Some Amateur Advice

Hey All!
So as I mentioned at the top of the class a few weeks back, I've been working as a freelance animator for the past 3 years. While I'm no where near a professional level I do think I've learned a few things during my time that might be helpful to those who might want to further explore animation as a medium. Here's a little piece that I put together a few years back if you guys want a better sense of the kinds of things I've worked on:

This project took around 30 hours to complete.

The Software

With the exception of some light After Effects work, I animate exclusively in Flash CS3. This version of flash came out a few years ago, but it's one that many animators still use today. It's got everything you need to produce quality animations, and it's got one of the widest library of plugins of any version of flash. 

That being said the program is a RAM hungry monster and will very often crash on you without warning. So make sure that whenever your working with flash, you save twice as often as you would in any other program.

The Hardware

As Professor Arturo mentioned earlier, if you're hoping to do any sort of design work you're going to need to get yourself a drawing tablet. I picked up my Wacom Bamboo fun around 4 years ago, and it's still going strong. If the pricetag is above what you're willing to spend then I'd advise working primarily on the Cintiq's in 168, they're top of the line and used by almost every full time animator I know and on top of that they are super cool. 

ALSO. While it's not essential for animating, I'd seriously consider purchasing your own condenser microphone. If you;re in a pinch and need to crank out some last minute foley having something like a Blue Snowball mic is incredibly handy.

The Work

There will be a lot of it, it will last forever, and it will be very tedious! However don't let that deter you! Once you get into the swing of things it's actually very relaxing to spend an after noon with a cup of tea, turn your higher functioning off, put on some beegees and let you lizard brain do the work. 

The best thing you can do to hone your skills as a novice is practice, but the SECOND best way is to watch tutorials online. Even if you;re only really half paying attention, you can learn a lot about how to better work your work flow when you're able to watch the way others work.

Here is a link to a great set of tutorials I put together a few years back, they're all about flash animation but they're really easy to follow and presented in a beginner friendly way. 

Tutorials: http://digifinch.tumblr.com/post/60180406538/for-people-who-want-more-help-than-i-can-give

That's all I can give you guys for now, but so often I find myself completely changing the way Iwork because of tricks or time saving plugins I've found. 

Have awesome weekend guys!

Perceptions of the Eye

I have been told that drawing is not about any particular skill or talent, but rather sight and perspective. I recently purchased a wacom tablet to help with animating from the computer. After having set up all the applicable software, I was ready to draw. At first, I was simply doodling, drawing smiley faces or writing my name. I found the technology and the apps that cater to it to be really fun and intuitive. However, when I attempted to actually try to draw something with a little more substance, I found myself really struggling. The tablet itself does not show anything that you've drawn on its surface; all of that appears on the computer screen. So while drawing with a pen and paper has a natural connection with the eye and the hand, that connection is broken when drawing on the tablet. I often found myself looking at the screen as a frame of reference, and my hand would get confused and not do what I wanted it to do. Even when I tried to trace an object, my creation came out less than beautiful. I don't blame the technology or the hardware for this problem, it's all on me. I think that just getting used to a new way of looking at something will be challenging and difficult to accomplish, but I'm certainly looking forward to trying .