HOME | DD
Hideyoshi — Animation test sequence 2
Published: 2008-07-08 14:13:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 12482; Favourites: 74; Downloads: 466
Redirect to original
Description
Alright, I did another little animation test.I planned to use the very character concept that I did recently, but when I started animating I realized how unbelievably tedious it was going to be.
So, simple as it is, that design needs to be simplified a LOT for the animation I am planning to do.
Here you see a rough design which was done on-the-fly.
Far from being perfect or any spectacular. It's still wonky and lacks some nice extreme motion archs. Just a few too many frames also...
Only coloring all the frames cost over 1 hour, this is really laborious. But still, animation is super fun and rewarding.
Plus, great practice with dynamic figure drawing.
Plastic Animation Paper 4 for the animation, SAI (thx to Algenpfleger for advertising it
) for drawing the clean frames, PS7 for coloring them, After FX for compositing and Flash for creating the final output file sorry, the file is rather big - pls wait for it to load...
I'd like to hear your thoughts!
Related content
Comments: 99
any tips or advice for someone who's just getting started in the animation field on theri own?
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I'm an animator-in-training, and I'll say, not bad at all for someone who's new! You have a very good sense of anatomy and how to turn the character in space.
What you need to work on is ANTICIPATION and RECOIL. I'm sure that a quick google search would tell you better then I could here.
Also, really push your poses. Realism be damned, this is animation! Go BIG or go home! Have really outrageous positions. It's easier to make something less crazy then to make it more. Better too much then too little.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
thanks a lot man! I know exactly what you mean! I bought a good book on animation by Preston Blair some time ago and it addresses everything you mentioned very well
Haven't had the time to do more animation lately though... :/
Good going with your studies!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I sympathize. Animation takes forEVER. It's such a long process.
The rest of your gallery is sweet as fuck, so this was the only thing I could offer proper constructive criticism on XD
Later!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Very nicely done....I used a similar procedure (PS,AE) for this:
[link]
Your understanding movement dynamics is way better than mine.... and If this animation is only 1 hour of work, I can only imagine what you could archive with more time. (Plus, I suffer a lot with "painted backgrounds" but that shoud not be a issue with you ; ))...Keep it up Hideyoshi!!!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
hey, that looks pretty neat! Very cool!
I still need a lot of practice...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
yeah i agree a good grounding in traditional animation and its rules, anticipation and exaggeration .
You can spot an animator that started out in flash, they rely on the tech rather than the knowledge and understanding of how the eye perceives movement.
the way he stops and turns his head here is a good example, it really gets the viewer ready for the ball coming in from the left.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
thanks, yeah just what I believe! I don't want to rely on Flash tools, that really isn't even animation to me. I am talking old-school! 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Nice try, but you can do a whole lot better with the softwares you used.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Hmm, a very nice animation. Although I a bit buggered about the end, it feels like when he takes his steps and the finally takes the final leap, it doesn't feel like he's really pushing away really, but barely pushing it slightly up because of the cycle have to complete sorta... I think with the current speed and jump, he would throw himself more lower to a sharper angle instead of taking of...
Otherwise it's looking pretty alright, a little stale but otherwise nice
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Very interesting animation... I wonder how many frame you had to draw for this one?
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
i don't know if you used it, but perhaps you could use interframe smoothing. I don't know any technic, i'm not an animator.
i think you could have different technics, but the idea is to create some frame using the previous and next one with some blending. The simplest is by blending them together by some 50% transparency or such. Perhaps you can blur them by hand according to the speed like any motion blur.
I did some ultra small animation years ago (something really crap) but it renders great. I've heard also that the industry was using this kind of technics.
