Trying to become an animator

**lucardo** · July 29th, 2012, 11:13 PM

Hello people of Conceptart! I want to become an animator. Im learing animation by the book "animators survival kit". Ive made this walking cycle. Made it on flash, and exporting the diveo killed the quality. I would like you to criticize and poit out things to do better and to improve. Thank you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G1Ie...ature=youtu.be

(posted the youtube link, because, the AVI file is 1 second long)

**lucardo** · July 30th, 2012, 06:55 PM

Thankyou for the reply. What do you mean by resynchronize? i really dont have experience with flash.

**kasap** · July 31st, 2012, 10:06 PM

Richard williams book is a good place to start, you should do all the exercises in the book and draw allot of gestures of people and animals this will help your animation with non cliched poses and more believable emotions

Good luck

**Alice Herring** · August 1st, 2012, 03:43 PM

I have no idea what JosephPere is talking about either.

Holy hell! I can scrub through a youtube video now! When did that happen!? AWESOME, that makes this so much easier! (except when it skips frames. sigh.) You should always number you frames, it makes it easier to discuss.

Okay. Now on to the critique! If this is the first time you've ever animated, you're off to a great start! The best suggestion at this point is really to just animate more and get more pencil mileage, and to be aware of your spacing and arcs. (For example it feels like the hands are 'hitting a wall' when they change direction - the drawings aren't close enough together.)

For example, the spacing of an arm going through an arc:

11.1..1...1....1...1..1.11

(had to use the periods as placeholders.)

I'd give an example of what yours is doing (using the elbow of his right arm) but youtube has decided to be a butt-head. Do this: on a seperate layer, try and track just the point of the elbow. Does the spacing increase or decrease gradually, or are there big gaps next to little gaps next to big gaps? If you want to practice, try just animating a pendulum. Usually it's the bouncing ball assignment that people first learn ease in and ease out, but a pendulum should work too. The advantage of the pendulum is that after you get the upper part working, you can add a lower link - the forearm - and then you're dealing with overlap and followthrough

Have you seen Pencil Test Depot or the Living Lines Library?

**Dahlium** · August 1st, 2012, 05:26 PM

Hi!
I'm not an animator myself but the best tips I can give you is to keep drawing from life and work on your general drawing skills.
I have a friend who's aiming to become an animator, and it's sad since she's not improving since she just won't work from life.

**lucardo** · August 1st, 2012, 10:35 PM

Thankyou very much for the replys! I think ill give feed back to your feed back hahaha.

kasap > Understood! But should i concentrate on stil gestures or directly do animated gestures?? ive never animated faces, so, i think it will be quite hard >.<

Alice Herring > AH, now i see what you mean about the arms! at the very ending, they look quite "broken" doesnt they? Probably ive tryed to keep it up with the legs movement and kinda ignored the logic arms movement >.<. Arcs are the base for a good animation right? Maybe i should mimic my movements in real life, and see how my body acts, to have a better reference from life. What you mean by the pendulum exercise is, addin another "ball" to the main ball, so, when it drags down, it will drag the other ball? I think i got it! ill try that and show it here. Also, ive never seen Pencil Test Depot or the Living Lines Library.

Dahlium > Im sure it will help! Im kinda embarased to draw people on a cafe, or restaurant, so, my family will probably work xD. Also, thats bad to your friend D: ... Help him out too!

Well, i think that ill keep posting my progress in animation here. Should i post every single little exercise, or maybe wait and put everithing into a bigger video? Kinda like a "learing showreel"??

**Dahlium** · August 2nd, 2012, 10:44 AM

Apples are also still life!
I think you get used to draw people in town - you learn some ways not to get noticed XD

Yes, post your progress!! And both ways are just fine, choose the way you're most confortable with

**lucardo** · August 5th, 2012, 05:02 PM

Hello! Well, im studing about animals (horses right now) and human body. Even so, i did a little Running Cycle. Its on 6's. Ithink that this time the arms looks more natural, but ofcourse, in a run, the movement is restricted. Maybe i should have used more vitality on the head??

