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Hinchu posted:
Is that Flip? Did you know that Winsor McCay did some animation tests for his Finding Nemo characters? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seOGEwx0NfQ
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Aug 23, 2011 23:38
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Yes and yes  That was part of the reason why I was drawn to the characters. I went to a lecture a year or two ago on a short history of animation. It was supposed to be the start of an animation group but it only met once! It's pretty amazing what he was able to accomplish without the tools we have today. I like the non-sequitur dream states of his comics. It seems like they are made to become animated shorts.
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Aug 24, 2011 01:44
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Mine aren't terribly great, but I work in erasable pen most of the time, so it leaves interesting ghosts which are nice to play with. I was inspired a bit by William Kentridge. If you don't know who he is you should look him up. His work is completely amazing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mhkC_pwv1Q This ones the beginning to a much longer and way too ambitious project I got discouraged with and never finished. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2aif9Ci_rE&NR=1 There are more on my youtube channel thingy, too. Any and all criticism would be most welcome. I go to art school but haven't touched an animation class (yet!) and would be happy to get some feedback.
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Aug 26, 2011 03:54
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lolll posted:Mine aren't terribly great, but I work in erasable pen most of the time, so it leaves interesting ghosts which are nice to play with. I was inspired a bit by William Kentridge. If you don't know who he is you should look him up. His work is completely amazing. The erasable pen is a great effect! I think if you spent some time and made a more artsy cohesive piece it could be really cool. The flying bit was great. I just drilled holes in my new scanner and super glued in some sawed up peg bars. Does that void the warranty? Here's my first test, Flip popping his head out for a second from a shadow in the wall. I'll be adding some eye movement and ceegar smoke once I vectorize and color it all. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2064116/flip.mp4
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Aug 27, 2011 03:57
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Hinchu posted:Here's my first test, Flip popping his head out for a second from a shadow in the wall. I'll be adding some eye movement and ceegar smoke once I vectorize and color it all. Nice! I like the way he sorta floops out of the hole.
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Aug 27, 2011 20:20
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Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to get into animation. Story-boarding, directing, voice acting, all of it. If it had anything to do with video games, so much the better. I was raised on the Super Mario Bros. Super Show and Sonic the Hedgehog (starring Jalleel White) among others. It took me a couple of years (I'm 27, now) but I'm finally, kinda doing that. Not really traditional animation, as this is mostly done in Flash but I write/draw/animate/voice these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAcIW_F3Klc Right now, the first few episode are dialogue-heavy, and I HATE LIP SYNCING. I HATE IT. The most fun I've had with the series so far is getting the 8-bitty characters to look more expressive, and whenever complex movements are involved. Which is one reason why I wrote the latter half of the season to be more action/site-gags rather than talking heads. I think part of the fun of working in Flash for me is figuring out how to do a certain effect. It's like small, hourly triumphs. That and looking at other Flash work and going "I know/wonder how they did that!" (particularly Homestar Runner cartoons. I've seen pretty much each one more than once and if there's an effect I think might be useful, I can go back and watch that episode and figure out how they did it.) I was originally going to just use Photoshop and Windows Movie Maker, but it was asinine when I had to move more than two things at once, or when characters were having a conversation and I'd have to time background elements to fit their mouth movements. I can't get enough of DVD commentary, particularly on cartoon DVDs. From those, I learned what an animatic was, why a storyboard is useful, how voice work and ADR is handled, etc. all this before I even went to college. Things I'm hoping to improve over the next year: -Giving characters 'weight'. Hair droops, shoulders dip, clothes react accordingly. I look at Nate Breakman's work above and weep at the sight of my meager run-cycles. -Figure out an easier way to do lip syncing. I HATE IT! -Incorporate perspective (the concept, not the tool) more. Most shots in the show are static and flat. Yes video games are that way, but that's no excuse! ...Sorry for such a long post.
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Aug 30, 2011 10:08
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Dodgeball posted:Lip Syncing Do you hand-animate every mouth movement or do you use nested symbols?
