Lessons, Tutorials, Tricks and Anecdotes

[CNO]

I mentioned in a previous thread that we should begin a running dialogue on some of the techniques and tricks used by the animators on the board here (inspired much by the threads in the Games forum), this way it will act (hopefully) as a repository for some answers to more commonly asked questions, and as a way for all of us to get an idea of each others' work habits.

So let me kick it off.

Itsy Bitsy Teeny Tweeny...
Life very rarely, if ever, runs at exactly 30 frames per second. This is a major reason you have to be careful when using shape and motion tweens in Flash. Many times it has been suggested that people key more of their frames in the animation. This is important, but not necessary if you have a strong set of keyframes, especially since you want to re-use as many cast members as you can to cut down filesize.
Note that you shouldn't automatically tween everything - having strong pose to pose animation will add some snap to your actions and make it look a lot less computer generated, nor will it have that "moving underwater" effect that overusing tweening might result in.
Shockanime mentioned recently a technique in which he uses cast members and fades the alpha to interpolate fast action - the eye will catch the keyframes and fill in the space taken up by this in-between. Therefore, even though there isn't a new frame, it is a lot more fluid than if the space were empty or shape-tweened.
At very least, the fastest way to make animation more lifelike is to use the ease-in and ease-out check boxes when setting a tween to add a feeling of weight to the object.

Animate big, display small.
Rule of thumb - always animate bigger than you plan on having your final movie be, particularly if you are scanning in images and tracing them. If you try to do everything too small and blow it up, it may reveal flaws in your animation. However, if you animate bigger than you expect to play back, you can have the movie resized to any screen resolution and still look good.

Don't want to hog the stage - I'll be coming back with more once this gets rolling.
[Edited by CNO on 10-17-2000 at 08:18 PM]

[CNO]

Just wanted to bring this thread back up in response to recent requests for tips/hints. I'll try to post some more in here soon.

[bzed]

sounds good.. I wish I had any tips for anime making, but I'm not an expert in this area yet, still learning myself..

I would like to see as many tutorials and hints as possible though, to get me going on the right track

Kodus CNO, very good idea..

peace.

[CNO]

Well, bzed, mine are more general animation principles - Shockanime and Battleseed have been posting some excellent information regarding their anime techniques (With LeSean even recruiting anyone and everyone he can from the Othervision/Battleseed team to stop by and share tips )

I also would encourage any sort of helpful advice or anecdotes from anyone doing any sort of animation, even if you are just starting out. (Even if it's something like "Hey, I found out last night while animating 200 keyframes for my main character that Diet Coke and coffee mix pretty well for a major caffiene boost!" )

BTW, as long as I'm posting in here again, another tip. If you plan on exporting SWF files from Illustrator 9, don't use Auto-Create Symbols. I've found that Illustrator creates way too many redundant symbols (particularly if you use transparency), and you're better off choosing which symbols you want to re-use in Flash and making them graphics/movie clips/etc. there anyhow.

[pointblank]

Here's a tip for doing lip sync:

If you're animating in Flash at 24 fps (or 30 fps I suppose), line all your lip sync shapes exactly with the sound and then shift all the lip sync frames back 2 or 3 frames so they anticipate the sound a little. Old trick but it works great.

[CNO]

Good tip, pointblank!
Also remember that you can use the thumbnails of audio waves to identify peaks in your sound when synching actions or mouth movements.

[BradBradleySL]

Thought I would bring this back up, in case others have some more tips

Brad

[johnie]

The Flash 4 Player can not achieve rates higher than 18 FPS. The Flash 5 Player will try to reach the higher FPS's but will crash a slower machine. Macromedia suggests that you use under 18 FPS so that those who do not wish to upgrade to the Flash 5 Player or who have slower computers can watch your movie (remember there are still a lot of P-90's, Pentium II's, AMD K6's, ETC out there).

Another note here is that Flash 4 Movies with Frame rates higher than 18 FPS will not play the same in Flash 4 as it did in Flash 5. Macromedia is not completly honest about the Flash 5 bug either. Many animations that were done at slower speeds still play faster in Flash 5.

[BradBradleySL]

Simple tip-
Use onion skinning, and use it all the time. Its great! And study traditional animation, you can do good animations in Flash without studying traditional animation, but you can do great animations in Flash after learning the ins and outs of traditional animation.

Brad
[Edited by BradBradleySL on 10-30-2000 at 04:38 PM]

[DMario]

Originally posted by BradBradleySL
Simple tip-
Use onion skinning, and use it all the time. Its greatBrad
[Edited by BradBradleySL on 10-30-2000 at 04:38 PM]

IM not to sure what onion skinning is used for and how to use it. *cry* i feel so ashamed!


DMario

[BradBradleySL]

Don't be. At least you asked. This is one reason to study traditional animation, because that is where this term originated. But anyway, its basically a tool in most animation programs you use to see the previous and following frames in an animation, basically you see what will happen after and before the frame you are currently on. Its great tool for animators.

An example is here-

http://www.middlebury.edu/~it-lang/i...ion/onion.html

And lots of info on animation in general can be found here-

http://impress1.pennyweb.com/shellpe...?F4HT1871665-1

Brad

[johnie]

He's not lying folks.

Onion skinning can cut your time in half.

