Milt Kahl had a philosophy that Richard Williams wrote about in his book, The Animator's Survival Kit, "Think about it, then do it, think about it some more, then do it again." Paraphrasing a bit there, but you see the point. Planning your animation takes thought and then putting those thoughts down on paper.
Plan Your Animation Don't Cheat It!
In Wayne Gilbert's book, Simplified Drawing For Planning Animation, he teaches you how to keep the planning process SIMPLE. I found this so incredibly beneficial, and it helped me work faster and draw better. Because, rather than get stuck on details during the planning of my animation, I was able to focus on pose, force, action, weight, and so on. I was able to really get inside my character's head and work out the best possible way to express the internal forces that would cause their acting performance.You might say, yeah, but, Joe, you don't understand, it is difficult, and I cannot draw all that well, and it takes time to plan. RIGHT! Discipline yourself now by going through the gruesome process of getting those first 100,000 bad drawings out of you. Believe me, after every 50 drawings, I actually get one that makes sense and is appealing.
If I had AnimationMentor to do all over again, I would do something like this for my weekly workflow: Title would be: KEEP IT SIMPLE AND CLEAR!
- Monday - listen to lecture and download assignment
- Tuesday - think, think, think, listen to audio, watch reference videos and thumbnail ideas
- Wednesday - think, think, think, listen to audio and thumbnail ideas
- Thursday - choose KEY poses and block in computer character
- Friday - Review, Remove, Adjust poses, if necessary, then Take out of blocking mode
- Saturday - touch up smoothing out animation, upload if complete.
- Sunday - Definitely Upload
There you have it,
Get Animating and don't cheat!,
Joe Young
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