An Animator In Need

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

Okay so here's the deal. I felt that my art skills have gotten sufficient enough to go for animation. I just got approval by someone (I won't mention here) to use a song for the animation.

 

The problem? I haven't got much skills in the area.

 

So that's the main problem. Right now, I use Adobe Illustrator CS5 for my art, usually GIMP for sketching. I am already starting up a storyboard for the animation and can draw up most of the scenes/backgrounds and whatnot soon.

 

I'm gonna need some tips and tricks anyone could provide to this, or even where I can look for such a thing. I'm more than likely gonna do finished work through Adobe, and attempt to use Synfig Studios since it's the only animation software that I can afford right now (it's free...)

 

If there are any other programs that can be used like Synfig, that would be helpful. I just need someone with a little bit of expertise here, such as how to make smooth actions with characters or just how to move a character around fluidly. If you need examples on the type of art that would be used, if that would help, I guess just look at my DA page and look for the Battle On! images, or the Mega Man one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

TL;DR need help using animation programs, mostly Synfig Studios.

[Motion Spark 7,806]

download flash cs6 for a 30 day trial.

 

I don't know what tips should I tell you since you don't have any doubts.

just watch tutorials on youtube, that's all I can say

Edited July 15, 2012 by Motion Spark

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

download flash cs6 for a 30 day trial.

 

I don't know what tips should I tell you since you don't have any doubts.

just watch tutorials on youtube, that's all I can say

 

Well I can do art fine, just having trouble understanding the process of this "tweening" on Synfig and if there is anything else that can help in the animation process.

 

As for the CS6 trial, I thought of that, but sadly it only lasts for the 30 days. Then I'd have an unfinished piece of work sitting around and unable to use it. Plus, I thought the trial prevented actual uploads of finished work. Or am I wrong there?

[Motion Spark 7,806]

You just need to understand the term "keyframe". A movie is like a group of images that changes in a determined amount of time. to "measure" the time those images takes to change we use fps (frames per second), each frame is like one single image. Now when you "tween" something you specify a keyframe, a keyframe is a frame in where you specify a change or an action, normally you just need 2 keyframes to make a tween and the program will automatically do the animation between those keyframes.

I hope this explanation was useful

 

I don't know how to use Synfig, but if you donwload the trial, you'll have all the features available, except the onlines I think. You can export in swf, mov or even images sequences (gif, jpg or png), but I don't recomend gif, It looks really ugly

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

You just need to understand the term "keyframe". A movie is like a group of images that changes in a determined amount of time. to "measure" the time those images takes to change we use fps (frames per second), each frame is like one single image. Now when you "tween" something you specify a keyframe, a keyframe is a frame in where you specify a change or an action, normally you just need 2 keyframes to make a tween and the program will automatically do the animation between those keyframes.

I hope this explanation was useful

 

I don't know how to use Synfig, but if you download the trial, you'll have all the features available, except the online I think. You can export in swf, mov or even images sequences (gif, jpg or png), but I don't recommend gif, It looks really ugly

 

I was thinking of exporting it in .mov or .swf, but are they compatible to Newgrounds and YouTube? The person that I'm using the music for wants to see the final work after it's completed.

 

And as for tweening. So for an example, say I have an arm located directly down. I do the "tweening" feature and place it at a 90° angle for 3 seconds. If I were to play as is, would the arm rotate to the angle in the appropriate time of 3 seconds? Cause that would be insanely useful instead of the copy/paste idea I originally had like a flipbook.

[Motion Spark 7,806]

I was thinking of exporting it in .mov or .swf, but are they compatible to Newgrounds and YouTube? The person that I'm using the music for wants to see the final work after it's completed.

 

And as for tweening. So for an example, say I have an arm located directly down. I do the "tweening" feature and place it at a 90° angle for 3 seconds. If I were to play as is, would the arm rotate to the angle in the appropriate time of 3 seconds? Cause that would be insanely useful instead of the copy/paste idea I originally had like a flipbook.

 

Youtube accepts almost all video formats, no .swf.

.swf is not a video format because it can have actionscript inside of it, Newgrounds is .swf exclusivelly.

 

and yes, to all your questions

tweening can save you a lot of time, but you have to know how to use it right because it can make your animation look really ugly, robotic and unnatural.

you have a long way to go, if you want to be an animator ...i'm not an expert myself, but I try to improve everytime with my animation skills.

Edited July 15, 2012 by Motion Spark

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

Youtube accepts almost all video formats, no .swf.

.swf is not a video format because it can have actionscript inside of it, Newgrounds is .swf exclusivelly.

