# Better animation software, also tips and hints



## Smelge (Mar 1, 2011)

I've been doing basic animations for years in Photoshop/imageready, but I feel that I've reached the limits of the software. The FPS is far too low for my liking, and I want to try and produce smoother animation.

The kind of stuff in the following example is simple stuff. It took about 20 minutes to cobble together once I'd drawn the rough character. But even with no interval between frames, there is still a noticeable pause.







I've used Flash in the past at college, and have it on CD, but I really, really hated it.
I've got ToonBoom studio somewhere, but I haven't even looked at it, so I don't know if it's any good.
I've also go Smith micro AnimeStudio software kicking about my HDD from when they were giving it away for free, but again, it's software I don't want to start using and then find out it's shit.

Second, given that animation above, is there anything I should be concentrating on, or improving. Critique it or whatever.

Ta.


----------



## Ixtu (Mar 1, 2011)

http://www.doink.com
It's worth a try i guess.


----------



## Arshes Nei (Mar 2, 2011)

http://www.giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.com/monkeyjam/download.html

Easytoon is also fun for pencil work, because you want to get into the basic animation drawing and not worry about the fluff.


----------



## Oxa (Mar 3, 2011)

Gif Movie Gear has onion layers...

But only for the 'align/ move frame' feature. Which is decent for correcting jittery animation caused by *minor* parts of the image such as feet, moving out of the line-of-motion..

What would be really nice is if a program had onion layers for pixel editing. So you could see a very transparent frame of the last frame underlying the one you're on.

I haven't found anything THAT user friendly yet.

I use Gif Movie Gear and the LiveEdit feature it has with CS4 Photoshop.

What I found about Gif Movie Gear is it has a color reduction tool which is handy for websites that limit filesizes of animated avatars. :3 You can also auto-optimize the frames and it reduces the palate down to a minimal size.

But as for frame by frame animation being simple, if there were a program out there that had intricate onion layers that you could work on... it would be my ideal program.


----------



## koolkat104 (Mar 4, 2011)

depending on if you want 2-d or 3-d this comment may be useless.

There is a free 3-D animation/drawing program called Blender. It's insanely hard to get used to but can produce great results.
http://www.blender.org/


----------



## PrettyKitty13 (Mar 5, 2011)

I'm actually experimenting with a free software called Plastic Animation Paper, or PAP. I just got it about an hour ago (literally) and i'm loving every bit of it..Except the layout. I'll get used to it..
I'm working on a mini animation of a cat turning around, then singing, "Laaaaa!~" xDD
For a beginner animator, this. Is. The shit.

Anyway, I know I can't really say anything because my animating skills are currently mediocre at best, but it seems a little too choppy. Try to add more frames in between the movements to get it smoother. Even so, I noticed this with older animations. The "attitude" and "spunk" of an animation gives it more livelihood and movement. ...Even an image. Ishoka, perfect example.
It's be nice to see that tail swish up and down. Even have it swish up gently, smack down, and gently lift again.

I'm currently on the verge of experimenting as well. *is angry because it's late and she can't mess around with animating more*
Challenge yourself, and work one part at a time. Try and fill in those missing parts if anything looks choppy or weird. And pratice, practice practice!!!

Good luck!


----------



## Smelge (Mar 7, 2011)

PrettyKitty1232 said:


> Anyway, I know I can't really say anything because my animating skills are currently mediocre at best, but it seems a little too choppy. Try to add more frames in between the movements to get it smoother. Even so, I noticed this with older animations. The "attitude" and "spunk" of an animation gives it more livelihood and movement. ...Even an image. Ishoka, perfect example.
> It's be nice to see that tail swish up and down. Even have it swish up gently, smack down, and gently lift again.
> 
> I'm currently on the verge of experimenting as well. *is angry because it's late and she can't mess around with animating more*
> ...


 
The thin is that the framerate in Photoshop is far too low. Even sticking additional frames in there, it just makes it look like the movement is happening a lot slower.


----------



## CerbrusNL (Mar 7, 2011)

It looks like you just need to change the framerate photoshop uses. I'll take a look at it when I get home.


----------