Don't know if that helps, these tips have not been really tested.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
thanks for the hints! I wanna stay a little more traditional with animation for now...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
mmm i think you can over exaggerate the poses a bit more. ie: when he squats down to avoid the ball. from what i've learned in 2d animation at my school, squashing & stretching the character is very important. although unrealistic at times, it gives the animation more of a fluid feel to it. also over exaggerating some of the extreme poses.
one of my teachers told me, "you got to make it pop!" haha thought that was funny. so pretty much, for when he turns his head to start running... you can probably delay that a few frames. maybe hold his head so he's looking back as he's turning his body to run the other way, then pop it to face forward and run.
just a few thoughts. hope this helps somewhat.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
yep, very much agreed! I still need to learn a lot in that regard! Stronger keyframes, exaggerate etc.
thanks a lot for your thoughts!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
yea... animation in general is a tedious process.. not to mention hand animation like 2d works.. in my opinion animating in 3D is a lot more fun. and faster too...
i wonder how long it took you to finish this. how many images(frames) total?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
nah, 3D doesn't involve as much skill as 2D does...
There wouldn't be much satisfaction for me
29 individual frames!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I disagree... in order to make character move in 3D... it needs to be sketched first, then modeled based on the sketch, then UV Mapped(for texturing), then textured, then rigged, then animated and only then rendered... its really a 2-3 people process and a LOT of skills to make it look good. I had to do some 2D animation for school (simple stuff)... it was fun and indeed a very satisfying when I saw the results, but nowhere near as complex as making 3D.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I see what you mean.
Still, I think there is something raw and skillful about doing hand-drawn stuff. Just different than relying too much on 3D models and algorithms...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Now that is a fine example of frame-by-frame! Excellent work, keep it coming!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
It's a good test run. Keep practicing and you'll get better at it.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Animation IS tedious and laborious.. I did it for 3 years at college and it can be rewarding..
to be honest I don't see any major problems with your design in terms of animation.. there isn't a lot of bits in the clothes and the design that could cos for secondary movement when animating which is such a pain to do like hair, or a sash or anything that moves independent from the figure etc.. those are the things that adds a lil bit more complexity.
If you break your character down in simple shapes when animating it should be a lil bit more easier..
I like your head turn.. the animation needs a bit of work but its pretty cool for a trial..
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
wow, you did? That's cool! Thanks for your helpful insights!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
yep! its really kool and I recommend looking at animation books for learning to do quick sketches dynamically it really helps. No problem about the comment. I just hope it was helpful. good luck with the design.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
hah, that's exactly what I am doing right now! Picked up that one famous book by Preston Blair - wicked stuff and lots of good things to learn!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oh thats a good book.. I own Richard Williams -The Animator's Survival kit myself..
I also have been recommended Kimon Nicolaides " a Natural Way to draw" I haven't got it yet but my old professor strongly recommended it. He says its a really good and insightful book about drawing. Good Luck with that.. one can never stop learning!!! At the moment I feel I got my drawing down.. just need to work on the painting.. Any books you can recommend with that? I have a couple of Gnomon workshop with speedpaintings Dlylan Cole's DVD is so cool!!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
thanks for that! I will look into it! So far, I only borrowed the book, but I'll seek to buy it along with some other ones, maybe the ones you mentioned
Books on painting...? Nah sorry, nothing comes to mind right now...
The Gnomon DVDs are a good start though! Dylan's stuff is great learning material on speedpainting, Robertson is master with perspective and industrial design rendering.
Also, Practical light by Jeremy Vickery is great! It's a joy to watch and listen to Syd Mead and I can also recommend J.P Targete's stuff!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I would suggest you exaggerate your keyframes more... I had no idea that previous design was intended for animation, or I would have warned you about it. There's lots of things you can do to simplify it while retaining the cool elements, though, and it ought to look pretty sweet in motion.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
The last part after he dodges the ball is not natural as his left isn't supposed to stretched but his ankles. I think you should do the walk cycle test first.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
are you coming out with an personal animation project? sound fun, god luck dude. Wanna see some fight scene and stuff~ dynamic camera and lighting as well.( to much it seem 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
yeah, I am planning to! I want to put in a fight scene actually
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Looks great man for a rough design.
How many frames did it take you to make this?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Very impressive! Especially his right arm, except for one frame after he ducks, but overall very fluid motion. I know how laborious animation can be - you must be a natural.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
he looks very cute-- i don't know if that's how he's supposed to look LOL, but he does.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
| Next =>