FAQANIMATION-
Technique - Making your Own Animation
Also try the SKETCHING FAQ
Do you have suggestions for getting timing good in animation...? metronomes? stop watches?
-- as far as I know... most animators don't use metronomes to time out action for animation,... in general they time it approximately (ie just estimate it), or they use a stop watch to time things out. If you're not sure what I'm talking about... :) let me explain. When you do a scene for animation, if it's possible, it is a good idea to act it out for yourself, and figure out not only how your body works with that action, but also how long it takes to do each part of that action. You should act it out over and over and over until you REALLY understand what your body is doing, then you can make thumbnails based on what you acted out, and then animate from your thumbnails (you can even just enlarge your thumbnails on a xerox machine). You may want to try acting your actions (or facial expressions) in front of a mirror so you can really see what's going on. Another option is to get someone to video tape you acting it out, and then you can watch the action over and over on your vcr (or even play it frame by frame for better understanding.) How this connects with timing is, if you use a stopwatch, you can time out how long it takes a certain part of an action to take place, this gives you a guideline on how long it should take in your animation.
I want to do animated films on my computer at home, can you recommend some programs for me?
-- I really can't recommend any off hand. I don't know alot about professional level programs. Here at school I use Take 2 on some old amigas to pencil test, and I also use some lunchbox systems. As to compiling my final films, I use a combination of Animation Stand and Adobe Premiere on the Mac (no I do not like Mac better than IBM so leave me alone! >:)
I really cant say that the way I'm doing it is the best way though.
I've scanned in the rough drawings, how do I go about creating an AVI to pencil test?
--Once, again, I normally use Adobe Premiere to do this. So far I've found it to be a very good program for any kind of video editing. It takes a lil while to make the avi from all those frames, so I would recommend flipping manually or getting a pencil test system (a lunchbox) for just quick tests. But for your final work, I do highly recommend Adobe Premiere.Can you teach me how to make AVIs or MOVs of my animation in Premiere?
Unfortunately, I don't have time to tutor you in Premiere. I can give you a few tips though, you can import single images (ie the frames of your scanned animation drawings) into premiere. Try importing an entire folder of drawings (make sure the drawings' filenames are numbered, like drawing001.jpg and drawing002.jpg) This way Premiere knows what order to put the drawings in. Then each drawing can be set to a duration. (you can do this before or after you import them). So set them for however many frames you want that drawing to play (like say 2 frames). You can add a soundtrack in if you want as well. Preview it, maybe tweak it a little.... Then you can just make a movie of it. It's that simple. If you don't know how to do any of this... how change the duration or make a movie of it, then please, get a manual. It's not too complicated, its probably even in the help files.
How can you see your animation move without buying a camera or a pencil test system?
-- Right now since I'm at school, I use a pencil test system attached to a VCR. (lunchbox system) This is great, but I know that the typical person can't afford to buy one of these on their own. They are usually around $5,000 I think. Some people overlook the fact that you can "flip" animation frames. There are two ways to flip animation, and even when I have access to a pencil test machine, I always flip the animation first. Flipping on the pegs is done by putting a frame of paper inbetween each of your fingers on your left hand (if you are right handed). You "roll" your fingers back and forth to "flip" the pages and thus see the animation move. This way you can flip about four or five peices of paper at a time to check the motion. Another way to flip larger sections of animation is to take a whole stack off the pegs and hold the back of the paper with one hand and flip the pages from frame 1 to the last frame on the front with the other hand.
-- it is also possible to make what is called an "animated gif" on the internet. it doesnt play quite the correct speed, but you can see your animation that way. Also some video editing programs (like Adobe Premiere) alow you to make movies out of individual drawings, so that is another cheaper option.
Do you have any tips for animating dialog... as in coordinating the action and the dialog at the same time?
-- I'll just tell you what my teachers and some speakers have said to me and what I've found works best for me. You of course have to have an exposure sheet (x-sheet) that tells you how many frames each part of the dialog takes. I've found that most people seem to have the the best luck animating the figure mouth-less first. Have the character act out the dialog, so that when you pencil test it, it looks like the character is saying the piece of dialog even though their mouth isnt there. (James Baxter does it this way as well) You rough out the key poses like this so that they synch to the x-sheet, and then test and tweak it to see if it works.
-- Something to note is that usually in a line of dialog there are a few parts that stand out above the rest of the line... accents... sharp words, louder words, whatever stands out. So listen to the line of dialog on loop over and over. Say the dialog with the same sounds and feeling as the actor to the tape, do this over and over until you're able to say the dialog at the same pitches as the actor without listening. While you are saying the dialog with the tape, watch your mouth shapes in the mirror and sketch thumbnails. Also think of what kind of acting the character would be doing while he/she is saying this, sketch these as well. Then when you do the rough animation, simply animate the acting/posing to the xsheet, and then add in the mouths.
-- Every line of dialog has different mouth shapes... dont just use the stock shape for the letter "m". Look in the mirror and see if your mouth is really making that shape when you say the line like the tape. Watch for squash and stretch on your face. Watch and see when your eyes squint becuase of your facial shape... watch when your eyebrows go up or down to accent the mouth shape. Alot of the time, some mouth shapes are dropped as you are talking in words and sentances or the meld together and you dont see all of them. If you dont see it, dont animate it. The most important thing is that you get the big key sounds/mouth shapes. Get those accented parts of the dialoge and make sure they synch up and look right with the sound, then the rest of it should fit in pretty easily.
-- Hope that's not to confusing.. its a lil hard to explain... once you get the hang of it, its alot less complicated than it looks.
" How are you outputting your films? Are you photographing or scanning your cels? The reason I'm asking, is that I'm wanting to put together a demo reel, and I would like to know the best way to approach the problem. "Well, I don't do cels. I simply draw rough animation on animation paper. (using a light desk to animate). None of my work is in color yet. I then scan the rough or clean drawings of animation paper (depending on how studious I was that day to clean them up) and I take them into photoshop and batch process all the drawings to make the contrast better. Then I bring them into adobe premiere and make an targa movie out of that (I'm using machines with targa, but other options are fine) then I patch the computer directly to a 3/4 inch tape deck where my final master is recorded. Does that help? If I were to want to color I would use the same process only, I would make sure my original drawings are cleaner before I scan them. They are black and white drawings of course. Then I would up the contrast in photoshop once again. and then I would color each individual drawing in photoshop before bringing them into adobe premiere. Take in mind however that there are MANY ways to output your animation, this is only the way I happen to be doing it right now. Mine's not nessesarily the best.