I have storyboarded an animated short film. Basing off of me rehearsing lines and estimated run time, the film clocks in around 3-5 minutes if I don’t add new concepts in the future. To animate such a film that clocks in around 5 minutes- I was wondering how long it would take me in two scenarios.
-How long it would take me if I worked on it every Monday but took off every other day
-How long it would take me if I worked on it every day
And also, would I be able to do such a project in Pencil2D?
-How long it would take me if I worked on it every Monday but took off every other day
-How long it would take me if I worked on it every day
It’s impossible to give you a concrete answer to these questions. How long it takes to animate something depends on a lot of factors, including your experience level, the type of animation your doing, the amount of detail in the animation, the tools you are using, etc.
The way I would approach these questions is to break down the work you need to do. You’ve already got a storyboard which is a good start. Start by counting up the number of shots in your storyboard. Then take one shot that you think is representative of the “average shot” in your project in terms of length, complexity, etc. and go through and animate it start to finish. Time yourself doing this, and then use that as an estimate for how long every shot will take, and with some simple math, how long your entire project will take in person-hours. Divide the total by how much time you want to spend on it each day, and you get a rough estimate of the number of days of work it will take you. It’s best to consider this an underestimate because things always take longer than you think.
And also, would I be able to do such a project in Pencil2D?
Yes definitely, but there is a smart way of using Pencil2D to do this, and a very bad way of using it. Don’t do it as a single project. Break your animation up into shots, and make a project for animating each shot. You can then export each project individually, and combine the clips together in a video editor. This is very important because if something happens to your project file (ex. it gets corrupted or deleted), you don’t lose several minutes of animation. By the same logic, also make backups of all your project files at regular intervals by copying the file to a separate folder or using File > Save As… and saving to a new name. These are good practices not just for Pencil2D, but for any animation (or really any program period).
Actually, I am working on my first Super Dog short film now, and believe me, with actual things going on outside of animating each day, it will take quite a bit!
However, a very personal tip: Never let the amount of time it takes stop you! I’ve had so many motivation issues in the past few years, and only now am I actually doing it better than before! I’m sure you can do it as well! I can try to give tips if you want any, but I’d suggest asking people with more experience, and also examining other cartoons’ animation.
(scribblemaniac has some good tips as well!)
Good Luck on your animation projects!
Thank you! I appreciate it. I’m working on an animation right now actually. It’s gonna be an animated music video to “Colton Dixon - Warriors” and I hope to upload it to my channel.
One of my main motivators is this website that I found
It’s freaking time tolling but the payoff is amazing
Huh. That’s an interesting article you found there- I personally wouldn’t suggest throwing away the idea of animation being “fun”. Not feeling joy in your work doesn’t seem to be proper (to me, anyway).
I suppose if it helps you, then by all means, keep up the good work!
(And have fun!)
EDIT: I have just understood something I didn’t notice about the article:The animation is counted as “fun” when you don’t set that as the main goal (or a similar point).In all honesty, I should really get to understand something fully before I give my opinion, my sincere apologies!
It may be fun with progress, but not at first! Sorry!