I mean, that's a self-fulfilling prophecy as much as it is self-defeating.
You gotta embrace the idea that everything that we're trying out when we're inexperienced at it is gonna suck.
And the tragic part is in what you have worked on in this loop, it demonstrates a lot of complex understanding for what's needed in a full-bodied character's acting. You got turns with this big cartoon head and her hair, and where her arms are going in relation to how her hands are clutched together, what her legs are doing to emphasize her emotional state. All that stuff is really good.
But then you can also detect where it just fizzles out and you stop caring a mere ten frames into it. You didn't give it a chance to look bad once it finished, but you also didn't give it a chance to look good either.
It's your second movie submission. Even if you wanted to bail on doing this because it's a copyright protected character, you could've completed the action, and then chalked that up to experience from the practice of doing something like this. That way, the next time you're animating a character acting, it isn't the first time you're doing it. It's the second or fifth or tenth time you've done it, and it'll look that much better for it.
More telling than all of this, though, is the attitude displayed in your blurb. "It will come. Whenever." Implies you're just going through the motions, and you're not even that stoked about it.
Begs to question why are you doing this? Perhaps you need to find your why again. Get back in touch with your inspiration, and see it through to completion. You had your "why" when you started, because you saw this character being oversaturated with porn, and you wanted to do some acting with her that was for everyone. I get that, and that's a good "why" for practice. But you didn't give yourself the opportunity to practice...and something deflated your reason for this project midway through.
It's okay if it sucks. My first animation sucked. The "first animation" I posted was the one experiment I made that didn't suck enough to hide. I tried stuff out that I hadn't done before, stepped outside of my comfort zone. And I think you'd really benefit from doing the same.
My only other critique in this is to watch her feet- her stance scoots forward without her legs actually picking up to step forward; at this stage that would be an easy fix, just altering a some lines in certain frames to make it seem like intentional movement forward. She could be stepping as her bodyweight shifts from side to side as she glances around.
I encourage you to keep going. Try to abstain from posting works in progress, and achieve that victory lap from completing something. Even if it has problems. You can't take your twentieth step without taking your third and fourth.
Thank you for your comment. I could of finished it. And others wanted me to finish it as well. I had other amateur-ish animations that I worked on. Knowing how the body moves and flows. And how I wanted the animations to look as well. But I shouldn’t feel so pity about this work I did. I did like how the sketch animation looked. I probably can’t work on it again. But am thinking of animating another one. If I have good video references for the animation. And not to give up on that either.
You run a risk posting these WIP's, because your brain is gonna get that endorphin kick from showing a half-completed piece of work. That'll lead to burnout, and unfinished projects. I know, because I've flatly canceled projects that I spent months working on, because I kept showing unfinished stuff to friends and family and they were all praises "Wow, that looks really cool! You should finish it!" And I was like "I know right?" Got the endorphin kick from the praise, and shelved it.
How much time, daily, do you spend on this character's hair animation?
It looks great as it is! But you and I both know there's still a lot of work to be done. So how is that budgeted in your schedule?
In the time spent exporting this, could you have finalized a couple of frames?
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This doesn't look significantly different from the one you posted last month. You've just added more to the scope of your project that you still need to color and in-between and tidy-up.
Try to abstain from posting more WIPS, and try instead to get that endorphin kick from the finished product.
It looks skillfully done, but WIPS are easy. Completion is hard. Completion is the most skillful thing you could do. Strive for completion, you got this!
So, I guess that's an interesting perspective you have there, so thanks for that.
But perhaps its more of a case of that in your life experience of doing stuff, and motives, you experience it as this endorphin kick thing. But, for my personally, art isn't about endorphin kicks. Its something u just gotta do, otherwise u can;t live with yourself... or at least in my personal experience as myself.
If I want/need an endorphin kick, I can just go do a T5 Legendary Raid in Pokemon Go during Raid Hour w my neighbors & friends, or play Community Day n catch Shiny Pokemon.
I'm trained OLD SCHOOL from the 20th century, and I learned to animate the way Disney Animators did ON PAPER, which was how I did it for several years. When u animate TRADITIONALLY on PAPER with PENCILS u constantly NEED TO, and ARE REQUIRED TO, do a Pencil Test which was shot on a VHS Penciltest machine. N this could be done dozens upon dozens of time.
I was trained FOR QUALITY and NOT QUANTITY because in the 90s it was an Animation Renaissance. I went to college for all the reasons an aspiring artist back then was supposed to do, but when I graduated in 2001 EVERYTHING GOT OUTSOURCED and they would ONLY HIRE MEN, and they would NOT hire you if you had skills better than themselves because they FEARED u would take their jobs. There were VERY NASTY THINGS SAID TO ME, and even Disney would harass me (long screwed up story) to work for them FOR NOTHING and legally sign over ALL OF MIGHT RIGHTS TO THEM, but I refused to do that. I was told that the reason I wouldn't get hired was because they wanted to watch porn at work, and having me THERE would make them "feel uncomfortable" (because they were all men). This was told to me repeatedly, because I knew folks whom worked in the big animation studios in Burbank back then, as well as NYC, and many other studios everywhere long before everything got outsourced overseas.
