my cartoon character

[aprentice]

okay this is a character im gonna use in a cartoon that i and my two friends
asare going to make very soon

any tips on how i should make him talk,move.
should he swear or not
does he look like a happy character
or what
oh yeah ill post the other characters soon

[GaussianRaider]

He looks like he's very mean and swears a lot.

[arsanik]

This guy is awesome!

[freiheit]

When doing animation you really need to plan ahead:

How your character mooves and acts will influence his apearance so it should be decided BEFORE not after.

In addition, you want to consider what type of animation you want to do. Papercut animation (south part, 6teen, etc) has the advantage of having not detail limitation, but it will always have a bit of a flat look. While frame by frame animation gives you more freedom on how to move your character, you have to limit yourself detail-wize or you'll never see the end of it.

[aprentice]

gaussianriderthats what I was thinking but the cartoon is going to be about a city of the an there are going to be alot I mean alot
arsanik:thanks alot
freiheit: I was actually plannig to use amcromedia flash
I pretty much have all thee plans I just wanted other oppinions
so thanks
you guys should check out my youtube page
i dont have any animations up yet but when I do there gonna be great
(I hope)

[aprentice]

well this is the second character
his name is gorgak
just a quick sketch in paint
I cant really draw this guy yet
cause I did not make him my friend did
he has no eyes

[Asatira]

The best thing I can think of is to come up with informal model sheets. Take some time and draw the character over and over, get to know how to draw the characters from different angles. You may find that what works from one view point won't work in another, even if you give it a limited selection of views. Try out expressions and see how they work or don't work. Draw how you think each character should move. And get used to drawing the characters so they can stay consistent.

[Clochette]

Sometimes it looks like people think that cartoon doesn't rhyme with "well drawn"... Forgive me if I'm too hard, but clearly, you need to work much more!

Asatira speaks true, one single sketch is not enough at all if you want to animate this one. You need to be able to draw him thousands of times and he MUST look the same. In this point, it's pretty good that you begin with a very simple design, geometrical guy, but it's not a reason to not take care of your shapes and lines etc...

Also, even a basic design can have charisma ! This one looks like an msn smiley with a rockabilly hair cut! I'm sure you can find something better !
Fill pages with studies, the same volume / silouhette, but with different features inside, you know, big eyes, round eyes, tiny eyes, only little lines eyes, i dunno... Search all the different things you can, play with the placement of his face features, and members too. Like if you were creating your character in an online game !!

When you'll have a lot of proposition, compare them, make some choices, select parts of one you liked, mix it with something you prefered on another one until you find THE one. This will be your starting point.

Then you need to totally understand and appropriate the character. Understand the character in 3D, make some model sheet, we don't even know how his back is!

And only there, start animation.
You maybe must look how animators work, it's quite easy to find some tutorials on the web.

Good luck ! ^^

[Bai Fan]

Get the animators survival kit by richard williams.

[aprentice]

bai fan:where can I find it?

clochette:thnks for the advice your a really big help

asatira: thanks for the help

these are just rough sketches im working on the angles,the expressions and so on
thank you all

[aprentice]

sryy guys ill post in a couple days

[Noa K]

bai fan:where can I find it?

the book is easilly found on amazon http://www.amazon.com/Animators-Surv.../dp/0571202284

or u can purchase the animator survival kit - animated dvd's, but that would cost u about 950$....

*sigh*
i want that so...

[Dusty]

I'd say you need to work on refinement. Everything is very sketchy and looks like it was done in 10 seconds. Regardless of skill level, you should be able to spend some time making edges sharp and curves properly rounded.

If you can't be fussed with making it look finished, people won't be fussed with watching your animation.
Also, stay far far far far far away from Paint. I understand that Photoshop might not be accessible, so I would recommend simple pencil/pen and paper.


-D

[aprentice]

thanks

[aprentice]

it was done in ten seconds

[freiheit]

Get the animators survival kit by richard williams.

I'd like to second that. You could also find it at your local library if you're lucky.

Our school bought th dvds (I'm in an 2D/3D animation program) and I must say, they're a delight...so im watching those instead of reading the book...which I might end up buying in the end as a permenant source of reference but the dvds? It's just so nice to see the accual animation instead of just the keyframes!

[aprentice]

so what should I use for animation

[freiheit]

Have you tried toonboom? Toonboom studio has a 30 day trial, but animate has an illimited one, the only down-side is that you'll get a little "toonboom" watermark on your video. Toonboom digital pro is also available in an unlimited demo version, like animate, but it's a tad more complicated. Flash probably also has a 30 day trial. You can draw in either of these programs, I think animate and digital have a character design workflow... or just use a pen and paper! If you're relativly new to animation, really do grab Richard williams book, it'll teach you the basic and most important bases of animation...so that you don't end up confusion "keyframes" with "extremes" with "inbetweens" ^^;... like he said: the thing about things you don't know...is that you don't know you don't know.

[aprentice]

awesome but i know the basics alredy its the extreamly advance shit i need to learn

[aprentice]

and i ve been using flash macromdia 04

[freiheit]

Well, do you know what's the difference between a keyframe and an extreme? Or the 12 principles of animation? it's about the first things I learned in my animation program.