Traditional Animation 3 Final: My Workflow Pre-Production to Rough Pass

Traditional Animation 3 is officially over. It was a hell of a semester.

For this final assignment we had to animate along with an audio track and I chose an audio piece by Abbott and Costello. I have only heard their 'Who's on First' bit a couple of times and never seen any of their actual video. The audio was great cause the voices had a lot of personality and energy in it which I knew would make it fun to animate to.

Two weeks ago I uploaded the animatic of what I was going to do and for the non-artists here, what comes next is pages and pages of thumbnails, X-sheets (which are sheets vital to the animator to use for timing - example below) and reference footage. I went ahead and filmed about 9 takes of each man's dialogue and picked out the ones I liked. Then I took my own acting as inspiration in a new set of thumbnails and from there you make your key drawings.

So here it is in order of what the process was starting way back from character design:

 The inspirations:

 The polished designs:

 Facial Expressions:

 Final Altered Designs:

The First thumbs:

 Hand Gestures:

My own reference acting:

Altered Thumbs:

Alas to the FIRST video with the Key Poses:

Keys & Breakdowns (And the beginning of inbetweens):

To the final which was the rough pass:




So there is my workflow! Traditional and my CG are way different so on the next CG project I will post what it is exactly that I do. And please link me yours if you want to share. Perhaps there is something better out there that you can instill in me that I have yet to learn (and we can pass on to others).

Some people asked what my workstation looks like and this is normally how I have things mid project:

And my professor actually gave great advice on having a good ergonomic workspace. I got some severe wrist cramps during this project and his advice was awesome and helped alleviate a lot of pain. For example lift your light board. As you can see in the photo I threw a few animation books underneath to give it a lift. I added a foam pillow under my chair for comfort and to help give my knees a 90 degree angle with my feet firmly on the ground. Feet on the ground in turn helped my remind myself to sit with my back straight up (a horrible habit of many of us). 

And lastly my own two cents on good/healthy workareas: If you need coffee or soda to help keep you awake, I get it - its a short term solution to meeting deadline, but do NOT rely on them too much! Use ice cold water, eye drops and push ups to keep you awake. Its way healthier and at the end of a long long project and sleepless nights the last thing your body needs is junk it now has to filter out of your stomach.
I ate a lot of junk food and take out cause it was quick and easy and helped me get back to work quickly but again this comes at a cost.

I changed it up a bit, I would to the store and bought some frozen food (Pizzas and Lasganas etc). I cooked them at the start of the day and it was enough food to last me the day. A) I did not waste time leaving to buy food. B) I saved money. C) It is not healthy by any means but it is the less of two evils if compared to fast food.

Another week I made chow mein and pastas. I mean entire pot fulls. I saved the leftovers in tupperware and just grabbed it when I needed it and went back to work.

(One more piece of advice from my Professor) Breaks: Breaks are good for you! Discipline yourself to work a solid 30-60 minutes and then take a break. Get up walk outside, play a quick game of frisbee or football (my personal choice with the roommates), grab food or water. If you mentally need a break you can watch some tv or read a book but do not get too far removed from your work mode. Its important that you keep your ideas and energy up and alive for the project. For me its hard to get to a good creative mindset, so when I am finally there I do not let it slip away. I will take short breaks but dive right back into it. When I feel myself gearing down out of that creative mode then i will take a longer break and mentally walk away for an hour or two.

So, figure out what works for you and STICK TO IT. Create a routine and discipline yourself. When you do it a few days in a row it will start stick and not feel like prying teeth anymore.



What's next?

Next up I am working on another audio piece, much shorter this time, as well as clean up pass for this project. Til next time guys.

Thanks for reading. Happy Animating.

Neil