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Aug 31, 2011 09:34
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QUEEN CAUCUS posted:Do you hand-animate every mouth movement or do you use nested symbols? Each time a character says a line, that sprite is a movie clip symbol, so I go in and draw about 4 states of mouth positions and copy + paste those frames within that movie clip symbol. So for each line, it takes me roughly 40 seconds to draw the mouth states, which are just objects on a layer, not symbols: sss or fff tee or vee ahh or ohh closed And then it takes me a while to copy+paste those frames into position under the audio layer. I do this for each individual line, although I suppose once I draw the 4 for each character (each character's mouth is different) I can probably copy those frames over into further lines. The initial drawing isn't what trips me up, it's just the tediousness of timing and placement.
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Aug 31, 2011 16:44
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lolll posted:Mine aren't terribly great, but I work in erasable pen most of the time, so it leaves interesting ghosts which are nice to play with. I was inspired a bit by William Kentridge. If you don't know who he is you should look him up. His work is completely amazing. I second the sentiment that the erasable pen makes a really neat effect!! Seeing an entire animation with an unbroken string of drawings like that would be great. Here's a new four legged walk cycle I did of my silly dog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfeasT5u4uI Mr. Frustration Man fucked around with this message at 01:08 on Sep 1, 2011 |
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Sep 1, 2011 01:01
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Dodgeball posted:Each time a character says a line, that sprite is a movie clip symbol, so I go in and draw about 4 states of mouth positions and copy + paste those frames within that movie clip symbol. There's a much more efficient way of lip-syncing with a graphic symbol instead of a movie clip. I learned from a book, but user MMX goes into depth here with a pretty good tutorial of how to nest your lip-syncing inside a graphic that makes it way easier. Instead of copy-pasting, you literally just put in a number for your mouth shape and you're set! http://bbs.coldhardflash.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3423 I recommend it highly. It's still tedious, lip-syncing always will be, but holy cow what a time and sanity saver.
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Sep 1, 2011 01:13
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QUEEN CAUCUS posted:There's a much more efficient way of lip-syncing with a graphic symbol instead of a movie clip. I learned from a book, but user MMX goes into depth here with a pretty good tutorial of how to nest your lip-syncing inside a graphic that makes it way easier. Instead of copy-pasting, you literally just put in a number for your mouth shape and you're set! Thank you very much! This might do the trick.
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Sep 1, 2011 03:39
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The talk of lip-syncing inspired me, so I decided to do one myself! Here is a quickie clip from my most favorite movie in the world, The Room. http://megaswf.com/serve/1168790 And here is my first Flash walk cycle, be gentle... http://megaswf.com/serve/1170190 Hometown Slime Queen fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Sep 5, 2011 |
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Sep 2, 2011 09:29
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QUEEN CAUCUS posted:And here is my first Flash walk cycle, be gentle... That looks really smooth! One thing I'd maybe point out would be how the head bounces up quite a bit more when it steps forward with its right foot than when it steps forward with its left foot. Maybe it's intentional though, its just the only thing that jumped out to me since it almost makes it look like a limp. Love the eye movements and design!
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Sep 8, 2011 07:06
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QUEEN CAUCUS posted:The talk of lip-syncing inspired me, so I decided to do one myself! Here is a quickie clip from my most favorite movie in the world, The Room. I'm, going to nitpick this just because this sort of stuff is what I do at work every day (flash walks, not nitpicking.) -First of all, I really like the eyes and the secondary motion on the face. It is a pretty good job overall, and even more so if this is the first time you do something like this. -The legs are popping and twitching a bit. Did you use bones? -The tail looks like it isn't connected to the body because it is slightly delayed. It should have more of a whip-like action where the body movement drives it. -The arm has a weird slow down and speed up when going forward up. At the apex of the swing it should be at its slowest and then start moving backwards immediately, sort of like a pendulum. -I think you can push the down position a bit more to give it more weight and impact.