 

and yes, to all your questions

tweening can save you a lot of time, but you have to know how to use it right because it can make your animation look really ugly, robotic and unnatural.

you have a long way to go, if you want to be an animator ...i'm not an expert myself, but I try to improve everytime with my animation skills.

 

well I guess I'll do .mov or .jpg then. And yeah, my first animation is probably gonna look very horrid, but I hope that my proper art skills will hide the majority of that in the video. Plus it is going to be based around the song that's being played so the music should help keep much of the animation in check.

[Motion Spark 7,806]

well I guess I'll do .mov or .jpg then. And yeah, my first animation is probably gonna look very horrid, but I hope that my proper art skills will hide the majority of that in the video. Plus it is going to be based around the song that's being played so the music should help keep much of the animation in check.

 

I don't want to let you down but you might have the most beautiful art ever, but if you do a horrible animation with that beautiful art, all your work will look horrible as a whole, the music could help tho.

One step at the time, and start with simple things. If this animation is something big, I recommend you to do an animated comic, that way you won't have to animate that much, and it can look pretty cool too

Edited July 15, 2012 by Motion Spark

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

I don't want to let you down but you might have the most beautiful art ever, but if you do a horrible animation with that beautiful art, all your work will look horrible as a whole, the music could help tho.

One step at the time, and start with simple things. If this animation is something big, I recommend you to do an animated comic, that way you won't have to animate that much, and it can look pretty cool too

 

A comic sounds intriguing, but that would be taking a major shortcut to animating and that feels almost like I cheated the guy whom is letting me use the music out of a proper looking video; I'd feel bad doing such a thing. And yeah, the animation is nearly 2:26 long, so it's a biggy in all accounts of animation for most people. I figure I'll start with the storyboard, go and draw all the backgrounds and then animate those into the video. After I get that done, animate the figures in and start tweening them to look natural. Do you know of any tutorials that could help on the tweening process though?

[Motion Spark 7,806]

A comic sounds intriguing, but that would be taking a major shortcut to animating and that feels almost like I cheated the guy whom is letting me use the music out of a proper looking video; I'd feel bad doing such a thing. And yeah, the animation is nearly 2:26 long, so it's a biggy in all accounts of animation for most people. I figure I'll start with the storyboard, go and draw all the backgrounds and then animate those into the video. After I get that done, animate the figures in and start tweening them to look natural. Do you know of any tutorials that could help on the tweening process though?

 

a comic style animation can look as good or even better than a fully animated one. Kunfu-Panda intro had that 'feel' and it looked amazing. I don't know why you accepted such a task, if you don't even know how to animate.

I know a channel that has excelent fash tutorials for beginners, but sadly it's in spanish. But they're plenty of good tutorials on youtube, just type "flash tutorial tweening" and you'll find a lot of helpful videos

Edited July 15, 2012 by Motion Spark

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

a comic style animation can look as good or even better than a fully animated one. Kunfu-Panda intro had that 'feel' and it looked amazing. I don't know why you accepted such a task, if you don't even know how to animate.

I know a channel that has excelent fash tutorials for beginners, but sadly it's in spanish. But they're plenty of good tutorials on youtube, just type "flash tutorial tweening" and you'll find a lot of helpful videos

 

What I meant to state was this is a learning experience for me and if I were to take shortcuts, it would feel like I am deterring away from fully learning how to animate. But now that you mention Kungfu-Panda, I may look into that. I had an idea planned for an animation project that would look like that. And even in Spanish, which I do not know, I can hopefully pick up something from them. I'll post some links to the video on this site when I finally get done with it, will take a while to do it though.

[Motion Spark 7,806]

What I meant to state was this is a learning experience for me and if I were to take shortcuts, it would feel like I am deterring away from fully learning how to animate. But now that you mention Kungfu-Panda, I may look into that. I had an idea planned for an animation project that would look like that. And even in Spanish, which I do not know, I can hopefully pick up something from them. I'll post some links to the video on this site when I finally get done with it, will take a while to do it though.

 

I would love to see it when it's finished.

this is the channel: http://www.youtube.c...ashFacilitoTips

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

I would love to see it when it's finished.

this is the channel: http://www.youtube.c...ashFacilitoTips

 

Thanks, I'll look into it tomorrow when I can actually understand what I'm seeing; maybe I can get some of my Mexican friends to help translate it.

[Klopp 2,050]

If you are looking for assistance with any form of artwork, you should be in Creative Resources, not General Discussion

 

**throws thread to it's proper home**