Animation Adventures (and some new misadventures in animation, too)

I’ve been practicing my animation skills over the past week (much to my wrist’s dismay). Animation is something that’s always challenged and enticed me. Coming back to it a few years after my last attempt has been pretty fun and challenging. For anyone like me who is just starting to sharpen their skills, I cannot recommend Alex Grigg’s youtube channel enough. His teaching style is very accessible and open and it’s great to watch his process as he leads you through different concepts and exercises.

I started out by playing around with the Magic Dot exercise after watching this video. All of the following animations were fully made in Clip Studio Paint EX

Magic Dots 1 & 2

While I’m not super content with this first attempt, but I’m glad I tried my hand at it. This exercise really got me thinking about what makes motion and movement appealing. While certain parts of the movement feel smooth, others are quite jittery, and certain frames skip. Watching this again, I can tell I’m beginning to grasp timing, flow, and motion.

I like this attempt much better. It’s playful and bouncy and has that nice clean loop. I provide the dot with a challenge: the barrier of the canvas. After its initial discovery of the barrier, our little dot curiously investigates, now at a slower pace. By the third time the dot encounters the wall, it moves with purpose, transforming into a wiggly line as it crawls around the frame. By setting up the boundary for the animation and a general source of conflict, I give the dots a boundary to transgress and adapt to.

With these changes, this animation feels more like a story than just a dot moving around. Watching this, I can tell that my mind is thinking and I can see the gears turning in my head as I try to figure out what comes next in this dot’s journey. What’s more, I also opted to implement a lovely little loop in this animation.

More Complex Animations (Characters)

Glurbo’s Jump Animation

Next, I had to give animating my character, Glurbo, a shot. I just love this little guy! He’s my logo and everything. (Shameless self-promotion moment–if you like Glurbo and want to see more of him, you can find him in my 12-page fully illustrated comic zine Let the Light In! I’m not selling it online yet, but be sure to catch me at an art fair to snag one. I’ll probably post it here later this year.)

I set out wanting to practice Squash and Stretch in this animation. After watching Griggs’ explanation of the subject here, I wanted to give it a shot. (I’m hoping to give Overshoot a shot next, it’s sort of present here, but only very clumsily so.) I’m already seeing a lot of growth here. I love his expressions when he’s hanging in the air and his pitiful grimace as he squashes down. Very cute. Again, I opted for a loop.

Mima Animation

This next animation is of Mima/Rumi from the animated classic film Perfect Blue. I really wanted a challenge here, and I definitely got one. I’m still refining all the coloring and line details but I’m satisfied with the cells themselves and the motion. I figured that the switch between outfits and expressions would give me a great opportunity to practice transitions. I worked very hard for this to not be clunky and I think the effort shows.

The speed paint video is up on my Tiktok account and I’ll be sure to post the final result after I’m off wrist rest.

Lessons from this Animation

What am I happy with in this animation? Where have I grown?
I am very proud of the animation cells and their progression. I’m also happy with the switch between outfits, especially the transition of the bows and the tights/socks. I had originally planned for the color swap to take place gradually, but this endeavor was a lot of effort for an ugly payoff. The dress’ swift color swap paired with the gradual changes of more minor elements of the outfit is much cleaner. Because of the time I sunk into the gradual change I ended up disliking, I learned that abrupt transitions have an important place in an animator’s toolkit and that sometimes simplicity is best.

Where does this animation need work?
Her expression and her eyes are jittery. While the overall position of the figure and outfit elements are great, the facial features move too much. Because of this, the animation lacks the consistency of the character I’d like to see. Luckily, this issue can hide behind the opening/closing movement, but when I look at the animation frame by frame, it really shows.

I wish I had detailed the skirt better and opted to shade more, so this is naturally part of my next steps for this animation. That awkward little flash at the end of the loop is actually a more detailed and refined version of its original cell. Here’s a quick peek at cell #11. More to come on that after I rest my wrist for a while.

Takeaways from these Animations and Next Move

I think I’m going to keep playing with animation for a while. I’m eager for my wrist to feel better so I can get back to work. I definitely need to work on wrist strength and taking breaks more frequently. I’m happy to work on mastering a medium right now. Since I’m not taking any classes on art this semester, I need something to get my brain moving and active. Animation is pushing me out of my comfort zone and really asking how far I’m willing to go. I like that a lot.

My next goal is to animate a character of mine, Lily, turning her head from left to right. We’ll see how it goes. I’m also hoping to refine some of these to add to my portfolio page.