Honestly, I just post the videos, and there's a process of review, and I'm doing so many other things simultaneously. I have a bad spine, and I don't have a job. I just spent nearly a month visiting with my parents down South, and just before THAT I did Hoenn Tour/Go [Pokemon Go] Tour which was exhausting & BELOW FREEZING, so I have no idea what happened once I posted my video.
So, there's no motives of endorphins on my part.
Also my shortfilm, which won a lot of award at so many Film festivals that my email kept getting flooded for over a year for requests to screen my film became such a nuisance, that it was like hoards of scouts hounding me on social media, and due to contract stuff w the festivals, I couldn't submit my film to FilmHUB until the end of the year.... then THAT was a load of work, plus I had to help my filmmaker friends with THEIR film stuff on IMDb since I had to learn ALL OF THAT, and since I knew it by then I had to help out, since I'm too nice, n most people r lazy, and want INSTANT GRATIFICATION.
I don't care about whether people like it or not. I usually get hate comments, trolls, and bullying children whom pretend they are adults and publish very badly drawn porn on their profiles, and demand I like EVERY SINGLE sick twisted porn pic as tho they're SO ORIGINAL, and how dare I NOT WORSHIP THEM??? because libido and FAME is ALL that matters... so whatever.
My art has nothing to do with the thoughts, feelings, and opinions of others, and even if people hate it, that doesn't mean I must discontinue making my art.
I'm NOT interested in fame, fortune, or praise. Because if that's what I wanted, I would just be a liar and ONLY making art to appease others, while lying and being a fraud not just to them but myself.
If people don't respect me, then I can't make them. If people don't love me, I can't force them to. And even if you COULD force people to do that it would NOT be because they love or respect you, its because YOU FORCED THEM TO. Then it wouldn't be genuine, and I have no interested in that.
You don't seem to be trying to give me guff, so I hope I'm not coming off like I'm biting ur head off. But fame is NOT everything. I was pretty famous in the 2000s and I NEVER want to go through THAT HELL ever again. The kinds of leaches, and stalkers, and terrorists, and horribly bad stuff done to me, my daughter, my husband, my neighbors, and even my computers.
Girls (plural) demanding attention 24/7 while holding themselves hostage that if u DON'T DO IT they will suicide. And VERY CREEPY MEN telling me WHAT THEY WANT TO DO TO ME just because they liked my art, or my photography, or the look of my face, hands, or breasts. Or people that are well established in the industry but want me to be their side piece, and tell me elaborate stories about past lives, and fate & destiny (not just 1 guy, but its like a thing many do, like some pick-up-line thing they think THEY INVENTED) EVEN THO I AM MARRIED.
The point of doing art is TO DO IT.
The point of listening to music is to do it. You don;t just play the song and then skip all the way to the ending.
The point of doing yoga, or meditation, or whatever is NOT getting some other thing out of it, its to do it. You don't do yoga or meditation JUST because u want some benefit.
YOU JUST DO IT.
Honestly, the bulk of my time lately, if its not my local Pokemon Go Community which I get so much value out of, it usually my research & philosophy.
I don't want to be stuck in this life, in this world, but I'm trapped here. We're ALL TRAPPED HERE, and it wants u to suffer, and farm your suffering, like The Matrix, or Plato's cave. N even if u r lucky enough to finally die for an instant, it shoves you back into this prison of so many layers of deception.
So, I only have half of my life left to live, and this time I want to actually try to find the exit out, so I don't have to be reborn again into this THING. I think I was VERY CLOSE to actually getting out of this prison the last time, and even if whatever I have to contribute to the other researcher philosophers helps others after me, then so be it. But I REALLY DO NOT EVER WANT TO BE REBORN because THIS IS NOT BASE REALITY.
-and I SAW IT. (even the math shows it)
This is NOT the real world, and its INSANE on the daily, now.
Anyways, I'm sorry if I come off the wrong way. I'm NOT angry with you. And, I'm sorry if I rubbed u the wrong way.
You can say whatever u wish. I'm NOT Anti-Free Speech, so I respect your free will.
My impression is that u meant well from your perspectives, so I thank you for taking the time to express it. And I do appreciate the gesture.
Fond fond fond memories of Season Three and Season Four of the Cyanide & Happiness show. You really brought Zach Hadel's Genie to life, and it was a great touch of flair to his character acting in The Stockholms' finale.
Shocked to see how much of this has my Dad in it. I love that Orca King, and I miss the hell out of Wheelcharles- one of my favorite roles I've ever voiced.
It's been such an honor working with you, dude. I can't wait to see what you bring to life in the future!
