tips for someone totally new to the world of animation?

[TrueWolf92]

Hey guys, i know i must sound like a totally noob for saying this but, i just picked up a copy of anime studio 6 program, and i have no idea how to get it working properly. I've already read through multiple tutorials and im still struggling with the simplest of tasks. So if anyone out there has some helpful tips for someone totally new to animation plz respond.

P.S. i'll respect any advice you can give me

Thanks.

[themonster]

This video tutorial can help you:

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

[ErikAtMapache]

Anime Studio works pretty well once you get the way things operate, but it's not self-evident at first glance. As much as I hate to say "read the tutorials", that is pretty much the best way to learn the software. Probably the most important thing about the drawing tools is to remember that they are vector based, so you may have to un-learn any photoshop-style bitmap painting techniques you have previously learned. The good thing is that the program has a good work flow, so I find that once scene setup is complete, the actual animation process is very smooth.

Erik

[neeters_guy]

What simple tasks are you trying to accomplish?

[rockmartinn24]

I am a software engineer. So I know about computer animation. Computer animation is broken down into two categories. 1. Computer-generated animation and 2. Computer-assisted animation. Computer animation is not just about diving into the software and getting right to work. Computer animation is the art of creating moving images with the use of computer.

[funksmaname]

do every tutorial that comes with the program, then come back with more specific question if you still have them!

[Víctor Paredes]

Sometime ago I was writing something like an Animating on Anime Studio Decalogue. I never finished it, but right now I can copy some of that disordered thoughts here.
I was writing this thinking on people which is recently starting on animation and AS.
Maybe some of them coud be useful to them. If you want some specific question about them, don't hesitate asking.


About AS specific things:
- Make your rigs as simple as possible. The less clicks you make, the faster you will be animating.
- Don't look for the perfect rig. It doesn't exists. We waste a lot of time creating complex universal setups. I don't think this be a good idea, if an specific scene requires a new rig for a specific take or action, it's better to create the specific rig and simply go on. Your animation will be better and you will save many time.
- What you have done always will need corrections. Keep your keys ordered and readable.
- If you can't get a pose by moving the bones, move the points! Most of the magic of animating on AS come from point animated details.
- Bones not only rotates. Don't be afraid to translate and scale them. Your animation will be much richer if you play with that three tools.
- Bone locking feature is a big time saver. Don't be afraid to use it. It's hard to understand how it works, but once you get it you will never animate without using them.

About animation in general:
- Always thing on gravity. Exaggerate it if necessary. Make your character to have weight, please always remember they are not floating.
- Generally, actions are faster than you think. For example, if your character jumps, don't make it lasting an entire second, it just don't look good. Give it a few but expressive frames to it.
- Think on waves when animating. Many organic movements works in waves. Not all movements lasts the same.
- Don't think in reality when animating. For a human action, first think how you would do that, then think how you could do it in a very ridiculous way. Perfect, now you only have to animate it.
- Hold positions. Don't make your character always moving, give him time to think in what's going on and what he will gonna do.
- Fake 3d. We all now our characters are 2d, but let us believe they actually lives in a weird 3d world, they have weight, body mass and interact with other objects and characters which have the same conditions. Absolutely flat 2d doesn't look good, at least it be an artistically option (and even so it has to be tried very carefully).

That's all I found on my notebook right now.

[funksmaname]

That's some excellent tips Selgin - especially 'Don't look for the perfect rig. It doesn't exists.' and 'Generally, actions are faster than you think.' - i think this is one of the major problems people have in making dynamic animation, especially with AS since it's easier to have long dawn out actions than dynamic changing ones, i see so many AS animations that are just way too longin every turn & movement, people are actually working harder to make something work in slow motion when it could just as easily be created in 'a few but expressive frames'

I've been thinking of writing a post just about this, and how animation is very similar to a magician's 'slight of hand' - a magician doesn't move so slow that you can see everything he's doing in ugly detail - 'selling' animation is very similar to this - you only need a few frames to get from A to B and keep the audience interested and amazed (itching to go back and watch the magic frame by frame )

[madrobot]

- Don't look for the perfect rig. It doesn't exists. We waste a lot of time creating complex universal setups. I don't think this be a good idea, if an specific scene requires a new rig for a specific take or action, it's better to create the specific rig and simply go on. Your animation will be better and you will save many time.

I think that'san important point and one I strongly agree with. In AS you're not trying make the 2d equivalent of a Maya cartoon character rig. You just need to rig for the shot. If you can identify and group in pre-production shots which will use a similar layout and rig, that's good too.