Animation Tips & Tricks, Volume I - Animation Mentor

TRACK YOUR ARCS – PART IIWell, guess what time it is?It's time to celebrate!! That's right, this is the one year anniversary of our famously rambling tips & tricks article!A year ago I thought this was going to be a three part article about planning your scenes... Knowing my tendency to ramble, oneof the fellas at work said he doubted that I could keep my "planning article" to a mere three parts. Well, here I am a year later, stillrambling on and on about all things animation, so I guess he was right!Anyway, I've been having a lot of fun writing it, and even more fun hearing back from you guys (hit me at: tipsandtricks@animationmentor.com), so it's time to sit back, reflect on a year of tips, and most of all - to celebrate! I warned you that I'd be mowingdown on fried chicken and drinking a celebratory Bacardi Anejo y coca (that's aged Bacardi, which tastes approximately 1000 timesbetter than regular Bacardi, and Coke), so that's exactly what I'm doing!In light of that, I should probably try to write fast, because if I start to get tipsy, there's no telling how long this article might get, orwhat bizarre tangency we might find ourselves pulled down... I can only guarantee true animation talk for 2 drinks, at most. If I hitdrink #3 and we're still all sitting here, there's a very real danger that we'll start talking about a lot less about animation and a lotmore about fried chicken, why I hate moths, and the dream I had last week where undercover agents were attacking me with angryattack chickens...Anyway, if you're of drinking age and want to join in with me for my One Year Anniversary celebration, you'll need the following:A glass.5 pieces of ice.1/2 can of Pepsi (or Coke, if you think Coke tastes better than Pepsi, but you're wrong)1 1/2 shots of Bacardi Anejo (or a little more, if you're feeling especially macho)Mix all of those things together, and prepare for some tasty goodness!So... First off, I want to address a few comments I got in the email last month:I heard some great tips about removing permanent maker ink from your monitor (where were you guys when I needed you!?!), sowhile I have no idea if these ideas actually work, if you find yourself with ink on your monitor (as I did), you could take Yudhatama'sadvice and try paint thinner to remove it... Or you could listen to Chad T, who found that going over his permanent marker mistakewith a dry erase marker made the ink erasable! (Great tips! Thanks!)Someone also pointed out that I should have elaborated more about using dry-erase markers on an LCD monitor. If you don't wantto draw directly on your monitor (which isn't the greatest thing for your LCD monitor, potentially), some people get a hold of a pieceof plastic, or Mylar, or a clear animation cell and attach it to their monitor with tape. When they want to draw, the simply flip thecell down in front of their monitor, track their arcs, fix their work, and then flip the cell back over their monitor. (Thanks to Jeff G forthis great idea!)And since we're in reader-feedback mode, I had a request from Jessica Duenke to send out a visual example of my bell-pull descriptionfrom last month (which she kindly neglected to mention was the most confusing description of an animation example in the history37Copyright 2008 by AnimationMentor.com. All rights reserved. This ebook may not be reprinted or distributed in electronic, print, web, or other format withoutexpress written permission.