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Reddit mentions of The Animator's Survival Kit
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We found 96 Reddit mentions of The Animator's Survival Kit. Here are the top ones.
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The animator's survival kit. Still an unbeatable book for this sort of thing.
Animator here. I love this little animation! Your sister has a lot of natural talent! If you are looking to encourage and inspire her, THIS BOOK is the Bible for animators, and can help put her on a creative path that could include a future in animation! Tell her to keep at it; art as a career can be tough, but creativity is a lifelong companion that is always worth embracing.
Haha! Good start! Funny stuff.
If you want advice, the best I can give you is this:
Be mindful of the brush size and the zoom % you're doing line art in. If you're working in 3 size brush and you're zooming in and out to different % to do your line art, you'll find the line art becomes very inconsistent. Brush size is entirely relative to the zoom percentage you decide to use. So what I recommend is, rough out your animation with whatever zoom or brush works for you, it doesn't particularly matter at this stage.. Then once you're done with your rough, go back over it on another layer entirely on 200% or 300% zoom (you'll see the amount of zoom in the top right of the stage). I recommend 3 size brush, pressure sensitivity and 40 smoothing. If you're mindful of this your line art will look awesome! You'll find the imperfections on lines will be lost the closer zoomed in you decide to do the line art.
Also this book will change your life.
GOOD LUCK DUDE!!
As an animator, I highly suggest you buy The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams. It's something of a bible for most animators and contains a wealth of knowledge about the mechanics of motion and emotion. It's also entertaining as it serves as an autobiography of one of the best animators who worked in the industry.
Also, try to thumbnail your actions (draw tiny little rough doodles) of what you want to show - it makes it a lot easier when you plan out your shots, the gags, etc. so when you actually get around to doing it, you have a firm idea of what you intend to do. Plus, the bonus is you'd also be locking down your camera angles this way.
Edit: I just realized I forgot to list another important book that's also an invaluable resource, The Illusion of Life. It documents the combined knowledge of the most prolific and legendary animators who worked on Disney Films and gives you an indepth look at how to make characters "connect" with audiences through emotion. I mostly only use it for acting performances, but still - this is another important book to have.
As a professional animator, I can tell you that it does show a modicum of talent, but has too many amateur mistakes.
Tell her to keep at it, that's how you learn.
Also, tell her to buy "Animator's Survival Guide"
http://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
She will learn more about animation from this book, that she would from 1 year worth of classes at any of the "Art" schools.
I'm sorry, but the idea that Aladdin was based off of the Thief is a ludicrous lie. Do...do you even know what you're talking about? Do you have your sources on this? Disney had nothing to do with the Thief and the Cobbler, except for when Roy E. Disney was going to fix Miramax's terrible decisions and put together a faithful recut of the film (and then, tragically, died before any of it could come to fruition).
I'm not saying Disney is entirely innocent. But other than the above fact, it had nothing to do with The Thief.
The Thief was a pet project for Richard Williams, which is why it had such a long production schedule; official studio funding/backing for it happened much later. And then Aladdin happened. As far as I know, because of Richard William's perfectionism and (utterly insane) necessity to animate everything on ones, production for Thief even when officially funded was taking way too long. They had about 15 minutes of full animation left to do before studio execs kicked Richard Williams off, called in a second-hand director, scrapped most of the film, and hired Matthew Broderick to voice the main character that was supposed to be silent.
The above is based off of memory, but you can read specific and accurate details about the controversy here.
You could argue that the production of Aladdin is what hammered the final nail in the coffin of The Thief, and that could be arguably true. When Warner Bros saw that Disney was making a film set in a similar setting, they pretty much went "Screw it, Rich is never going to finish this film and we'll never be able to compete with Disney." But to claim that Disney STOLE from The Thief? Ridiculous. Utterly, insanely, ridiculous.
It would be more accurate to say that Disney incorporated similar story ideas. I could see that argument working to your favor.
And to clarify, Disney had no direct connection to the bungled Fred Calvert/Matthew Broderick release of The Thief. Where are you getting your info?
If you want to get into a case of legitimately suspicious Disney activities, the Kimba the White Lion controversy would've been a better, more accurate thing to talk about.
EDIT: Also, as much as I admire Richard Williams (who basically wrote the animation bible), I'm one of those practical people who think that animation on ones does not necessarily mean good animation. It can certainly look smoother, but smoothness can't help bad timing, acting, spacing, and design choices. An easy comparison would be to look at in-game character animation in any modern Bethesda video game and compare it to, say, a Disney/Pixar CG production. Modern Bethesda video games are running at 60 fps+, which is over twice as fast as ones, and yet...the animation looks like shit. Granted, they had less time to animate, a smaller crew, and needed to animate way too many things to have a consistent, good quality. For a video game, this is actually fine. But it serves a good point that higher frame rate does not automatically equate to better animation.
Steps out of the shadows super non-nonchalantly
So kid! Word on the tabletop is you want to get into making some sweet ass reloads. Come with me, I'm going to inject some valuable knowledge into that cranium of yours.
That didn't sound weird.
First - ANIMATION PRINCIPLES
All good animators at one point have looked for guidance by the keyframe gods for this one. Good animation follows principle, and there are twelve of them:
The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams is very helpful, and it includes everything here.
PDF amazon
Second - SOFTWARE
Now its time to choose a 3D suite. Here are some of the goodies:
You can buy Maya, Max, and Cinema 4d without a subscription but Im pretty sure the cost is in the thousands.
Personally I use 3ds Max. Its a great program made by Autodesk, and they make some great stuff. They also make Maya, which has some great animation tools. I would recommend you start with Blender, or get the Maya/Max free student licences.
Third - MODELS AND RIGS
If you known how to model and rig, great. If you don't there are plenty of gun models and arm rigs you can find that are free for personal use.
I would look on either gamebanana or sketchfab
Once you become proficient with your 3D suite I would try out modeling, its a great skill to have. Rigging is a bit more technical but a skilled rigger is always sought after.
Fourth - REFERENCE
Use reference when you animate. Just do it. No animator will ever tell you not to.
There are a couple of ways to obtain reference. You can film yourself with props, or real guns. Granted you are a safe, responsible gun owner.
You can use other videogames as inspiration. Find an fps you enjoy, and look for a reload that you really like. Try to replicate it. If you like it, try to replicate it and make it your own this time. Add something original.
Lastly see what other animators do. Get inspired. Become familiar with other first person animators and their style. See what you like. See what you don't like. And PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. It can be a very time consuming process, but very worth while. And who knows you could turn it into a career for yourself.
Slowly steps back into the shadows. Slips, falls, but gets up super cool-like
Good luck friend.
In addition to what the others said, if you're unaware of this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
Look into getting it. Will be the best thing you can get to help you learn how to animate. In order to get better, I would suggest just doing a pass of copying what he has done and seeing if you can then modify it. I use this book all the time still.