Also, from now on, i think ill post everything on deviantart, because, it loops automaticaly.

http://koniperdomo.deviantart.com/ar...ycle-319207743

**Alice Herring** · August 6th, 2012, 03:50 PM

Originally Posted by lucardo

Hello! Well, im studing about animals (horses right now) and human body. Even so, i did a little Running Cycle. Its on 6's. Ithink that this time the arms looks more natural, but ofcourse, in a run, the movement is restricted. Maybe i should have used more vitality on the head??

Also, from now on, i think ill post everything on deviantart, because, it loops automaticaly.

http://koniperdomo.deviantart.com/ar...ycle-319207743

It's too fast. Yes, a walk is 12 frames for one step - but a run is still going to be 8-10 depending on the design of the character. (short legs=shorter cycle) The difference is in a run the character will spend more time with both feet in the air.

Also, the problem with gifs and swfs is that it is difficult (I haven't figured out out, don't want to spend the time to, but it's likely not impossible) to look at animation frame by frame. That ability is extremely important to actually look at why something is or isn't working.

**lucardo** · August 6th, 2012, 06:46 PM

You mean that it is too fast for the size of my character? Ive heard that small characters like Jerry, runs on 4's. Well, in that case, i think ill do another in 8's to compare. Is it a good idea to try many diferent walking cycles? Like.. normal one, tired one, angry one, etc... And, should i loop them for a bit, and in the same video, change to the next??

I see. Then ill stick with the horrible quality youtube videos.

**Alice Herring** · August 6th, 2012, 08:34 PM

Originally Posted by lucardo

You mean that it is too fast for the size of my character? Ive heard that small characters like Jerry, runs on 4's. Well, in that case, i think ill do another in 8's to compare. Is it a good idea to try many diferent walking cycles? Like.. normal one, tired one, angry one, etc... And, should i loop them for a bit, and in the same video, change to the next??

I see. Then ill stick with the horrible quality youtube videos.

AHHH. why not upload a good quality .mov or .avi to dropbox?

Yes, it's to fast for your character. If you're doing a particular kind of cartoony style you can get away with it, but then the poses don't quite work together correctly. also, Jerry has super short legs. (I believe there's also a blur drawing in there, and most likely animated on ones instead of twos.)

Any kind of more animating is good

but they should probably be their own files.

**aks9** · August 20th, 2012, 05:16 AM

Originally Posted by Alice Herring

Also, the problem with gifs and swfs is that it is difficult (I haven't figured out out, don't want to spend the time to, but it's likely not impossible) to look at animation frame by frame. That ability is extremely important to actually look at why something is or isn't working.

A possible to this, is to export a second copy of the animation (either in gif or in swf) at a much much lower frame rate. If you're in flash, you can just cut down the frame-rate to something like 3 or 4fps, or 1fps even, then export it, and you'll get a nice frame-by-frame slow thing that would be easier to analyse.

You could then upload the normal-speed and the slow-speed together for people to see.

It might end up being more practical than exporting video files as they take longer to export, are much larger, and take longer to upload to places.

**davidzweber** · October 16th, 2012, 12:53 AM

Lucardo, I like your anim. Anything that makes me feel something is usually great.

I'm just getting started in the computer animation world. What do you all think? Should I quit, lol.

http://youtu.be/k81T1gfbFu0

http://youtu.be/vJYP0ikuTzM

**Ccs** · October 17th, 2012, 07:49 PM

Timing and spacing is the essence of animation so keep practicing and studying actions, you'll get it over time.
When animating in flash, export the movie as an image sequence and then recombine it into a movie in Quicktime 7 or Final Cut. That way it won't drop frames like it does when it records it straight from the stage.

**Ccs** · October 17th, 2012, 07:49 PM

Timing and spacing is the essence of animation so keep practicing and studying actions, you'll get it over time.
When animating in flash, export the movie as an image sequence and then recombine it into a movie in Quicktime 7 or Final Cut. That way it won't drop frames like it does when it records it straight from the stage.