Just getting started with 2D animation, throw everything at me!

KiraMayer

Hi there! 

I've just started trying some software for animation and there is my first try at it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki8j2wujT-U
Every asset was drawn separately and it was ok for small things like that one.

But now I'm trying something bigger and I'm already drowning in tons of layers I need to draw and color properly. I'm completely lost. It's incredibly time consuming and I will need to do a lot of animated avatars in the future.

I'm thinking about just flop all layers, draw the picture completely and then cut it to assets and fill the gaps manually. 
Is there some more effective way to do this? Maybe something inbetween?

Any help would be appreciated!

KiraMayer

My progress so far

http://youtu.be/d9wWigRvjG4

Experiencing some mesh glitches, don't know how to fight them.

Hito

I'm not familiar with the software. Anim looks solid. I'd do the eyes and mouth separately from the breathing loop, having the face moving in same cycle as breathing makes it feel very mechanical. Maybe some eye darts and air moving the hair once in a while on a separate loop from the chest and shoulders.

KiraMayer

Thank you Hito! I will add some more minute movements as well as more animation sets and I'll tweak motions manually to avoid robotic looking. Right now I'm stuck with bones understanding wich slows my progress severely. Will try to go back to it soon.