Working on the Wacom Cintiq

This week I got the project set up on a wacom cintiq 24HD at St Joost. It is a great tool and makes animating and roto-scoping more comfortable. At the beginging of the week I counted I had 32 actual animating days left till the final product must be complete. At that rate I calculated I need to animate 3 and half seconds a day at the very least. That got me a little worried until I started working on the Wacom Cintiq this week. I have animated 44 seconds over 4 days which is a better result than expected. Although the scenes I am working on are simpler and with less detail. I expect the wide shots and the lip syncing scenes to slow me down to perhaps 2 seconds a day. However using TV Paint animated brushes and being smart about using loops might also save some time later on.

The above images are of roto-scoping on the Wacom with the reference material I shot with a friends very obliging 2 and half year old and my partner who is acting the main character for me.

I also go some feedback from lecturers at St Joost on the first scenes. I think feedback as I go along can bring me fresh perspective and help in the choices I make during animating. They liked the way the first scenes are taking shape and suggested more line drawing in the later car sequences to create a unified look. They also suggested to cut back on my layers for ease of use or worse a corrupt project!  So as a safety precaution I have reduced the project size and will now animate in shorter scenes and then edit them together when they are complete. Below is a video of all the layers used to make the first 44 seconds.

Using the moving story body (which is timed to the actual sound track) helps me know for sure I am only animating what I need and in sync with the sound. It gives me more confidence that story and edits work before I commit hours and hours to drawing. At this stage I have a pretty good idea how the first scene is working so next week I look forward to beginning the car sequences keeping in mind the notes from the feedback session.