For example, I had to animate a dog walking and I very rarely do creature work. Followed his break downs and was able to get a good looking dog.
https://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
i would start with this book. its so amazing for giving you the foundation you need as an animator. I would also try out literature because its essential with story telling. you could be a great animation artist but its all the small perks to look out for that make a piece beautiful.
If you want to get into animation, the best thing you can do for yourself is to jump right in.
Get this book
Want to go deeper? [Get this book too] (http://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284/ref=la_B001H6GEXI_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409836955&sr=1-2)
John K's online Curriculum is a series of FREE lessons and a good place to learn fundamentals
Grab yourself a pencil and a stack of paper and go. Even better, find yourself a copy of flash and get yourself a drawing tablet. This will speed up learning since you get an instant playback on your animation.
If you want to animate don't waste time sitting on your hands waiting for someone to let you learn. Get some pencil mileage under your belt. All the concepts in the world will mean nothing to you until you try them out, fail at them, re-read the learning material, and try again with a new perspective and better context to what your actually doing.
Buy me
Richard Williams, The Animators Survival Kit is a good one
http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
This is my favourite book on animation!
And this tutorial is pretty helpful in understanding how to use Photoshop for creating gifs.
I'm in RTF, and I've taken both classes the department offers in 2D animation, so hopefully I can help you out.
The first class, Intro to 2D animation, is really simple. You begin with assignments like some drawing exercises to get you acquainted with 1, 2, and 3 point perspective, making a character sheet, animating a single second in Flash, [animating a bouncing ball] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoR2k3B0ifk), [animating a flour sack] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGPtMvIsjMY) (both of these are really standard animation exercises that basically everybody has to do when learning 2D animation). From there you work up to doing a walk cycle, doing lip sync in Flash, and then for your final project you begin with an animatic, and work from there up to a whole minute of conversational video between two characters.
Advanced 2D Animation is meant to be a direct continuation of the content from the Intro class, but I'd say this class is split into two parts: production readiness and the final project. "Production readiness" is my name for it, but basically the professor, Lance Myers, has you do certain assignments in order to acquaint you with the roles different people would have in a normal 2D animation production pipeline. For example, you do key animation, cleanup, assistant animation, and ink & paint. You also learn to read animation charts, and do a basic exercise where you make a character interact with a heavy object. Once you get into the final project portion, it's kind of the process you'd go through if you went to pitch an original short and develop it through production. You begin with a pitch document, with concept sketches, character designs, and the plot you'll include in your final short. From there you make an animatic, and then you'll proceed onto the final short. These are about 1-2 minutes in length, and can vary greatly in quality. With the pitch document, the animatic, and when working on your final project, you'll have the opportunity to get Lance's and your class mates' input on your stuff because you can share as much or as little with the class as you want.
They're good classes, but I'm a bit overambitious with my final projects, and this usually comes back to bite me in the end.
Now, what I don't like about the 2D classes is that you're taught Flash exclusively. In any creative discipline, I like to know what the cutting edge is, and I can tell you that Flash is not it. In Lance's own words, Flash has barely changed in ten years (he sticks with an older version that's basically identical to Adobe Animate CC), and in my research, I haven't run across a single studio using Flash/Animate in large scale 2D animation production in a long time. ToonBoom Harmony is basically the standard for 2D animation software now, and in Europe a number of studios use a piece of software called TVPaint. After Effects is really popular for motion graphics, and likewise DragonFrame is a helpful piece of software to know if you want to do stop-motion. There was one day when Ben Bays, another RTF professor, came and introduced us to DragonFrame, but by and large, we still stick with Flash. I know it might be a question of departmental resources, but I wish we could get our hands on some other software so we could use what professionals are actually using.
Also, I wish we had a chance to do real, traditional, hand-drawn animation on paper. Throughout both courses, all the animation we did was in software, and the only time someone did hand-drawn was because they decided to do it for a portion of their final short. It would have been a cool thing for us all to at least try.
On the whole, though, I think I've got a solid understanding of basically every aspect of 2D animation because of my time in these courses.
I'd REALLY recommend picking up [The Animator's Survival Kit] (https://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284), which serves as the optional textbook for both courses. It's not required, but this really helped me in my animation, both in 2D and in the 3D stuff I'm doing now. It's written by Richard Williams, who is basically the god of 2D animation, who gifted the world with this book so that they could become enlightened (or at least semi-enlightened) animators like him.
Also, another thing to consider is that some of my classmates started the Animators Club this semester, which is a student org devoted just to learning animation and sharing it with one another. They've had two meetings so far, but I'd say definitely look into it. Some of their meetings will even cover basic techniques and exercises for someone trying to get into animation.
Also, if you felt so inclined, you can access the course website for my Intro course [here] (http://intro2danimationfall2016.blogspot.com). It's got all the lectures up there for you to view if you wanted.
I hope this helps. If you want to talk about it more either online or in person just PM me. Cheers!
Tada!
Pixel animation is a whole beast of its own but if you want to have a serious foundation for animating (without taking classes) this book is the best there is. The Animator's Survival Kit teaches everything there is to know about 2d animation and how to do it right. Lots of great examples of good and bad and why things work.
Interpolating between animation loops is a neat idea. Sounds tedious though. I'm sure that would require some serious thought on the programming/scripting side as well. High five!
You have a nascent talent in modelling and materials. Good work!
The best thing I ever heard from an instructor was, "Nobody cares about armour and weapons. Show me something I like!"
This boils down to whether what you've made is "clever" or something which people (the ones who pay you) actually enjoy looking at.
Of the Twelve Basic Principles of Animation, appeal is the most important. Do older people like this? Is it approachably intricate? Does it look cute?
The Animator's Survival Guide is an essential resource for an aspiring modeller, animator or designer. Also check out the classic work of Preston Blair which is like a re-education of your childhood cartoons.
I hope you do well on your course.
He needs a wind-up (raise the sword up a bit first), and the actual swing could be faster.
I'd suggest The Animator's Survival Kit if you want to get more into animating.
I'd recommend: first, get a copy of this book. Then you could try any animation software, like Animata or After Effects. You can find a lot of tutorials for AE on the net.
I'll echo what others are saying. Nice first attempt but it's missing a lot of basics (And obviously more nuanced things as well).
Things it could benefit from:
More nuanced things I see that are problems:
etc etc
These are all things covered in books such as this, that I would highly recommend.
https://www.amazon.ca/Animators-Survival-Kit-Principles-Formulas/dp/0571202284
Don't be discouraged, you have a good start... but there is a lot of art and science to animation that's been established for over a century (Disney etc) and there is no point re-inventing the wheel. It's well worth your time reading up on it.
Keep at it!
This. For reading material, Richard Williams' The Animator's Survival Kit is a must.
Do you think 60 frames are drawn for 2d games? You hold the frames, in both 2d and 3d. It's how you trick the eye into seeing more impactful action.
http://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
Animators, both 2d/3d swear by this book. I assure you it's good. Traditional animation techniques are still used in 3d.
