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this wins the prize for stupidest thread on this entire site.

For me personally, I think good 3D animation is way harder to pull off than just being able to animate something traditionally. Especially if you need effects, or costume changes, or water, or hair.

I feel like the only people that would find 3D easier are people that have a harder time dealing with all the drawing required for 2d.

Really depends on preference, just like everything else.

Waitaminute, are you talking about having an original op sequence made or just a trace over thing, because I don't do those.

How long are you talking, 1:30? And how complex will the animation be? Are you trying to have a full sakuga sequence? Also budget and time line?

I won't be free for another commission until the end of march, but if that's not an issue I might be interested.

Lip syncing to music sucks man, it's so gut wrenchingly tedious. I hope you're not in a huge hurry to finish because having to go frame by frame and paste the correct mouth shapes over pre existing animation is going to take forever.

Just out of curiosity, how long is the song and how much is the budget?

Well just saying you want to improve is really vague. Find the specific areas you want to improve on and practice. Also drawing more often is a big plus (by more often, I mean ALL THE TIME). Carry a sketchbook and practice drawing all the things you're afraid of drawing.

As for actual animation, just keep making animation and don't be afraid of trying complex things. Watch cartoons that you really like frame by frame to see how they do certain things, and if you make something that you are not satisfied with, just try and out do it with the next animation.

Your stuff is already pretty good though. Just keep at it and realize that nobody is ever really satisfied with their own work.

Gun-nac starts off pretty simple but gets really brutal towards the end. I've never beat the last level

Life Force and Abadox.

The only way I was able to beat Abadox was by using save states on the emulator I was playing. I've never seen past the second level of Life Force though...

Viewtiful Joe and Okami

Persona 3 FES

If you can stand getting your ass kicked every other boss fight.

I think it's one of the most difficult rpgs I've ever played.

www.newgrounds.com/wiki/creator-resources/flash-resources/swivel

Are you having any audio issues when you just export it as a regular swf? If the swf plays OK, you can use a free program called Swivel to convert it to whatever video format you want.

zelda 2 and metroid

Synfig is pretty decent for a free program.

There's also a free pencil test software called Monkey Jam that's good if you're planning to work on paper.

I do my animation on paper and then scan it and do all my secondary actions and lip sync with a bamboo tablet.

I understand your unwillingness to divulge details about your project's plot/premise, but part of the reason everybody is questioning the authenticity of your offer is because of the lack of information provided on your end in this post.

Can you at least give us an idea of the scope of the work? Is it for a short movie, or a series? Is it for a game? Do you need complex frame by frame animation or simple puppet animation? Is it a long on going project or a short one time thing?

Knowing all this upfront will save both you and the animators responding to you a lot of time.

Here's the thing a lot of people don't understand; we know that if you're just an individual wanting some animation work done that you're not going to be able to pay the same rate as a company or studio asking for animation work. But offering something, hell ANYTHING, whatever it is you can afford to do is better than offering NOTHING AT ALL.

And I'm not talking about people looking for collabs, collabs are cool. I'm talking about all the "I don't have any money but I'll share the profits with you", kinda guys.

Also, there's a free program out there called Swivel that will convert your software files to multiple movie formats.

There's really no right or wrong answer to your question, just do it the way you like best. Even if the method you choose takes a little longer, you can find ways to modify it to make it more efficient along the way.

Synfig:
http://www.synfig.org/

I think it would look a lot better if you animated everything together on a single layer instead of having the head and body as 2 separate pieces.

I also think you should focus more on the movement of the butt, like have it swinging the same way a rope with a knot in it would swing, if that even makes sense.

Keep your audio in stream so you can scrub the timeline and have it load faster.

You have to go to File >>> Publish Settings and then click on the Flash tab. In the Flash tab go to where it says 'Audio Stream' and click the button that says, 'set...'

Switch the compression to MP3, uncheck "convert stereo to mono", change the bit rate to at least 48 and switch the Quality to "Best".

Click 'Okay' and then go down to 'Audio Event' and do the same thing again.

After you've finished, click okay and you should be good to go, just remember to save so that you keep your settings.

I have no idea what that even is, but if it's your preference and it get's the job done, why not?

I also forgot to mention, usually when you are lip syncing in the timeline in flash, it's a good rule of thumb to bump all your mouth animation 1 frame from where you are working on it, because usually we make the mouth shapes just before the sound comes out, not simultaneously, if that even makes any sense.

Number 3 is the best one.

On number 1, the timing on the part when she says "...SMIRK.." is slightly off.

I don't know if you did these in the order that you numbered them, but if you did then it seems like you're getting the hang of timing. The only other thing I would suggest is to add more mouth shapes on the words with the harder sounds, like when she says 'smirk' in the first one or eff she does when she says '...face!"

You can sort of get away with flapping similar mouth shapes most of the time until the v.a. adds one of those hard accents a particular word.

Surprisingly good for somebody just starting out though.

You need secondary action on her hair and front parts.

I commend you for not animating any bodily fluids.

You have to get a sketchbook and carry it on you all the time. You have to be drawing all the time, that's the only way you'll start to get better. The sketchbook is your opportunity to practice things you don't know how to do and not have to worry about anyone seeing it. If there is something you can't draw, you have to draw it over and over again until you figure it out.

I'm not 100% clear on how the motion he's doing is supposed to go, but if it's supposed to be a quick motion, you definitely have too many frames. Also, the timing of the motion needs work. Don't forget to use slow in/out and follow through for the timing. You can figure that out by acting out the action in front of a mirror.

I'm not sure how many frames this is, but you could probably get it down to at least five or six frames for the whole action.

I think anything that is more dramatic and less comedic would require stronger voice acting.

If your seeking voice actors, it's a good idea to hold auditions online and have them submit samples with lines from your script. Also, it's cool to get a second opinion from someone else that is familiar with your story and characters.

One major misconception about voice acting is that people assume we want people that can "do voices". Anybody can just make funny voices, what we are looking for are people that can act. So my advice would be to practice delivering a believable performance and seek out animated projects that require strong acting.