I Finished My First Animation for 2023. Here's What I Learned From the Process.
Sometimes things don’t go according to plan, and yet we somehow arrive at a better solution than the one we originally set our sights on. That was certainly the case with Online All Day, my first animation for 2023.
It was a simple concept: a young woman is so engrossed in online activities on her phone that she thinks of nothing else. She stays in bed while all her social activities, as well as basic necessities such as eating, are taken care of for her through use of social media and delivery apps. How can she afford to live like this? It’s easy! Her GameStop stock is helping her to pay…
But the execution was where I was dealt the biggest curveball, and yet it taught me the most important lessons of my animation career, so it all worked out in the end.
Here are some of the biggest lessons I learned from creating this animation. I’ll start with some of the more technical, project specific lessons, but then I’ll end with the more universal ones.
1.) Always test the execution first. When I first started making this animation, my intention was to draw it frame by frame on physical paper, just like what I did with Is All of It In Vain? last year. What I hadn’t planned for was just how terrible the result was going to be. (It looks like a seven year old drew it.) But I wouldn’t have wasted all that time and effort if I had drawn only some of the frames, (maybe about five seconds worth,) and tested them to make sure they really looked okay.
Even a few style frames can really show you the look and feel of it before you get too involved. Luckily, this was a personal project, otherwise it would have been painfully costly.
Below are a couple screenshots of what this earlier result looked like.
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2.) Make a traceable animatic. When I made my animatic for Online All Day, it was very loosely drawn, and the frames weren’t even consistent on there either. I just assumed I would be able to trace over the animatic frames with tighter lines even though it was drawn loosely.
Some sketchiness is okay. I don’t mean to suggest that the animatic should be 100% polished, but it should be easy to follow when tracing and drawing frame by frame.
3.) Make sure you have the right materials for the job. The paper I used was thicker than would allow for clear visibility when tracing, so it was difficult for me to animate using more than two or three sheets on the lightbox at one time. When shopping for paper the next time I do an animation like this, I will be sure to buy thinner paper. (I want it to be sturdy, so I won’t get tracing paper, but thin sketch paper should work well.) As for my pens, they had brush nibs, which fray easily. Frayed pens always make for shoddy line work, and that is easily among my artistic pet peeves. Sturdy felt tip pens don’t usually have brush tips, but it will make for somewhat thinner and more uniform lines. Those lines are less expressive, but they’re cleaner!
4.) Even if you fail, there’s a potential for growth. The above video should explain everything, but basically, failure is an opportunity to improve yourself, and all that growth and self improvement is our gift as artists. It’s an asset that only grows with each result we create.
5.) Creative problem solving can beget a result that is better than your original intent. The above video explains that as well, but the gist of it is this: I couldn’t do another frame by frame version because it would have taken too long, but I decided to make it a paper cutout animation instead. The result is not only much better looking than the hand drawn version, but it also fits the narrative much better. Symbolically, a shallow, simple-minded story can be told using equally shallow and simple materials. The character’s flat, two dimensional appearance also reflects this. There’s nothing much to her or her life. Just shallow theatrics in a shallow, simplistic environment. So what you might view as a mistake can sometimes turn out to be a blessing in disguise. It all depends on how you approach a less-than-ideal result.