The best thing to do is draw from life. Draw your pets or random people at a cafe. Use quick, light pencil strokes and don't erase. Just keep laying out lines as you form the object/person. Once you got the shape right, you can press harder and make those lines darker so they stand out against the exploratory lines. Basically you're chiseling away at something until it looks right. Make sure to draw quickly and not spend too much time with detail when you're drawing people and animals since they tend to move. Work on filling in detail with inanimate objects. It helps to gather random objects from around the house and make a still life.
And keep doing this. Even the best artists keep practicing and making quick, squiggly sketches. It helps you imagine things in 3D and translate that to 2D on paper. I learned all these things from art classes and talking to other artists.
My craft is animation, but having a good foundation in drawing is the most important thing before animating, painting, illustrating, and even sculpting. I learned animation with a book called The Animator's Survival Kit. And I did it by using a Wacom tablet and Flash (but there's a free program called Pencil). Even if you want to animate traditionally with pencil and paper, it helps to practice and learn quickly with digital tools.
I learned about the book and other tutorials by going on animation forums and talking with like-minded people. No matter what medium you choose, it really helps to communicate with people doing the same thing. Getting critiques is very important for improving. Others can spot mistakes you overlooked and point out how you can do better.
The Illusion of Life
The Animator's Survival Kit
The Animator's Survival Kit was THE book to get as far as learning animation basics was concerned. There're lots of other books out there now, but this book is a good start. I'd also suggest checking out YouTube for more specific and/or up-to-date information. Things like this, this and this are a couple examples of a few things that I found with a cursory search.
Other than that, the best way to learn how is to do. Animate bad things, critique yourself, do it again and fix what you've critiqued, and ask people for critiques when you're having a tough time seeing things to improve upon.
I think you're on the right track, definitely spend time modeling and animating before leaving your current job.
I would recommend getting started doing modeling and rigging yourself (then feel free to use pre-built rigs and such if you want). This is basically just so you know what's going on behind the scenes of rigs you'll use in the future. Even if you never create a model or rig throughout your career as an animator at a studio (which many times may be the case), you'll have the knowledge to communicate with modelers / riggers to get what you need to animate.
For animation, I do think it's worthwhile to have some experience in 2D animation (a little easier to get started in and helps you practice fundamentals you'll end up using in 3D) Acting for Animators, Animators Survival Kit, and Drawn to Life are all highly recommended books for 2D animation. Oh, and good news! you can practice all the fundamentals of animation with stick figures!
On that note, I would highly recommend practicing drawing. Ctrl+Paint has some decent video things on drawing and painting. While you don't need to be Da Vinci to go into modeling / animation (I'm not great at drawing / painting myself) it does help to be able to sketch out quick ideas (concepts for models, storyboards, etc). Just a little practice each day goes a long way!
As far as 3D software goes, it depends on where you work what you'll use, but the fundamentals will all be roughly the same. The company I work at uses Motion Builder for our animation, though I primarily use Maya for any work (and I know plenty of people using 3DS Max, Blender, and other software for the whole process). Some companies may even use proprietary software that you have no access to outside of the company and will expect you to learn it after being hired. Just stick with whatever you use, learn it well and you'll be able to transfer that knowledge into whatever software you'll need in the future
TL;DR Take your time, learn some 2D animation, draw stuff, and learn a 3D modeling / animation program like the back of your hand.
PS. I know a lot of people say you don't NEED 2D animation, and I'm not saying you NEED to know it, it's just useful.
I'm going to sound like a broken record and I apologize for that.
This is a reply to another person starting to use SFM. Hope this helps you and anyone else.
Do NOT give up. I'm forcing myself to go ahead and learn to animate.
Here's some stuff you can use to learn about animation.
( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-animators-survival-kit/id627438690?mt=8 )
Plus, look for SFM Tutorial (add animation to specify) and you'll find a lot of tutorials. Some nice stuff is Jimer Lins and really, REALLY recommend the stuff from Zachariah, specifically lighting and camera tutorial.
Improvemente only comes with practice, practice and practice! :)
Also this from another post:
Check this one out from MaxOfS2D:
http://youtu.be/cKnpx9ajemg
It shows tips about light settings.
I know there's also a guide in the Steam Source Filmmaker community about Ambient occlusion.
Any advice I could give will pale in comparison to reading this:
The Animator's survival Kit
Richard Williams goes over all the big stuff, breaks it down bit by bit and it really is a fascinating read if you want to get into animating. I still go back and reference it after 5 years.
CGTalk is a great forum for cg and animation of all types, but it's more aimed towards professionals and becuase of that it can be pretty intimidating for beginners. It should be in your bookmarks any way!
Polycount is another great forum that specializes in game art. Unlike CGTalk it is a lot more beginner friendly and a great learning resource.
As for tutorials. In my personal experience there are a few good free ones out there, but the majority are rather lackluster. Most of the time you will have to pay for a DVD or a book. Digital Tutors' introduction DVD's are fantastic, The Gnomon Workshop is great too but geared more towards intermediate and professional users.
I'm not sure exactly what you want to learn because Computer Animation can mean a lot of things so I'm not sure what specific tutorials or resources I need to point you at. But if it's animation you want to do then The Animators Survival Kit is a book that should be in the shelf of anyone who even considers doing any form of animating.
Hello!
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First of all let me state that I am an animator working at a 2D studio who is currently learning 3D animation and modeling on my own. This is gonna be a long answer. Finally: I am gonna push learning 2D first, but that does not mean, you can't do both at the same time, Also I am not saying you have to have 5-10 years of 2D experience before touching a 3D software, I am saying you should really just give it a good try for like a two to three months, before or alongside of learning 3D.
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Ok, let's get started!
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I want to reiterate what an instructor who does work as a 3D animator (but studied as a 2D animator) said. A person who is applying to a 3D animation job with 2D training and experience is much stronger than a 3D animator who has no 2D experience. I am willing to bet most 3D animators who work at Sony, Pixar, Disney BlueSky, and Dreamworks would agree. In fact most 3D animation curriculum at colleges and universities, including mine, first teach 2D animation. So do not underestimate how import learning and experiencing 2D animation is.
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That is where you should start. With 2D, because it forces you to learn and calibrate not only your own style of drawing, but style of animation as well. By the way, you style, comes naturally from experience of drawing and recognizing patterns and being inspired by other artist and life, so don't worry about that too much. It means that you have to work through step by step learning how all the 12 principles of animation (the first technical thing you should learn by the way) work together and alone to create great character animation, to create something that is awesome. Weather or not you are gonna turn this into a career is doesn't matter as well. Starting with 2D will help you no matter what.
