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joe26
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« on: November 02, 2008, 03:43:32 PM »
My name is Joe Zach (zoc) and I am some what new to animation, I love telling stories and when I was a kid I would do stopmotion, but when i went to middle school things changed and I had to stop for awhile. But now I want to start again cause I love it, These past few months I have really wanted to grasp it I have been reading and practicing but I don't know what to practice exactly, i first thought that if I learned a program like Maya or something that I would be on the right track, but now I see that type of thinking is wrong, I can draw OK but I am very hard on myself, I am 18 years old and I want to make animation my life, I have The Animator's Survival Kit and The Illusion of life. Is it to late to do animation as a career cause i really want too cause i love it.

 I have an OK understanding of principles, I am more of a visual learner, the books are helping me but, I was wondering if there are some exercises that would help me grasp timing and spacing to a full understanding, I am planning to go to Animation Mentor next year but I want to have a good understanding of timing and spacing and the other principles. Video Tutorials of the principles would really help me is there any out there that explain the principles?

What type of exercises would help me understand the principles a lot better?
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Fabis
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« Reply #1 on: November 02, 2008, 05:49:38 PM »
I think that it's not too late for you, because I self-taught (I am 23 y.o.) every day about 8-9 hours. And I think that learning process not stopped for me even if I can find the animation job. So performance speed must be high enough for work and for experiments (learning and exploring). I think you better to download any kind of animation software and buy a tablet (200$ Bamboo medium A5 - that's enough for animating). And start to animate with those two books that you mentioned as references and with one of Jason Ryan's video tutorial as a workflow guide (and many blogs and forums with a huge amount of tutorials and articles like http://keithlango.blogspot.com). Anyway, you can find a million books seeking for perfect but instead you can try to animate right now with the stuff that you have at the moment. The Animator's Survival Kit and The Illusion of life are great books. I use the first one often as a reference, but practice with the animation principles gives me a lot more then only theory.
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Alexander Smirnoff
joe26
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« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2008, 06:19:29 PM »
I have wacom fun bamboo tablet, but when I use it, it makes everything look off, I cant even dry a decent circle with it, I can draw but using the tablet it seems like it goes eveywere, does the size of the tablet matter cause mine is small,

on paper i can draw but when I use the tablet everything seems scraggly, like if i try to go over my circle a few times it goes off in another direction. I hope that makes sense. should I get alittle bit bigger one will that make a difference?

And thanks for your help,

what are some good exercised I could practice
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Fabis
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« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2008, 07:17:06 PM »
It all depends on how small your tablet and how big your monitor. Your tablet small like this one or like this one? If the last one which compatible with the most 19'' monitor, so you don't need bigger tablet (for animation trainings), but if smaller then you better to purchase the medium tablet. But despite the size and the scraggly lines your line path roughly must be straight, if it doesn't, you should draw more. I tried to do some exercises at the first time but then I decide to draw the characters even if they looks like blotch (this happen only at the first time). After this drawings you will feel the tablet and nothing will be more handy than this great tool. I don't use the mouse about two last years, only the tablet. But if you want exercises: 1. try to draw 10-15 straight lines with 0.5 inch spread between them, 2 make some infinite symbols (or eight digits), 3 make some random or even spaced dots and then draw a line through all of them.
« Last Edit: November 02, 2008, 07:18:53 PM by fabis » Logged
Alexander Smirnoff
joe26
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« Reply #4 on: November 02, 2008, 08:41:51 PM »
Thank You very much

I think I am going to get the medium one

do you know some good animation exerecises, I have beeen working on a ball and spacing
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Fabis
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« Reply #5 on: November 03, 2008, 01:49:11 AM »
Read this topic. I think you can find few tutorials for animating.
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Alexander Smirnoff
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