Ouch!

[The_e-Tahn]

Anyone ever sit down and animate for so long that you can barely stand the pain your hand's in?
I've started an animation for my school's upcoming Film Fest... I'm drawing it all frame-by-frame and I just finished frame 160.
Well I was wondering if anyone knows of special hand exercises or massages to make your hand not so cramped and tight after drawing for 2 straight hours?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I'm going to upload the finished project and then post it in the Animation Exchange when it's finished, which will... probably be sunday night.
peace!

[Natsia]

Stretch your hands out, you can also massage the pressure points inbetween your thumb and pointing finger.
What frame rate are you running? standard 60 fps?....Cinematic quality? ... Or 35? Have fun!
Cant wait to see the finished product.

[McUsher]

Is your workspace setup correctly? Right monitor height, right sitting
position (feet, butt, backbone, arms, head)?
Do you use a tablet or do you draw with your mouse?
Do you have a break at least for 5 minutes once an hour?

[CartoonLarry]

Anyone ever sit down and animate for so long that you can barely stand the pain your hand's in?

You need to pace yourself. You don't want to end up with carpal tunnel syndrome.

And don't forget ergonomics as suggested previously:


Just curious, are you drawing on paper and scanning in your computer or are you using a tablet?

[The_e-Tahn]

Ah, okay... I'm more in a "relaxed" position than a "standard-this-is-healthy-for-you" position.

I'm working 12 fps on a wacom tablet.
I'd say every 20 minutes I run a test drive of the animation to see how it's coming along... That usually takes about maybe 3-5 minutes during which I guess I could rest a little...

I asked my art teacher today and he said for me (sinc I'm right-handed) to squeeze my left hand so that my right hand relaxes and the focusing on pressur'es on my left hand-- I dunno, sounded interesting and I'll give it a try.
(today I'm studying for my last finals, which are tomorrow, so no animationg tonight).

Basically... I have a desk that's got a 90 degree angle corner in it; straight over that corner is my monitor, on the left side of the desk is my keyboard (have to hit F7 with my left hand to make new frames) and then I have a chair that I lean back in, put my tablet on my lap, put my legs up on the other side of the table in front of me (to the right of the keyboard).... if that made any sense at all!
So I'm really relaxed, but it's only my hand that really hurts. I do lotsa other things (practice lots of piano as well) so I don't think carpal tunnel's is really something to worry about too much (all the pain's in the phalanges! hehe).
Thanks guys, I'll try to pace myself and take more breaks tomorrow when I work on it some more!!

[McUsher]

And sit straight... it really helps a lot...
Your "relaxing" position is indeed contraproductive. I am not
surprised that your hand aches
Imagine piano playing for 2h straight laying in bed ?! Your
hands would ache as well..
The image CartoonLarry posted is really state of the art for
less problems with "sitting works".

[FatMatt457]

I've been told not to draw from my wrist before. Using your whole are is supposed to be more comfortable and give you more free flowing lines or somthing like that. I personally tend to draw from my wrist a lot still. Placing my Wacom Tablet in my lap seems to make things more comfortable for me too. As for finger pain I'm not sure... do you grip your pen really tight? That could be a cause.

[The_e-Tahn]

Actually, I think it was all due to fatigue.
I wasn't used to using those muscles so much before, and last night I finished my animation-- and did about 200 more frames, and I definitely felt tnesion but it wasn't killer to the point of needing to stop.

So I think basically just stop at first when it's really bad, then work at it some more later on and build up your endurance/strength and then you'll be fine!

That, or don't go animating 300 frames in a short amount of time O_x
Also, sitting up straight definitely made me feel better...
As for using whole wrist/arm, I was drawing with my wrist; gesture drawings usually worka lot better if you use your whole arm, and it does feel really comfortable; I sugguest this for doing large works. But I was working with a small, detailed area, therefore working with my wrists.
Go check out my new thread, cuz I finished it!!!!