Hi I'm currently working on a series and trying to get up to 10 seconds a day. The standard of animation needs to be good and I could do with some advice on animating faster.
The process is stepped block then spline. Layout is done for us and there is a story board and animatic.
I was previously working on 6 seconds a day on 2s which I managed but still found difficult having come from 2 seconds a day.
I start with key positions that I want to hit and break down from there, my block tends to be minimal as the deadline for the block cut is tight. I can hit the deadline for the block it's getting the final approved which I have a problem with.
At the moment I am staying stepped until I have keys around every 5 frames working on 25 fps. I find this good for getting shots passed but too slow. I tend to end up deleting lots of keys to get a smooth flow in spline and moving a long way from the stepped version.
It feels like I need to cheat more, the better animators who manage to stay on schedule talk about reusing other peoples animation, I.... hate this idea. Cannabalising other peoples animation always seems to leave me with an unholy mess.
One of the things I'm really noticing at the moment is I can smash along quite happily in the morning but as it gets to about 4:30 it starts to feel like I'm not an animator.... and would make a better hat stand. This becomes worse as the week progresses.
Ive been looking for something along the lines of "how to survive series work" as I know dealing with getting up to speed is one of the main hurdles. When I search that I just find popular series fan stuff. I like The Walking Dead and I can see that it is a survival based series but it doesn't help me animate.
I'm in my fourth month and I think I'm getting faster, I'm deffinately getting better, but I'm having a battle with I want to do better animation which makes me want to spend more time...... which I don't have. I'm currently in a bit of a hole with a lot of shots that I need to pass that I'm going to have to deal with as we go into next weeks episode blocking :(
Anybody with series experience that's been on 10 seconds a day got some tips for me?
websiteEzromation blog/doodlesDeranged Scratchings
websiteEzromation blog/doodlesDeranged Scratchings
