My new creation! "The rain dance"

[hammerjammer]

Hello, Im pretty new to animation. This cartoon is my newest, Its not as good as many I've seen here but you gotta start somewhere right. With That having been said, I am still quit proud of it. When I first started messing around with Anime studio I was just curious. But I quickly realized that this was really cool. I'm really interested in the technical side of it, if that makes sense to anyone. The only thing that really drives my crazy is the fact that I'm not an artist. What I mean is. I've never been a doodler or a drawler. That would help a lot. I have plenty of ideas for short cartoons, but lacking any real drawing skills makes it a real pain in the butt. But I do enjoy making it all work.

Let me know what you think. Any thoughts or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Its called "The rain dance"
Here's the link



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

Thanks for watching!

hammerjammer

[hammerjammer]

Wow, tough crowd.
Three weeks and not a peep from anyone.

Hammerjammer

[AmigaMan]

I must have missed this before as it's the first I've seen of it. I don't get so much time at present though to read all forum posts.
Firstly I thought the artwork was very good and I can see you've thought about things. Right from the start I like the way the title was placed and there are lots of effects that you've had to execute including particles and transparency. The animation was decent and it was funny too. Certainly far better than my first efforts.

[Little Yamori]

I thought it showed a lot of effort and thought, using a lot of tools that AS provides. I got a laugh out of it too. Keep at it, I'm new to animation also, but I've quickly realized that the software has a lot to offer as long as you keep at it, and are creative with what you want to make it do.

[hammerjammer]

Hello,
Thanks for the kind words.
However, My "WOW, tough crowd" comment from a couple of post ago, in no way was to get attention.
You see, I so want to learn more, and would love to learn new tricks and techniques. I am always trying something new, even when I don't have a clue what I'm doing. I found that, and truly believe this, that the best way to learn the software and what it is capable of is to just make something. You know, just jump in there and give it a go. Many of you probably already know this. For any NEW people that don't know this, well then there you have it. That's my to tip to you.
So, when I post one of my animations, I really would like to hear from people, good or bad. Any and all constructive criticism is welcome.
That's why I commented with "WOW, tough crowd" a couple of post ago. And that's how we all will learn from each other, and get better.
Anyway. Thank you, thank you.
Oh, and Amigaman thanks for the "artwork was very good" comment, But, I think my artwork skills stink. That for me is my biggest problem with doing animations. I'm not an artist and its very difficult for me to create characters and scenery. The software and all of its cool tricks, I WILL LEARN. I'm only just hoping that my drawing skills improve as well. So, thank you. BTW, I think all those fancy effects make up for the things I didn't do very well, YET !... LOL!

Hammerjammer

[Little Yamori]

Just A thought,

I was wondering if you were drawing your artwork directly into AS ( I find doing it this way a little awkward for myself since I hate drawing with a mouse). I often use just a pencil and paper, make a mess with erasing etc... until I get the right look, then it gets scanned into the computer. Once there it can be opened in AS as an image file and the lines can be traced, color filled and rigged. Just a suggestion in case you weren't already doing it this way.

[hammerjammer]

Just A thought,

I was wondering if you were drawing your artwork directly into AS ( I find doing it this way a little awkward for myself since I hate drawing with a mouse). I often use just a pencil and paper, make a mess with erasing etc... until I get the right look, then it gets scanned into the computer. Once there it can be opened in AS as an image file and the lines can be traced, color filled and rigged. Just a suggestion in case you weren't already doing it this way.

Hello, Little Yamori

Yes, I do, draw most of my artwork directly into AS. Sometimes I draw using the mouse. But, most times I use a Wacom pen tablet. For me though, it really makes no real difference what I use, be it, paper or the tablet. This is because of me "lacking any real drawing skills, makes it a real pain in the butt". As I stated in the original my original post with my animation "The rain dance". So, either way, it is difficult for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm having a great time. I love this stuff. I'm not going to let a little bump in the road, like my lack of drawing skills get in the way...

anyway, thanks for the tips and for watching.

Good luck to you as well.

Hammerjammer