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How to make your Mine-Imator animation the best it can be.

Popboy8

By Popboy8,
in Tutorials, tips and tricks

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Popboy8

Popboy8 818

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Hello, I've seen animations on the forums, some are good, some are.. not so good, so I thought I could help the community improve on the animations. I'm not saying that anyone is bad, it's just that I just came to realization. If we stop animating until 1.0.0 to make our animations better, we could just keep on using it now to make our first 1.0.0 animation even BETTER. And now 1.0.0 is out, you can experiment with it. Please try all the new features! So I've decided to make a topic to help all of you improve your animations. I'm sorry if you feel like you didn't need to read this, but just go on. This is more like a "tip" than a "trick".

All the tips are in here:

 

Tips on how to make your animation smooth:

- Pick a tempo that you can animate around and start animating. This will be important to do because you want your animation to not be too fast at one point and too slow at another point

 

- After every little bit of animating, re-play it to make sure it matches up with the rest of the animation, if not, go back and fix it.

 

- Use transitions! Transitions can make your animation smooth or not smooth. Human-like movements are "ease in and ease out" Keyframes can also make you experiment, so if you want a door to slowly close, you could try slowly "ease out" to make it creepy, and you'd probably experiment how long it takes for the door to close, to see what works best.

(Note: Transitions were improved in 1.0.0, there are many more. Try experimenting!)


- Zeuxs' way to make it the perfect tempo when rendering is AWESOME. right before rendering, go to his topic: Click here!   It's great! And it still works in 1.0.0!

 

Tips on how to make a good animation in general:

- Look on the forums, there are MANY MANY animations already made. Look at the good ones. What makes them good? Think about it.. and see how you can make something as good as it.

 

- What are your weaknesses? Try to improve on them to balance out the weaknesses and the strengths. It'll make your animation better.

 

- Try ALL the cool features. 1.0.0 Specifically. They have a LOT of them, so why not experiment before you make an animation?

 

- Give feed back! Give a little feedback, get a little feedback. Otherwise it can be fairly rude to the community.

 

Tips on how to make your animation efficiently:

- Have sessions from animating. I usually have several 1-2 hour sessions, make sure to save it! This is probably the most efficient way to animate and get it done

 

- Make sure to have fun while animating, don't get bored! Get inspiration to animate.

 

- Follow the storyboards correctly. If something needs to be changed, see if it'll fit in the animation. Only don't use a storyboard if it's a quick/test animation. Element animation had a great one. Here's a picture from their website: http://i.imgur.com/b2KYh6a.png

 

- When animating, try to follow the storyboards as accurately as possible. If you need to change something like a camera angle, then change it and see if it'll work out. If something big, go to the tip above.

 

Tips on how to use rigs effectively:

(note: A rig is where you take something (a block, item, etc.) and take another one and put them together to make something awesome!)

 

- Look on the forums for the rig you need. For the steve rig, Zeuxs' rig is probably the best in my opinion. It's fairly easy to use, and looks great!

 

- If there are multiple rigs, look at each one and see which one is the one you'd like in your animation. It should not be very hard to use.

 

- Do not forget to give credit! It's mean, and you could get a warning point/trouble, etc.

 

- If you need a specific rig, try making your own rig! Try practicing with all the features (including shapes) to get the rig you want. This can also have a better result because you'll probably be able the picture the rig you want in your head, but no one else can. Also it can take up their time of animating their stuff sometimes.

 

Tips on how to make a good story line:

- Get some inspiration! An animation needs inspiration. Find it, weather it's a flower pot, or by a painting, just wait for inspiration to strike!

 

- Get the idea of what will happen. The main idea for the animation is more like a description. It'll help you stay on track.

 

- Here's the most important part. Draw the storyboard. It shows what will happen in the animation, like a comic strip, with arrows to show motion, show how the camera will react, and show what the characters will do.

 

- Look at it and see if you can animate it, if you can, then go with it. If you can't, then try something else.

 

- Don't put anything impossible in the storyboard! Only things you can animate.

 

Tips on how to not be lazy:

(note: I've seen many people not do things because they're lazy, and it's a very bad habit throughout life.)

 

- When animating, if you feel like you don't want to animate and you think you're starting to get lazy at all, save it and come back to it later, when you're not lazy, or bored.

