Adrien-Luc's Animation Blog

No matter where you stand on the political fence or whatever fingers you point at who's to blame, it's hard to deny that the U.S. economy is starting to experience a bit of a cash flow problem. With banks failing, job security going out the window, and government bailouts abounding, many people in many industries fear for their livelihood. The animation industry is hardly exempt from that, and many animators - especially freelancers - find themselves wondering: what will happen to my job?

You'd be surprised at how many people, especially freelance animators, refuse to upgrade to the digital era. They don't need a website, they don't target that kind of customer, they can't afford it, they don't know how to make it - sometimes people will say just about anything to avoid being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century. With competition for animation work growing ever more stiff, it's a mistake to sell yourself short and miss any opportunity to make yourself and your offerings available to potential clients - which is why you need an animation website.

If you need a quirkily animated laugh, you can always count on the team over at JibJab to deliver by poking fun at the issues nearest and dearest to our hearts...including the looming 2008 United States Presidential election, and its candidates. If you haven't seen "Time for Some Campaignin," you've either been hiding under a rock or abducted by aliens - so it's not only time for some campaignin', but time to remedy that situation.

With many people still using extremely old versions of Flash and some still straggling to upgrade to Flash CS3, we now have the announcement that Flash CS4 is on the way - with so many new features that to avoid an upgrade would be to end up left in the dirt in terms of web animation. But considering how expensive Flash is, even for upgrades...is it too soon for CS4?

• Definitely. All these upgrades are getting too expensive.
• Definitely not. As they develop the software, we need to have it.
• While the constant upgrades are a bit unfeasible for all but business users, I don't think it's too soon.
• Other/will explain in comments.

Current Results

In case you missed the announcement, Adobe is set to release Creative Suite CS4 - and that includes Flash CS4. The first thing that caught my attention was inverse kinematics, something I'd only seen really work in Toon Boom Studio as far as 2D animation. For Adobe to take Flash into IK is a pretty big step in modernizing the animation techniques available in the program, and as far as I'm concerned, a step in the right direction.

But the second thing that caught my attention was the price tag. Preorder at $699? Didn't I just spend several hundred dollars to upgrade to CS3? What other changes will I have to adapt to, after just getting used to AS 3.0 and the new interface in CS3? As quickly as technology and techniques evolve, it's inevitable that new software releases will come at a rather rapid clip.

But if you ask me, they should come at a more reasonable price, as well.

Every year I revamp my demo reel - and every year, despite meticulous review the year before, I find something that makes me groan and wonder why any of this year's clients even gave me a second glance, unless they overlooked the same things I did. It might be a typo on the credits screen, or some inappropriate lyrics in the background music that I've heard so many times that I've just grown numb to it. I'll spare you the details of some of my worst (and possibly R-rated) slips; suffice to say that I've gotten lucky, and they've never chased clients away. Not everyone is so lucky, though, and there are many demo reel faux paus that can easily get your demo reel tossed in the trash instead of moved to the top of the list.

Even if I was a bit of a late adopter due to the cost, I've been using Flash CS3 for a while now. At first I had trouble adapting; Flash 8 and Flash CS3 represented a fairly large shift in processes that I'd grown familiar with, and the addition of automated tools to do in one click what I used to have to do manuallly in several steps. Although I've grown used to it, my partner still has a little trouble and actually reverted back to using Flash MX simply for the familiarity and comfort. Sometimes you just can't teach an old dog new tricks (which may be why I stubbornly cling to Windows XP). How do you handle those new tricks?

What's the hardest part of adapting to Flash CS3?

• The changes to the interface.
• The changes in Actionscripting 3.0.
• The new file formats / standards for exporting content.
• The new features & capabilities.
• Other/will explain in comments.
• I haven't had any trouble adapting, actually.
• I don't use Flash CS3.

Current Results

Many people don't quite understand what computer animation entails. My own mother used to think that for computer animation, all you had to do was push a few buttons and type in a few commands to create a realistic model and tell it what to do. She found out otherwise after I went to animation school, and she had the pleasure of several long-distance phone calls rambling about the frustration of polygon-by-polygon modeling, of inverse kinematics, or of drawing individual frames of an animation on-screen. Computer animation is an upgrade of the animation process, but not a full automation. Do you understand the concepts behind computer animation?

Admit it: we're all cheap. We like to pinch pennies here, squeeze dollars there, and if it involves work rather than pleasure, we're going to hang on to every dime until it's pried from our cold, stiff fingers. I won't hesitate to dash out and spend $100 on books without looking at the final total, but if I have to go buy new Prismacolor markers for work because I've exhausted my own (something I do fairly often to my Cool Grey set), I will spend hours online searching for the cheapest box set with the lowest shipping I can find - or browsing sales at local art stores. There are many ways to save money when you're an animator or even an artist; luckily for you, we've got several of them compiled into a list.

Amanda writes:

"I'm thinking about going into a career in animation, but my high school career counselor told me to stay away from traditional animation. I still want to do it; I love drawing frames. She said computer animation is a better career and traditional animation is dying. Is that true?"

That's a yes and a no. Traditional animation isn't dying; it's transforming. The principles remain the same, but they're being applied in different ways and merged with emerging technologies to create smoother, more detailed animations. The foundations of traditional animation will likely never die, and it's always good to learn them. You may want to look into a school that will teach you both, but let you specialize in one. That way you'll have the traditional animation background you want, but will be well-versed enough in computer animation to allow you to evolve and apply that foundation to your career and to changes in the industry.