Animation scripts are essential for creating dynamic and interactive animations. However, they can also be a source of errors that can ruin your final product. How do you test and debug your animation scripts before publishing? Here are some tips and tools to help you ensure your scripts work as intended.
A code editor is a software that helps you write, edit, and debug your animation scripts. It can highlight syntax errors, suggest code completion, and provide debugging features. Some popular code editors for animation scripting include Visual Studio Code, Sublime Text, and Atom. Choose one that suits your preferences and supports your scripting language.
Before you publish your animation, test your scripts in a preview mode that simulates how they will run in the final output. This way, you can check if your scripts are working correctly and producing the desired effects. Most animation software, such as Adobe Animate, Blender, and Unity, have a preview mode that can be accessed from the menu or toolbar.
If animating for the web, be sure to test your animations in every browser that your enterprise wants to support. What may look great in Chrome, might not look right in Firefox or etc.
Breakpoints and console logs are useful tools for debugging your animation scripts. Breakpoints allow you to pause the execution of your script at a specific line and inspect the values of your variables and expressions. Console logs allow you to print messages or values to a console window that you can view while running your script. Use breakpoints and console logs to identify where and why your script is failing or behaving unexpectedly.
A debugger tool is a software that helps you find and fix errors in your animation scripts. It can provide more advanced features than breakpoints and console logs, such as stepping through your code line by line, setting watch expressions, and changing variable values on the fly. Some examples of debugger tools for animation scripting are Chrome DevTools, Visual Studio Debugger, and PyCharm Debugger. Use a debugger tool to examine and modify your script in real time.
Comments and documentation are important for writing clear and maintainable animation scripts. Comments are lines of text that you can add to your script to explain what it does, why it does it, or how it does it. Documentation is a separate file or website that describes the purpose, structure, and functionality of your script. Use comments and documentation to help yourself and others understand and modify your script.
Finally, test and debug your animation scripts by seeking feedback and advice from other animators, programmers, or users. Share your animation or script online, ask for suggestions or opinions, or join a community or forum related to your animation software or scripting language. Incorporate feedback and advice to improve your script, learn from others, and discover new solutions.
Storyboarding to me is one of the essential ways of testing a script. From there you can create a “like a” reel which also helps to lock your timing usually using a temp audio track with dialogue and music. Having worked in Maya and the team that developed that 3D software you can estimate your costs at between 60-100K per minute depending on the amount of elements. That means everything from props,sets to particle effects such as wind or rain. At this point you can generally estimate your total cost. So after spending 60K you should have a good cost estimate for a short animation. Character modelling and key frames come next then usually an animatic.