'Saturday Afternoon'

macnavi · Post by **macnavi** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 4:12 am

22 March: UPDATE with final clip (link below).

Hello all,

I'm playing around with ASP for the last three or four years on and off, going back and forth between animating with real drawings and AS. Making small test with both techniques and although I do like the charm of real drawings the best, AS makes it so much easier to work on the move and you are not depending on a light table etc. So I decided on something in the middle. Hand drawn backgrounds on paper with AS animated characters. Doing this short clip this week, really got me to know AS much better and I didn't lost the overview of the keyframes this time by working very organised (learned from my mistakes...).

The whole clip is a kind of experimenting with AS and techniques, but still making a finished, stand alone joke. You might notice that the style of the two figures is different. The one in the white shirt is more a caricature, a more experimental style for me, with a lot of variety in the thickness of the lines, the back one is more the style that is close to my traditional style. I will continue with further animations with the latter, it is just friendlier. There are also waves of the sea on the background, which worked out pretty well without the foreground, but kind of unnecessary in the finished picture. You can see them through the fence. Maybe I have to get rid of that, the sound does enough.

After scanning, the background pic has been coloured in Photoshop.

Both voices are my own, but I'm waiting for a friend to replace on of the voices (man in white shirt). I'm just posting it here to see if anything needs to be adjusted. I'm still doubting a bit with the right arm of the guy in orange that is slowly going down at the very end of the clip, but I think it shows as well his state of mind.

Sounds, except for the voices, are from Apple sound libraries.

Thanks to help on this forum, I was able to create the shadows pretty easy. I think I would actually like completely black shadows, but the shadow feature in the layer pane doesn't allow that, as it seems.

Hope you like it and don't be afraid to give some serious feedback. You can only learn from criticism.

UPDATE Final clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul7_pHAuWgk

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 9:39 am

I like your style, and especially your colouring is excellent. Also you know the secrets of composition, like having only some pebbles on the ground here and there. Everything is balanced, and the characters and the BG share the same world.

I think you could do pretty well without shadows, or with just a small soft blurred shadow right under the characters. The bold shadow right now looks misplaced because there is no corresponding shadow on the characters.

The walk needs refining. The feet are not bending properly and slide on the ground. If you work on this, make sure his feet move on different lines on the ground - after all there's perspective in this shot!

The other guy could do with a bit more dynamic - instead of doing everything in the same slow pace, make some actions fast, and insert pauses. Timing is everything.

I didn't get the joke because it was all in the dialogue and I couldn't understand his answer.

Nice work, I'd like to see a longer film in this manner.

acid breakdown · Post by **acid breakdown** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 12:23 pm

macnavi · Post by **macnavi** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:38 pm

Thanks for the nice comments!

I agree with the shadow comment and I like the suggestion of only a shadow straight under the characters.
The feet are not bending for a reason. I had it before set up to bend, but I didn't see the need to make to foot bend like in real life. It walks and only animators will fuzz about this.

Maybe I'll make it bend in my next animation, it doesn't take much time to do so. As you can see, the shoes aren't that detailed anyway, all on purpose, as the focus isn't there. But I definitely appreciate this particular feedback.

The animation of the background figure is longer than planned. The animation actually was suppose to stop right after the slick guy would leave the picture, but then I started to experiment with the background figure. See if I could give him some emotions. Standing still, but still moving, is a challenge which I find very fascinating. Not only blinking eyes.

The response is: "Yeah, sure, quarter to three". It's a very silly, dry joke. I think it's funny though. I hate being interviewed on the street, but don't dare to give this answer.

I'm going to have a better look in the graph editor. I understand it, but don't see the use of it yet. I'll have a search for the walk ruler.

Thanks!

macnavi · Post by **macnavi** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 5:51 am

It took a while before I got an extra voice, but now my clip is finished. I fine-tuned the animation, using the comments given here. In the final result, I'm not happy with the difference in style between the two characters, but as said, it was a test of two styles, so it was done on purpose. It made it clear to me I like the style of the boy in the back the best, so I am continuing with that. I like the drawn style of the background, so I'm going to continue with that. The downside of that is that it makes you a bit less flexible if you want to change the background.

Hope you like it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul7_pHAuWgk

Acesonnall · Post by **Acesonnall** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:40 pm

Left my comment on the video.

Could you check out my animation using AS? People have been skipping over it. (viewtopic.php?t=21781)