Q about Animation
polycounter lvl 3
Hello,
I will create a 2D animation in the following months for my diploma.
I know a second has 24 frames. I intend to do a 10 min movie.
1.) Does this mean i should have (24*60 seconds)*10 = 14400 drawings ?
Then if time promises I will make a digital version of it ?
I know how to use flash and I am familiar with frames etc.
Some say Adobe Flash is not the "right" tool for that.
Again my animation will be 2D.
2.) Do you know any software that might make my life easier if i have all the sketches and i just want to paint them fast , or some other feature that i;m unaware of ?
I will create a 2D animation in the following months for my diploma.
I know a second has 24 frames. I intend to do a 10 min movie.
1.) Does this mean i should have (24*60 seconds)*10 = 14400 drawings ?
Then if time promises I will make a digital version of it ?
I know how to use flash and I am familiar with frames etc.
Some say Adobe Flash is not the "right" tool for that.
Again my animation will be 2D.
2.) Do you know any software that might make my life easier if i have all the sketches and i just want to paint them fast , or some other feature that i;m unaware of ?
Replies
Unless it's a requirement I would cut that down to 2-3min. That is still a daunting task but it can be made easier if you animate at 15 fps instead of 24. If it's too choppy (that depends on the motion) you could kick it up to 30 and start doing in-betweens to smooth it out, but at least you would hit your goal in half the time that it would take you to complete.
If you're going to go digital then it's a lot more like 3D animation and you don't have to worry about drawing every frame, just hitting the key frames, it fills in the inbetweens.
I like Toon Boom Studio or its big brother Toon Boom Animate. They are pretty different and not just in price.
Toon Boom has bone based animation and pretty much approaches 2D animation in a way similar to 3D animation in a lot of areas.
It has some good tools for doing lip sync (automated and fine tuning or doing it by hand), layers, scene transitions and some basic effects. For all of its advantages and time saving it does have a bit of a distinctive look.
It doesn't come across as 100% had drawn like a Disney classic, it looks a bit more like a "paper mannequin". If you see some examples you'll recognize the technique all over the place. It saves a lot of time and lets people do more with a lot less.
Its not the only software to do this but it's what I was steered to by traditional animators, when I was looking into 2D animation. They recommended it mostly because I'm a 3D animator and already used to that workflow and I wanted something that was fast and cheap.
Toon Boom Animate is geared more toward a transitional hand drawn approach, it is a lot like working on a physical 2D animation, you can rotate the canvas flip back and forth and onion frame your animation as you're drawing it, but it adds in things like vector based tools which is helpful when controlling line thickness and anti-aliasing.
It also has lot of 3D features for when you're laying out your scenes.
It gets used all over the place in some pretty big studios so I would start there and work your way down, there are other cheaper options that don't offer as much or have slightly worse workflows but don't have the price tag hanging over their heads.
Thanks for your answer. You made me realize i dont have to draw every frame.
I wouldnt worry about the price because there are no internet laws in my country so i can get anything for free.
Im a little sceptic about Toon Boom Animate since i never heard the name, but looks promising. I will definetly check it out.