Share your animation process!

[spoooze!]

How do you put together your shorts or movies?

I do it like this:

1. I write the script.

2. I draw the characters and storyboard if needed (sometimes I just start from scratch).

3. Iecord the dialogue.

4. I add bones and anything else I need. I also draw the backgrounds.

5. I put each of my characters on thier proper background.

6. I do all the lip syncing on the scene myself and test it to make sure it works.

7. I assign shots to the animators (including me) and they animate thier shots.

8. Once the shots are done I import them into my movie editor called iMovie and edit everything.

9. I watch the movie to make sure everything works how I want it.

10. I put the movie on the web.

-----------

Anyone else have a similar process?

Spoooze

[DaleG]

Im also on mac.. use imovie for some things.. (but usually use final cut pro) I've just recently discovered moho and the more I play with it, the more I'm sure this is the program I want for my next project. Right now I'm just experimenting and learning.. but I'm hoping to get to the stage soon where Im ready to render things out and put them together in imovie or fcp.. and Im wondering how you do the timing? how do you figure out how long each of your moho segments will be and hot to fit them to the music? What project settings do you use (I'd like to end up with ntsc mini dv format when putting it together in editor)? What frame rate and pixel size? What codec are you using for export.. Id like to conserve the alpha so that i can superimpose the moho segments over video.. but im not sure the animation codec is recognized by imovie.

Too many questions for one posting?

thanks!

[kdiddy13]

One of the things I'll do is do a rough thumbnail storyboard on index cards. Anything will work, but keeping it one drawing to a page helps. Typically, it's one drawing per shot, but I'll add in more storyboard panels to flesh out aciton where necessary. I'll record audio (this is where I'll record dialogue if there is any) and put together a temp audio track. I'll then edit the storyboard panels together in Premiere (I'd prefer Final Cut, but I'm on a PC).

I'll then create an exposure sheet (or x-sheet) that indicates the specific beats that I need to hit, on what frame. This is essential to help get the body movement right before lip synching or hitting specific beats on music.

I use this process for any project, whether it's Moho, hand drawn, or Maya. It'll especially help if your computer can't play back animation at speed, as you already know what the audio is doing before you even start to animate. It doesn't always give a precise measurement for the length of the shot, but it helps to give a pretty good estimate.
________
SYNTHETIC WEED

[cribble]

Here's mine: First off, the longest process - Idea, story character creation and blah. To get me in the right direction i sometimes do storyboarding if i feel its going to be complex, but generally i've stopped storyboarding as I find it's frustrating to draw sometimes.. i over detail stuff meaning i don't get the idea down... so i quit.

This is where i work "per scene."Convert project drawings and ideas over over to MoHo, and sometimes, do the backgrounds in Photoshop. This takes sometime aswell to make sure the characters look fine and work fine. Generally, i don't use bones as it get annoying rigging it to work and then getting it to work the way you want it to.. so translate points it is! I know i 'could' be easier, but for me it ain't.

Animate the beast. This is usually quick and painless... depending on what i've sat on.

I then export as a swf file. I export each layer individually for further compression. I open the exported file into flash, re-export, then use a flash compressor program to further squeeze it down before being ready to be imported into the final project.

i group those exported files within flash in folders correspondant to the scene, compile each scene, action script this and that and.. BAM.. a final product.

[mr. blaaa]

well, i dress my self in green and wear a cylinder, then i put a tomatoe in my shoees and finally i put the movie in the web^^

just kiddin' cause this topic is so old

(similar to ur process, but as iam a win2000 user, i choose adobe premiere for video editing)

[spoooze!]

Just curious, you said that your process was similar to mine. Do you do lip syncing before the final animation also?
I'm not sure if I am the only person who does that or not...
Spoooze