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What is your animating technique meaning what is your process, here's mine...

Write
Voice work
Rough
Line
Lip sync
Color
Credits (Also at the Beginning sometimes)

I don't usually do a story board because when I make my rough draft before the animation I just use that.

Now I don't actually do the entire animation in that order I normally do that all at once, for example.

I will make a rough that lasts maybe 4 to 5 seconds and then do the line, voice, and color work all in one shot then move on to my next scene.

At 1 hour ago, MikeyS9607 wrote: I just say fuck that shit, make a rough script and animate it.

Quick easy, why not?

Storyboard
Skeleton animation
line work
Lip-synching
coloring
Shading
Check it a few times
slap on a preloader and submit

rather than technique we are discussing work flow right? mine is:

ask in the forums about workflow

plan it

never actually do anything at all

At 2 hours ago, Sacros wrote: rather than technique we are discussing work flow right? mine is:

ask in the forums about workflow

plan it

never actually do anything at all

It was kinda a quick post Technique was the first word to come to mind so I just used that...

I gave an example to show what I ment, everyone has their own set of ways.

Well my workflow goes like this:

- receive script or synopsis for animation from writer.
- illustrate all of the important characters and the scenes they act in.
- receive audio like voice acting and sound effects from artist.
- Create animatic to help the writer and I figure out what works and what doesnt.

After this two things can happen...the one thing that has happened repeatedly is this though:

Writer hates his script and I am forced to toss my animatic and await the script once more. All the way back to step one.

The other thing that can happen is this:

- After review and modifications are made, animation begins.
- Key poses are laid out based on positions in finished animatic. (sometimes no changes are made at all, but in others the pose was incorrect or weak and needs to be changed)
- Keyframes are then laid out to define the action more (typically results in an animation of 4's)
- Breakdowns of the keyframes are made to help set the midpoint for easing.
- Finally inbetweens are added. Here I do straight-ahead animation and keep a keen eye on the easing to keep things smooth.

This is where my current project, the Bloodines animation was halted. About 3 full poses in (key pose, keyframes, breakdowns, and inbetweens added), the writer presented the animatic to his family, and none of them found it funny. So...he scrapped it and I had to toss all of my work, lol. Oh well.

Anyways after all of that is laid out, then I go back over all of the frames with clear, defined linework and finally add color and shading. It takes a while to animate this way, but you will never find more perfectly timed action than with this method, I say. Also Richard Williams, so eat it nay-sayers.

Start to write script

Discards script because it's better to draw out all the acting directly on storyboards

Set up the timing with an animatic

Rough in the basic animation (at the same time, preliminary work on bgs)

After everything is moving well, inbetweens (and finishing bgs)

After all those are done (keys, breakdowns and inbetweens), ink them all

Put everything in place

Sleep

Post animation 5 monts after finishing

Draw. And then I draw some more.

Script
Dialogue
Storyboards
Animatic
Do nothing for a month
HOLYSHITIHAVENOTIME
Sleep depravation
Done

This about sums it up.

i thinks there is no technique. You must me a creative and do the animation as you want. If you are creative and any thing you do is itself a good animation,

For most types of animation:

Get great idea from imagination or inspiration
Jot down script while idea is fresh, then create storyboard in flash (Optional)
Record and import music or voice work, if any
Draw or import characters, objects, backgrounds, images etc.
Animate as much as you can before the idea goes stale
If you start to get animator's block, save file and come back to it
Add finishing touches (shading, erasing, pre-loader, sound effects etc.)
Finally, give credits wherever its due.

At 10 hours ago, prestashoptarkar wrote: i thinks there is no technique. You must me a creative and do the animation as you want. If you are creative and any thing you do is itself a good animation,

The technique is PRACTICE! Thats the technique.

I usually have a big idea for a story.

Then I just jump right into it without out thinking very much. I animate and I think of the story while animating. I don't do ruffs, story boarding, none of that. I just do it :/

At 1 hour ago, sweetyluli wrote: I usually have a big idea for a story.

Then I just jump right into it without out thinking very much. I animate and I think of the story while animating. I don't do ruffs, story boarding, none of that. I just do it :/

hey lets discuss techinique for a change, how do you lineart?

It seems all of you have this laid out plan that you either do all the sketching at once, or you do all your key poses at once, then the 2s, then the inbetweens. Is it just me who find it more rewarding to atleast do it all a bit more impulsively? Like, sometimes animate an entire scene, just to lean backwards with a smile and be proud of how it looks? Kind of keeps motivation up?

I haven't really found a one-way ticket to success when it comes to how I work, I've just done everything in the order that I prefer. Sounds like I'm alone at doing that?

At 1 day ago, cmkinusn wrote: This is where my current project, the Bloodines animation was halted. About 3 full poses in (key pose, keyframes, breakdowns, and inbetweens added), the writer presented the animatic to his family, and none of them found it funny. So...he scrapped it and I had to toss all of my work, lol. Oh well.

I have script problems too, write scripts then realizing that they weren't good at all. If you ever want someone to throw ideas back and forth with, then I'm up for that :)

At 1 hour ago, JonHunter wrote: It seems all of you have this laid out plan that you either do all the sketching at once, or you do all your key poses at once, then the 2s, then the inbetweens. Is it just me who find it more rewarding to atleast do it all a bit more impulsively? Like, sometimes animate an entire scene, just to lean backwards with a smile and be proud of how it looks? Kind of keeps motivation up?