Same, man! I was having flashbacks to all the all-nighters working on the C&H Show (especially Season 3). Really good times.
And yeah, we always cast your dad as either an invisible narrator or an extremely visible giant celestial being.
It's been an honor working with you too, dude. I'm waiting to see the next Phobotech drop too! I was watching through all your old posts the other day and they were KILLING me. The door gag in "Repercussions of Evil" is so freaking funny.
Dude, this looks great! Are you going to be making it a regular thing to remix Bigfoot Justice comics into short animations? If you need an extra voice for something, I'd gladly help any way I could.
Thanks, man! Yeah I'm definitely gonna be making more of these. I've been digging through and "casting" old comics and was gonna bother you eventually for some VO.
The gameplay seems interesting, and the music is good, but the text between gameplay grinds the pace to a halt as it waits for the audience to read a wall of text. The text portion isn't very interesting to look at either, its not very dynamic. The game relies on reading, but the premise is kinda neat. Are there no cutscenes? No promotional artwork or concept art? No words from the creators themselves?
Put some animation into the text, help it match the rhythm of the great music you have here. Add transitions, and this trailer will do better because the game DOES look appealing. The music is fine. This can generate hype for the game if done correctly.
Thanks for the advice. I think you're right about having the text be more dynamic in some way. It's on its way to release but that could be implemented as an update potentially.
The game doesn't have much for cutscenes, just cut-screens. We didn't want to give too much away so didn't show much of that in the trailer. I didn't do any concept/promo art as I drew everything off the top of my head. I might do some promo art when we get to the marketing of the game though.
You're right that it would be good to have some words from myself and partner. I haven't seen too many trailers on steam do that but the one's that did felt more engaging that's for sure. Since we have a fanbase from our earlier game it didn't come to mind.
I can't apologize for the text though. That's what our original game was famous for. I didn't have the proper time to put in to the art of Void Pyramid at the time but even though the game lacked on the graphics end of things the story, lore and comedy captured within the walls of the text is what built our initial fanbase. It wouldn't be right to break our fans expectations.
Okay, 1/3rd of it is "The End" screen, while Gears of War dialogue plays over it.
The other 1/3rd of it is footage from the game's cutscenes, made monochrome as if it were a flashback.
And the remaining 1/3rd of it is a motion tween of two characters, completely still, while a snow effect plays above. We get an abrupt blood-splatter .png draped across the main character and scenery alike, barely perceptible gibs in the bottom right corner, and I think that's why you called it an "animation" in quotes in your author blurb.
Don't do that to yourself, it's basic, but it is moving in a way. It relies on stock-footage, and the format of the humor seemed to be building up into a subversion, but it didn't quite do that either, did it? Legitimize yourself, own up to it and call it an animation, and start learning and practicing to push yourself into being better if you're serious about doing more of these.
Your character is one facial expression. Stiff as a board, and not emoting. What are we supposed to feel? The famously used Mad World cover is supposed to evoke sadness, but he's stern-faced and pointing a gun at this...abominable snowman? It's not really clear. What is clear is that he's about to shoot him. You understood that there's parts in movies where characters reminisce in the middle of a tense situations and remember events of great loss and emotional turmoil, but it doesn't make sense in the context here. He's just mean-mugging a creature he's about to shoot while remembering friends who have died and the tragedy of the battlefield.
Moving forward, be consistent about the tone you're trying to express.
- Who are we looking at and what are you trying to make us feel?
Do you want us to be sad for him? Show us why it's sad.
Do you want us to root for him to shoot the monster? Show us why we should feel that way?
Do you want us to laugh? Show us something funny.
The fact that he just blasts the yeti offscreen isn't funny, it just punctuates that we've spent time to get to this part of the animation with no payoff. There's no punchline, and that hurts this thing's score.
Step outside of your comfort zone and learn the program by getting your characters to move around and emote a little. You have access to lines of dialogue, surely you could cobble together a lip-sync exercise. Group sections of anatomy in a way that you can manipulate limbs to simulate movement and life.
That's what'll help you learn a bit more about the program. A tween and some stock footage do not make for a very compelling test or exercise or practice...but yes, you very well SHOULD practice.
A book that helped me out in college a lot was Richard William's "Animator's Survival Kit." If you google that for the .PDF you can find it free to read and it's a WEALTH of animation tips and tricks and wisdoms.
Another book that helped with my mental health when it came to creating, and could help you explore further than tweens, is Art & Fear. Again, google for the .pdf, and you should find the entire book for free to read.
Never ever stop. It is possible to make a great animation, and it's within your grasp. You have every tool at your fingertips. Good luck.
-This is Phobotech!-
I've done animatics for Cyanide & Happiness, Purgatony, and WWE Storytime! I'm also a voice actor that's performed roles in One Piece, Gundam: Witch from Mercury, & Smite!
Check out my sci-fi novel, Umbra's Legion on Amazon Kindle!
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