 

- Why are you getting lazy? Is it because it's too hard? If you're trying to do something that is hard (like positioning a block exactly) then keep trying, or try again later. I played a hard video game, and I played a level at night I couldn't beat. I got it at one try in the morning.

 

- If you wish to not be lazy and you don't feel like getting up, then suddenly jump, then get to it! If you have no energy, sleep at night.

 

- be motivated! Try to enjoy the fun parts in animating, and when it renders, sit back, relax, and be glad at your hard work.

 

Tips on how to find inspiration:

- Think of a genre, want to make an animation about horror, survival, an adventure, a re-make of something, or a sequel to something? Think about it, then go to the next tip.

 

- What exactly would you want it to be about? Look on Google Images to look for inspiration. For example, for horror, think of something scary.. high roller coasters? look it up on Google, and there might be a picture that you would like to re-make in mine-imator and make an animation about people on a roller coaster? You'd have your backbone for the animation already!

 

- Walk around your house, and look at an object for a while. Study it. What nice animation would be relating to a flower pot, etc? Keep staring until you have inspiration and the desire to animate something related to that. It may sound crazy, but it works!

 

- Inspiration doesn't come quickly. It takes time. Be creative, patient, and take in everything around you.

 

- Are you looking for inspiration? Or are you just too tired/lazy.You know this comes when you WANT to animate but there's nothing TO animate.

 

- This is a tip ONLY if everything else didn't work. Make a topic asking for animation ideas/inspiration. Then wait for people to respond. Also look at other topics, but only use idea's that haven't been made People would probably like something original.

 

(Note: When you have an idea, WRITE IT DOWN!! So you won't forget it.)

 

Tips on how to edit your animation (With another editing program after it renders):

- Find a software to use. I use window's movie maker, but it's not the best. This person uses Pinnacle studio, and another person uses this adobe video editor, find the one that's right for you!

 

- Before animating, think about what you're going to add with the video editor. Effects, text, black and white? Music? Sound effects?

 

- Try different features on the video editor. There should be different features, try them all and see which on looks best!

 

- For music, try to find online music that would match the scene. There should always be something.

 

- For sound effects, there should be something online for minecraft sound effects. Download it, and try to perfectly match the time in the video editor.

 

Tips on how to master a specific thing:

(note: When you want to master a specific thing, you're improving your other skills just a little.)

 

- Look around at other's animations. They might have done the thing that you're trying to do. Look at it and see how they do it, now you try! Except do it in a comfortable way if their's is not comfortable.

 

- Practice it over and over again. Then see how much you've improved on it. One of the most simple steps to being good at something.

 

- If it's a rig, look around and see people use that rig. See what they do and why it looks good.

 

Tips on how to get characters in a good pose:

- To see if you are good or not, try making a wallpaper with many characters in it. Then pose them all.

 

- Try to get it to the exact X,Y,Z. You can do this by clicking on the circle, and scrolling up or down.

 

- Try different poses for a character, one may not be to good, while the other one could be better, and when you see it, it'll make your animation all the more better. 

 

- The pose can vary depending on the camera angle, try making it so it looks best in the camera's point of view.

 

- You need to use bending. Bending is a way to give your character more depth. You have the option to have characters with round or sharp bends. Go to "settings" and somewhere in there you should see that the default bending is sharp or smooth. Or select the arm and go to "Graphics" > Round bending.

 

Tips on how to successfully Lip sync:

- Find a rig with a very customizable mouth. You'll need it for making the mouth movements.

 

- Try to animate the character say the first word. Then play it back and try to talk with the character, if it doesn't feel right, then change it.

 

- When it's done, put it all together. It's better to take it word-by-word.

 

- Repeat until it's complete, then play it back to make sure it looks like the character is actually saying something, and there's a life inside the animation.

 

- Zeusx is almost Mandatory. His rig would be good, and his correct tempo topic helps right before rendering it. Click here to go to it!

 

Tips on how to do a walk/run cycle:

- There are many different possibilities to make one, try which one works best for you!

 

- It should be fairly easy to make over-and over again. It's so you can make it continue for a longer time.

 

- Try to use bending, PLEASE use bending, unless you're limping.

 

- Look at other people's cycles, why do they look good?

 

- Move the torso, head, and arms while the character is walking to make realistic movements.

 

- Try to make the legs touch the ground, and not move when put on the ground. Otherwise it'll look all.. wrong.