I do all the key poses in the animatic already and then start to animate and finish scene by scene. I usually start with the one that has the most dynamic movement, so you could say I'm "impulsive" to a certain degree.

At 3 hours ago, JonHunter wrote: you do all your key poses at once, then the 2s, then the inbetweens

NO, godamnit, you either do 2s or 1s, theres NO 2s THEN 1s

At 1 hour ago, Sacros wrote:

At 3 hours ago, JonHunter wrote: you do all your key poses at once, then the 2s, then the inbetweens

NO, godamnit, you either do 2s or 1s, theres NO 2s THEN 1s

lol thats hilarious.

To clarify: 2's is the format of animating every other frame. this means DONT TOUCH THE EVEN FRAMES PEOPLE. If you do, you are leaving the animation uneven. Dont even use it to emphasize speed, thats what timing is for.

Anyways, when it comes to my lineart, I do it the same way I do my artwork. I lay out the skeleton, then the muscles, then I sketch the full character out as accurately as possible, and finally I ink it so it looks nice. I can usually get away with only doing the muscles on the key frames though, so its not as much of a hassle as it sounds.

Also @Jon...I do a form of straight-ahead animation, because once I lay out the breakdowns between the keyframes I just animate from 1-3 (or 4 or 5, however many inbetween frames were needed).

At 4 days ago, ClassicWiseguy wrote: What is your animating technique meaning what is your process, here's mine...

Write
Voice work
Rough
Line
Lip sync
Color
Credits (Also at the Beginning sometimes)

I don't usually do a story board because when I make my rough draft before the animation I just use that.

Now I don't actually do the entire animation in that order I normally do that all at once, for example.

I will make a rough that lasts maybe 4 to 5 seconds and then do the line, voice, and color work all in one shot then move on to my next scene.

Storyboard/Writing
Voicing
Animating
Lip Sync
Color
Shade
Procrastinate

Not always in that particular order, though. My animation process isn't very organized, sometimes I skip the storyboard and animatic and go straight into the final thing, etc

At 2 days ago, cmkinusn wrote:

At 1 hour ago, Sacros wrote:

At 3 hours ago, JonHunter wrote: you do all your key poses at once, then the 2s, then the inbetweens

NO, godamnit, you either do 2s or 1s, theres NO 2s THEN 1s

lol thats hilarious.

To clarify: 2's is the format of animating every other frame. this means DONT TOUCH THE EVEN FRAMES PEOPLE. If you do, you are leaving the animation uneven. Dont even use it to emphasize speed, thats what timing is for.

I'm confused.
I thought 2's was when a frame gets exposed for two frames and 1's when a frame is exposed for 1 frame only.

At 5 hours ago, leocartoon1 wrote: I'm confused.
I thought 2's was when a frame gets exposed for two frames and 1's when a frame is exposed for 1 frame only.

It means exactly that. It is a bad idea to mix 2's and 1's together though because the animation may turn out uneven.

(There's also 'full limit animation' basically animation on 3's and 4's)

Script
Storyboard
voice
Do segments of the animation by skeletoning
animate over that and color at the same time
sync the lips up

move to next section, skeleton
animate, color, lip sync, and so on until I'm finished.

For some reason I can't animate the whole thing and THEN color. Maybe if I had someone do the colors for me though I would..

I don't always animate, but when I do:

I'll draw a quick storyboard in a sketchbook for reference.
I'll do the backgrounds first, so I can properly frame the scenes.
I'll quickly make an animatic.
I'll go over the animatic with finished frames.
Color it last.

When I'm doing the heavy stuff, like drawing the frames or figuring out the scene layout, I'll sit in silence because I find music or the radio to be distracting. But when I'm doing something tedious, like coloring or simple inbetweens, podcasts usually help pass the time.

-Storyboard with rough graphics
- As I storyboard, I'll draw a few graphics in detail if I know they are static and wont be animated
-Script & list sound effects
- Record dialogue and get sound effects
- Animate w/ some colour
- Add rest of colour and shading

-Record Audio
-draw out storyboard on paper
-Play audio while looking at the storyboard i drew on paper to see if it is timed out right
-Draw storyboard in flash(simultaneously making whatever changes i felt necessary doing step 2)
-Draw backgrounds, title cards, credits, etc. pretty much anything that should look official and nice
-Organize folders and how I'm going to set everything up (making symbols for characters heads and different parts of them and whatever)
-Animate one character at a time without their eyes or mouths
-Go back and animate their eyes
-Go back and do lip syncing
-Watch a thousand times to make sure everything looks right
-Done

I haven't been using this method I came up with just last month until like....probably2-3 weeks ago but it seems to be working very well for me.

Find a catchy song with lyrics
Listen to it
Animate whatever comes into my head

By the off-chance I ever make something with a script:
Write script
Get voice actor
Do animation
Background music

I don't really have a specific order for animation, but if I had to say, I animate each scene 1 by 1 in order, doing this:

Main character animation/art
lip syncing
backgrounds
clean-up (making curves look smooth etc)

-Play anime soundtrack on loop
-draw and ink on paper
-scan in photoshop
-vectorize in flash
-color in flash (my least favorite part)
-make shitty backgrounds in flash
-end