Just started animation, need help!

[MrShadowflower]

I know there are literally a million threads like this, but every one of them I see always has decent feedback and a surprisingly lack of trolls. (ie, didn't know the Newgrounds dudes were so cool.)
Trying my hand at Flash (and drawing anything at all) recently and this is the first thing I've made.

http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/b8db1e16a85560a4df1e64ce da824931

What should I start to improve on?
Any opinions would be appreciated highly. <3

[KhanhCPham]

Usually its easier for the artist to ask what specific thing they wish to improve on because I always assume what they have is what they originally intended. Personally I think the proportion is odd where the left side of the hump is smaller than the right. Since your going for a more of a human look, your going to need to keep consistent with your shapes. I'd say go read or watch videos of "animator's survival kit" where it teaches the basics of animation and its more toward classic frame by frame animation. You have a long way to go but practice makes things better eventually.

[Namisaur]

Before you do limited animation like that, I believe you should practice in some full frame by frame animation first (lines only, no color)

For example, animate the entire body of your character doing a motion, not just the arms and part of the face. Imagine everything as being connected (well because it is) and if you move one piece, the rest of the body is affected somehow.

When your character raises her arm to wave, the shoulder has to move up. The neck and the head can also move up just a SLIGHT bit to exaggerate the motion and because the face is part of the head, the face also needs to move. Don't forget the glasses.

Key Frame Animation:

Try drawing the very first frame of where you want your character to start
Then draw the very last frame of where you want your character to end

Then draw a few more keyframes in between and get your timing right. After that, draw everything in between the two motions, making sure you redraw every part of the body. I think it's good practice

Get the book called "Animator's Survival Kit"

[MrShadowflower]

At 4/28/13 06:52 PM, KhanhCPham wrote: Usually its easier for the artist to ask what specific thing they wish to improve on because I always assume what they have is what they originally intended. Personally I think the proportion is odd where the left side of the hump is smaller than the right. Since your going for a more of a human look, your going to need to keep consistent with your shapes. I'd say go read or watch videos of "animator's survival kit" where it teaches the basics of animation and its more toward classic frame by frame animation. You have a long way to go but practice makes things better eventually.

Cheers bro. :)
I'll have a search for those videos.
And I've no idea what I need to improve on, just some general direction I suppose, really never been good at visual arts (but I guess everyone starts somewhere!) :P

[MrShadowflower]

At 4/28/13 08:53 PM, Namisaur wrote: Before you do limited animation like that, I believe you should practice in some full frame by frame animation first (lines only, no color)

For example, animate the entire body of your character doing a motion, not just the arms and part of the face. Imagine everything as being connected (well because it is) and if you move one piece, the rest of the body is affected somehow.

When your character raises her arm to wave, the shoulder has to move up. The neck and the head can also move up just a SLIGHT bit to exaggerate the motion and because the face is part of the head, the face also needs to move. Don't forget the glasses.

Key Frame Animation:

Try drawing the very first frame of where you want your character to start
Then draw the very last frame of where you want your character to end

Then draw a few more keyframes in between and get your timing right. After that, draw everything in between the two motions, making sure you redraw every part of the body. I think it's good practice

Get the book called "Animator's Survival Kit"

Thank you for the advice man!
Actually, after I did that I followed a few tutorials here on NG (like the walk cycles one), just seems like there is so much to learn!

If you don't mind me posing one more question; I've watched a lot of flash animation, always been a fan, and with all that it feels very hard to pin down a "style", or sort of "how stuff should be drawn." Like I love Harry Partridge stuff but he's obviously light years ahead, compared to someone like Oney who's animation seems a lot more "basic?" but still manages to be entertaining. Then I remember years ago growing up watching Legendary Frog, and watching that again is completely different stylistically.

What I'm trying to ask, sort of, is when do you know your stuff is good/well animated/funny, when everything seems so different? Like, I've played guitar for about 7 years, and I know how I am compared to others, even though genres are different. But with animation there seems to be no line and it's quite hard for me to judge by own stuff.

Thank you again for replying guys! <3

[KhanhCPham]

I believe your going to get a lot of different answers when asked about a style. My influence is from anime. Harry Partridge has that 80s vibe so I assume his style is influence from 80s cartoons. Sometimes its not always the animation that makes it entertaining but its the direction, writing, and sound design that takes the spotlight. As for how you know is your own material is well animated and funny, that is for the audience to judge or how demanding you want for your own animation. If you know your current animation is bad, it shows how much you have to improve to make it better.

[Namisaur]

At 4/28/13 09:05 PM, MrShadowflower wrote:

If you don't mind me posing one more question; I've watched a lot of flash animation, always been a fan, and with all that it feels very hard to pin down a "style", or sort of "how stuff should be drawn." Like I love Harry Partridge stuff but he's obviously light years ahead, compared to someone like Oney who's animation seems a lot more "basic?" but still manages to be entertaining. Then I remember years ago growing up watching Legendary Frog, and watching that again is completely different stylistically.

What I'm trying to ask, sort of, is when do you know your stuff is good/well animated/funny, when everything seems so different? Like, I've played guitar for about 7 years, and I know how I am compared to others, even though genres are different. But with animation there seems to be no line and it's quite hard for me to judge by own stuff.

Thank you again for replying guys! <3

Being able to recognize that your animation might not be good compared to others is pretty good. But this is such a broad topic, everyone will probably give you a different answer. But I'll tell you my story.

First and foremost, my style started off being completely dependent on my drawing ability. It wasn't very great at first, but I found styles of exisitng artists (traditional) and animators that inspired me. I didn't copy there styles. No, but I did try to an extent and in the process of trying to imitate multiple styles, I was able to find my own style which consists bits and pieces of other people's styles as well as my own originality.

But that was when I only had 1 style. Nowadays my "style" has a certain consistency in it, but within it I have varying styles as well from all the practice and studying I did on art/animation. My style isn't exactly limited to my ability anymore, but to my imagination.

[Crev]

I am a multimedia graduate though not much of a animator myself I am trying to Learn as well. I do allot of research though I think you will find this helpful epecially the animation books you can read in there like "The Animator Survival Kit" by Richard Williams

Animation Resource Search

[InanimateMadness]

you could try to make your animation smoother, you can do 2 things with that:

1. add more frames between the movements so it doesn't just jump from one place to another.
2. on the second frame and the frame right before the movement is finished add frames where whatever you want to move moves VERY slightly from the starting or ending frame

here is a gif to show you the effect: http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/inanimatemadness/hand

[meridianisdead]

At 4/28/13 04:21 PM, MrShadowflower wrote: I know there are literally a million threads like this, but every one of them I see always has decent feedback and a surprisingly lack of trolls. (ie, didn't know the Newgrounds dudes were so cool.)
Trying my hand at Flash (and drawing anything at all) recently and this is the first thing I've made.

http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/b8db1e16a85560a4df1e64ce da824931

What should I start to improve on?
Any opinions would be appreciated highly. <3

Always work on the fundamentals. I've been working as a professional animator for 5 years now and I still have to go back and brush up on the basics all the time. Here are some awesome exercises to try out! http://www.animatorisland.com/51-great-animation-exercises-t o-master/#more-1723