Advice on animation wanted.

Eggie · Fri 05/03/2004 19:41:38

Okay. I got The Animators Survival Kit by Richard Williams (damn good book) and spent an evening locked in my bedroom watching some choice moments from the Powerpuff girls movie frame by frame and...

I think with a bit of practice I could do it!
I could animate.

Anyway. Some of you may or may nor know of Mr.Blurry. A character from a short-lived series of pictures on 2Draw and an even more short-lived series of comics.

Well, I've decided to use him as my frame-by-frame guinnipig.

Here's the little animation I came up with (you may have to click the 'download' arrow to view the .swf):
Version 1
Version 2

I know it's not particuarly expressive but I think it's a good start...

Anyway. ANY advice you have for me on improving it in any way will be greatly recieved. I really want to become good at this, be brutal!

Darth Mandarb · Fri 05/03/2004 19:47:03

First off, the Download arrow on the first one gave me a 404.

The second one worked and I think it's pretty damn good for a first effort.

I think what a lot of people don't realize (and you obviously do) is that you have to do something OVER AND OVER and over and over before you can improve at it or just develope the skill.

If you achieved it this good on a first (or second) attempt I would definately encourage you to keep at it and we'll soon be blown away by your skill!

Keep it up and keep us posted!

~ d

veryweirdguy · Fri 05/03/2004 19:47:29

I'd be interested to know how you did it, Eggie. Tablet & Flash? Lightbox & pencil? Paint & a HELLUVA lot of patience?

I too have recently been getting into animation (made myself a crude lightbox at the weekend) and would LOVE to do lip-sync this good.

My only crit is that his body doesn't move much. But of course, it doesn't have to.

Eggie · Fri 05/03/2004 20:13:21

I drew this with a mouse...Then i deleted it and drew it again until it looked like a person rather than a...I dunno what it looked like.
I'm TRYING to get a tablet but it's hard to find a decent one that's less than Â£30 or so.

I sometimes use a metal waste paper bin with a lamp inside and some perspex on top for a light-box. But animating on paper is tricky. It's all about dividing the character up into shapes to get the proportions correct. I can't do that...it just seems to sap the life out of the characters and make them seem mathmatical. I assume it'll be less painful when I've figured out some sort of technique but for now. I'm just going to have to settle for drawing thens then rubbing them out until the proportions look sort-of okay...that just isn't practical with paper.

As for the lip-synching. It's pretty easy in flash. You just draw a bunch of mouths in different shapes, set the sound file to 'stream' and use whichever mouth is appropriate.

Anyways, thanks for the encouragement. I will definately keep working on this.

nope! · Fri 05/03/2004 21:35:52

it's good!

theonly thing that puzzles me is the arm: the movement is not natural (try to do it)...slower (more steps) or just something with the shoulder (like"hum, I dunno" movement) could be better.

Eggie · Fri 05/03/2004 23:36:21

Yes. Maybe if he stuck out his elbow and put his hand infront of his torso for a frame or so. or maybe he could have his arm pressed up against him but just have it bend at the elbow then straighten out.

Thanks, I'll get working on that tommorow.

MrColossal · Fri 05/03/2004 23:50:37

since you're working in flash why not just use flash to your advantage?

on a seperate guide layer make some circles that center at his shoulder and extend to his elbow that will be his arc of movement for his upper arm, his elbow can never go past that arc because then his bones would be stretching [unless you want to do that, being a cartoon and all].

Igor · Sat 06/03/2004 08:31:33

Very (very!) good!
The lip synch is great and the expressions of character, as he talks, too. As a matter of fact, i don't have any critics. I'd only suggest you to learn animating on paper. Once you'll grasp this, you'll find out how much easier it is, than animation on computer... Ok, depends on what kind of animation are you after- Flash with its symbols and tweening is ideal for animating "paper-cut" look... though, it's not quite as pleasant to look at as classic, frame by frame, one

Eggie · Sat 06/03/2004 11:57:48

Wow. Igor and MrColossal have commented on MY animation. I'll never wash this moniter again.

Okay, here's Version 3 (if it works... deviantART is a bit...odd when it comes to playing large flash files).

I've made a few very small changes:
*Changed his arm animation ever so slightly. I'm not it's really improved it but...well, it doesn't hurt...
*Added a little 'shrug' by stretching his torso symbol
*Smoothed out his blinking.
* Gave the arm animation at the end a little bit more bounce.

What do I still need to do?

Igor · Mon 08/03/2004 15:29:17

I already really liked the animation before, but yes, it looks even better with those fixes. I think it's now perfect for the style you chose

Eggie · Mon 08/03/2004 17:13:19

By 'style that I chose' I assume you mean the only style I can do with any degree of competance.

Thanks for all your help.

Igor · Mon 08/03/2004 21:06:06

It would probably be better if i'd say: "for technique that you chose"... drawing with mouse is a pain

Of course, there's always room for improvements, but since this is learning "experiment", i don't think there's really a need to change it any more (as it's already great). It would be better to just move on new animation... that's the best way to practice.