>>341
Nice, you can really feel her character from her body movements/pose, now you just gotta stick in a few inbetweens and get the motion nice and smooth, the feet seem fine to me.

I'm working on a short animation but the work is slow. I can't figure out how to get Toon Boom to cooperate with me which is a real issue, it's tough trying to learn how to animate when not even your tools are cooperating. If you know a better (or at least more user friendly) program for composition/post-production I'd appreciate the suggestions.

Pic's a gif from what I'm working on.

>>343
Haha, thats awesome. What the hell am I looking at

>>343
Why, what's not working? I've never actually used Toon Boom, but there's a small chance I'll be able to help somehow.

Haven't animated anything in a long time. Halfway done on this one. Posting it so I don't forget to finish it.

>>346
LOL the dildo sight

>>344
Thanks, its supposed to be a character changing out of her pajamas, stylishly.

>>345
It's not so much an issue of Toon Boom not working properly but I can't seem to figure out how to use it, nothing seems to do what I think it should and good tutorials are hard to find for people who aren't working with puppet animation (I use traditional animation, drawing on paper and scanning in the frames). What's frustrating is that it seems to be a really robust piece of software but it's just beyond my reach.

>>348
Sorry, I can't really help with that. The tutorials on their website seem fairly in-depth, however.

Done with the animation. Will probably scour the web for sound effects at some point.

>>350
I'm gonna level with you, I don't really like it, but then again I don't play LoL so I probably wouldn't get the humor.

>>351
No hard feelings, brohno. It pretty much sucks even if you do play the game. Was just something I whipped up after not having animated anything for over a year.

I had to animate Tigger bouncing 5 times and spinning, using straight-ahead animation (no keys). I'm not particularly pleased with how it turned out, but at least I got the assignment in.

>>357

Cool, the only thing that stood out was on the final big jump there could have been a bigger anticipation, maybe? It just might have been hard to see cause the penciling, though.

You should post more stuff

>>361
I wasn't sure what to do, because the bigger the jump, the bigger the anticipation, but Tigger also rarely stops moving. I settled for somewhere in the middle.

I'm in school for animation, so I'm going to posting more stuff. Here's something I made earlier in the year, however.

Not an animation but an idea I got while I listened to Queen.

>>343
That is awesome. Do you have any more?

With a partner (my group actually had two other people), I was supposed to animate two people meeting on a train after not seeing each other for a while. I wasn't in class the day this was assigned, so when I saw some other groups were splitting the work by one person drawing the keyframes and the other person doing the in-betweens, I naturally thought this was acceptable.

Well, it wasn't. My teacher wasn't happy.

Anyway, this is just my keys, because my partners didn't do a particularly impressive job on the in-betweens.

Thankfully (or un-thankfully, depending on how you view it), I wasn't the only one who disappointed my teacher on the group project, and he was so angry he had the entire class go all the way back to walk and run cycles, which we had covered toward the beginning of first semester. This was actually good for me, because I did a poor job on both of them (horrible in the case of the run cycle), so I was basically getting a free do-over.

Yes, he wanted the walk that exaggerated.

And finally, my teacher gave us an exercise today he promises will be assigned every week: he thinks up a simple scene, and we only have an hour, maximum, to animate it. This time we had to animate a guy walking into the frame while whistling, and then something scares him and he runs off.

If you don't mind me asking, where do you attend school? Is it any good?

I've been considering transferring to an art school, especially after realizing how miserable I am with my studies at my current University, but am at a loss for ideas. Calarts looks nice but their location is worse than the corn-fields where I study now and while The School of visual arts is in New York it doesn't have as strong of an animation curriculum.

Also, I really like:
>>474
The reaction was great, subtle, but I think he could have run off a bit faster in order to match his degree of shock.

>>545
Thanks, I actually go to SVA, and the animation program is pretty darn good; it's not as good as CalArts of course, but I'm still happy with it. The animation teachers are a really mixed bag, but I have Mario, who worked at Disney for about 20 years, and he taught me more in one month than I expected to get in the whole year.

>>546
So you're an animation major, I take it? I don't mean to derail the thread but mind if I pick your brain a bit?

