Hi there Mathias,

You asked me to put this article here on AL. So, here it is....

There are many workflows and methods of animation that have been in existence for well over 70+ years now. Many cool traditional tips and tricks are just limited to 2d animation but some of them are really helpful in CG as well. And one of the methods is "flipping". Flipping is a method to go through the drawings very quickly and see whats happening with your character and whether your drawings are working well all together. It gives you a clear picture of your drawings on the whole, and really helps to spot a problem very easily.
When I animate in Maya or FlipBook, I always keep on flipping to my previous drawings while making my poses/drawings. It really helps to figure out the arcs, spacing, overlaps and the overall performance of the action.

TIP for Maya users: Use "<" and ">" to flip through the (CG) drawings. It especially helps when you've timed out your shot and want to flip through your breakdowns and keys to maybe fix some spacing and arcs issues, without worrying about the computer inbetweens.

Here's a video where I've animated a simple floursack jump in FlipBook. You'll see how frequently I flip through the drawings while animating. And it really helps a tonne while inbetweening my shot in 2d, where the spacing might get really, really tight almost like a moving hold, and it becomes almost impossible to put a drawing without flipping back to my previous drawings for reference.

Here is the video, enjoy....



All the best everybody!
-A

Thanks heaps Mathias for doing all this! Yes, I've been hired as an animator at Dreamworks Animation, makers of such films as Shrek (1,2 and 3), Madagascar, Flushed Away, and the super cool Bee Movie, as well as others. It is a tremendous opportunity and I?m really lucky to have gotten it. I owe a ton to my "animation guru" Jason Ryan (supervising animator, Dreamworks Animation SKG), without his help and encouragement, nothing would have been possible.

I'm really glad that I'll get to learn animation from some of the top people of the industry and get to work with them! So, I'm REALLY excited and overwhelmed about all this and look forward to create some memorable shots in the near future!

For me, animation is really all about love and passion. It doesn't matter if you're not so good at animating (I know I'm not!), but if you love the craft, work hard and have fun with it, I don't think that anything could stop you from getting really good and working for big studios like Dreamworks or Pixar.
Getting into a big shot studio isn't the end.... its just a start! Learning animation is a never ending process and you learn things throughout your life....

Thanks again mate for all the kind words, I really appriciate it!

Cheers!
-A

Hi Mathias,

Nope, I haven't started working yet. Looks like I'll be flying to Glendale, CA to meet the disgustingly talented team of Dreamworks, to learn a bunch from them and to make myself a part of it . This will totally be a new and blasting experience for me and so, I'm really excited about that! New city, new life..... I don't know man, I really don't have much in my mind right now. All I know is I will have to pay attention and take notes on almost everything they say and most importantly, enjoy my work from my inner most.

So, I guess thats all I have in mind right now.
Thanks again Mathias for all the kind wishes.

Cheers everyone!
-A

thanks Amrit.
you have useful blog.