(WIP) [ANIMATION] FOS_Redo "BASE Animation" (Patreon)

Ohhhh I said I wouldn't but I just couldn't resist. 

Here's the BASE, with the FACE. I hope the face looks good, this is also the second time I've lip-synced a word in my animation career. The first time was when I synced "Fine!" for the first animation, and the second time was... when I synced "Fine!" for this one. I am truly a man of many talents. I tried something new on this one and actually did holds, for once. What are holds, ye ask? Well, it's when a frame is... held. Before, I would line over frames again and again, and it gives everything a "wiggly" quality. Look at the first FOS to see what I mean, and my animated profile picture here on Patreon. I like how it looks, but I'm also thinking that opinion comes from a lack of confidence in my own work. My line of thought was "It'll look too static and stiff, giving it the wiggle will make even stationary things look lively." Which, maybe it does, but it also adds a lot of work. So, I'm trying to cut down on work time by not doing that anymore, and trying to trust that it may look fine in the final. That's the problem with art, sometimes you'll make a decision and it won't look right until a dozen hours later. Sometimes, you have to trust that it will eventually, no matter how hard that is. Holds are something all animators do, and it looks fine. I don't know why I feel like my animations won't look fine with holds. I'm not saying I'm better than other animators, because holy smokes am I not, I just always have this fear that these will look catastrophically bad if I don't do workarounds. Which just add more time and don't make too much of a difference, honestly.

OH and before I forget again, this is animated On-2's, whereas the first one is animated On-3's. This looks much smoother, yes? This looks much livelier, yes? God I hope so. It's because there are more frames in this than the first. Well, technically, they have the same number of frames. It's just that each Keyframe (The ACTUAL Keyframes, not how I use the word "Keyframe") are held for different lengths. In this animation, frames are held for two frames each, and in the first, three frames. I know a lot of animators, especially solo animators, animate On-3's because it saves a shitload of time, I just... I just really hate it. I think it looks so slow and sluggish. In a rare instance of pride flaring up, I think "Why not just spend the extra time, make more frames, and make it look far better?" But, that's unfair, people should make their work however they want to.

Another decision influenced by fear was my "Anime Blur," a kind of cheap trick that softens everything when things look too flat. I did it for every animation because I was afraid of shadowing. Shadowing is another thing that just doesn't look right until it's totally done, that's another thing that I have to trust will look fine at the end. I don't think I've done the "Anime Blur" for the past few animations, the Loona one and the Pixie Willow ones I think are devoid of it. I may do it for this one though, because it doesn't look bad I don't think, it does add some feeling of atmosphere. I just think it's cheap when I did it instead of shading. Plus, I kinda like how my flat art looks now without blurring, especially that Pixie Willow one. I work at a pretty low resolution, and I honestly like how sharp and semi-pixellated it looks. I dunno why, it just tickles my brain. I'm sure my taste will shift again, though.

Oh, and if you LIKE the Anime Blur and want to do it in your own work, I'll tell you how to do it. First, you need to have all your art layers in a group. Lineart, colors, shading, highlighting, gradients, you name it. Everything you want blurred, get it grouped. Then, make a Clone Layer (should be an option to make one) and set the clone to the GROUP, where all the art you want blurred is held. Set the Clone to an opacity like 30% - 40%, and put a filter layer on it. Set the filter layer to Gaussian Blur or something, and mess with the settings. It should do the blur. Now, I know that there's like, an actual method to doing the blur. I watched a video where a guy did it in Photoshop, and there were literally like 20 steps. That kinda shit will make your art look exactly like some 90's anime. This is KYDE's Quick and Dirty method. It'll get you in the ballpark, nothing more. I mean, I would try his method, but Krita is a fussy mistress. When I ask her to put a lot of filters in, she likes to crash and wipe out progress. Mother was right, I would just find myself in an abusive relationship. I never should've left Mother.

Anyways, that's enough outta me. Next up is Variant Elements. I'll also get this presentable for that post. I think throwing flat colors on the Loona VE WIP post was cool.

Your favorite Grown-Man-Who-Pretends-To-Be-A-Goblin-On-The-Internet,

-KYDE