How's life on campus, generally, is it easy getting around to classes (don't know much about city campuses) and your housing? Are you staying in a dorm? How's the cost of living over there? What was your application/portfolio like? What are the students like over there, apathetic/enthusiastic/nice, the instructors? What sort of curriculum do animation majors go through? Also, how do you store 12f paper? I've been using printer paper up till now, only just ordering a ream of 12f, and have nowhere to put my finished frames.

Sorry for the barrage, I'm having a tough time finding out information about some of these art schools, especially about their animation programs. And I didn't mean to make it sound like SVA's animation program was anything but good, if it came out that way. It is after-all the school I am considering most strongly.


Oh, and to keep this more on topic, here's another pencil test of a run cycle. It's missing a few frames at the moment but I think I like it.

>>378
Thanks, I have more but not much that are scanned put together in postable form, mostly still on paper.

>>568
Holy crap thats awesome!

>>569
Thanks, I don't really show anyone the stuff I work on so I don't get much of an outside perspective. I was pretty happy with it myself but there are a lot of pretty blaring errors I noticed after testing, which I will now keep to myself as I enjoy the praise.

Though I would also appreciate criticism, however harsh.

>>568
It's easy to get to classes because all the buildings you'll need to go to are only a few blocks from each other. I'm staying in a dorm, which is probably overpriced, but money has never been a huge issue for my family. Getting accepted honestly shouldn't be too difficult; just have around 20 life drawings (preferably with the construction lines still on them). I don't remember if SVA is one of the schools that requires some kind of flipbook or animation, but most don't.

In the animation major, the students are either loud fangirls/fanboys or completely silent loners. There are unfortunately way too many students that just don't care and drag the rest of the class down, as the people that actually try improve quickly. Like I said about the instructors, they're a mixed bag, but you HAVE to be in Mario's class; if you're not, make sure you're reassigned. You can find curriculum information on SVA's website, unless you're asking for specifics for each class.

You put 12f paper wherever you want. I just keep it in a drawer under my bed, and put it in my backpack when moving it from my dorm to the animation studio. It's hard to scan, but it's not hard to store.
---

As for the animation, it's very well drawn, but the movement is all over the place. There's actually a quick fix to this one, though: just get rid of frames 6 and 7. You devote too many frames to the left leg, so I deleted some to at least get the timing for the body correct.

For some reason it made the gif only play once, but eh.

>>572
Thanks for the reply. For clarification, what do you mean by fangirl/fanboy, are you talking about anime fangirls/fanboys because that would be unfortunate. I was hoping, seeing as it is a more specialized school, that there would be more enthusiastic people or at least those that took what they are doing seriously. As for the curriculum, I was mainly wondering if they stressed more the traditional arts or contemporary styles. And the 12f paper, if you just put it in your drawer how do you separate your different cuts (I thought some place might sell an oversized binder or folder or something I was unable to find on my own)?

Regarding the animation, the staggered "all over the place" look was what I was trying to go for but it might have been too far exaggerated because of the missing frames, I see what you mean though, it certainly is an uneven cycle (hand movement, body position, legs, etc). I meant to make it lopsided but the abruptness you might have noticed between the left and right leg movement was not intended as those linking frames have yet to be scanned in.

I didn't plan to repeat it any more than 3-4 times though, the main purpose was to set up a few transitional frames for the camera to zoom in and pan to the side for a profile view which is why the side to side movement also feels so lopsided/back and forth (especially on her left leg). There are other issues but this error was intentional, at least when I started. Wish I could watch your correction but its hard to see how much it improved without the looping. I was going more for style than a traditional run cycle which is why I exaggerated the head bobble, movement, and timing. If you've seen it Mindgame, or any of those highly kinetic 4C productions, I was trying to imitate their style with the very loose volume consistency and somewhat unnatural motion.

There were other more objective issues though, for instance the sleeves reacting before her arms began moving downwards (really they co-occur but it appears to happen before), once you notice it it is pretty jarring, on her left arm especially.

>>573
I mean fangirls/boys for animation in general. There aren't really any weeaboos, but nearly every girl openly discusses yaoi at every chance she gets. There are far less fanboys, but they're twice as annoying. I'm making it sound worse than it is, though; for the most part they're just kids who love cartoons.