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As far as materials and sources of knowledge;
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As I stated before, you should first learn the 12 principles of animation. A good book to start with is The Animator's Survival Guide. A good video to watch for the 12 principles would be here. As far was weather or not knowing you how to draw goes; I agree with /u/arczclan. You should learn how to draw well enough to express your opinion and intent accurately. It really depends on what you want t animate and the purpose of your animation. You will find that animation that is more story oriented, may not have has high fidelity of drawings it just depends on how confident the animator is on weather or not their message got across. That being said, knowing how to draw can only help, for that, you should always draw from life. That is how you learn how to draw really well, really fast. Draw at cafe's, buss stops, still life, animal life, go to life drawing sessions. Picture are good to draw from, real life is better though. Focus on anatomy, form and movement. Here is a YouTube channel; for free life drawing sessions, i started by doing one every day:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAZZ8kXStsAD_SJS9LWNdEQ
Proko Panko is good for learning anatomy: Proko
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Next is software/materials. Now you can go out and but animation desk, disk, pegs and paper, a bit expensive though. I would say you should invest in an electronic drawing tablet, by wacom (just cause they are industry leading). As far as software, there is Adobe Animate (requires subscription), Open Toonz (free), more can be found here
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As far 3D software. Blender is free and amazing! However if you want to work in the industry, I would recommend Autodesk Maya, cause that is what every big studio uses. It does cost per month, but I think there is a free trial and TONS of tutorials.
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Now after that you look up the 12 principles and learn how to use what ever software of you choosing, you should just... animate! The first assignment most students get is a bouncing ball (focusing on timing, volume, etc.) So you could start with that. Then go to animating a bean bag walking across the screen (focusing on using the 12 principles to give is more personality, to bring it to life) Then just think of other things you want to animate and just animate them, have fun with them. As well as keep up with your life drawings. I know you said you only have 4-5 hours per day to dedicate to this, but if you keep a sketch book with you (which I highly recommend for anyone just learning animation no matter what the medium) you can just pull it out when ever you are in public and have a free minute and do a quick life drawing, it all adds up! The point is just DO, try, fail, learn, try again, succeed.
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I hope all of this talk of 2D doesn't scare you, in a nutshell you just need to be able to draw well enough to communicate your ideas and I really believe in the idea that one should animate in 2D first at least of a little bite before moving into 3D, there is a reason every school first teaches their 3D students 2D even for 2 months. Most importantly, once you learn the basic technical information and start with some easy assignments, such as bouncing ball, and swinging tail, then you just have to GO FOR IT! Have fun and welcome to the life of an animator man!
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Hope that helps!
If you want to do them hand-drawn, or even if you plan on moving to computer animation, buy The Animation Survival Kit by a legend animator, Richard Williams. r/animation could maybe help you more. Good luck!
Yeah I was going to say the same thing. That's like the best base to start at if you ask,
Here's a link.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
Hi Alymae! I'm a fellow furry who just so happens to be graduation from an art school for animation! My work isn't fantastic, and I'm more 3D based (just for my own personal interest) but I can already tell you your well on your way to being a good animator! If you would like a really good guide to animation that will cover everything you need to know as a beginner, but isn't too technical, I highly recommend "The Animators Survival Kit" Amazon you can see some of my own work at youtube and Deviantart
The hardest part about animation is motivation! But If you stick with it you will discover a world of beautiful motion and life! keep it up! and feel free to contact me if you need help with anything ^.^
Looks like a nice first pass, give the body some weight and move it up and down and then you can start adding some secondary motion (small belly bounce, head bob, etc)
I highly recommend this book if you're getting into animation. http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
Animation survival kit is the best place to start for animation fundamentals: http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
Go for both. Programming is lucrative in that you'll always find work. 3d animation is more in demand than 2d, but if you're game-making on your own you should be able to do it all to an extent.
Really good animation is going to take alot of time and a lot of determination, not only to learn but to just simple execute. If you can draw well and you have good fundementals in drawing you'll probably have a bit of a head start but it's still going to be alot work. Don't fret however because animating is both fun and rewarding once you have the skills down! Really if you're serious I highly reccommend buying The Animator's Survival Kit: .http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284 Also watching these: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjX9SJKrPnPROi_Bc3LOBWaXi0uz61Bom
My advice is that if you want to animate, just go for it. Also buy Adobe CC because there is no decent alternative to Flash. (I have wasted too many days searching for one). Anyways good luck to you sir.
Animation is very very deep, but incredibly rewarding.
For characters, Richard Williams animators survival kit
https://www.amazon.ca/Animators-Survival-Kit-Principles-Formulas/dp/0571202284
It is an industry standard. It has tons of great information and people all levels refer to it constantly. There are tons of great youtube tutorials but I can't grab any from mobile ATM.
A search on YouTube for the "12 principles of animation" may be a good jumping off point. If I remember I'll try and find you something tomorrow.
Visit them both, look for pros and cons on the schools, courses and life after school.
From experience, most (if not all) 2d animation studios in Metro Manila are quota based work, meaning you get paid for the amount of scenes or frames you do. 3D gets paid hourly, afaik. Either way, be prepared for long work hours.
I bet the Multimedia course has animation subjects on it.
If ever you want to study animation on the side, look for these two books.
https://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
https://www.amazon.com/Vilppu-Drawing-Manual-Glenn/dp/1892053039
Mahal, alam ko, pero may paraan naman. I have it on my hard drive (wink, wink).
For your walk cycles, what's really missing is the "bounce". As you walk, your body is constantly moving up and down. Just after mid-stride is the highest point the body should be at, and just after full stride should be the lowest.
Here is an image from my favorite animation book The Animator's Survival Kit which demonstrates that principle. If you don't already own that book, it is well worth the $30.
I really like your last piece, too. Definitely has some great motion to it!
Animator here - couple of suggestions:
First, pick up a copy of the Animator's Survival Kit - https://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
It's basically an animator's bible. It's full of information you will definitely use during your studies and if you choose to follow this crazy artform as a career path.
Study the principles of animation starting with a bouncing ball. As you begin to understand each principle, begin to incorporate more complex things into your practice assignments. Add a tail, then add legs, then arms - before you know it you'll be animating a character.
Practice above all. reading only gets you so far. Pursue information from people more knowledgable than you. Seek out critiques and professional's thoughts on your work. Study motion, people and animals in your day to day life. Have fun and stay inspired! It's a tough road but I know many animators who are self taught. YouTube also is chalk full of tutorials and demonstrations.
Feel free to PM me or contact me here if you'd like to chat more: https://www.nick-st-clair.com/
I think part of that problem is that new animators working primarily in CG aren't being taught the motion fundamentals (weight, squash and bounce, etc) that 2D animators had to learn back in the day. This was a big reason for Richard Williams's book and other educational efforts on animation.
Buy this
Then...
Practice for thousands of hours
Definitely not too late -- I moved to Los Angeles when I was 23 to write and now I'm a professional illustrator / artist. Major change but it can be done if you're willing to put in the work!
When you say "3D," are you looking to be a modeler, a concept designer, an animator, or something else?
