How do you animate? =D

[blackcat2000]

I dunno what I'm looking for exactly, but post what you think I'm asking for =D

For example, when I animate, I look to be as lazy as possible (I'm sorry, I'm a lazy person D=) but lately with my new animation, I'm *trying* to put some effort into the graphics and making things look nice.
I sorta just go and animate stuff however i feel like animating at the time of me doing my animation. Most of the time.
I don't know how everyone draws now- it all looks so... similar. I tried doing some shading in my animation- so much effort, yet nowhere near as good looking as say, Mastermind (obviously, but still... I'd like to know if someone knows how to animate as well as that, and how they do it =D).

[Andy-Parker]

my theory is, if it doesnt look in flash how it did in my head, its wrong and has to be done again.

[TimeDawg]

In order for it to look really good, there is no lazy way. It's going to be grueling if you want it to look good. That's why your favorite series takes so long to update. It takes forever to animate like that. If you want to be lazy and still successful, better hope your content is top notch.

[Seltzer]

The animation process in any case is a lot of work, though I'll give you that there are some ways of going about it that take less time than others.

It depends on what you're going for. If you want good graphics, than I'd suggest drawing your frames rather than using a cutout style of animation, and if you want a faster turnout than I suggest cutout over a more traditional style. I know this isn't always the case, but it's what I'm seeing with my work.

Look at the post on my page, the WIP there was done with frame-by-frame drawing, the toons I have up in the portal are done with the cutout style, maybe you'll see what I mean.

In any case, pinpoint what results you expect, and just keep working at it. And dont't let failure bring you down, it's not goo for progress or self-esteem. lol

[LDAF]

Well, if you want to have something that looks decent but still was a lazy job, I suggest using a high frame rate. Then if you screw up badly on a few frames of your animation, nobody will be able to catch it.

[Bezman]

At 6/24/09 12:30 PM, LDAF wrote: Well, if you want to have something that looks decent but still was a lazy job, I suggest using a high frame rate. Then if you screw up badly on a few frames of your animation, nobody will be able to catch it.

That's terrible advice! YOu'd then have to do more work in drawing all those frames! Also, you assume he would even be using a fully fbf method.

[CompleteDouche]

I would suggest using the line tool for may things, drawing houses, desks, etc.

Then use the Brush to add more detail, to give a realistic/nice effect.

[Twilight-Bane]

I don't thinks there a way to animate in a lazy way, you can take shortcuts to speed up the animation but besides that you won't be able to make a 'good' flash in a lazy way.

[iam2ku4u]

you could make a sprite movie or use "graphics in flash, so its already animated and just paste, itll do its thing on the timeline or make one amaing image and have small parts move.

[blackcat2000]

Thanks for all of your advice =D
I've tried most ways of animating, starting with motion tweening and stuff (as I think most of us do), then sprites (my first submission to the portal =P) then full fbf.
There were a few animations after that which were a combination but none have been *awesome* so far, which I'm hoping my next animation will be.
Currently my only issue is the music- it doesn't have... the shizam needed to sound good. Grand piano is sorta... boring, so I'm hoping someone can spoof it up for me.
Well, I'll try to work even harder on it, thanks for the advice on... uh... not being lazy? I'll check this thread for another while cuz it's actually pretty interesting =D