Animation Progress/ Whyisitsohard?

[TheMightyCelt]

So I have been working a bit everyday on my first animation I did a rough animatic and broke it down and now im doing each individual scene separately and intend on merging them all at the end.
It rounds out to be a bit over 35 seconds long.
Man animation is painful thing to do but i hope it helps me improve everywhere.
Its a sonic skit based off of me and my brother fighting for the controller.
Heres a few links to some scenes im working on.

http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/4ff6c762100fe1ede1834b1a2c86d912

http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/3e3a39c1e81593813a40fa72540d2c3b

http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/55dc1fe9e6deec54d71f8fe1f26e2eff

http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/d1ef77584890723b95d01fec786371b4

Theres loads more done just gona update thread in bits.
I have quit on every animation ive ever done and am forcing myself to finish this one.
Your critique is welcome.

[ValterValyun]

Your first knack on animation's really not that bad! What i would recommend (if you are planning to clean up the animation), is to work on the "line-art" of the animation first before tryin to color the whole thing all at once.

For the 2nd animation with the controller scene, you don't really necessarily have to animate frame by frame on the controller since it is not a live thing. However, the thumb pressing could use more in-betweens (more frames). Right now, it looks like you only drew two frames and they are twitching (which hurts my eyes tbh).

Same with the 3rd shot, a bit more in-betweens as well for the thumb.

And over-all, since you are going to put all those scenes into one video file, keep your stage size consistent. I saw one scene at the default size, and now I saw another scene at the 16:9 ratio (around 1280 x 720 -- which you should always be working with ALWAYS!)

Hopefully this helps.

[TheMightyCelt]

At 7/1/15 07:47 PM, VLanimate wrote: Your first knack on animation's really not that bad! What i would recommend (if you are planning to clean up the animation), is to work on the "line-art" of the animation first before tryin to color the whole thing all at once.

For the 2nd animation with the controller scene, you don't really necessarily have to animate frame by frame on the controller since it is not a live thing. However, the thumb pressing could use more in-betweens (more frames). Right now, it looks like you only drew two frames and they are twitching (which hurts my eyes tbh).

Same with the 3rd shot, a bit more in-betweens as well for the thumb.

And over-all, since you are going to put all those scenes into one video file, keep your stage size consistent. I saw one scene at the default size, and now I saw another scene at the 16:9 ratio (around 1280 x 720 -- which you should always be working with ALWAYS!)

Hopefully this helps.

Hey thanks a lot buddy the whole thing is at 1280 by 720 im just working out positioning with my vcam so each scene is a bit strange but its all consistant at the end.
More inbetweens I know im really just trying to get a feel for it and thanks a lot for saying not bad im going to try and shade it all as well.
And I also gota work on the sound and music for it looking foward to showing the progress.
I might compile all these scenes into one big much nicer animatic in the future.
Thanks again dude.

[Urbs]

Hey, it's looking quite good for your first animation. Maybe on the controller scene just have the hand be moving, instead of having the controller as well, similar to what VLanimate said earlier. I hope you will be able to finish it!

[TheMightyCelt]

At 7/3/15 07:13 PM, zack4812 wrote: Hey, it's looking quite good for your first animation. Maybe on the controller scene just have the hand be moving, instead of having the controller as well, similar to what VLanimate said earlier. I hope you will be able to finish it!

Hey thanks buddy appreciate it.

[Brownbird77]

Looks good.
How you animate it depends on how you want it to look though. So yeah, if you want a cleaner looking animation you would put none-moving objects on a layer. But sometimes people redraw everything at least once or twice to get a deliberately frame-by-frame sketchy look. I've done it a few times if keeping everything still just isn't doing it for me. Whereas motion tween-ing everything gives a super smooth animation (which I personally don't like all that much.. it's less hard work than frame by frame but I think you can tell..). Depends on what you want and what your opinion of different animation styles is.

By the way (I have to say this), it's good to see the megadrive sonic being used here! It's definitely the best, but I don't see people talking about it / animating it all that much ;)

[TheMightyCelt]

I dont mind im making it for me and my friend I just want to know I can animate if you know what I mean.
Like get to the finish line if ppl like it awesome if not so be it.
Not gona stop me making skits about what I want thanks for all the help and advice folks.

At 7/4/15 12:57 PM, Brownbird77 wrote: Looks good.
How you animate it depends on how you want it to look though. So yeah, if you want a cleaner looking animation you would put none-moving objects on a layer. But sometimes people redraw everything at least once or twice to get a deliberately frame-by-frame sketchy look. I've done it a few times if keeping everything still just isn't doing it for me. Whereas motion tween-ing everything gives a super smooth animation (which I personally don't like all that much.. it's less hard work than frame by frame but I think you can tell..). Depends on what you want and what your opinion of different animation styles is.

By the way (I have to say this), it's good to see the megadrive sonic being used here! It's definitely the best, but I don't see people talking about it / animating it all that much ;)

[Brownbird77]

That's what I meant. Critiques are good and sometimes helpful, but I think people should just animate how they want. I don't like it when everything has to be "textbook"

At 7/4/15 01:42 PM, TheMightyCelt wrote: I dont mind im making it for me and my friend I just want to know I can animate if you know what I mean.
Like get to the finish line if ppl like it awesome if not so be it.
Not gona stop me making skits about what I want thanks for all the help and advice folks.

[Xango36]

The biggest misunderstanding when it comes to animation form is that you don't need to know how draw through and construct shapes with a basic sense of perspective.

These are a good starting point but start practicing basic figure drawing and perspective. You may not have a realistic style in mind but doing this will instill confidence in your work and allow you to visualize scenes from any point of view.

Simultaneously, begin working on animation basics such as the ball bounce and leaf drop, mastering these simple actions will dramatically increase your understanding of timing and ease.

All in all, keep going and YOUR ANIMATIONS WILL PIERCE THROUGH THE HEAVENS!!!

[TheMightyCelt]

At 7/5/15 07:15 PM, Xango36 wrote: The biggest misunderstanding when it comes to animation form is that you don't need to know how draw through and construct shapes with a basic sense of perspective.

These are a good starting point but start practicing basic figure drawing and perspective. You may not have a realistic style in mind but doing this will instill confidence in your work and allow you to visualize scenes from any point of view.

Simultaneously, begin working on animation basics such as the ball bounce and leaf drop, mastering these simple actions will dramatically increase your understanding of timing and ease.

All in all, keep going and YOUR ANIMATIONS WILL PIERCE THROUGH THE HEAVENS!!!

I do as much as I can i do at least 30 mins of gestures a day and the best way to learn is to just get in there and learn from your mistakes fast which I am.
Its a very painfull process but every new scene I work on its looking better and getting cleaner.
I still do illustrations for buddies pinups and other stuff I will get this animation done.
After this one I might do a lol skit.
But building up confidence is tough somedays go great.
Otherdays progress feels like a snail crawl.
But fuck it gota start somewhere and I cant imagine what it was like to work during the dark ages of ng.
Before all the help and stuff.