Drawing skills are not going to hurt you when learning 3D. Learning how to draw is not going to "mess things up" in any way. If you're a modeler or concept designer, being able to visualize forms in three dimensions is a must. If you're an animator, understanding flow and gesture is a must.
If you want to learn basic form drawing and sketching, check out Scott Robert's Gnomon DVD. It's really essential for learning basic form drawing, perspective, and line techniques (how to freehand straight lines and curves):
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/323/Basic-Perspective-Form-Drawing
Analytical figure drawing -- go through and copy all of the notes in this blog into your sketchbook. It'll take you a couple days but be well worth it:
http://analyticalfiguresp08.blogspot.com/
If your'e interested in animation, Richard Williams' "The Animator's Survival Kit" is the book.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
As far as Wacom vs. Traditional goes, start with whatever you're comfortable with, but know that you'll have to pick up and become fluent in using a Wacom if you want to work professionally. There's a bit of a learning curve with the Wacom but the secret to all drawing is practice practice practice.
Personally, I'd recommend enrolling in a drawing class of some sort, and/or a 3D class, if they're available in your area. I find I work better with a little bit of competition around me.
Good luck!
What a shame. Just a week ago, Nickelodeon stopped accepting pitches for animated shorts - Which they would later decide if they wanted to make it into a series. If you want you can still submit to the Nick Jr. shorts program.
There aren't as many avenues for animation sadly. I'd argue that it may even be harder than getting a live action or feature script produced. Most of the people that get to even pitch at Nick, Cartoon Network, Disney come from in-house. A lot of places don't accept unsolicited material. Or you'd have to develop some connections. Once in a while these networks may even ask for pitches. IE Nickelodeon shorts program, Cartoonstitute. Quite a few shows had been made into a series through these programs.
You can also try Amazon studios. They accept scripts/pitches/bibles, animated and live action.
If the networks fail you. Try producing it yourself. Make a webseries or put it on YouTube. Adventure time was a viral hit before it got rejected from Nick and finally getting picked up by Cartoon networks.
Everything you need to animate your own series can be done on a computer. Of course you'd need to learn how to draw and animate. I'd recommend you read The Animator's Survival Kit first. It'll get the ball rolling. Next you'll need programs to draw(Photoshop, Gimp, After effects) and you'll need to animate it (Toonboom, Flash). Yes many of these programs are very expensive, except gimp. And yes, this is gonna eat up many many hours.
If all else fails, just stick to live action work. There's dozens of contests to get your foot in the door, blacklist, writing fellowships. etc.
In the meantime you should look into getting the animators survival guide, it's very robust and covers all of the basics you need for classical animation.
Thanks, if I seem "in the know" it's because I was asking these same questions a year ago when I was in the same position as you. Since then I've been studying animation fulltime. I suppose another bit of advice that a lot of the professional animators I talk to suggest is that if you want to get a job at the big studios, it's best to specialize. Pick what you love doing, be that modeling, lighting, rigging or animating, and become an expert in that field. While being a jack of all trades is great for making your own shorts, most companies want you to do one thing and do it very well.
Also, if you're looking at schools and courses, you should know that when it comes to getting a job in the industry degrees and certificates don't count for much. Find a place that will help you produce a great demo reel. Learning on your own is also an option, but it's definitely the harder road.
If it's specifically animation that you are interested in, many animators swear by the techniques found in the Animator's Survival Kit. It has more of a focus ontraditional animation, but it's still a must read to learn the basic techniques.
Anyways, best of luck in the future.
Ok, The best way I think there is to start off with is with Flash cs 5. It is easy to use and really fun once you get the hang of it. There are tons of tutorials out there for it too. I also recommend getting the books in the links below. They really helped me and I have been doing flash for almost a year now and love every piece of it. You can also start off with Stop Motion. It really gives you a sense of how frames work and timing works. Hope this helped!
http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
http://www.amazon.com/How-Cheat-Adobe-Flash-CS5/dp/0240522079/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382186191&sr=1-1&keywords=how+to+cheat+in+adobe+flash+cs5
If you really want your mind blown, check out the story behind them.
Each frame was taken with a separate camera, and I honestly have no idea how he got such good results working with 1870's cameras and having to time the shots.
Also very useful is this amazing book by the director of animation for Who Framed Roger Rabbit, amongst other job titles, but that one should let you know he can animate damn near anything that moves.
I have bought it twice; the second time after someone stole my first copy.
Actually, I am bringing along some books which help teach drawing and animation, and I was just looking for some games to play in-between parts of the books.
get out while you can; it's a lot of hard work.
Animator's Survival Kit is a pretty good book. My professors strongly recommended it.
If you want to learn animation you can watch The 12 Principles of Animation (made by Disney animators)
here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDqjIdI4bF4
or read The Animators Survival Kit by Richard Williams.
here: https://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
Tough I dont know that much about animation hardware maybe this guy does
here: https://www.cgdirector.com/best-computer-for-animation/
Yeah as sage says.
To be honest I haven't actually done any character animation in C4D, but I want to get into that this summer.
But what I would do is start out with basic walk sequences, try to get some emotion in the moves. As far as character animating goes (I have done it in 2d by the way) I can highly recommend this book.
The Animator's Survival Kit
Also, draw all the time, every day.
Three words: Animator's Survival Kit
Oh awesome! That's sick!
Alright, so this process involves animating these frames in Photoshop, and adjusting the overall motion path and size in After Effects. Everyone goes through their process differently, so first overall, I'd say get to know what tools you have at your disposal, and how you can use them individually and with each other.
My process involved blocking out the basic positions and timing of my key frames, from point A (the jaw being wide open), to point B (where it chomps down closed). From there it was just roughing out that inbetween to figure out how to get the most out of this motion. After messing around with it a little bit, here's what I initially roughed out.
After that, I brought that rough comp into After Effects to get the basic motion and scaling down, brought that back into Photoshop, and built it out some more, accentuating the timing and motion, building out better inbetweens, all that junk. Basically, just messed around with it until I got what you see here.
Honestly, best advice I could give you is to just mess around and experiment, see what you can make. Observe things, see how things move in the real world and examine/analyze them. Check out tutorials online about animation — one of my go-to's is Alex Grigg's tutorial on animating in Photoshop. I had no idea how people could animate in PS without losing their minds animating with the basic frame-from-layer setup Photoshop initially has. Learn more about the principles of motion and animation, The Animator's Survival Kit is fantastic for that.
So yeah, that's my advice. It'll take some time, but you'll get it. Hope this helps!
Not necessarily about stop-motion, but a must have and will certainly help with many aspects of stop-motion and animating in general- "The Animators Survival Kit" by Richard Williams.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
That, and grab yourself a camera and start playing with some action figures or clay. Even with instructions, there's a lot of trial and error. Have fun!
This is the blunt truth.
