Animating Guide

ah, january is coming to an end... it was a good month wasn't it ?but it's not over so i will write a few more tutorials.

so, i told you already how to make animations. But how do people do good animations ?
there are lots of things to talk about so let's start.

Making a good animation is hard. Remember that your animations success is a reflection of how people like it. So how do you make people like your animations ?
You never know what every single person watching your movie likes, so you can't please them all. But you can make people recognize that your movie has something special. So that's our mission here. Making your movie special.
It's a known fact that people that can draw, can make good animations. So practice your drawing skills for a while (i mean a few months, i used to do that at school).
Also you have to know what kind of artist you are. Do you like making funny movies, serious movies, parodies, porn, whatever your speciality is, focus on it.
Watch a couple of movies on the web, search the portals, see what movies are top score. What do they have in common ? I can't answer that cause that's something that changes very often.
So when you are ready, you can start planning your project. Write down a few stuff. You HAVE to know what will entertain people, and you gotta have the skills and the time to work on your movie.

I read once about the 12 principles of animation,keep'em in mind. I will explain them poorly, but you should read more about them.

1: remember to strech and squash things, in order to represent movement, you should change the shape of objects once in a while.
2: you have to remember the timing of stuff, when something is falling, it falls faster and faster (gravity), also timing of characters reveal their characteristics.
3:There is always a movement before an action. That's what we call anticipation. Your character should get prepared, before it performs an action.
4: you have to make the person watching your movie pay atention only at what you wanna show him, so little flaws go unseen. usually people pay attention to things that move, or speak. We call this principle staging.
5: Follow through is about terminating your actions, putting your char at a resting position.
6: Straight Ahead Action is making your char action from one starting point.
7: easing is also important. that makes the animation look more natural
8: an arc is a representation of an animation that doesn't look "tweened".
9: one of the most important is the principle of exageration. Make exagerated looks for a funny movie, exagerated kicks for an action movie for example.
10: Every action has a reaction. Newton had to figure that out so you won't make a crappy movie. remember that.
11: your characters must have appeal, something that will make people like them.
12: once again, you must draw good, make real shapes and proportions.

wow, even i can barely understand what i just wrote. you shouls really google this.

Moving on. What should you movie be about? that's whare inpiration and creativity come in hand. Some people just don't have those. If that is you case, start making flash versions of good jokes. That should help you get started. Make movie spoofs, parodies and more stuff to practice. Than you can get serious. Put some violence in your movies...

Once you have decided on a theme, make a storyboard, a plot. Something that tells everything that will happen in your movie. Make an introduction, a climax an ending...

When you are ready to start, draw firstly the outlines, just some scratches, so you know more or less what you are doing. Then, make the fills, choose the best collors and stuff. Later on, make the shading, and remember to make them nicely, on the opposite direction of you lights, of course.

Getting bored: It WILL happen. One day you are just gonna wake up and realize you are bored with your movie, maybe because it's taking too long, or you had another idea. When this happens, take some days off, or start a new project.

WARNING: I probably don't do all that i said up here, cause i am lazy, but i'm sure you can do better than me =]