The 3D animation industry is becoming increasingly popular and firms are crying out for skilled animators. There are numerous opportunities for outsourcing, employment, revenue generation, and business growth. However, in order to make a career or an animation project profitable, animators have to be skilled in creating high-quality animation fast.
Respectable animators should aim for higher-quality results by bringing characters and objects to life in an engaging and emotive way. And this can be time-consuming. Fortunately, there are some neat industry techniques that will help speed up the time it takes you to complete an animation process from start to finish.
This article looks at some key tips and tricks to help you create animation fast.
Determine the type of character you need
Planning the type of character you need to create will help you paint a bigger picture quicker. You need to know what your characters will look like, how they will move talk and behave.
The first step of the animation process is to determine the objective of the video. Is it a short advertisement, a video game, an in-house training video for business, or even a movie?
What goal does your character have to achieve? Write the goal down and put it somewhere you can see it. Then try to visualise the type of character that is best suited to achieve that goal.
When determining the type of character to create for your animation, consider your audience. What type of character will they be most responsive to? What will your character wear, how will they move? Will your character be human or a cute little animal?
Define how your characters will move?
Good character designs for animated videos have clear shapes that connect and flow together intuitively. When a character moves across the screen, the viewer should see a smooth, fluid motion. The problem for animators is that hitting the tracking sweet-spot involves guesswork and can take up a lot of time adjusting the number of points to track. You can cut out a lot of tedious work by focusing on the large movements first. Flag up all the points on your script where the character could or requires movement and highlight where your character will be most animated. You can also try to work in repetitive motions such as walking or cycling, which enables you to simply copy-paste the motion on to subsequent slides.
Optimise Your Folders
Knowing where your resources are stored and being able to find them quickly can save a considerable amount of time. Not only is it easy to find the animations you want to use, but it also helps you to maintain a solid rhythm that enables you to get things done. Organise your folders into sound effects, music, picture, video, character, objects etc, and then create relevant subfolders that break these categories into bite-size chunks. For example, sub-folder for objects could be tools, streets, offices etc.
Animation Tangents and Curves
A lot of time is spent placing keyframes in an animation video. When there are multiple keyframes running all over the place, it can be difficult to maintain control and the end product can feel angular and clogged. Using animation tangents and curves gives you more control and flexibility over motion. Not only does this make the appearance of your 3D animated video great to watch, but it also means less time is spent tweaking keyframes until you get it right.
Learn Hotkeys Formulas
If you haven’t already got a command of hotkeys, it’s worth taking the time to learn animation fast-tracks. Trust us, you will find it saves you a lot of time moving forward. You don’t have to revise hotkeys parrot-fashion like you’re learning the time’s tables again. On the contrary, learn as you work, and on a project-by-project basis. Again, it helps to write hotkeys down and pin them to the wall or in an accessible notepad that you have with you wherever you’re working from. The more flow you bring to the animation process, the more you build up momentum – and this is key to creating animated video efficiently and profitably.
It’s no secret that 2D and 3D animated video is the marketing vehicle of choice among today’s businesses. And that means talented video animators are in high demand. If you’ve got the creative skills to be a successful animator, you have the potential to earn a good living. However, time is money so you need to be able to create high-quality animated videos fast.
Do you want to know more about how engaging and immersive animation can help your marketing and corporate communications? Drop us an email at info@sbanimation.com.