 

- Practice! Practice to get better at everything.. including this!

 

- Try to make him/her run/walk at a normal speed, like in real life, unless you have an animation about demons and wizards in a castle or something to that effect.

 

Tips on how to come up with an original idea:

(Note: I've seen people copy ideas.. and I just think making something original will lead to less hate. Don't copy.)

 

- What idea's are over used?, like Willcraft's monster school. Come up with something different.

 

- Ask questions! If it's a series, what characters will there be? Will you be able to continue episodes for a while? Will there be seasons? etc.

 

- Don't copy anything related. like a witch school, ugly school, creeper school, etc.

 

- What are your interests? Do you like wizards, space, trains, doctor who, creepypasta, soup, or just plain minecraft? Pick something you like and use THAT as a start-up for your original idea.

 

- Take your interests and paste it into "Google Pictures". Try looking through it to get some inspiration to come up with an original idea. Don't scroll too far down though! Pancakes might turn into Obama's bathroom!

 

- Try to "assemble the team" before making it. Will you have voice actor's? People from the forums? etc. This is called a collaboration (Collab). Posting on the forums would be a nice option, but if you're looking for other people with different talents, then try looking on different websites.

/spoiler]

 

Tips on how to use lighting to it's full potential:

(Note: Lighting is improved in 1.0.0, along with shadows, so the best thing to do is place a tiny point light around each light source, like a torch. You'd need 4. Warning: Lights WILL start to lag if you put too many. Know where to put a point light and a spot-light.)

 

- What kind of scenery are you on? It changes dramatically where you are in the mine-imator universe. If it's outside on a nice day, why not just let the sun do it's work, and add a little light above the characters? Or when it's scary in your home, you could have the house have little torches, with red light and white light everywhere. Think about it, and see what would go best with it.

- Don't over-do it with just 1 bright light, make several dimmer lights and put them in different parts of the room, or scenery.

- You can make lights move, so use it when you need too. Like if Steve is holding a torch while walking home, you would move the torch light along with Steve and the actual torch.

- Try practicing flickering lights. Make a light go out, then you can make the light increase and decrease quickly, and they're transitions in lights, so it's all good.

- Put lights in only places where you think something should give off light. Would the light also be red, blue, yellow, green, etc? You can also change the light color to make it a DISCO PARTY. An example is provided in the 0.6.2 folder > Animations.

 

- Try messing around under "Settings" > "Render". There's different shadow options there. It's really good for setting the mood in a scene or for making wallpapers with a specific kind of shading needed. After doing this, your animation can and will look MUCH better.

 

Tips on how to make a decent storyboard:

- Under the boxes, if you're having any kind of text, talk, or something like that, write down who said it and what they're saying.

 

- In the pictures, you might want arrows showing movement so you know what it's going to be like.

 

- For every picture, make it what the camera would see, so you know what the final product of the animation will mostly look like.

 

- When you put something in there. Think if you can actually do this in mine-imator. If you think you may or may not, PROVE IT. It can lead to a turning point and devastation and crumpled paper all over the house.

 

- It should be around a minute long for each piece of paper. But it can vary depending on the animation.

 

- There is no wrong way to do a storyboard. We're all unique, and interpret it in our own ways. If you want to, ignore this and do it your own way!

 

 

Feedback?

 

 

And remember, DO NOT be lazy, when people say: "Yeah I know about that but I was just too lazy to fix it"

 

I just basically hear them say: "Yeah I know about that but I didn't want to make my animation better so I didn't fix it"

Again, I said "Sorry if you feel like you didn't need to read this", but I hope that I helped you make your animation better, and the best any animation possible can be.

 

David and Ayhay liked this :o, well, it's never needed to like this topic, but it is appreciated.

 

(You can also ask for something that's not up there by messaging me!)

Edited by Popboy8
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Popboy8

Popboy8 818

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Are my animations on of the 'good' ones?  :teehee:

 

I'm no judge, but they're pretty good.

no, lets get to 50!

um.. ok :)..

 

anyway, tell me what I should add next or how to improve in this.

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Popboy8

Popboy8 818

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I have sonmething to say to you, Why your using BethanyFrye's Skin

My friend is stealing her skin because she thinks it's "COOL"... we share an account. Only 1 of us could get one.

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