I went to an art school specifically for Computer Animation in the late 1990s. About a quarter of the students who started with me in the two-year program were gone in the first year. From the remainder, I knew of one person who left before graduation to go work for Capcom (the video game company, not the bank). Out of the people who were friends, NONE of us got a career in computer animation for one reason or another. (my reason was family - mom got cancer, hit a wall with my career and never recovered). One person I know from the program started her own company. I imagine she's doing well but I haven't talked to her since we graduated.
From friends in the class just before us (programs started every quarter), two people I knew went on to work in video game companies. One was a gifted artist, but he was in the illustration program - not animation. The other was an amazing traditional animator and 3D modeler. He was a prodigy. This stuff came as naturally to him as breathing. Some of our instructors were respectable names in the industry and they gushed over this guy's ability. Most other people got into another field like IT or Engineering.
Like they said above - never stop drawing. Study anatomy. Grab the Animator's Survival Kit. Study your subject. LIVE your subject.
There is still use for traditional animation - you just have to be good.
Friends of mine have used animation mentor.
Whatever path you take, bring this roadmap: https://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
You may not understand it all now but it will get you started, and even years later I sometimes look to it for reference on certain things.
You'll need to choose what software to work in. You can animate in Photoshop. You can animate 2D in Blender 3D using the greasepencil. I personally use Adobe Animate/Flash but also know Toonboom and After Effects. There are a lot of other programs like flip note- but I've NEVER seen flipnote used in the industry (not counting artists like Kiki who is given a project and uses it because that's what he knows best and he can make the call on any.)
Most jobs in the field use Toonboom or Animate/Flash that I see. There's other software but once you get the basics switching to something else is just adapting to another user interface so I'd suggest using either of these. Possibly even Photoshop- most animation jobs don't use Photoshop for animation but knowing Photoshop is good and has a vast amount of uses.
Start off with simple exercises like the ball bounce, pendulum swing, saving hard stuff like walks for last.
Here's a video that was recorded in a college level animation intro class: https://vimeo.com/15213159 It's unedited, but literally a recording a professional animator made while teaching his class so his students could rewatch the lesson when they got home (you miss things the first time when you're first learning it) The first one is a ball bounce.
This one teaches overlapping action: https://vimeo.com/7328290
There are a TON of other tutorials out there, but draw loose and practice the basics like bouncing balls BEFORE you try to do character animation.
Okay, first thing to know is that you're not alone. Animation is a pretty time-consuming and daunting skill to try and learn at first, but everyone has to start somewhere - and honestly, drawing skills aside, I think that animation is one of those things where with enough practice you can get the hang of fairly quickly.
I'm guessing you probably aren't out to hear the typical "just keep practicing and you'll get better" so I'll try and stray away from that.
Speaking as a current animation student, the best thing you can do for yourself is to view as many animations from skilled and professional animators as you can.
And I'm not talking just "watching" animations; Sit down and try and critically analyze a piece of animation. Find something where the movement is interesting to you and try and reverse engineer how that animator may have constructed that scene.
After sitting through a bunch of those, find animations from more amateur or beginner animators, could be of your own animations or someone else's. Compare and contrast between what makes these professional animations work and look good, and why these other ones just don't seem to match up.
I've also taken a look at some of your animations and I don't think they're totally awful. It's clear that you're making an effort to show movement and life in the characters, despite your minimal technical understanding.
​
So, educate yourself on the technical side of things.
Read up on the principles of animation, essentially the core rulebook many industry professionals follow when creating animations. Here is a video which has a pretty thorough look at each concept, and here is a considerably shorter summary of each principle with short examples.
The Animator's Survival Kit is one of the most popular books people recommend to people just starting out in animation - it lays out a lot of the key parts of the 12 principles in deeper detail and focuses a considerable amount of the book to timing and walk cycles.
Here's also a playlist to the book in, more or less, a simplified video form.
Some other books you might want to look into are Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair, and The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Frank Thomas.
​
As for the program you're using, I found that Adobe is one of the more simpler and intuitive platforms to use when first learning animation that's still considered an industry standard.
Pushing through and learning the program will help you considerably if/when you decide to move on to a more advanced program.
However, if the difficulty of the software is what's keeping you from animating, I'd recommend using flipbooks and indulging in more traditional forms of animation.
Not only will you be developing a skill in an area of animation not many people today seem to be very skilled in, but it'll keep you from being distracted by all the flashy buttons and options on some digital programs.
​
Hang in there man, and keep animating.
You can learn how to animate with books, videos, or through school depending on your age, income, etc.
The late Richard Williams' "The Animator's Survival Kit" is the bible for all animation students, my fellow classmates and I all had copies when we were in college.
This would be a good place to start.
Cal arts is very prestigious, so they might be looking for both talent yet room to grow, and that will Really show in your portfolio. So what should you add to the portfolio?
1: A Well executed Bouncing Ball animation. Laugh if you will but seriously, if you do this well, you will have solidified that you know the fundamentals of timing, spacing, and gravity.
2: A correctly implemented walk cycle. Again, might seem simple, but it is actually not. Walk cycles will be your bread and butter to whether or not you are a competent amateur or just a wannabe who won't put in the effort. Walk Cycles will give you the foundation of weight, anatomy, and movement.
3: Life drawings: drawings of nude people in interesting poses (don't draw pr0n, they'll kick you out if you add THAT to the portfolio). Take a cheap life drawing class. This will help increase your speed in drawing, but also help in capturing the bare bones shapes that make up the human figure. Also if the admissions office knows what they're doing, they WILL be looking to see if you know how to draw, cause if you don't know how to draw in their standards, you won't learn how to animate in their standards either.
Those three things are essential to learn and have in your portfolio. Note I said learn, not master. They don't have to be perfect, just enough that they can tell you know what you're doing, you're willing to put in the effort to practice things you might not like to do in order to improve the things you DO want to do, and show you'll be a perfect fit for their classes.
Now, how to learn these things? Youtube has an excellent amount of references for drawing bouncing balls and walk cycles, some even from Famous ex-disney 2D animators. (Bonus points btw) If you're in a spending money kind of mood, then this is your kind of book:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
It truly is the Animator's Survival Kit, chock full of stuff that will help you learn the fundamentals of animation.
Now a few addendums to add to your portfolio. Add your creative stuff after you add the first three things. Concept art, Character Design, some animations of your own choosing, heck even a demo reel would be great. Beyond seeing whether you have the drive for animation, they want to see YOU, they want to see the you that is in your animations, your style, your emotion, your verve, your kookiness, your insanity, the you that you pour out into your work, and that you love whether it's crap or gold.
That's all for now, good luck, happy animating.
Artistically yours,
Io Kusanagi
Ooh I didn't see this answer before I posted mines (similar, I've always wanted my own animated series). I self-taught myself animation by redrawing stuff from The Animator's Survival Kit. I hit the ground running in 2010 with a YouTube channel that I began uploading weekly to.
