Here’s the first fruits of your labor, those of you who graciously and generously have supported Hubris on Patreon.
When I was in college, I went to a local cartoonist (Mr. Scott Stantis) and asked for advice. He was generous with his time and attention, and I asked how to repay him. He said, “Pass it on.” And so when a young man who wants to become an animator came asking for advice, I told him what I could about how things work with ad agencies and the kind of people I know who hire animators. He’s created a couple of Hubris animations so far, and this is the latest. Could you help him out, too? Take a look at the animation. Comment about what you like and don’t like. Be kind, but explain what you’re seeing or not seeing. I reckon you’ll be seeing a lot more of Eddie’s work.
Needs a few more frames/second or to shorten the amount of action/movement between frames. All over good but a little too jerky in execution. Tell him to keep drawing/framing, the potential is there!
Storyboard.
Either draw out the storyboard for the main key frames (starting scene, enter Hubris, Hubris juggles his name, the letters start falling, the letters are gone and Hubris remains) or write out the action in words. Either way, use this to establish the timing point for point through the sequence. Once you have the timing, make sure that the 3 or 4 motion elements sync up – Hubris’ legs and feet with the unicycle center line and peddles; Hubris’ hands with the letters, and the letters with Hubris’ peddling and movement across the rope. Right now, Hubris’ hands aren’t under the letters to catch them as they fall, and the rising movement of the letters doesn’t match Hubris’ hands when they make the throws. The rope bouncing and stretching isn’t aligned with where the unicycle is along the rope.
I’d say that right now, Hubris is moving on 4’s or 8’s, while the letters are on 2’s. Add 2 or 3 inbetweens for Hubris while keeping the same overall playback time (instead of 8 frames per second, make it 12 or 16 frames per second).
The artwork looks very good, and the concept is workable. The next step is timing and sync. And, if you want to shoot for the gold, play with squash and stretch on the arms and hands, and vary the action a little bit. Having Hubris’ hands move in a fixed cycle for the entire sequence looks mechanical. It’s easier to animate if you have a “walk cycle”, but that doesn’t look as natural. Finally, give Hubris’ face something to do; it’s static throughout the sequence. Have his eyes blink, or his mouth open/close a bit to imply that he has to breathe.
But, as I say, the concept overall is good.