No, I'm not gonna talk about timing, spacing, arcs or squash n stretch (oh! that reminds me that I have to Read Illusion of Life). I want to share with you what I learned, before I learned anything about animation at The School. Mind you, these might not be techniques of Animation, but these are the most important things you need to be an animator....
For starters and for those experienced, ALWAYS, FOLLOW THE BASICS. you've probably heard this one a lot of times and you might be thinking,"oh , not again!!." I am no different. We feel like we already know that we need to squash the volume on impact, "I want to get to the advanced stuff like facial animation and acting shots. No matter how well you know the basics, there is always some way of applying them that you haven't tried so far. You need to repeatedly dive into the basics and look for new ways of applying them to make your shots interesting;. And importantly, all the advanced stuff and higher concepts are all based on the application of these Principles of animation. you will never be able to excel into those unless you master the simple concepts like the bouncing ball.
For starters and for those experienced, ALWAYS, FOLLOW THE BASICS. you've probably heard this one a lot of times and you might be thinking,"oh , not again!!." I am no different. We feel like we already know that we need to squash the volume on impact, "I want to get to the advanced stuff like facial animation and acting shots. No matter how well you know the basics, there is always some way of applying them that you haven't tried so far. You need to repeatedly dive into the basics and look for new ways of applying them to make your shots interesting;. And importantly, all the advanced stuff and higher concepts are all based on the application of these Principles of animation. you will never be able to excel into those unless you master the simple concepts like the bouncing ball.
DO NOT BE SHY, Evrer (to be continued)
Actually I was feeling really sleepy last night when I was blogging. So, if you've found some very silly spelling mistakes, Excuse me for those.
Okay, at AM we have a wonderful environment. You put up your work and there are so many many animators, fellow students, senior students, professional animators plus your campus mentors that review your work and give you their valuable feedback. it ranges from, "Hey, I think you did a great job on your bouncing ball assignment!!" to "I really like you've done but you could probably do this, and that, and that and oh yeah, doing that would really make awesome". Every feed back is valuable.You're creating something for others to see and like and that means you must show your work to people and find out what they think of it before you go on to release it or submit or whatever stage you move to next.
So, show your work to people and ask for feedback. It doesn't necessarily have to be from someone from this field, it could be anybody, your mom, dad, sister, friend, your neighbour, driver, anybody. they might not know how to fix the problem with your animation but they will look at it from a perspective which you are making your animation for. they are your audience.
Working on the same thing for days at a stretch you get tired and confused and you've seen it too many times to find out your mistakes.At this time you need Fresh eyes. Get them.
Some people would say, "this is so mediocre,!! Why dont you make it like they do at PIXAR. Well my friends, PIXAR didn't come to existence in one day. animation is not easy, it takes patience, time, practice and relentless working.
And for starters, you have just as valuable an opinion about a shot as anyone else who's a master at this art. So, give your opinion to the animator about what you think. I once saw a "work in progress" on facebook and i saw that the eye blinks weren't properly done. I wanted to write it to him but then I saw that he had studied at Animation Mentor. And I said to myself, " this guy studied at AM, he must be knowing more than I do, I'm a nobody to say anything about his work" and i didn't give him any feedback. This was before I went to study at Am. The thing is, it doesn't matter where the feedback is coming from, it's what the feedback is what's important. You are the audience for that animator and the shot is meant for the audience to see. Thus, you should express what you feel about it. It really helps the animator grow and learn more.
AND ASK FOR FEED BACK TOO... that's the only way you can judge where you stand.
And for starters, you have just as valuable an opinion about a shot as anyone else who's a master at this art. So, give your opinion to the animator about what you think. I once saw a "work in progress" on facebook and i saw that the eye blinks weren't properly done. I wanted to write it to him but then I saw that he had studied at Animation Mentor. And I said to myself, " this guy studied at AM, he must be knowing more than I do, I'm a nobody to say anything about his work" and i didn't give him any feedback. This was before I went to study at Am. The thing is, it doesn't matter where the feedback is coming from, it's what the feedback is what's important. You are the audience for that animator and the shot is meant for the audience to see. Thus, you should express what you feel about it. It really helps the animator grow and learn more.
AND ASK FOR FEED BACK TOO... that's the only way you can judge where you stand.
