I can't seem to finish an animation

[TankinnToons]

Okay guys, this is my first post here.

I've been animating for a while now, I'm currently 16 years old, started when I was 9 (using Pivot n stuff) . Now, some years later, I've yet to release a single, proper animation. Always, whenever I'm animating, I feel... odd. It looks okay for me, but when I open up the animation the next day, I think; "everything looks so damn ugly" and my creative mind just blocks and I can't draw anything else anymore. It's like my creative mind is dead, then. I try to start a new animation, as it feels right and I get all sorts of ideas, which die again, the next day.

Someone, does this sound familiar? I also catch myself comparing my work to big animators like Edd, OneyNG etc. I hate the look of my animation, when I do.

Attached is a little screen of one of my scrapped animations.

[Blounty]

I'm 18 and have never released a proper animation. Just work on your art all the time and keep practicing. One day you will get that spark. Also if you're gonna compare your work with people, compare your early work with there early work, Not there new stuff.

[Halvgoeden]

Tankinn, I started coming to Newgrounds to watch animations twelve years ago. Back then I had it in my head that I was going to be an animator. I used Flash on the school computers every day and my work always looked like shit. There have been times that I have stopped dead in my tracks and quit, but I kept coming back in one way or another.

I'm turning twenty-five in August, and I work full time at a small game development company doing 2D art and animation in Flash among other things. I'm still not very good compared to the greats, and I do catch myself making comparisons, but I always put goals ahead of me and reach for them.

Don't stop moving. You will eventually improve and develop your own style you are comfortable with. Always finish your animations no matter how bad they make you feel at the moment.

when I open up the animation the next day, I think; "everything looks so damn ugly"

This is the "fresh eyes" effect. It's actually a good habit to get into. The follow-up step is identifying why things look ugly and working to improve in those areas.

It sounds like you care about quality, and that's a very good thing. I suggest you find some animation tutorials and begin practicing simply drawing static things on paper. The quality of illustration matters just as much as the quality of the animation itself.

As Blounty said, don't get discouraged looking at the work of veterans. However, you should try to identify what they are doing differently and mimic it.

My suggestions for you right now:
- Study some simple character designs. My go-to animator for this is Gary Swift
- Finish that scrapped animation

Good luck!

[TankinnToons]

At 5/24/12 11:55 AM, Blounty wrote: I'm 18 and have never released a proper animation. Just work on your art all the time and keep practicing. One day you will get that spark. Also if you're gonna compare your work with people, compare your early work with there early work, Not there new stuff.

Good idea, I'll keep this in mind! Thanks man! Also, your picture is pretty disturbing.

At 5/24/12 06:40 PM, Halvgoeden wrote: Tankinn, I started coming to Newgrounds to watch animations twelve years ago. Back then I had it in my head that I was going to be an animator. I used Flash on the school computers every day and my work always looked like shit. There have been times that I have stopped dead in my tracks and quit, but I kept coming back in one way or another.

I'm turning twenty-five in August, and I work full time at a small game development company doing 2D art and animation in Flash among other things. I'm still not very good compared to the greats, and I do catch myself making comparisons, but I always put goals ahead of me and reach for them.

Don't stop moving. You will eventually improve and develop your own style you are comfortable with. Always finish your animations no matter how bad they make you feel at the moment.

when I open up the animation the next day, I think; "everything looks so damn ugly"

This is the "fresh eyes" effect. It's actually a good habit to get into. The follow-up step is identifying why things look ugly and working to improve in those areas.

It sounds like you care about quality, and that's a very good thing. I suggest you find some animation tutorials and begin practicing simply drawing static things on paper. The quality of illustration matters just as much as the quality of the animation itself.

As Blounty said, don't get discouraged looking at the work of veterans. However, you should try to identify what they are doing differently and mimic it.

My suggestions for you right now:
- Study some simple character designs. My go-to animator for this is Gary Swift
- Finish that scrapped animation

Good luck!

