Here are some updates:
Progress!!!
Keep it up!
did you just figure it out by yourself by observing animations?
Nope I didn't figure this out myself.
It's a classic technique developed long ago.
But once you know a good helping of the basics you CAN learn a good amount from just observation.
Most of the time really good animation is "invisible" because the entertainment value is so distracting.
The basics are the most important thing to understand as it allows you to break down animation visually and make educated edits to achieve a certain goal.
Do you remember where you heard that trick?
I studied art and programming at Digipen and learned animation from Jazno Francoeur and Tony White.
Both were very good teachers.
They taught traditional paper animation for films, Disney type stuff.
Even tho it is outside medium and presentation style of pixel art and video games, much of film animation knowledge has been covered more thouroughly in the past.
Most likely because it is much older, pretty much 100 years now.
But don't get me wrong, not saying it is more spectacular or appropriate.
All mediums have properties and all techniques should be used in context.
Most of the time you can use animation tech in bite sizes without having to go full blown crazy on everything and get really powerful results.
I've never seen it mentioned anywhere before!
There's a rather large chunk of animation theory that's difficult to find.
The
Animators Survival Kit is good.
There's also apparently
a newer version of the book, but I haven't read it so I can't personally recommend the difference.
It's a good book and highly recommended by almost everyone.
But I gotta say it just doesn't compare to how I was taught.
This book was a supplement for my classes, not the material.
And I say that in favor of the teachers, not myself.
They presented the concepts and techniques at an extremely high level that I have not seen anywhere else and I think may be difficult, but not at all impossible, to get out of a book.
Of course that doesn't really matter tho.
The best thing you can do to learn animation is DO IT A LOT.
Create processes that give results.
Use the basics to do creative things.
I've actually started an animation/GraphicsGale blog where I plan to detail as much as I know as thoroughly as possible.
I'm attempting to port over many of the posts I've done here and attempt to explain them in further detail.
But it will be sometime before it is complete or even contains half the topics I'd like to cover.
It's a bit of a mess at the moment, much of it doesn't make total sense, but everyone is welcome to visit.
Check back later for updates.
http://ppdaniatlas.blogspot.com/My aim is not to replace other animation sources. (altho I will be covering much of the basic common knowledge to be thorough)
Animators Survival Kit and others are well accomplished and I recommend that anyone check them out.
I'd like to present animation techniques from a slightly different perspective than that of other animation tutorials.
My hope is that it will be helpful to others.
