"Little Timmy" - Animated Short. Need Help and Critique - W.I.P

[Hyphen]

well, in order to get the best quality animation, you have to have a pipeline. otherwise things will be in disarray. for starters, nail down the story. then get some storyboards started WHILE the concept art is being done. from there you create the models and other assets. then you block out the animation, clean up animation, and do post production (compositing, etc.).

right now, i think you guys need to stick to the concept stages. in my opinion, there's a HUGE style clash. the styles are all over the place. on one side you have a game-like environment with the trees and the mushrooms. then another person has semi-realistic models (the room and room assets), and then the house model is super stylized.

you guys should work towards a bible (pre production) before you actually start modelling and animating. that way, when you cut from scene to scene in animation, it will seem seamless, as opposed to looking like different people designed each scene.

you mentioned that you guys have only worked on it for 3 days. in 3 days you guys should still be scripting and tightening the story line.

so the general pipeline is:

discover story concept -> write script (define the characters) -> storyboard & concept drawings simultaneously -> animatic -> make adjustments to storyboards & start on models -> once models are complete and storyboards are tight, move on to animation blocking, first, second, and third passes -> post production.

hope that helps.

[Lingon]

Thank you very much Hyphen!

This is really what we needed, I assume that you have some kind of experience of animated shorts and we really needed this info from someone with at least some knowledge.

You are probably right about everything you said, and I agree about the style clash. I think that we got kind of drawn away by the thought that we had started doing an animated short, so we kind of wanted to do al the fun stuff directly

I think that we are going to jump back to the fist steps with story boards and concept art again and then try to follow a pipeline like the one you wrote.



How detailed should you draw the storyboard? I mean are you supposed to draw one picture from every scene or one picture or more from every camera angel?



Thanks again! This help is really appreciated



edit: this wasn't Lingon that wrote, it was Johan (Pulver)...didn't se who was logged in:D

[Hyphen]

Thank you very much Hyphen!

This is really what we needed, I assume that you have some kind of experience of animated shorts and we really needed this info from someone with at least some knowledge.

glad i could be of some help. my experience with shorts isn't too great. i've been a background artist for one production and i'm currently working on my own as a graduation thesis. but the pipeline is generally what most studios follow for organization.


You are probably right about everything you said, and I agree about the style clash. I think that we got kind of drawn away by the thought that we had started doing an animated short, so we kind of wanted to do al the fun stuff directly

I think that we are going to jump back to the fist steps with story boards and concept art again and then try to follow a pipeline like the one you wrote.

yeah, it's VERY easy to get excited and jump to the fun stuff. i've already made that mistake once with my current short. after designing my antagonist, i realized that his sillhouette was too similar to the protagonist and now have to completely remodel him after spending a couple days on him.

my instructor said it best, it's easier to make mistakes on paper because you can always erase. meaning you do trial and error on paper first, then skip ahead.


How detailed should you draw the storyboard? I mean are you supposed to draw one picture from every scene or one picture or more from every camera angel?

storyboard detail is up to you. there's no set way to storyboard. some books say 1 storyboard for every second. i think there just needs to be enough storyboards to tell the story. i tend to draw out every extreme pose. that way, when i shoot the leica reel (animatic) it's very detailed and i know exactly how i'm going to animate.

basically, think of a comic book with more frames that show movement. look at the incredible's special features section. you'll see that their animatic is IDENTICAL to actual animated scene. while your animatic doesn't need to be that detailed, it should be very similar.


Thanks again! This help is really appreciated


i'm really glad i could be of some help. good luck with your short, i look forward to seeing progress.


edit: this wasn't Lingon that wrote, it was Johan (Pulver)...didn't se who was logged in:D [/QUOTE]

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