[BradBradleySL]

Another common tip, just thought I would mention it, my mind was wondering as I was sifting through the thread and thought I would leave another tip.

Common knowledge to experienced animators but not beginners is a thing called rotoscoping.

Rotoscoping is bascially tracing an image, this is useful in flash, freehand, koolmoves, livemotion, whatever, in that you can take a scanned or copied image of a character(how about an anime one)
and trace it by hand
(don't use an autotracer the results will never be worth while)
you can then use it in your flash animation. Another cool thing about rotoscoping is you can take a series of pictures, say an .avi of a dragon breathing fire, and then trace each frame into your animation program(flash..etc.) then you have an animation. This may seem tedious, but the results can be breathtaking. This is one of the key tools of Flash animators, they draw the frames freehand, and then scan them in and trace them in there program.

And don't be afraid to trace an .avi or bitmap image you find on the web..etc. that isn't yours (just maybe leave a note saying not yours) the experience you gain from doing it will build your skills.

Read about the ups and downs of rotoscoping here-http://www.swcp.com/animate/secret.htm

Brad

[johnie]

Yet another trick is subdividing your characters into joints. Like a doll or action Figure. Go out and buy a jointed action figure (Usually they can be found on sale for 2 dollars) and disasemble it if you don't know what I'm talking about. Its not a bad idea to have one around so that you have a drawing model.

Instead of drawing a complete human form draw just a foot or hand and then overlay those parts to make a body. You can then; A. reuse parts and B. morph only the section that needs morphing instead of fiddling with the a whole body. This type of animation is usually used in claymation but lends itself well to computer animation.

The technique works well in Kool Moves and Live Motion.

[CNO]

Good tips guys, keep 'em coming.

The one thing I have to mention about rotoscoping is to make sure not to do a direct trace of the characters/action. Both Fleischer Studios (who pioneered the technique here in NY) and Disney used rotoscoping in their animation, the difference being that Disney used the rotoscope mostly for reference, then exaggerated the action as per a cartoon. Human motion is too complex to do a direct trace of - there are too many muscles and minor actions which take place which, while difficult to identify visually, will look "wrong" if not drawn properly.

Go rent the animated version of "Gulliver's Travels" by Fleischer Studios to see what I mean (of course, it had other things wrong with it, but that was one of the glaring ones... )

Jointed characters are invaluable in animation, so long as they don't become a crutch. This style of animation can be compared to the traditional cut-out style of animation, where joints were sewn together then moved over time. It still plays a part if you are keyframing action, as the difference in good and poor quality animation can be as small as a single-pixel tween.

Plenty of art stores sell those wooden jointed models you refer to, as well as wooden models of hands and feet for positioning/perspective drawing. Let me know if anyone wants me to post a link.

[BradBradleySL]

-Good point with rotoscoping

Ok, another tip, so far these are just common knowledge which I learned in my drawing classes and such in college.

Make sure that you keep your animations in some sort of perspective. I have seen many animations where the characters are beautifully created, smooth movements and everything. Yet they lack a complimentary background. The perspective is off, the background is well, nothing, make sure it fits your character, if you have a women in a bathing suit don't put her in an Alaskan landscape. Also if you spend three hours making(drawing, animating) your character, make sure you spend at least the same amount of time working on the background or more.


Brad

[pointblank]

Good tips all around here. I've got one or two to kind of supplement what has been said already:

- keep your backgrounds unobtrusive. As mentioned earlier, backgrounds that aren't up to par with the animation can take away from the piece as a whole. Backgrounds that are too intense can do this as well. I like to keep black outlines confined to my characters and use coloured outlines for my objects in the background. This really separates the two and allows my action to read clearly.

- also, make sure your action and poses come across clearly in silhouette. You'll see this tip come up quite often in animation books (like the Preston Blair ones). Basically, picture your action taking place in silhouette and, if you've done a good layout, your action will be understood no problem, even without the benefit of colour and lines.

For a truly bad (in my opinion) example of Rotoscoping, watch "Anastasia". The motion is just too realistic and the characters are proportioned too closely to true life. It actually makes it boring to watch (I still haven't made it all the way through yet).

[johnie]

For vector animation;

Learn how to use layers and use them. Lots of times people will redraw things that they didn't need to making their files ungangly. Once you draw a shape ask yourself- can it be reused. If yes then don't redraw it. Instead of drawing 15 frames of a person peeking behind a wall the animation could be done with about 5 frames using the wall at a higher level to partially mask the moving person.

One of the biggest mistakes I've seen with web animation is that the person tried to draw everything frame by frame. This is very expensive in terms of file size and typically doesn't gain any advantages over moving shapes.

[pointblank]

Use stretch and squash to give your motion some elasticity.

Also, use anticipation movements before big motions.

Overlapping action helps sell the believeability of a motion.

If a character comes to a stop, have their hair/clothes/whatever continue to move for a bit.

If your character is looking from side to side, add a blink right in the middle of the eye movement.

When a character closes their eyes or blinks, have their pupils follow the eyelids down and up again.

Man, I'm full of them (it) today!

[sanman]

Living things made of flesh are often shown to be softer, by having their curves change shape, to emphasize that they are made of soft flesh.

Solid and mechanical objects typically have their outlines move rigidly, with the shape outlines rotating (or skewing for z-axis motion), but typically without the curves changing shape.