You're going to get people who don't care wherever you go, so you shouldn't let that discourage you. THE biggest problem with the curriculum is that SVA in general stresses the importance of "finding your voice" at the expense of actually learning things. You'll quickly notice the ongoing war between instructors who want to teach students how to survive in the industry and instructors who want to keep students from turning into robots. I'm actually one of the student representatives for the animation department, and we're trying to work on it, but there's not much we can do.

I actually don't separate my scenes; it's just one big stack. I don't think any folders exist for 12f paper, so I was going to make one out of poster board, but I eventually realized it's not that important.
---

I knew you were going for a Studio 4ºC run, but their animation is still timed correctly. Here's a... revised revision.

>>574
Yeah, strange they don't make larger folders or binders, I've been making due with small manila folders to keep things organized but it does little to protect the pages.

Hmmm, I can see what you were trying to do but it wasn't my intention to make it an even run, I wanted to keep the airy, lopsided timing, contrasting hand flourishes intact. Your edit does a much better job of grounding the animation, making it feel more real/tangible, but I was trying to go for a sluggish almost dreamlike feeling, not to say I accomplished this well, it's just what I was going for. Also, not sure if you noticed but I was pairing the movements of her arms and legs; smooth, curvy motions paired against sharp, quick motions.

I didn't draw so much from the 4ºC timing as I did the camera work/figure distortion though I'm glad someone recognized it.

I get bored drawing the more traditional runs, they become formulaic and stale. Yeah there are a lot of ways to vary traditional timing with different characters but I much more prefer experimenting with less conventional camera work and timing than with character flourishes alone. On a related note I can't deal with the Disney slow, meticulous animation, as much as I might admire it, when animating myself I much prefer large exaggerated movements. It's more satisfying.

At the same time though I hate that "find your own voice" crap, I can do that on my own time, school is for learning technical proficiency not babying egos (though I appreciate the sentiment, no one wants to be a robot in that sense).

>>577
I can't help with that then, just do what you feel like.

One issue in my animation class is the instructor is very into Disney animation, and if you do something stylistically different, he gets annoyed. And, well... there are a lot of students who don't want to animate like Disney. I actually don't either, but I'm fine practicing it so I can learn; I wouldn't have improved at all this year if Mario had pushed style over substance.

>>580
Disney animation IS a style though, and in the same way that you can only critique Disney's style of animation once you understand its objective so too can you critique other styles once you know what they were going for. I wasn't trying to make up excuses, I was trying to ground your analysis with my objective to guide your critique.

Style can be substantive so long as there is consistency in its established rules. Disney's is not the only substantive style, it just happens to be the most well-known, and I guess Mario's personal favorite. Make no mistake, what you are learning right now is a highly stylized form of animation categorized under the Disney tradition, it is not necessarily any more substantive than other styles though due to its well-established characteristics it makes great practice for building fundamental animating skills, and making Disney films.

I don't mean to lecture, you probably know better than I do, I just feel very strongly about animation.

>>583
When did I say Disney isn't a style?

I'm not insulting you, it's perfectly fine that you're doing something more abstract; you just mentioned there were errors, so I assumed you meant the weird timing. Trust me, I know it's sometimes better to break the rules.

However, there's still more to Disney than just its popularity; they have some of the most natural animation, aside from works by Sylvain Chomet Richard Williams, etc. Disney has come a long way since the rubber hose era.

Oh, file related: it's an assignment I did in high school that breaks most rules of animation.

>>588

>the instructor is very into Disney animation, and if you do something stylistically different, he gets annoyed
>I wouldn't have improved at all this year if Mario had pushed style over substance.

It just seemed that you thought Disney animation was the standard and other approaches to animation were the deviations, that only a naturalistic approach to animation was substantive while others were merely stylized and otherwise empty. I guess I was just reading too much into what you were saying.

And don't get me wrong, I love Disney but my appreciation extends only so far as my admiration for their technical skills in animation. As films, after removing nostalgia goggles, I find much of what they do to be boring (though with some exceptions), especially directorially, largely because they are either unambitious or unchanging in practice. Besides maybe their more recent move to 3D animation I don't think their philosophy and approach to either animation or even storytelling has changed much since The Sleeping Beauty or extended beyond their experimentation in Fantasia. Theirs might make other productions feel cheap and amaturish by comparison but so does that Tron remake.

