Making an animaterd short clip <2 min

[Nitro Fun]

How long time would it take to make a animated clip less than 2 minutes? Several hours?

[Celista]

It depends on what method and software you use, as well as how experienced you are at animating. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY longer than just "several hours", unless you're doing some super rough animation.

Source: my former roommate is an animator.

http://www.animatorisland.com/how-fa...d-you-animate/
http://www.awn.com/forum/thread/1005116

[Nitro Fun]

So how long does it take for something like this?

[Celista]

Again, it depends on the software and the animator....I can ask her if you want? I'd say at least a full week's worth of work, probably longer.

- - - Updated - - -

Okay she replied.

That animation would take me about hmmmm.... depending on how much control I have over style, and how much redesignredesigning to get characters and backgrounds right, Im gonna ballpark like 60-100 hours if tge script, sound recording, sound editing and video editing are someone else's job. All hours together probably around 200. But idk those people who do flash can be fast.

Ive put 135 hours into illustrating the assets for [x client]s 4 minute animation and haven't started animating in after effects yet. But its way way way more complicated.

She is not fast though so I'd say at minimum 1/2 of her estimate with someone with more long-term animation experience, but you'd pay more (she's been animating for 5 years, has an MFA in animation).

[Very Tired]

Never assume animation is quick work in front of an animator. They will either laugh at your face or get offended. Their favorite thing to do is talk about how time consuming animation is.

[Celista]

Never assume animation is quick work in front of an animator. They will either laugh at your face or get offended. Their favorite thing to do is talk about how time consuming animation is.

It's an amazing amount of work. I don't understand how we don't have animation programs that make the process a lot easier/simpler yet...I mean we obviously do, but the process is still incredibly tedious.

[Very Tired]

It's an amazing amount of work. I don't understand how we don't have animation programs that make the process a lot easier/simpler yet...I mean we obviously do, but the process is still incredibly tedious.

3D animation peeps can sometimes cheat with motion cap. Traditional drawn 2D animation people have Toonboom, which has some features that help, but no computer program is going to do the drawing for you. Flash for puppet animation like the video above has tweens and stuff like that, but it all comes down to computers not knowing what normal motion looks like. And why would it? Most of the time, 2D animators aren't going for realistic IRL movement, but more cartoony stuff.

So limited computer help combined with animators needing to personally set what each individual frame looks like equals a lot of tedious work.

Edit: Think of it like writing a book. Sure, we can make programs like Microsoft Word that makes formatting and spell checking easier. But a novel still needs a writer who knows all the things a great story requires. A computer can't do all that work for you, same deal with animation.

[Celista]

3D animation peeps can sometimes cheat with motion cap. Traditional drawn 2D animation people have Toonboom, which has some features that help, but no computer program is going to do the drawing for you. Flash for puppet animation like the video above has tweens and stuff like that, but it all comes down to computers not knowing what normal motion looks like. And why would it? Most of the time, 2D animators aren't going for realistic IRL movement, but more cartoony stuff.

So limited computer help combined with animators needing to personally set what each individual frame looks like equals a lot of tedious work.

Yes, I think once that problem is fixed it would cut down on animation time significantly. Obviously one would still have to draw the characters/backgrounds but a computer program that had preset/memorized motions that animators could choose from would be a huge time saver for people looking to do stuff like make fun Youtube videos...would probably be a huge money maker, making animation programs that are layperson-friendly.

Obviously it wouldn't work for serious animation for a variety of reasons but I think people are often surprised at how much work animation is when they want to make fun/casual videos, and imo it's because the technology isn't there yet.

[Very Tired]

Yes, I think once that problem is fixed it would cut down on animation time significantly. Obviously one would still have to draw the characters/backgrounds but a computer program that had preset/memorized motions that animators could choose from would be a huge time saver for people looking to do stuff like make fun Youtube videos...would probably be a huge money maker, making animation programs that are layperson-friendly.

Obviously it wouldn't work for serious animation for a variety of reasons but I think people are often surprised at how much work animation is when they want to make fun/casual videos, and imo it's because the technology isn't there yet.

Someone tried, and pooped out a program called GoAnimate... Just another thing an animator will laugh at anyone for using. I don't think anyone is to interested in trying after that.

If an animator wanted to reuse a motion they previously made it already is very simple, just copy and paste the frames over. But that is pretty limited seeing as they don't want to seem lazy. Always have to make new stuff for each scene.

[Celista]

Someone tried, and pooped out a program called GoAnimate... Just another thing an animator will laugh at anyone for using. I don't think anyone is to interested in trying after that.

If an animator wanted to reuse a motion they previously made it already is very simple, just copy and paste the frames over. But that is pretty limited seeing as they don't want to seem lazy. Always have to make new stuff for each scene.

Yeah there seems to be a stigma about reusing things...idk though, I just hear about these things secondhand.

Looping is a time saver tends to work for backgrounds and whatnot like in the video the OP linked, depends on the scene and the quality of animation you're going for. But yes, agreed regarding motions.

[Cosmic Janitor]

It's an amazing amount of work. I don't understand how we don't have animation programs that make the process a lot easier/simpler yet...I mean we obviously do, but the process is still incredibly tedious.

The answer to most of the "Why don't we have a program yet that can do..?" questions is that writing code that can read minds and predict the future while it's at it, is still very hard

[Independent voter]

Looks like it was made with Cartoon Maker or something like it.

The animation didn't take nearly as long as all that artwork, unless he was able to copy the art from somewhere. Of course you can reuse the art once it's done.

[hrugner]

That flash/tween stuff is pretty quick to do. This one doesn't even bother with slow in slow out or deforming. It would still take a damn long time, but with rough illustrations low quality motion and a premade time line I'd spend a week of free time on it I think.

Maybe I should try, it's been awhile.

[primalmatter]

So how long does it take for something like this?

Its been over ten years since I animated anything so I am sure even flash has changed but something like that... I would say three hours or so once you know what you are doing.

You only need to animate when they move... his spheres are likely on a loop animation so they are recycled constantly.

If you watch the animation notice how the characters don't move much? This makes it far easier as that really is the difficult part of animation even when you are just editing images rather then creating them from scratch like a drawing.

The hardest thing to get right is to match up mouths with characters speaking though from my experience.