Don't let "I can't draw" bog you down. Not at all-that's actually why i prefer animation to art-I'm no great technical drawer myself. My earliest stuff was literally stick figures. They moved well, and that was my focus. Heck, that was a whole huge thing on Newgrounds actually-all those stick figure animations (still big now I think).
If it makes you feel better, Bob Clampett was no strong artist himself-and look at the legacy he domianted with Looney Tunes.
Great advice from sculptedpixles... I'd take a look at the Animators Survival Kit as well... If you want to see some really good animations check out the competitions at 11 second club... the winners of each month are always really good and are also a good competitive marker... That is, if you specifically want to focus on animating
Honestly Chris, how fast you can learn will just depend on your ability to grasp the fundamentals and those fundamentals are covered very well with the tutorials that ship with Max.
Avoid more advanced tutorials until you have a comfortable idea of a basic animation pipeline: basic modeling > basic texturing > basic object animating > rendering, then later on: character modeling > advanced texturing > rigging/skinning > character animating. It's also worth grabbing a copy of this book which is invaluable if you are doing character animation.
yeah dude.
here's some more stuff to fly your way.
John Krisfaluski's blog creator or Ren and Stimpy. This is a mountain of resources.
Get the Preston Blair animation book or use this online version. This is a MUST HAVE for all animation peoples.
Also if you want to get a head start and start animating, get the Animator's Survival Kit. This is also a must have and will teach you to animate from start to finish. I'm not kidding.
Also get a $130 light box. Light boxes are extremely useful, even for storyboarding too. Also get the 12 field size animation paper. Or you can do what I did and build a light box with $20 of wood from home depot, a $10 sheet of plexiglass from home depot, and a $3 lightbulb.
I was trained by former 2D animators of Disney, so take my advice for what it's worth.
You should also be filling at least 3 pages of sketchbook a day, even if you're drawing people while people-watching. You must draw all the time. Always do projects too even if they're not assigned. I did everything from animating to building miniature sets.
edit: one other guy above my class went to nickelodeon and worked on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles season 1. He left because he got a job at Pixar. Another in my class worked at Digital Domain and after being laid off for a while got a job at Disney too. My best friend moved to Burbank, went to grad school, and is working on the latest season of Scandal at ABC.
Blender is an animation program, but you could try using maya. Or if you want something easy and 2d maybe try Adobe Flash or photoshop, its an easy place to start.
Although if you really want to create natural and well made animation get this book, no animator should be without it.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Animators-Survival-Kit-Stop-motion/dp/0571202284
Based on the reviews, I'd assume so
Could use some confirmation by Arin though
It's certainly neat, and I like it, but I agree with howboutme; it's not really showcasing any of the principles of animation, or detail(although I fully realize that the ultra-simplistic characters are intentional for the look you were going for)
I'd show you my reel, but it's from 2007, and frankly I'm ashamed it still exists :P
I actually bought this book even before going to college..and it ended up being one of the ones used for a course :P
hrm... I'd read The Animator's Survival Guide. Animation is far from busy work if you know what you're doing.
I guess I'm referring to the rhythm of the movement. It seems to me like the characters travel a pretty consistent amount each frame - lingering more on the most important poses and easing in and out of the motion could help add some zip to things. /u/waffletoast also mentions anticipation and squash/stretch, which would help even more to exaggerate the fast motions in contrast with the slow ones. For a better breakdown of this terminology and lots of other useful info, I'd recommend a thorough reading of The Animator's Survival Kit!
This is great lol. It reminds me of my first attempts at animation!
If you've got the bug, a few good resources!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC4EMOrXw-w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4CPPXx4LaI
https://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
Some stuff to get you started, and some resources to keep learning!
[for drawing] (https://www.amazon.ca/Drawing-Right-Side-Brain-Definitive/dp/1585429201/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1504842367&sr=1-1&keywords=drawing+on+the+right+side+of+the+brain)
[for animation] (https://www.amazon.ca/Animators-Survival-Kit-Principles-Formulas/dp/0571202284)
are you looking to get into 2d or 3d animation?
I went to school for Animation. Are you interested in 2D or 3D?
First piece of advice either way: learn to draw. You'll obviously need it for 2D animation, and in 3D animation it will help you flesh out ideas quickly.
The book below is great for animation principals that apply to any sort of animation.
https://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
Get this $15 dollar book and read it.
http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/buy.html
If you're really interested get this $1000 DVD series. Still way cheaper than college.
The stuff above is mostly character animation. A lot of (TV) anime is effects driven. Try both. Check out https://www.reddit.com/r/SuperSaiyanGifs/ or https://www.reddit.com/r/reallifedoodles/
See if you can do that stuff and you're already on your way to becoming an animator.
Also - if you're interested in 3D, you'll still want to play with 2D for awhile to learn the basics. 3D can be unnecessarily overwhelming technically at first. You'll see results quicker with 2D.
EDIT: Also also - http://marshallart.com/SHOP/all-products/all-videos/1994-perspective-drawing-series/ check out this $12 video lecture drawing series.
And check your town for open figure drawing sessions, or community art classes. It might be called an "atelier" if it's real fancy. Even those are cheaper than college.
EDIT EDIT: http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com Check out John K's blog. He's kind of an asshole, but he knows his shit.
I only realised what I wanted to do when I was 24 (Which was 3D Animation). I was rejected from 3 masters programs in 3D Animation, and then took up IAnimate last January. Since then I have worked on several paid projects, and am hoping to land my first full time industry gig soon. I did exactly what the other comments here recommended before joining IAnimate. Did some gesture drawing classes, and bought these books (1 2 3)
If you really want to do it, you will make it work. You absolutely will find a way.
You could use the book. Other than that I don't know. If you bought it once you should be able to download it again to a new device, but I don't know if its Apple only.
For books animation survival kit by Richard Williams is a must. (Most of the teachers in my classes would suggest that.)
Animation is all about practice and patience. The more you spend time on it, the better you get. For beginners, I'd suggest u try animate shapes or abstract things (and do play with colors)! It's easier and you can see the result a lot faster too. I know a lot of people will tell you to do the bouncing ball or walk cycle practice. I think those practices only make people realize how tedious and time consuming animation is, and people tend to give up and say they hate animating.. Animation has so much potential, it's not just making your favorite character move😂
Also Stop motion is also a fun way if you are not confident on drawing.
Animation is a tricky process. I read several books to help me out but The Animators Survival Kit by Richadd William literally broke it down for me. Even though William's style is with classic animation like old Disney movies and cartoon, the concepts still applies. I highly recommend it
The Animator's Survival Kit https://www.amazon.com/dp/0571202284/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_FVpQBbRZ80QGE
I strongly suggest Richard Williams book "The Animator's Survival Toolkit"
http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
I was reluctant to buy it at first, but now that I have it, I find that I use it for reference on more than half of the jobs that I do now. He gets really deep into the nitty gritty of all sorts of animation techniques. And you can get it used for around $10.
