on here you can share your animation tips and tricks and learn new things you didn't know before!

by tip is when using a plastercine model always make spare shoes spare hands and any other body parts because models get dirty very quickly and don't look as good as when you first made it.

thanks for looking and please leave your own tip so other people can learn to even if you read it in a book or somewhere else!

not getting my tips muhahahaha

wash you hands after touching 1 couler else the plasterine colours will mix and look rubbish.

My top tip is to use thick curtains when filming with some lamps so that you get consistent lighting throughout the filming.

My tip is to keep the light on for all the shots you take, because if you have the lights off, the pictures come out really dark, and if you turn the light off in the middle of shooting, the film looks silly.

jordan, thats not very kind, thought we were all friendly and helpfull to one another, cant see that remark as very productive

a good tip for animation. Use a rotoscope feature on your framegrabbing program, so you can compare your shots to live action shots.

on model making my tip would be, keep a packet of wet wipes at hand as they are great for cleaning up your models and its better at removing plastercine from your fingers than soap and water

my tip would be. a really good way to get your models to look really good is to get some olive oil and a thin paint brush then get just a little bit of the olive oil on the brush then paint your model with it. I know it sounds really odd but if you do it right your model will look really good!!!

Conty,

I Think I Will Use Them Tips.

Thanks!


Harry!

if the puppet falls over after animating all day, pick him up and lob him across the room then eat the set in a fit of rage. This will clearly help

wow cool! thanks guys!!!

Say,how do you make the plasticine animation puppets open and close thier eyes like that. How do you make them,wink/blink. Is it an extra layer op plasticine or what is it?

Its actually rather simple to make a figure blink. all you do is in beween takeing a pic you just add a little bit of clay over the eye then you take the pic then do the same thing over agian untill it reaches the bottom of the eye so it looks lke he has his eyes shut. then do the same process only move the clay up the eye to make him open his eye

you could keep the eyes on on 1 shot then take them off take the shot put them back and and take a shot

Do people generally use wire with their puppets or is it just good quality plasticine?

I second using thick curtains, washing yer hands a lot, and having spare body parts on hand.

another good tip with the weather getting colder, is soften the newplast in the oven for a minute on a low heat, but dont forget it otherwise it drys and crumbles, the newplast is easier to work with when its warm, conor

before you start make sure you can speed the pictures up to make it work.

Jills yes you always should have some wire or some kind of Armature to hold up your puppet and to give it memory. If you dont have one in your puppet your peaces well start falling off.

I am kinda confused about all the frame stuff bcos can you allow the movement you are trying to create go over the 24 frames oh yeah nd my tip is dont use the same floor for every set cause if u do it can get real dirty and warp

I would explain more clearly...

"I am kinda confused about all the frame stuff bcos can you allow the movement you are trying to create go over the 24 frames"

Is hard to understand. But, if I can get what you're talking about, you can shoot at a higher frame-rate of 25 or 30fps. The movement you make depends on how many frames are needed to complete it. But you need 24 frames to make 1 second of film, meaning you move your puppet 24 times to animate 1 second of footage. If you have your frame-rate set on 24 fps you cannot move the puppets any more than 24 times in a second of animation.

Its a bit of a weird question. You know what frames are right? So if you shoot on 24 fps (fps=frames per second) you obviously need to move the puppet 24 times if you are shooting on ones to get 1 second of footage.

no not necessarily, ive watched conty and you can take two frames of the same. if you are using smp you can take 12 frames per second as you can copy and paste each frame you have taken. but doing lip sync gets more confusing as you will need to take more frames depending on the sound, i dont get that bit at all but conty gets it. maybe email him he will be able to help you

Before I switched to SMP I was worried how lipsinc would work because I always lengthened the frames, but I find it really easy to use now that I have learnt!

cinders, the reason I was explaining JUST about 24fps was because it was what he mentioned. You can animate at other fps, like you gave an example of, and shoot on two's, again as you said, but he seemed interested in 24fps, thats why I only gave one example.

ops sorry nofby

Lol, no problem

I could be mistaken, but I think cinders was trying to make the point that you can shoot 24 fps in singles or doubles, and that you could take either 12 or 24 distinct shots or whatever for the same frame rate of 24. But nevermind, I've probably misunderstood

Aaah right, I didn't really understand her post. But if so, you are right, you can shoot on doubles, taking 2 frames each time so you only have to shoot 12 frames to get a second of film or shoot on singles, taking 1 frame at a time and do that 24 times to get 1 second of film.

Sorry, didn't see what you were getting at

i was trying to explain, but not very well. that even shooting 24 fps doesnt necessarily mean you have to move the puppet 24 times it would depend on what you were shooting, how fast or slow the movement is

AAAH right Now we get you. But actually, if you are shooting at 24 fps you do have to move the puppet 24 times! It dosen't matter what the movement is, 24 frames if you are shooting at 24 fps make 1 second of film. The only exception is if you use 'holds', where you take more than 1 or 2 frames to hold a pose.

I think what you're mixed up with is you don't have to move the puppet 24 times for a movement, but for a second of film, be it a movement and half way through the next or whatever.

we're getting there!!! thats what i mean, yes 24 photographs for a second of film. but not necessarily 24 movements in the model. we got there nofby. good job im not a teacher eh

Lol yes we're almost there... I read "if you are shooting at 24 fps you do have to move the puppet 24 times". Again, I'm not experienced like you are Nofby, but I thought that if ANIMATORRUA07 was shooting 24 fps in doubles, he would only have to move the puppet 12 times. It would only have to be done 24 times if it were in singles, no?

You do have to move the puppet 24 times. If shooting on 2's, 12 times. It dosen't matter what the movement/s is, if you want a smooth animated movement, you have to move the puppet each frame, otherwise the long gaps make the movement jerky. This is only if the puppet is moving of course.

That was in reply to cinders.

jills- yep, thats right.

thats what i was trying to explain!!! well done nofby

24 fps on singles- 24 frames = 1 second

24 fps on doubles- 12 frames = 1 second

Hurray!

What does that mean nofby. Does 24fps run smoother than 12 as there is more pictures?

I have replied in your other thread