Animation considerations

Been getting back into the swing of animating things again! I learned a lot on my last movie but it wore me out! So I'm finally getting the chance to revisit and revise my process. heres some new stuff im noticing:

drawing and animating is all about practice. i think theres a n anxiety about doing the work to animate in modern day, because we have a lot of computer shortcuts that make it accessible, and so we automatically assume that they are the best way to create "the art" because of this, but in practice this creates a lot of out of practice animators, people who are given the task of officiating direction to others but who rarely get  or have rarely been given the chance to animate for themselves. or they havent since school. but i find the easiest way to fix problems is to draw them! the more you do it the quicker and more confident you are, and pencils are very versatile tools. it costs like one or two bucks for a great pencil! film is fakery and in its simplicity is where you will find effective work

drawing everything on the same paper is very important. tracing is the name fof the game, start to finish. drawing storyboards on your animation paper means you ca n exaggerate and refine them easily. you can draw a board and move right into animation! tho its better if you have a layout stage. i jump sometimes into background painting and exaggerate the layout in that but i think good layouts important. i do this alone but a group would be better.

note also! i say teacings what its about and thats true but dont ever trace just lines (outlines) exactly, its always gotta be in service of exaggerating or developing or understanding the form. easier to do on paper i think...and again easier with a group of people! a good geoup makes all the difference.

something ive been doing: i dont have a peg bar so im just lining up the paper by hand, which is fairly easy! works fine, and it  adds a special perk: you can now use more than the frame of the paper. if you make sure to add registration marks, you can basically do anything with the paper. this i think is harder to do in a group than it is alone but if your notes are clear i say try it! also no pic bc:spoilers

gouache is a great media for background painting, easy to work with and correct, vibrant color, cheap, versatileversatile, i could go on. ive been making about one painting a day, depending on complexity. heres one!

i read a book halfway by dead maurice noble and it had some great design ideas.....his work on bambi is really inspiring. i love seein that old paintwork! these guys were fine artists doin this, animation school didnt exist because they invented animation

im also inspired by terrytoons backgrounds here theyre always very weirdly beautiful and detailed, i suspect because new york was full of great painters for hire that could render cartoon images for cheap. gandy goose and sourpuss have lots of clouds randomly everywhere because they are always dreaming. is this fight a dream????? i dont know, possibly

anyway: next time: the space jam post i swear to god, i got at least....three things to say about space jam