Pencil Test

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Sat May 21, 2011 5:05 pm

I've been trying to find the right balance between full and limited animation for my series. I've started using a light box and pencil tests for the first time. Here is the test:

[edit: video removed]

I'd appreciate any critique and suggestions for improvement because I really want to love the final animation.

Poptoogi · Post by **Poptoogi** » Sun May 22, 2011 2:45 pm

Hi lwaxana,

I love your animation style that you use in AS but I think I know what you mean wanting to use both styles of animation. However, you take a great deal of time to make sure your animations look really tight an uniform which makes them look like traditional animation anyway! I think you could try varying the line widths slightly to make your animations look more hand drawn. I know that's not what you asked really but I think the way you animate is great as it is! I guess I'd have to see a fully rendered frame by frame full animation to really comment on the two differences! Still, whatever you decide to do, I'm sure it will rock!!

neeters_guy · Post by **neeters_guy** » Sun May 22, 2011 7:10 pm

I can see you are hitting the accents, ie., on the word "vaca-SHUN", and adding anticipation before he spreads his arms out. The clip is a bit short and rough to make a real in-depth critque though. A framecounter would help.

Since there is a mix of key poses and breakdowns, I would suggest the approach that Williams suggests on p. 64-67 of ASK. Draw all the important poses first, timing determined by the dialogue. Then draw the extremes, then breakdowns. All the fancy bits -- adding weight, anticipation, and followthrough, etc. -- come after you get the timing down first.

Spoooze has recently adopted this methodology, that of using animatics to guide the motion within AS, to create more fluid animation. This is an old idea actually -- amanandink, jwlane, and others have described it in various forms. I largely agree with crsp that AS is best used as a way to contruct animation, rather than to "draw" animation. I myself have been experimenting with using Digicel Flipbook as a starting point for animation and then bringing the images into AS for tracing.

Sorry for the digression. Basically, you're on the right track.

One more trick I have to pass along, good old video reference of yourself acting out the scene. Here are a couple cool examples I ran across:

Alice In Wonderland test footage - Unbirthday Mad Tea Party - Disney
Horton acting blocking refining final render

Hope that helps. Keep up the good work.

My standard disclaimer: I'm not a working professional, so take my advice in the spirit given.

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Sun May 22, 2011 9:00 pm

Guyver--thanks for the encouragement! I thought a lot about your comment and tried to pinpoint why I'm dissatisfied with my animation right now. I think the main reason is that my series has a lot of dialogue. Recently I wanted to just complete some scenes so I lip synced them and added blinks and all that. Then I started to feel like I wasn't animating at all. I was just operating a bunch of switch layers. And when I watched it it didn't have any life in it. So now that I realize this, I think I need to take the dialogue animation as seriously as a walk cycle or other broad movement. Thanks for getting me thinking on this!

---

Neeters--Thanks for all the great suggestions! I was following the ASK method when I started these out on paper. Then I started adding onto the beginning and end and it got a little convoluted. I know there is at least one drawing that started out as a keyframe and has now faded into obscurity. lol I'll have to figure out if that's as it should be or not. The other disadvantage with paper is not knowing how it fits with the audio until I get it all scanned in. That makes it really hard to get the timing right.

Once I get the pencil drawings straightened out I'm going to try inking and coloring the character animation in Toonboom Animate. It will be my first real attempt with Animate so we'll see how that goes. I might end up tracing in AS and use switch layers. I'm definitely keeping the backgrounds in AS, though. AS vectors are perfect to create straight lines that I can go back and sculpt a little bit of squiggle into. For example the ceiling beam irregularities in this background.

---

Here is the same pencil test, but with the background included and door opening animation. [edit: video removed]

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Sun May 29, 2011 8:51 pm

[edit: video removed]

My latest version of this WIP. I decided to go with switch layers in AS after all.

funksmaname · Post by **funksmaname** » Sun May 29, 2011 11:16 pm

looking good, and love the background... keep up the good work!

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Mon May 30, 2011 3:16 am

Thanks, Funksmaname!

---

Here is the "finished" version up for critique so I can make any last changes: [edit: video removed]

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Mon May 30, 2011 3:38 am

lwaxana wrote:Thanks, Funksmaname!

---

Here is the "finished" version up for critique so I can make any last changes: http://vimeo.com/24400277

I had typed in a response once about the last vacation word missing a phoneme but I decided not to post it and see how it turned out. It looks like you saw it and fixed it. Thumbs up lwaxana. Looks really good...now ("Please, sir, Can I have some more") Dickens!

spoooze! · Post by **spoooze!** » Mon May 30, 2011 1:43 pm

Here is the "finished" version up for critique so I can make any last changes: http://vimeo.com/24400277

Nice man! I like the colors and the character design. I also love how the clip's definately got a "drawn" look to it.

I have a few critiques that I think could liven up the animation that I'll write (and draw!) up when I get home from work.

Spoooze has recently adopted this methodology, that of using animatics to guide the motion within AS, to create more fluid animation. This is an old idea actually -- amanandink, jwlane, and others have described it in various forms. I largely agree with crsp that AS is best used as a way to contruct animation, rather than to "draw" animation. I myself have been experimenting with using Digicel Flipbook as a starting point for animation and then bringing the images into AS for tracing.

Haha thanks for the mention

Yeah, animatics have been a lifesaver for me. I find that quickly nailing down those 3 or 4 key storytelling poses first gives me extra time to finess the actual animation.

I'll draw out the storytelling poses and work out my timing ahead of time before I ever touch Anime Studio. THEN, when I have some strong poses figured out, I'll go into AS and.. animate. I figure out how to get in and out of those poses in an interesting way, working in my anticipations, overshoots, moving holds, settles, etc. while trying to make those poses stronger.

After my main body action is done, then I work in my secondary action (hair, drag on the arms, etc.), and squash and stretch to give my animation that extra "oomph".

So yeah, my advice for you lwaxana, is when you first "feel out" a scene on paper, forget about the inbeweens, forget about the breakdowns, hell, even forget about clean or "pretty" drawings! That can all come later. Just work on the acting (animators are ACTORS after all). You don't need more then 3 or 4 poses to get the acting across.

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 6:14 am

Thanks Sbtamu! Thanks for the tips, Spooze! I took a few months break from animation, but am trying to get back to it. My friend made some music for this shot so I was excited to work on it again: http://vimeo.com/27519568

guhitgalaw · Post by **guhitgalaw** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 11:17 am

Hi,

You did a beautiful job. Nice color renderings too! You are really talented.

Cheers,
Gilbert L. Concepcion
_________________________________________________
www.guhitgalaw.com - animation news, tutorials and more!

Pencil Test

Pencil Test

Full and limited animation

Beautiful!