Thanks mate, that's helpful! Another real big problem of mine is that I always get stuck whenever I'm writing a story. It sounds really good in my head, and when I'm discussing it / writing it down, it feels really good. But as soon as I start animating, I find out that I don't get anything near the picture I was aiming at in my head, which results in me scrapping it again and starting all over...

Thanks again, both of you.

[MistyEntertainment]

But as soon as I start animating, I find out that I don't get anything near the picture I was aiming at in my head, which results in me scrapping it again and starting all over...

I'd personally suggest that once you get your ideas and already envisioned exactly how you want to portray your concept, that you sketch some rough storyboards so that the next day when you work on it, you know exactly how to animate it.

Someone, does this sound familiar? I also catch myself comparing my work to big animators like Edd, OneyNG etc. I hate the look of my animation, when I do.

Analyze the works of the people you compare yourself to. Analyze every aspect that made them enjoyable and unique, and don't try to be too similar to an artist, formulate your own unique style.

[RubberPanda]

Lol i have this problem to!
I can finish an animation :C

[blank0000]

Animating for newgrounds is an intimidating business. With all the awards, front pages, ratings, ect. Its really easy to look at your own work and say "no...needs to be better". I haven't had time to animate in a while, but I have a few things up here, I went through the same sort of thing.

But honestly, you will NEVER submit anything if you aren't willing to take a hit and face down a few negative comments. Your animating in your free time, doing it because its fun and you've got some goody ideas. Just make em, submit em when your tired of the project, show it off to your friends and go from there. Make as many bad animations as you can, learn from the feed back, learn what you don't like in your own work, and then use that on your next project.

[TankinnToons]

Hey again guys,

Thank you all so much for your support. I'm starting to like my work more and more and I've started paying way more attention to details. I spend over one hour on creating a background today! Yay! (See screenshot) I have a good feeling about this animation. Also, I thought to myself: "keep this animation short and include enough detail.) So that's what I'm doing! :)

Thanks again guys!

[TankinnToons]

Sorry for the double post, but I finished my animation. Whoop whoop!

[JKR]

At 6/16/12 04:55 AM, TankinnToons wrote: Sorry for the double post, but I finished my animation. Whoop whoop!

Hey Tankinn!

It turned out well! Nice work on completing it. There are two quick things I want to share that might help you in the future.

1) In regards to the PC animation, there's a principal of animating that doesn't get talked about as much as things such as squash and stretch, etc. That is "delay." Essentially what we want to do as animators is hold off on the pay-out as long as possible without breaking the animation. So if there's a gag, you want to build to that gag JUST as long as people will wait for it, to get the anticipation into their minds for the big pay off. I suppose in a way it's an offshoot principal of "anticipation" even though that's normally just a visual trick.

With your cartoon I feel like there could have been a lot more build up. As the fans start going, maybe have the PC begin to shake. Then it shakes so much that everything AROUND it starts to shake. Then maybe it starts beeping and flashing and when everything comes to a boiling point it squashes down and FWOOOOOOM! Launches into the air and out the roof, leaving behind a smoke trail.

Also I think you almost made things a little too clear. By saying at the start "my PC makes a lot of noise" you hurt the end joke. I don't think there's a person who plays high end games that hasn't once experienced a PC that starts sounding like a jet plane, so trust they know what's going on and leave out the spoiler in the title screen. Likewise if you need to label something "this is a PC" then you need to go back and redo it so people KNOW it's a PC. Don't label things, just hunker down and do better art so it's clear.

Both of those aspects could dramatically improve the cartoon. But aside from that, as I said, you did a pretty good job, so congrats!

2) Regarding the rest of this thread before you finished this piece, you may want to check out this article on Animation Motivation. It helped me a lot, and I think it could be a good thing to keep in mind as you tackle your next project: http://www.kennyroy.com/public/April_2011_Article__Staying_M otivated__Part_1.cfm?sd=53

So good luck, and keep at it! Clearly if you continue your progress you'll do well. That was a very nice piece for a first submission.