I thought it would be nice to see if I could simplify the workflow. Sketch, trace and animate.
Here's a rough sketch of a bird. Drawing on a colored background is so much easier than on a white background. I thought of a shape and it magically appeared. This has never happened to me drawing black on white.
click on image to watch video
Nothing fancy, but fun to do. Just make a doodle, trace it and then try to make some animation with what you've got.
If you feel better with this drawing, congratulations!. You are the one who have to be satisfied.
About the bird it looks better in static position than when it bend its neck. I think it could be better if thickness is kept during bending.
Really good sketch in static position. Try to make a new sketch at bended position and see differences by tour self.
You should animate the sketch version, it has much more personality and style than the animated AS version. You could even use your sketch to animate instead of trying to recreate it in AS.
LittleFenris wrote:You should animate the sketch version, it has much more personality and style than the animated AS version. You could even use your sketch to animate instead of trying to recreate it in AS.
LittleFenris wrote:You should animate the sketch version, it has much more personality and style than the animated AS version. You could even use your sketch to animate instead of trying to recreate it in AS.
I also agree. I think it will look more interesting and artistic.
Well, I had to cut the original sketch into pieces, do some touch up, replace the vectors with images, and modify the animation slightly. It rendered much slower than the vector version.
Once I have it on YouTube, I will tell you the link to it.
Here is the link. If the video isn't available yet, please try again later.
Sometimes the "Series of YouTubes" get clogged. They should have used trucks where you put your stuff on, instead of those tubes (reference to senator Ted Stevens' speech in favor of a teared internet)
I'd tinker a bit more with the walk. In another thread with another bird we discussed bird skeletons. The part of a bird's leg you see is only toes and heels. The knee is hidden within the body. If you add one more bone for each leg, walking gets more natural - if you want this, of course.
Yeah, I already realized that I was missing some steps. I guess creating a doodle and directly animating that isn't the correct way to go. You've got to think, analyze, and redraw. There should be some logic in your animation process, otherwise it will probably fail.