What's more they've cemented a notion in Western culture that animation is a novelty while still insisting that limiting oneself strictly to naturalistic movements, or caricatures there-of, is an effective use for the medium. I can't stand that. Even "adult" oriented works, because of Disney's influence, have a hard time taking themselves seriously. Pixar has been doing a good job of slowly trying to change that but the image they are creating is for 3D animation, drawn animation has been left in the pits. Disney might have come a long way from the "rubber hose era" of animation but that does not say much at all.

I don't know if I would consider what I do to be abstract, it might not be traditional but I still tried to adhere to basic physical principals. Although I'm probably just misunderstanding what you meant, again.

Also, are you a first or second year at SVA? Forgot to ask that before.

I'm not really talking about the stories, just the visual aspect. I've never cared for Disney's plot lines, though I actually didn't even like their animation style until recently. When I heard "Disney," I thought animation like Pinocchio, which was overly bouncy to the point of being unnatural. The animation renaissance in the 90s fixed that, for movies like Beauty and the Beast were just as smooth, but much more subtle. That's the type of animation we're learning; it's not so much Disney as just how things actually move. (They're exaggerated a bit, but that's so we can understand it better and tone it down later if we want). One of my favorite quotes is, "Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."

I didn't really mean abstract, just not 100% natural. And I'm a first year.

>>620
I was more ranting than addressing what you might have said.

The smoothness you are talking about does not really come from their animating philosophy but the sheer number of frames they use. Disney animation is detailed but I wouldn't call it the most realistic or true to how things move, if the case were that you were trying to animate something true to life the best method of animation would simply be rotoscoping. I'm also not sure what you mean by fixing the bounciness of their animation style, that "bounciness" was something they imbued more in specific characters than their animation philosophy, this was true since even Snow White and it certainly wasn't something that was broken. In this case story and character matter as they dictate the style of animation, compare Snow White with any lead in those renaissance era films and I can bet she moves more realistically than any of them, or at least in a way less caricatured.

I completely agree with your last point, like I said earlier learning a naturalistic approach to animating is great foundational practice but I wouldn't go so far as to start quoting Twain. Speaking from a general perspective life drawing and drafting would be the facts, the principles of timing and movement would be the facts, application of these skills, to any school of animation, is the distortion.

>>622
Snow White actually was rotoscoped, so she doesn't count. They were still learning how to animate a realistic figure, which is why she doesn't really fit with the other characters.

ANYONE ELSE IS FREE TO JOIN IN, BY THE WAY

>>628

Which as I mentioned earlier was really developed by their release of Sleeping Beauty, unless that too was rotoscoped. I didn't know that about Snow White though, I always thought something felt oddly different about her.

Actually, I just looked it up, Sleeping Beauty was rotoscoped as well, godamn Disney sucks worse than I thought, gave that old guy too much credit.

I think people probably aren't joining in because of the WALLS OF TEXT. Should probably give it a rest for now, get back on topic.

>>630
I give Disney himself no credit at all. He never drew a frame; he was just a businessman. Look up Ub Iwerks for the most under-appreciated animator of all time.

"You have two weeks to animate a walk cycle and a run cycle front the front and back, and it has to be a woman. No, I will not give you any notes or even be here to help you. Go."

Note to self: learn how to draw butts/shoulder blades.

And learn how boobs bounce.

This last one was done 20 minutes before class, hence the not-being-good part of it.

OP, would you mind posting your work in .gif format so my netbook can see it easily. I'll be happy to watch/critique it then.

>>651
No. Not because I don't want to, but because Flash has an abysmal gif exporter which forces 256 colors and ends up being several times the usual file size.

>>652

Youtube then? I'm really interested ;_; .

As repayment for this favor have some advice from a science major. When drawing shoulderblades keep in mind that the arm pose determines the amount exposed. Someone with arms extended in a T shape will have much more prominent shoulderblades than someone with arms hanging loosely by the side.

>>657
They're on Sheezyart:
http://sheezyart.com/art/view/2382617/

And thanks.

