Organisig the animation

[RainDash]

It's not a question how to draw, or animate, but I want to know what is the best way to... ok let me explain:
So I for example make a sketch layer, and here happens all the basic animation. Then I make next layer and do outlines, and color. BUT. I have big problem, because I sometimes get to the point where I realize that i shpuld make a layer for EVERY fakin leg, arm, head, body, clothes... IS that a good point? Cuz I sometimes have op color every fakin frame, even whaen nothing changes.
I also thought that many animations are made like this: guy makes an arm (e.g.) , colors it, adds you know shades n stuff, and then he just makes it a symbol and animates it. Of course for more andvanced moves he makes more symbols..

OK IF TL;DR or I'm just stupid : DO I HAVE TO make layer for every single thing, so i don;t have to color the whole character on every frame?
OR IS THERE ANOTHER way?

AND ALSO: I've tried to use FILL tool, but it just sucks, cuz it connects with the outline, and makes something stange that i cant add shades after.

SORRY FOR TERRIBLE ENGLISH IM FROM STUPID POST SOVIET COUNTRY AND I SUCK.

plz be nice. i like you

I HOPE UNDERSTANDDDDD

[Informant]

uhhh... I dont really use tweens much, so... The best advice I can give you is that you must find a way to animate that suits YOU.
Some people never get comfortable animating. So the best thing you can do is, relax. Animating is honestly a very slow process.

I have a very clean final project usually. I put the final animation frames inside movie clip symbols.
Depending how much you care about organisation, you can always have multiple .FLA files.
Having separate files for different things.
One for absolute final compilation.
One for initial frame by frame animations (or for making symbols.)
One for tweens, where you will copy the symbols you drew earlier into the project and do the actual tweening animations.
Also you might wanna make backups of your files in case one day you accidentally save over the wrong one. trust me if you do it once, you will never make that mistake again... Just take care with it haha.

[KhanhCPham]

At 7/20/12 10:02 PM, Informant wrote: uhhh... I dont really use tweens much, so... The best advice I can give you is that you must find a way to animate that suits YOU.
Some people never get comfortable animating. So the best thing you can do is, relax. Animating is honestly a very slow process.

I have a very clean final project usually. I put the final animation frames inside movie clip symbols.
Depending how much you care about organisation, you can always have multiple .FLA files.
Having separate files for different things.
One for absolute final compilation.
One for initial frame by frame animations (or for making symbols.)
One for tweens, where you will copy the symbols you drew earlier into the project and do the actual tweening animations.
Also you might wanna make backups of your files in case one day you accidentally save over the wrong one. trust me if you do it once, you will never make that mistake again... Just take care with it haha.

I agree as it comes eventually on how you want to organize it. I do animation frame by frame too and I usually start out full of layers but when it gets too messy, I delete the useless ones. Before deleting a layer, I usually save the project into a new filename just in case I need it back. The topic creator seems to animate and tween several things separately so I can imagine how the messy it can get.

Here's what I do for my animations
-each scene are in different filenames(just like the post above). I do this so I can work things small than compile when I finish. It also puts less stress on my memory
-I do gesture drawings as an animation test in one layer
-If I like my gesture drawings, I add simple block shapes so I can give my figures some dimension
-Add a final line art layer.

[Informant]

At 7/20/12 10:23 PM, KhanhCPham wrote: -I do gesture drawings as an animation test in one layer

Yeah me too. I usually have like rough outlines of animation and movement on one layer.
Then above it will be like a white square with half opacity so I Can see through it.
And then above that I can do the lines properly.

But I get rid of my scribblies as soon as I can because they're messy and confuse me.
Should I like.. save them in another file? It seems pointless to keep everything to me..
But I also dont want to just chuck them away like they're nothing. :(