MOC-Productions 2012-01-06 23:47:41

I completely agree with what you just said. There are times where I DREAD sitting down and devoting time to animating. However, once the ball gets rolling, it can be fun. The best is "testing" those 20-30 frames you've been working on and seeing your work come to life. I always liked that part.

For me, the part that sucks the most is (oddly enough) the last stages of completion. I always tend to have the most problems with Flash itself when I'm nearing the completion of a project. I'll end up exporting the movie about 50 times before I get it just right.

In the end though, animating IS fun and very rewarding. If it weren't, none of us would come back to it.

On that note, 24HRC is upon us.

DonkeysBazooka 2012-01-06 23:52:11

Yep. The best part of animation is bringing things to life. Motion to the motionless.
I love the feeling of starting a new animation, it's like taking a trip to somewhere you've never been before and you can't wait to begin. The feeling of completing one is also intensely satisfying. In fact it must be this feeling of intense satisfaction that makes the whole process worth it... because the actual process of animating... SUCKS!

Animating sucks, and I would probably not recommend it to anyone. It takes soooo much time, and progress is sooo ungodly slow. Time flies faster when I'm animating than when I'm doing anything else. Everytime I look at the clock I can't believe how many hours I just spent lip-syncing or animating a damn walk cycle. It feels like so much more progress could have been made in that time.

But yeah, I guess somehow it's worth it in the end. So I continue to do it. Even though I'm miserable for 80% of my life haha

FrozenFire 2012-01-07 00:13:32

I like every aspect of animation, but I found I love game design even more.
I would never want to have no creative control however. Having someone completely dictate my actions and leave me with no personal creativity takes all the fun out of it. That is why I try my hardest to make a name for myself and try hard to avoid having a "boss" if you will.

There are some people who I wouldn't mind working under because they understand that, but for the most part companies are in it for the money and don't give a shit about the lack of soul their product contains.

MindChamber 2012-01-07 00:23:40

the best part of animating is when the angle, movement and feeling is nailed.

like the exact picture i envisioned on paper.

90% percent of what I make isnt even close to what I imagined, so when it does happen, its a fuckin treat.

boybogart 2012-01-07 01:00:01

I think every animator has some part of the process that he hates, but flash animators has more things to be frustrated about since we do most of the tasks ourselves.

I love the feeling of starting an animation, from conceptualizing a story to making boards to animatic. Then I love making rough animations, the first pass. I love it to bits, feels like you're playing and expressing yourself without any constraint. What I hate is tie-ins, clean up, it's like you're animating the thing all over again. Then from there it all goes downhill when I'm halfway into the animation. It's just a string of self doubt from "What the hell am I doing this for?" to "it's Saturday I should be out there enjoying myself". So I do every trick to keep the thing fresh, like taking a 2 day break, or turning my schedule from a 9-5 to a 4:00-2:00 am.

Then the big day comes when all the animations are finished, everything's composited, and you feel that a big piece of fish bone has been taken out of your throat. The thing wouldn't feel so good if you know you've done a very shoddy work but if you know that you gave it your best and never cut any corners, man, that is one of the best things ever.

Aniviuh 2012-01-07 01:14:39

Oh wow that looks so freakin awsome!
That looks like a lot of stuff you need to know to do animating. I too is putting something to the flash portal, I'm only hoping for a daily fifth place of something like that because its nothing special but it is my first thing putting out to the world.

Steinberg 2012-01-07 01:21:09

"it's really only DURING the process that i am pulling my hair out."
To me is the opposite, it's just too hard to start doing, when I think about animating I just go like "yeah, I know it's fun, but then I will be on it for the whole day and I have other stuff to do", but when I actually start, nothing can stop me, and I get "in the zone" for weeks. And then I procrastinate again for a whole month, and suffer during this whole month because I feel I'm being improductive. Oh well.

JamesLee 2012-01-07 01:21:20

I think the early stages of starting a new project are fun, and then it's mostly just repetitive tasks with some moments of inspiration, procrastination, and those days where every single line is just wrong.

Getting something finally finished and released is a great feeling though.

CyanSandwich 2012-01-07 01:38:49

Seeing each segment of animation coming out how you wanted is fun. Of course it's only about 5% of the time it comes out how you actually wanted, but that's extra fun.

Tbh in my animations there isn't much animation. I'm going to change that though, and I have a feeling it'll be a lot more rewarding.

NeroGeist 2012-01-07 02:29:46

I think the best part is when you show the world your work and you get good feedback! Especially when it inspires others to do great things. :]

Zullzee 2012-01-07 02:43:07

I hate the part where I'm drawing a keyframe, and then I look at the clock when I'm finished and realize I spent 2 hours on that.

Ockeroid 2012-01-07 04:26:33

Once I've warmed up, I find it really fun to work on something fairly simple that doesn't need to be good and just have fun doing it properly, making sure all the timing and spacing is actually how I like it.
It's always a million times funner and a million times better (and faster for that matter) then when I try to 'fudge it' and do it an easy cheating way.

It's something I need to keep reminding my self. Animation always becomes un-fun whenever I start considering it the lackey work and something I can get through without appreciating the creativity needed for it.

My thoughts on it for the moment anyway

Peglay 2012-01-07 04:35:57

I think animating is fun but im a lazy fuck so i dont animate cause it takes forever to do with a mouse. Dont know how Luis does it :(

bocodamondo 2012-01-07 05:13:56

yeah true. sometimes it really got the feeling about just to give up.

the best think i like in animating its to make as good as possible to enjoy it myself too after it finished and says "worth the work"

Pjorg 2012-01-07 07:27:16

I've found a way to enjoy the whole thing from start to finish: Animate for video games. Just queue up a few podcasts and mess around with a walk cycle all day. Doesn't feel like work. Then you do something like that every day for the rest of the month and then send off the results to a coder for assembly. Couldn't be better!

FuNaNdMoRe 2012-01-07 09:23:44

The best part in animation (even though I've never made one - I will though) would be to see people enjoy your stuff. This makes up for all the endless hours and effort you've put into it. It feels like you're the father watching his son/daughter grow.

The other things have probably all been mentioned. Anyway, Woo Pico Day!

Emrox 2012-01-07 09:49:19

I don't like animating. I only do it because my step-parents force me to or I don't get food.

RicePirate 2012-01-07 09:59:15

Creating something from nothing has always been the driving force behind everything I do. It's lead me to believe in a world philosophy that boils down to creators and consumers... But I won't bOre you with it.

Game sketches comin soon.

Broken-Wavelength 2012-01-07 10:05:02

I just only got Flash, so I honestly haven't found a method that works for me yet. However, how do you manage animating with schoolwork?

Pegosho 2012-01-07 12:17:15

Some people might find hard to start an animation but for me, it's quite easy. The hardest part for me is to actually finish it especially when the project is super long. Spending weeks and weeks drawing the same characters can get annoying. In my case, I usually don't go out in order to finish my animation on time, that makes me burnt-out really bad and start tweening my way out of this misery. Consequently, you get sloppy, your hand is in pain, but you still going, there is no stopping you.

After so many weeks of work, you finish that bitch and it feels amazing! And even more amazing is to see that other people really liked your work. You feel accomplished, all your hard work was worth it at the end. That's the best part IMO.

The second best part is when you start another animation, you can actually see and feel your improvement, your art and animation skills got better. And that's when you realize that you can actually become as skilled as Adam Phillips or even those crazy guys at Disney or Studio Ghibli. All you need is to animate, animate and animate till you get Carpal Tunnel. :P