I don't know the video you're looking for -
But usually when animators refer to animation books it's the:
"Animators Survival Kit" - Richard Williams
"Illusion of Life" - Ollie Johnston & Frank Thomas
These cover the basics, and are helpful for understanding principles in animation.
But online tutorials and blogposts can teach just as much. Epsecially just experimenting on your own.
Of course, Ross could have mentioned completely different books, and I'm sorry, but I hope this helps atleast a little.
You're welcome.
Begin with taking anatomy, and for the love of god get yourself a copy of The Animator's Survival Kit
https://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
You'll then want this:
https://www.amazon.com/Illusion-Life-Disney-Animation/dp/0786860707/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0/143-7725695-3182363?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=191V68K98Y3J7E7TTVE1
and when you say traditional, I really hope you mean 18th century.
I'm glad you're interested in my artistic contributions.
Some days I wish The Thief and the Cobbler was actually finished instead of being released as fan-made bootlegs.
For anyone who is interested in animating, I recommend his book.
Honestly, an external program probably won't help all that much if you don't have a decent understanding of the principles behind animation. It's pretty technical for what's a generally creative field. It's complicated and messy and about finding a good halfway point between what's technically correct and what feels right. Technically correct animation can still come across as really lifeless.
Spriter and tools like it CAN help if you understand the limitations of rigged animation, but it's not going to make your animation better, per se, it just means that you'll fail quicker, and that's okay! It's VERY easy to have animation that feels floaty when you're having a computer extrapolate your animation points.
Basically the only way to get decent at animation is practice. Pick up a copy of The Animator's Survival Kit
This is a pretty decent overview of the 12 animation principles.
Do you have an example of what you've done so far?
Hey that's awesome!
I'm currently in school to be a professional animator and I strongly recommend The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams:
http://www.amazon.ca/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
It might be a little beyond what you're trying to achieve but it's super helpful in technique and theory to help make the animation process easier.
In terms of programs there are lots of tutorials online and on YouTube that can help you with functionality. In our program we use designated drawing tablets with screens (Cintiq5) but for personal animation at home I use my Intuos4, both by Wacom.
If you're thinking of getting a tablet you might consider the cheaper Bamboo by Wacom but I personally recommend the Intuos line as the screens are larger and much more sensitive, as well as have shortcut buttons on the side as well as an adjustable touch zoom wheel.
Feel free to ask if you have any more questions.
Honestly in this day and age you can very much just teach yourself animation, it all comes from practice.
Look up as many tuts as you can, and if your serious about animation GET THIS BOOK and any others like it. You just want to absorb as much knowledge as possible if you're going down this path.
And of course, animate! From little animations where you try to make a character jump smoothly to bigger ones that challenge everything you've learned. If you want to get into the industry I suggest Toonboom over Flash, not necessarily because one is better than the other (even though ToonBoom is widely considered better) but because that is the program almost all animation studios use.
Also, if you haven't done much with animating with frames and whatnot yet, try this program. it's free and simple, it really helps you get the basics of making smooth movements and whatnot without having to worry about your drawings being good. While you're looking for free
things, here's a bunch of other animation programs that are free, I still encourage you to purchase ToonBoom though.
Go out there and make us proud.
Know that there is going to be a shit-ton of work. But if the fleeting joy of seeing your creations come to life outweighs the pain of all the hard work then you might survive as an animator.
It won't really matter if you want to do 2d/3d since the principles will (should) still all be there. 3d gets a touch more technical but 2d is where you test your mettle.
First up - Absolutely w/o fail you must master the art of gesture drawings. constantly do 10sec-30sec quick renders/poses. is there life in those quick squiggles? Does it feel like the pose or motion? Good animators are some of the most phenomenal artists there are.
The rest will just be applying the fundamentals of animation (and art in general) to your creations.
Some places to start:
Animators Survival Kit - great great insights. tons of tips to watch out for, funny anecdotes about legends...
or this great intro to all the basics especially if you grew up watching classics (loony toons, wb)
It takes a pretty good amount of time to do a minute long video. I was thinking you were looking along the lines of a few assignments. You might want to check out Animators Survival Kit it's the Bible of animation. It may be more realistic to have them learn about bouncing balls and to do a walk.
edit: Sorry I'm not sure of any free iPad apps that you can do animation with.
Animator's Survival Kit.
For anybody who wants to know how to animate. Possibly the only 'textbook' in college which I actually still look through today.
I like a mix of books and Lynda on the software, kind of dry but as they start with the fundamentals it's handy to have on hand or gone through once and a while to know the tools. As for principles which help you make good work or do a good job I like
The Animator's Survival Kit - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0571202284/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_awdo_O92lxb1TVGTG4 via @amazon
And for editing
In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing http://www.amazon.com/dp/1879505622/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_awdm_E72lxb0R0HGDZ via @amazon
If you haven't seen these, this series is incredible
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbtbbdA4kUM&list=PL1A1FEDA47ADC18D4
The book is one of my most used resources too!
http://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
Just keep animating every chance you get!! :D
My degree was only in Film, which was heavily spent on theory, which at the time I thought was stupid. I wanted to learn the tools.
Now I realize that it's actually a lot more important to understand how and why things work(the kuleshov effect, editing theories, story archetypes) because the tools are always changing(at an insane rate too). Learning these theories and studying the past gives you a better "eye" and more inspiration to pull from.
So you can take those ideas/theories you learned in film school and apply them to almost any visual medium. I was already using After Effects and Photoshop outside of class(heavily) and I originally wanted to be an editor. So eventually I just cutup a reel of all the animations I was doing in my free-time. Luckily learning all those techniques and devouring tons of other material and reels allowed me to create a shitty but short reel(nobody wants to watch 2 minutes of garbage animation).
It was enough to get me an internship, which lead to my first advertising job, which lead to my second job in a much higher paying field. In-order to keep up and progress I basically just bought a bunch of textbooks on animation and design.
I didn't read all of the books, I just got what I needed from them and moved on. Online communities are incredibly helpful as well. You can learn everything you need about design, animation, and even film online. Just create a good portfolio.
And I'd just like to clarify animation is a pretty broad term, technically I'm in the middle of design, animation, and video. I've worked on commercials, installations, and explainer videos and I'd like to eventually get into title sequences like the Bond intros or True Detective titles.
I'd recommend picking up these books.
Animators Survival Guide
Design for Motion
Animated Storytelling
Also start learning some of the tools. All of the adobe programs are heavily used, specifically After Effects, and some 3D programs like Cinema4D are helpful. As with anything it's good to get the fundamentals down. People don't realize how much animation there is in their daily lives. From apps to games to TV shows. You can carve out a niche in anyone of those spaces.
is this the same as Animator's survival kit ??
Buy yourself this.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
The Animators Survival Kit.
https://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
I would also recommend The Animator's Survival Kit if he's interested in animation. Don't want to overwhelm the kid of course, but these two books would go a long way to giving him a big head start.