Animation Tip - Have a vision!

Art tip!

When making art it can be important to have a VISION before you start your piece. If you are animating, drawing, whatever it is, spend a good amount of time just sitting and thinking about what you want to see. Imagine the final piece as best as you can, and anything where you aren't sure what you want to do, try and work through that in your mind before starting. Once you can see the whole piece from start to finish, then begin. The final piece won't look EXACTLY like it, but it will be close, and because you had a vision and road map, and took that time to block it out in your head, the stronger the piece will end up being in the end.

You obviously don't have to do this all the time, and some really cool stuff can happen when you just wing it (especially for practicing techniques) but generally it helps to have a vision first. For the 11 Second Club contests, I would listen to the audio for hours on end until I knew what the shots would be, what rigs I would use, and what the scenery would be. I would go back and forth between what I could imagine without limits, and then what I could imagine with constraints with things like available rigs and scenery, until I imagined something that was doable and fit the dialogue.

Hope this helps!