'check em later , Im about to sleep. You're welcome, I'm glad to help. As for boob physics. Thanks to feminist we probably won't ever get accurate data. In general though breasts are modeled by harmonic motion like springs . Imagine a point behind the breasts exactly at the center. This is where the "spring" is attached . Of course the "spring" is gravity. When she pushes off with her foot the breasts go up and then come down....so yeah springs. I hope that helps. Realism may not be an objective ,

>>659

But if it does, then the smaller the breasts the more subdued the bounce should be. This is because smaller breasts have a more equal ratio of fatty tissue to connective tissue and can't bounce as much as big ones.

>>660
I get that, I just mean what is the exact ratio of size to bounce. One of my friends used an anime run for reference, and the teacher told him, "It's good, but breasts don't work like that," so I don't want to make a similar mistake.

>>661

A youtube link to the anime in question would help, depending on how accurate your friend was.

>>662

>>648
>>649
>>650

To start the proportions seem, off. Her arms and legs are too short and her torso too long. It becomes especially apparent in the runs, her up/down movement isn't big enough to accommodate for how low her stride is and makes her look like a midget. Foreshortening her legs during their swing would probably help some but you should definitely look into fixing her proportions too.

The walks feels a bit stiff, not sure if that's what you were going for but if you weren't I think it's because of the way her arm moves in unison with her shoulder sway instead of reacting to it. As almost a confident march I think it looks good.

>>664
I know the proportion are off; I got what I wanted with the front walk, but I'm not as well-versed in anatomy from behind, so I kind of guessed on a lot of it. Her hands were actually supposed to be fists, hence why they look short.

I'm never sure how much up-and-down to have on a run; I haven't found anything talking about the subject at all. I'd think it would be more than a walk, but when I tried it once, it looked weird. I know I need to work on foreshortening, too.

I wasn't going for a stiff walk, but that's how it turned out. I actually used an Edweard Muybridge animation of a woman walking for reference, but she looked kind of embarrassed, so that might be why. Animating confidently + embarrassed reference = weird strut?

Thanks.

Here's a screen shot of my final(?). I'm posting it now because this is probably the only animation I'm going to be working on for the next three weeks.

>>662
>>659
>>660
>>657
Back again, OP I was finally able to see the youtube video and the woman front walk. Size had nothing to do with why your friend didn't do well. The breasts in that video are just flopping from side to side like a fish,when they should go up and down. Also the breasts aren't moving in sync. When the foot goes up both breasts should too, in the time between when her feet push off the pavement is when they should move back down. I may be too late ,but I hope it helps you in the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ermpn_1DGhE

Also here is a good reference video ,the part relevant to your work is near the end. Even though this may seem counterintuitive to what I told you ,pay close attention. That fanime on youtube had the breasts flapping back and forth like they were on a whip. It should be just gentle undulations.

Ok, thanks for the reference.

>>724
I'm kind of curious OP ,but what do you want to do when you graduate?

I'm not sure about my immediate plans after college, but the ultimate goal is to get my own TV show.

Alternate link:

http://www.sheezyart.com/art/view/2386908/

Feels good to use Flash again after months of pencil-and-paper, especially since now I can animate things I was never good enough to do before.

>>821
Alternate gif version for once.

My final project for animation. ＼(　´_ゝ`)／

I just made this.
Some shit I've animated in the past:
http://www.truploader.com/view/375650
http://www.fileize.com/view/307de6d1-cb7/
I can't finish them, though.

>>1178
Impressive. Why can't you finish them?

>>1181
For the first one I'm actually unable to finish it, because I don't have the file anymore. For the second one, I just kind of gave up on it. I've tried drawing the next frame, but I never finish it and end up deleting it.

>>1181
Anon from a good while ago, have you gotten better at breast animation?

>>1323
I've barely animated anything since school; I've been way too busy.

I'm really proud of how this is turning out. It's going to be Tenshi stabbing the ground, causing a pillar to rise into the air.

>>1182
you could just decompile the swf

I felt like animating something stupidly complicated and likely above my current skill level. Turned out aight I guess

>>1178 here
I found an old animation on my computer that I got stuck on and never finished.
http://www.truploader.com/view/994893
Thinking about working on it again.

>>1404
The poses and timing are off. The guy on the left pulls out his sword without bending over, and he drastically slows down when he's just in front of the other guy.