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Sep 8, 2011 07:57
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Thank you very much for the critiques.  I'm trying to finish up another project right now, but I will edit the little goblin guy and then re-post it.I'm trying to put together a reel that might land me a job doing Flash, so any comments or criticisms you guys have is just fabulous. Also: Chernabog I'd like to apply to Flash game companies. What should I put on my reel that would catch their eye in particular? Any suggestions? Hometown Slime Queen fucked around with this message at 13:35 on Sep 8, 2011 |
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Sep 8, 2011 10:17
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It really depends on the company. But make a few more walks/runs, animate some characters doing actions, like maybe attacking or something. If you can animate special effects or short cut-scenes it would expand your opportunities. Keep everything under a minute and a half.
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Sep 8, 2011 16:36
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All right. Fixed walk cycle is here- http://megaswf.com/serve/1171841 Improved? Is it reel material? Here's my process- http://megaswf.com/serve/1171966 Hometown Slime Queen fucked around with this message at 15:07 on Sep 10, 2011 |
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Sep 10, 2011 04:13
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I have a question: I'm working on a 32" zoetrope for my storyboarding class, and although I've made one before I'd like to greatly improve on what I did before. The problem I'm running into is logically I know I should storyboard it out, but logic also says 32" is like 1 second, and not enough time to actually justify more than a 3 frame storyboard. Without asking you all to do my homework for me, how exactly do I go about making a 1s, preferably looping, animation? Maybe I'm just thinking too hard about this, but everything I think up feels either too simple or too complicated in my head.
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Sep 10, 2011 05:38
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Although I'm not an actual animator, I work for Frederator Studios (Adventure Time) and am working on my own animated web series (Writing, Design, Executive Producing) for them. Am I allowed in this shindig? Also, although I'm sure it's not much, I always always always make sure to not write in any shots that require downward walk cycles. A gift/offering? Heh.
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Sep 10, 2011 06:07
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MixMasterGriff posted:Although I'm not an actual animator, I work for Frederator Studios (Adventure Time) and am working on my own animated web series (Writing, Design, Executive Producing) for them. Am I allowed in this shindig? What about walking towards the camera? As a storyboarder that drives me nuts!
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Sep 10, 2011 07:04
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Little Miss RKO posted:I have a question: I'm working on a 32" zoetrope for my storyboarding class, and although I've made one before I'd like to greatly improve on what I did before. Its best to draw your intended start and end frame and then 2 or 3 of the frames of the action for story boarding. As for what to do try and pick a naturally cycling loop, things like skipping, cycling, walking, a dog chasing its own tail. a zeotrope that doesn't loop looks wrong in my opinion but you can be inventive about the loop. when thinking up ideas thumb nailing the actions is probably best.
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Sep 10, 2011 13:17
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steve343 posted:Its best to draw your intended start and end frame and then 2 or 3 of the frames of the action for story boarding. As for what to do try and pick a naturally cycling loop, things like skipping, cycling, walking, a dog chasing its own tail. a zeotrope that doesn't loop looks wrong in my opinion but you can be inventive about the loop. This helps a bit. Sometimes I just need someone else to write out my thought process to organize it for me. Thanks! I'll be sure to scan and gif it or this thread when I'm done.
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Sep 10, 2011 15:10
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MixMasterGriff posted:Although I'm not an actual animator, I work for Frederator Studios (Adventure Time) and am working on my own animated web series (Writing, Design, Executive Producing) for them. Am I allowed in this shindig? Course you are. What all is involved with your role as executive producer?
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Sep 10, 2011 15:49
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I'm not working on Adventure Time, all my cool titles are for the web-series I'm pitching to them soon-ish. Hopefully it'll work out!
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Sep 10, 2011 18:47
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Little Miss RKO posted:This helps a bit. Sometimes I just need someone else to write out my thought process to organize it for me. Thanks! I didn't make it clear that the start/end frame is the same frame, don't duplicate it a lot of beginners do this and it results in a jerk in the motion every time it repeats.
