I first decided I wanted to become an animator when I was very young. I always wanted to make my own Nintendo games and cartoons. Whenever I had a pack of Post-Its it would turn into a flipbook, usually of a stick figure man getting drunk, crawling into his car, and.. for whatever reason, zooming off of a ramp into a brick wall. It never mattered to me if my animations would get popular or not, because I was doing them strictly for my own benefit. It's how I would come to record my ideas, like how a lot of people use diaries, I would use art. That way, I could convey the most appropriate emotions my characters would be feeling.
It's more like a night's work with me, because that is when my mind is able to relax and get into the right mood to start working. It's nice and quiet, and no one is around to interrupt me. A successful night is one where I have a seemingly limitless amount of time, so I'm not getting frazzled if I make a mistake. There is no real order to what I do.. whenever an idea comes to mind, it gets recorded and I start to work on it as soon as it's convenient to. Some nights, I will just sketch, other nights, it's just a long process of putting my images into the computer, but most commonly it will be a little bit of everything; doodling while the scanner is going, scribbling down dialogue while coloring, or maybe just having a conference in my mind as to whether the present idea is worthwhile or not, and if not, how to change that.
Absolutely any program you can find, I urge you to learn. Having variety, and thus options, will boost your potential. After all the time I've known you, and how familiar I've become with your style, I would recommend two programs. Flash, and unFREEz. Flash, being the single most common program chosen by young and seasoned animators alike, is fairly simple enough to learn. Due to its popularity, the Interweb offers a wealth of guides and suggestions for beginners and proffessionals. unFREEz is a bit of freeware, very compact and incredibly simple. Not all animation is flashy gradients and Samurai-style action.. there are also simple tasks such as making a little blinky eye icon for your message board. Believe it or not, you can pay a few small bills by offering custom blinky eyes. Success is fueled by necessity.. and sometimes with customers, you'll find that simplicity is the key.
Personally, I prefer to animate my characters. I feel that by making strong personalities, rather than showy swirls and flashes, is how to go about getting noticed. Special effects do have their place, but as the word itself says, they should be kept to special occassions. When you use them, make them dazzle, and keep you're audience hoping to see more. Let it be a treat, time it right, and they'll keep coming back
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quarterly project 2 : find a career.
and mines all yea..
Yep.
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