My Creative Process: Animation

Animation is a small hobby I picked up my freshman year of college (technically I started in high school but I don't count that). It was an exciting way of telling stories without needing to coordinate actors or own a nice camera. After about 4 years of animating I have at least 3 shorts I am proud of. Not to say I'm a great animator or even good but I like to think my work has a low budget charm to it. Today I want to go over how I go about animating a scene. As with most of my blog posts I don't want to insinuate this is the best way (or even a good way) to go about animation but I might help someone get started.

First I like to begin with the story of the scene. Before I even open up Adobe Flash (Flash) I typically have a script written and the audio recorded. From here I like to create a simple storyboard, my story boards are usually a keyframe (a frame of animation before or after a transition of action) with either dialogue or a description of the scene below it. Usually the drawing I have in here is basically a cleaned up sketch that just conveys a rough visual of the scene. It doesn't need to look great just get the point across. This helps me remember what I want a scene to look like. Sometimes I do change a scene from what is on the storyboard but this isn't overly common. I have also skipped storyboarding all together and just gone straight into aniamting. This is a bad idea it ends up taking way longer and it makes things less cohesive. It can be kind of fun and can make for some interesting scenes though. Also I usually work alone but if you don't make sure your boards are clear so you don't confuse other animators.

After I have my prep done I boot up Flash plug in my drawing tablet and get to work. I usually do backgrounds first. This lets you get a good grasp of how your characters can move in a given scene. My backgrounds typically don't have outlines to distinguish them from the objects that move in a scene. Especially in low movement parts a background can be a great way to convey the emotions of a scene. Experiment with color choice and camera angles they can really change how a scene feels. At this point I also animate any background elements like a bird flying or smoke from a chimney. These are usually very simple animations that many people won't notice so try and experiment with these. Once the background is done I refer back to my storyboard to figure out what I really need to animate. Once I figure out what motion I need to capture I go to look for a reference. If it is something simple like balling a hand into a fist I can just look at myself for reference. If it is a more complex movement I look towards other works of animation for how they handle such an action. If I can't find exactly what I need from memory I have found a website like Giphy really helps find short clips of animation that work as easy to use references. You can even use other websites or programs to break down these gifs into individual frames for added help. If you want to keep your image on screen with you at all you can use the wonderful program TurboTop

After all my set up is done I get to work on keyframing my character/object. Meaning I draw the important frames of animation. For example if your drawing a head turn from left to right your keyframes could be when the head is all the way to the left, in the exact middle, and all the way to the right. These are the frames that matter and need to look the best. Then you create your in-between frames. These frames are what gets you from keyframe to keyframe they don't need to look as good but can keep your animation from looking rigid. Depending on the scene you may want more in-between frames to make it slower or you can delete some in-between frames to speed things up. Surprisingly enough I've found deleting in-between frames can really make a scene pop. If your scene isn't popping enough try cutting a few in between frames (make sure to save a backup file with these frames just in case). As you are working make sure to stop every few frames to preview your work, it is truly demoralizing to think you are done with a scene only to find it doesn't come together so well. When I think I'm done I like to take a second and walk around a bit or fill up my water bottle. After this short break I watch it again to make sure it is still done. If you ever find you are having trouble figuring out how to tackle a scene sometimes it is best to work on something else and come back to it later.

Beyond a few small things like music or voice-over that is essentially how I go about animating a scene. The steps can differ from scene to scene but this is my typical process. Animation can certainly be tough but when an animation comes out just right there is nothing better. I hope my experience can help you get started or out of a rut. If you want to see some of my work go to the Selected Works page on this very website. If you have any questions or want to send me your stuff feel free to email me at bskotenko@gmail.com!

A short animation saved on my hard drive

My Creative Process: Animation

Animation is a small hobby I picked up my freshman year of college (technically I started in high school but I don't count that). It was an exciting way of telling stories without needing to coordinate actors or own a nice camera. After about 4 years of animating I have at least 3 shorts I am proud of. Not to say I'm a great animator or even good but I like to think my work has a low budget charm to it. Today I want to go over how I go about animating a scene. As with most of my blog posts I don't want to insinuate this is the best way (or even a good way) to go about animation but I might help someone get started.

First I like to begin with the story of the scene. Before I even open up Adobe Flash (Flash) I typically have a script written and the audio recorded. From here I like to create a simple storyboard, my story boards are usually a keyframe (a frame of animation before or after a transition of action) with either dialogue or a description of the scene below it. Usually the drawing I have in here is basically a cleaned up sketch that just conveys a rough visual of the scene. It doesn't need to look great just get the point across. This helps me remember what I want a scene to look like. Sometimes I do change a scene from what is on the storyboard but this isn't overly common. I have also skipped storyboarding all together and just gone straight into aniamting. This is a bad idea it ends up taking way longer and it makes things less cohesive. It can be kind of fun and can make for some interesting scenes though. Also I usually work alone but if you don't make sure your boards are clear so you don't confuse other animators.

After I have my prep done I boot up Flash plug in my drawing tablet and get to work. I usually do backgrounds first. This lets you get a good grasp of how your characters can move in a given scene. My backgrounds typically don't have outlines to distinguish them from the objects that move in a scene. Especially in low movement parts a background can be a great way to convey the emotions of a scene. Experiment with color choice and camera angles they can really change how a scene feels. At this point I also animate any background elements like a bird flying or smoke from a chimney. These are usually very simple animations that many people won't notice so try and experiment with these. Once the background is done I refer back to my storyboard to figure out what I really need to animate. Once I figure out what motion I need to capture I go to look for a reference. If it is something simple like balling a hand into a fist I can just look at myself for reference. If it is a more complex movement I look towards other works of animation for how they handle such an action. If I can't find exactly what I need from memory I have found a website like Giphy really helps find short clips of animation that work as easy to use references. You can even use other websites or programs to break down these gifs into individual frames for added help. If you want to keep your image on screen with you at all you can use the wonderful program TurboTop

After all my set up is done I get to work on keyframing my character/object. Meaning I draw the important frames of animation. For example if your drawing a head turn from left to right your keyframes could be when the head is all the way to the left, in the exact middle, and all the way to the right. These are the frames that matter and need to look the best. Then you create your in-between frames. These frames are what gets you from keyframe to keyframe they don't need to look as good but can keep your animation from looking rigid. Depending on the scene you may want more in-between frames to make it slower or you can delete some in-between frames to speed things up. Surprisingly enough I've found deleting in-between frames can really make a scene pop. If your scene isn't popping enough try cutting a few in between frames (make sure to save a backup file with these frames just in case). As you are working make sure to stop every few frames to preview your work, it is truly demoralizing to think you are done with a scene only to find it doesn't come together so well. When I think I'm done I like to take a second and walk around a bit or fill up my water bottle. After this short break I watch it again to make sure it is still done. If you ever find you are having trouble figuring out how to tackle a scene sometimes it is best to work on something else and come back to it later.

Beyond a few small things like music or voice-over that is essentially how I go about animating a scene. The steps can differ from scene to scene but this is my typical process. Animation can certainly be tough but when an animation comes out just right there is nothing better. I hope my experience can help you get started or out of a rut. If you want to see some of my work go to the Selected Works page on this very website. If you have any questions or want to send me your stuff feel free to email me at bskotenko@gmail.com!

A short animation saved on my hard drive