PiGPEN

If you want to become faster i'd recommend practicing before you start just cutting something from your numbered list.
I do rough keys Fist of the North Star style and i'm pretty fast with final keys too.
-
If you need to ditch something for speed i'd start with small things first...
For example i do my final lineart with the pencil tool and don't bother screwing around with the lines unless i have a good reason... obsessing over making perfect lines for frames that won't be on screen even a second is a bad habit.

redminus

I hear that. I DEFINITELY fixate over brief single frames even though I know it's a waste of time.

On the other hand, damn-- awhile back I went and watched episodes from the 3rd season of Transformers. Obviously I never noticed as a kid, but some of areas were so shoddy that they straight up left the cel numbers visible in the lower right corner.

PiGPEN

I almost didn't notice the Pedobear.
But then i did.

redminus

That's how it happens in real life, too

Luis

its cause you use a tablet

redminus

...or is it because that tablet is a mere Intuos2??

WAIT a minute.... do you NOT use a tablet?

Hah, I remember noticing that Tom had awarded Spike Vallentine a tablet last year and being like "wait WTF?? He doesn't use one??"
Pretty crazy mouse skills.

Jonimator

I personally think of the animation itself as a method of getting funny ideas across. For me the animation itself isn't as important as the voice acting/storyline. Some of my favourite flashes are crudely animated but funny as hell.
That being said, it's always great to watch well animated cartoons. It really cleanly brings the whole thing together.

JoSilver

Well, it's starts with an Idea, I begin working on it for about a week or so get bored, and abandon it and start something new, work on that for a while and get bored then I'll do on of two thing, start something new or go back to an unfinished project...

eventually something gets done... :|

redminus

Haha, I know that one all too well...

JoSilver

1. Since when do you need a story... :s

2. I think of most important aspect is making sure the art is PERFECT! no line can be squiggly and nothing is ever right,

3. The hell if I know. :\

Emrox

I use stick pivot

redminus

Sounds pretty pro

TheEntertainer

1. I like to think of animation as a form of storytelling, and communicating ideas.

2. The 'story' (or even just a joke) is the most important part of the cartoon. Being able to communicate with good voice acting/body language is also key. Any kind of audio in a cartoon is optional, but I usually at least include music. Like you said, details are painful to include, but they are what make things seem 'real' or 'surreal'. The minimum amount of detail would be distinguishing what's what.

3. when I animate, I never write things down. I think of a basic opening idea, then think out one scene at a time as I go along. When I "finish" (complete the last scene) I have a clearer view of what the cartoon has become. I then go back and edit my previous scenes to align them with the later ones. I draw scenery and characters on paper when I'm bored, but it'd be impossible for me to write the story out because when the cartoon is finished, it's so warped that it often no longer resembles the original story. I'm a painfully slow animator, so I have a lot of time to think out each scene anyway.

redminus

A long time ago, I used to try to draw comics.... I found that my ideas changed so fast that my drawing couldn't keep up, so I never finished much. Oddly, I DON'T have that problem with animating, but I can understand how you would have to adapt to your own changes in plan.
I animate pretty slowly too, the biggest problem that has been creating for me is that I have more ideas than I have time for o__0

Thundaboom

i ejaculate on the screen

redminus

Well then, sounds like you're ripping off Alvin-Earthworm

XenophobicMute

In a word: "badly"

Soupcat

I usually try to concentrate on the visual aspects alone.
Let the audio be done by someone else.

But hey, that's just me.

yesysh

well i tend to thinck of writing and i do thinck animation was bringing my writing to life,but to me i animation is a way of showing my imagenation and creativity to other.so would say the most important elements are movement and voice acting,but to me there all important to have a good quality animation.To me the thing i would slack off if i dont have time it's the scenery.The way i plan to balance thing is to do i little bit of everything and on collabs,i can call a back up pro animator to help me or i have to kill one of my babies(solo project or collab)choose the most important one to you.i hope i helped :)

crimson-caesar

1. Both. Depending on if it's something that'd take pages to describe or some humorous moment I'd try to capture.

2. Again, depends. But you need at least one strong suit. Good art with lots of tweens (Johnny Utah). Decent art with good animation (folks like Egoraptor). Personally, I think the selections of scenes and camera shots are the most important.

3. I start with a easy, rough draft that takes a week or so to finish. Afterwards, I make the audio and create the final animation from those two.

Good Luck!!!! :D

Hulalaoo

i havent idea, i put my hand over the pen and the other hand over my penis, after 2 or 7 days, puff !! a aniamtion !

redminus

So THAT's your secret..!!

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