How was it to Animate on Photoshop?
I forgot how long it takes to animate something. This 5-second animation took me two days to create!!! :b
Most of my initial time was spent troubleshooting and getting used to the interface. I have done 2D animation in the past. I’ve done hand-drawn animation, flash (which is awful to work with) and animatics on Storyboard Pro.
Animation using Photoshop based on a previous illustration.
With Photoshop working with the video keyframe was difficult since you have to pre-draw all the transitions in order for the animation to move smoothly. Also, the human body is always so difficult since there are so many parts that have to move in sync.
I ended up doing this short animation frame by frame so that I could be more in control of how long an image would be seen. This is also similar to how I worked when creating my Stop-Motion Animation. Also, I drew each body part on a separate layer as well as the backgrounds. That way I could work with multiple layers and move each one separately.
What I may try another time is to create all the body parts on a separate layer so I can move them like puppets before tracing and drawing them on the video keyframe layer. This may help the animation to be more smooth. The other thing I want to try is to create the whole animation in a painterly way, closer to the original illustration.
This is an animatic I did on Storyboard Pro, called Josie and the Pheonix Feather (based on the Grimm Brothers’ story Jorinda and Jorindel. FYI this animatic still took me a month to do from sketch concept to the final.
The one thing that I have yet to figure out is how to have a camera frame on Photoshop. On Storyboard Pro, you have the camera frame, which controls how one views the incoming image or moves with the character as needed. Sometimes you can create the illusion of movement by moving the camera and not the image.
Is 2D Animation more difficult than Stop-Motion?
The one thing with 2D animation is that you have to draw each moment as its own drawing. This takes a considerable amount of time and pre-planning. Here is a simple object Stop Motion I did in undergrad using the program Dragon Frame. What makes this animation easier is that the object is already formed and moves in a particular way. This form of Stop Motion allows you to create a story with movements already in place, instead of having to build characters as well as its movement.
Finally, finding the right soundtrack is very important in telling the story as well.