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Sep 10, 2011 19:15
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Little Miss RKO posted:What about walking towards the camera? As a storyboarder that drives me nuts! Really? Never knew that! I'll make sure to do it nil or sparingly.
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Sep 10, 2011 22:55
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Can anybody help me out here? I'm trying to put my swf files into avi form so I can edit a reel, but my nested animations don't seem to render no matter what program I use. So I just end up with still-frame characters zooming oddly around the screen. What should I do here?
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Sep 11, 2011 03:47
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After Effects does some fine swf rendering, have you tried that? Although I don't know how it handles movie clips... Edit: nope it doesn't like movie clips at all, is it possible for you to change all your symbols to graphic, I know it does fine with those. Butterflysmasher fucked around with this message at 07:57 on Sep 11, 2011 |
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Sep 11, 2011 07:34
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I think quicktime will work, or you can switch them to graphics like butterfly suggested, you might just need to synchronize them to the timeline.
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Sep 11, 2011 08:50
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Yeah, I ran into that same issue. After Effects won't render animated symbols either. The only solution I've found is to export using the QuickTime move exporter. For some reason it handles the symbols correctly. It's also good for exported something that's been programmed (albeit without any user input), as that will work as well.
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Sep 11, 2011 15:28
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QUEEN CAUCUS posted:Can anybody help me out here? I'm trying to put my swf files into avi form so I can edit a reel, but my nested animations don't seem to render no matter what program I use. So I just end up with still-frame characters zooming oddly around the screen. doesn't flash export to avi anymore?
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Sep 11, 2011 16:46
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steve343 posted:doesn't flash export to avi anymore? Yes it does, but if you have a symbol with animation inside of it, it doesn't play that symbol's animation when you export it.
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Sep 11, 2011 17:14
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Hinchu posted:Yes it does, but if you have a symbol with animation inside of it, it doesn't play that symbol's animation when you export it. As someone who is working on a cartoon in Flash, stupid poo poo like this is still stunning to me.
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Sep 11, 2011 21:58
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They never tell you these things in your books or classes either.  I exported as avi and then used Media Encoder to make them whatever extension, but I can't believe they don't have something as loving simple as a built in swf converter.
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Sep 12, 2011 01:51
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 I need to add a few more frames to ease in/out of the static bit. The next shot is going to be actual dialog. It will be my first attempt at lip syncing. I only have Flip recorded. I still don't have the other roles recorded. I need to figure out how to get a little boy's voice recorded for it. I tried my own but I ended up sounding like Michael Jackson.
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Sep 12, 2011 03:30
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Nate Breakman posted:As someone who is working on a cartoon in Flash, stupid poo poo like this is still stunning to me. Yeah, I HATE exporting to QT. My 6 minute video is something like 700 megs. There are some .SWF to .X converters out there, but I've yet to find one that works well.
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Sep 13, 2011 07:32
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I just finished my first demo reel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwyJwSFq6FQ
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Sep 13, 2011 16:01
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Movie clips really are for script based web presentations. If you're working on an animation project, don't use 'em. I've yet to find an animation thing that movie clips work for that graphics won't. Big thing to remember, graphics respect the global timeline, movie clips want to work in realtime.
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Sep 13, 2011 16:23
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MixMasterGriff posted:Really? Never knew that! I'll make sure to do it nil or sparingly. Not saying the same applies for all storyboarders or artists, but when the character is master angle and walking towards the camera it's more difficult to draw well, and (in my opinion) looks a lot better fro ma different angle most of the time. As always there's exceptions, of course. And if it's used more sparingly I think it could add a lot of drama to a scene that calls for it. 
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Sep 13, 2011 23:48
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El8Vehi0qZc Just did a messy line test where I'm trying to figure out how to convey weight; there are a ton of problems/unfinished junk but thought I'd share anyhow. It's supposed to be me and my chubbs-dog-beast!
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Sep 14, 2011 02:27
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