heyvern wrote:Someone actually did do a hand drawn "Disney" style full length feature animation using Flash and a bit of AS. One person.
Each frame was drawn by hand and scanned in and "traced". Apparently he used Flash v4.
AS (moho at the time) was used for creating motion in large crowd scenes I think or at least for some secondary motion (easier to do that then drawing each frame). I remember reading this from the author on the website... that unfortunately I can't find at the moment (I think it was posted here).
The tools don't matter. I believe that as well. Professional shmofessional... its not the tools its the artist. A writer can use a pencil to write a best selling book... an artist can use the same pencil to create a great work of art... or even a great animation.
-vern
I know who you're talking about: veteran Disney animator and Amblimation director Phil Nibbelink did
Sealed With A Kiss with Flash - I believe he actually used a Wacom tablet to draw directly in Flash 4, and skipped the paper altogether. Good for him, if he could do that, I suck with Wacoms, I would need the much more time consuming pencil and paper route. (Like I did for this computer game I worked at, where my pencil drawings needed to be traced in Illustrator and then imported into Flash. There's no budget for that in our production.)
The tools still need to suit you.
I have used pencils for creating animation for feature film productions.
I could not re-create any of these scenes using a Wacom and
Flash.
I have done animation in
Aura/Mirage on a Wacom, I know my limitations there. Extremely sloppy, wobbely lines only. That's a limitation I have to take into account. (Until I have the kind of dough to afford a Cintiq, maybe. But I really need to try one of these things out before I spend that sort of cash.)
I prefer good old pencil 1.0 above any fancy schmancy computer program, actually, (even prefer traditional cell art and a rostrum camera over digital ink and paint and compositing software), but the costs involved in traditionally drawn full animation are prohibitive.
The ONLY reasons why we're contemplating
Solo or
Anime Studio are production schedule and production costs. If we'd had had a larger budget, I would have animated everything by hand, pencil on paper.
As far as I know it, Nibbelink's film was somewhat of a private venture.
He lived off his savings for the entire production time - five years. (I could not even last five months). It was a one man show: he did not have to care about the wages of employees, no deadlines other than his own (he still had to work 24/7 to make certain that his savings would not run out before completing the film), not the hot breath of producers and distributors in his neck.
It was a free production of sorts: he had no producers while animating, had his family provide the voice acting, and only went out to sell the film when it was nearly finished.
He had severe difficulites finding a distributor.
And it then basically flopped big time at the box office.
You've got to admire this sort of dedication, but I think my art still needs to pay my rent - I prefer not to use my PC sitting under a bridge.
I may have turned my hobby into my profession, but at the end of the month, it still has to cover a basic cost of living. I don't want to sacrifice my life's savings on animation the Nibbelink way.
Your Nibbelink example is a very romantic sort of obsessed artist's story.
(I should ask my collegue about him - he used to work for Amblimation and should know Nibbelink personally)
But it's hardly examplary for everyday animation business.
Especially in Europe, animation is basically about bare survival these days, especially when you're not into 3D.
