Animation Tests?

I don't know what's going on behind the scenes, so y'all could be doing this already, but I thought I'd suggest this anyways.

Have y'all thought about doing some short animation test runs? Like a walk/run cycle, blinking eyes, or other simple movements? I think it'd be really helpful in the long run if y'all did. You're gonna encounter this kinda stuff in an actual episode all the time, so might as well get it down first, right? Also, you can test the workflow of the team. You know, pencilers send it to the inbetweener, who sends it to the line artists, who send it to the colorists, who send it to the animator, who will probably tell certain people to make adjustments and blah, blah, blah. You get the point.

I've got a link below to a Naruto Shippuden ending. It's simple, yet effective. It really just consists of a walk and run cycle with other little bits and still pictures. Maybe y'all could do a test ending modeled on that one to run some practices like what was described earlier?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okLksL4oiOA

Speaking of walk cycles, I've been trying to figure out how to do one naturally. All I've been seeing for walk cycle tutorials and tips are exaggerated and cartoony, and I've got some of the basics down...just making everything smooth is very difficult. XD And for people who don't know proportions as well as I do (and I don't know that much, but just enough...), the body parts will probably change in size for most...>.>;

Well, I was making a Sonic animation for school, but I had to change my subject because I didn't get permission in time

So, there was this one shot, that was about ten seconds long. In it though, was a walk cycle of Sally Acorn. I had her walk over to this flower, stare at it, squat down, then pick it up. I would say it was a complete waste because I never used it, but that's not true. I learned sooo much.

First of all, I studied walking references and how-to's and most importantly, myself. I already knew a bunch of human anatomy (like you, I'm no expert) because I had studied it and I was in martial arts and weight lifting. You would think that those last two wouldn't have had had any benefits, but it was great! You get to really know your own body, and you learn all the muscles, how they work in relation to each other, and what their limitations are.

Also, knowing your character is important. Are they lazy? Or courageous? Snobby? Or giddy? That will be a crucial part in how they walk too. So what I did, was put myself in Sally's shoes. She's headstrong, so I walked like that (which isn't too different to how I walk, back straight and all ). You also gotta know your frame rate of the animation. I was doing 24 fps, and animating the walk cycle on two's. So plot the characters general key movements, then go back and do inbetweening to smooth everything out.

What I can do is scan up the unfinished walk cycle I did of Sally (if I can find it), and show you how I worked everything out. I'd love to help you out any way I can, and I'll show you the references I used. My contact info is in the appropriate thread

Wow, Zephy, you're amazing! Those references you gave were absolutely amazing too! (Especially those flash tutorials on DA...I had no idea the SAI used vectors. 0o I'll probably be using those all the time now...XD)

If you would do that, that would be amazing! I'm in weightlifting too, and it really does help! Thanks to weight lifting, I can draw shirtless guys. XDDDDD

Here's something I've been wanted to ask you; how much do you know about foreshortening and perspective? I know some things about perspective and enough foreshortening to get by, but I can't possibly do extreme angles and such, which will probably be necessary knowledge for me while animating this. ;_;

Aw, just glad I could help!

Haha! I'll tell you what though, I thought it was totally intense whenever I'd go to the gym and see these chicks that could rip me in half! In fact, My family is friends with this chick who was like a state champion body builder XD

And I guess I really don't know the specific rules about foreshortening, but I've been using that technique subconsciously. It really does go hand in hand with perspective though!

But check it: this is one wicked tutorial on perspective and composition from an amazing artist!

http://fox-orian.deviantart.com/art/Perspective-Composition-Pt-1-118068853

That is absolutely amazing. 0_0 I learned so much from that.

Where do you get all this stuff??

Oh, I guess I've just gotten good at finding what I want Google really is my best friend

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I'm kind of despairing right now though...I'm trying to get the hang of Mato's style, but so far Red's the only character I can do easily. Green's hair and eyes for some reason just allude me...as well as Blue's hair, I just can't seem to make it look like the RGB version of her.

My style is much closer to Satoshi's style, we use higher head ratios and more angular joints...while Mato's style is so simple and strange that I can't get the hang of it. ;_;

Whatever, I'll have to get better at it eventually...anyway, I'm also seeing if I can work on a big group picture for the RGB arc. Like, one that has a lot of the characters in it and we can use it as an 'ending picture' at the very end of the opening? I've only got the idea sketch down....

Oh, you'll get it for sure. You're a great artist

My advice for that is to draw from reference. Just go in and draw like a million pictures from the first arc. I think it helps if you print 'em out though.

You can also trace. Just do that a bunch and it should help out a bit.

And that sounds great! I really wanna see it >

Scratch the part about Blue, I think I got the hang of her. I just hadn't properly studied her anatomy...

And I've fully thought about it, and the art style shall be as close to Mato's as it can get, however...the fact that Mato continuously changes the proportions of characters is something we can't copy into the anime. Also, Mato tends to draw them at 4 heads tall. I can't possibly draw this, I'm too used to drawing 6 and 7 heads.

Officially, I will make sure that we consistently draw all main characters at 5 heads tall. I will try and copy Mato's style as much as I can, but sometimes things might look like Satoshi's...

Also, after doodling most of the day, I think I've discovered that I underestimate myself. I catch onto things extremely quickly, and when I look at my gallery on DeviantART, I realize exactly HOW far I have come this past year in my art skill...and you won't beleive this, but I've actually only been drawing (seriously and to improve) for less than 2 years.

I'll be able to do this...I'll get a whole ton of sketches and animations done in Mato's style, and I'll make a thread the showcase them here. I want everyone to trust me on this, that I will make sure the art in the pokemon special anime is as top-notch as possible, even if I have to do almost all of it myself!

*feels totally passionate right now*

*claps*

I trust you, girl. Give it your all!!!!

No, seriously, though, check out how much I've improved in the past year:

Here's my first ever tablet drawing. I drew it at almost this exact time last year, when I got my tablet for Hanuka. It took me 8 minutes. (I could probably do it in 1 or 2 minutes now.)

Here is my latest tablet drawing. Nearly exactly 1 year later. It took me about 4 hours.

Just looking at that, I freak myself out. XDD

Wow 0_0

That's amazing! It's so cool to look back and see how much you've improved! And for only drawing the short amount of time you have, you've got a load of talent and you're gonna continue to improve ;D

Btw, I really like that drawing of Red

X3 I like it too. I'm gonna try and do something like this for Red, Green, and Blue. =33