>>1411
yeah, I got stuck because it looks like shit when he pulls the sword out, and there wasn't enough force for the hit I planned on animating. When he unsheathes the sword, his hands are actually in the wrong position for the sword being on his left. His right hand should be over his left hand, but it's the other way around. (It just appears to be in front of him right now because I never finished erasing the part that overlaps him)

Critique por favor

The front legs are really bothering me.

>>1424
It almost looks like the front legs are walking faster than the back ones

>>1425
I thought that at first, but I don't see it anymore.

>>1424
I think it would help to look at videos of elephants walking.

>>1427
I have been, but thanks.

I forgot about this thread. I finished the mammoth skeleton a while ago, but I later found out I drew the skull completely wrong, so I'll have to redo the head.

Here's a version with skin, 98% complete.

I also just made this today for class.

I made this for fun, but it's related to an assignment we have for class.

>>1690

That's actually kind of menacing.

>>1691
\o/

I recognise you.
From Sheezyart.

>>1703
I don't recognize you but hi

So is there only like 1 animator here.

>>1690
The hands could use work, try crawling yourself to get a better feel.

You're making them slap the ground when its actually supposed to be very similar to how you would animate feet.

>>1714
I tried making one for fun a few weeks back to post here, but gave up after 30 frames because of how tedious it was.

Is it okay if it's not a drawn animation?

This was my first time doing this sort of thing...

>>1730
I think it's nice.

Did another lame vid for the heck of it, little to long for a .gif so I used youtube for this one.
figured I might as well toss on some crappy audio...

>>1732
lol, good.

>>1732
Wow, that was pretty nice. Makes me wish I had my lego set with me right now.

I know this really corny, mostly just did it for fun.
was also using this to learn how to use a video editor.
Had I known I'd spend so much time editing it, I might have put more time into shooting the footage.
Hopefully if I make another vid, it wont suck as much.
and yeah, was too lazy to add audio for this one....

Post edited on 17th Feb 2012, 1:16am

>>1766
That was really cool. If it had audio, it seems to me like it might become a popular video.

BUMP FROM YOUR GRAVE...

Also, I quite enjoyed my quick dabbling in amateur animation. I will have to try this more in-depth sometime.

The audio was an old song of mine from a few years ago.

>>2092
I liked it.

>>2093
Thanks. I'm actually kind of hoping this won't be a one-off thing.

A huge/completely unrealistic project goal of mine is actually to someday make a fully animated webseries (Less like a "Flash shorts" type thing, more like an amateur ONA). While I can't say I lack the free time and I'd be eager to try and compose an OST, I can safely say I'm currently lacking the necessary art experience and severely lacking in the voice acting department.

A boy has the right to dream...

>>2094
The music is definitely your strong point, judging by that short. If you can get some colab going, something bigger shouldn't be a far cry from your current position. Who knows how good you'll get in a while if you keep finishing projects like this.

>>2095
Thanksies. My resources (and people I know) are pretty limited, but the internet and the coming years of practice hold many possibilities, I suppose.

>>2092
It was fun.
Are you the guy who made songs named around "dicks"?

>>2097
Yup. The naming scheme was just sort of a dumb running joke to myself that stuck for a while.

When I first started making primarily instrumental stuff, I was used to the conventional method of naming a song after the lyrics, so I really had no idea what to call any of it.

That's it, you guys inspired me.

Between all the 'Chinamation' and 'Fanime' videos on youtube I figure: "Why not me?"
It's not like my artistic understanding will decrease from the experience.

Trouble is I am severely computer illiterate to the point where the only two programs I comprehend are mspaint and windows movie maker.
You pros have any Software suggestions?

>>2102
Flash is pretty good. I know it might have sort of a bad reputation around here, but it's not like you need to tween the shit out of everything.
For example, the cuts in this scene http://youtu.be/jRHJntLYMh0 where the students are calling each other were animated in flash. You can't really tell the difference, in fact, the only reason I know of it is because I know who animated it.
Other than that, I've heard good stuff about TVP Animation Pro (it's bitmap-based vs. Flash and Toonboom which are vector-based), but I haven't tried it myself. It's developed by French animators, so probably worth a shot.
Of course you could also just draw the frames on paper and clean them on computer. Or not use the computer at all! In the end, it's the craftsman holding the tool, not the tools themselves, which is the most important.