Sonic X Cosmic Chase

Animation Breakdown

This isn't really a tutorial, but it explains how I go about doing things and the reasons behind it.

This particular animation shows how I create an animation from start to finish. This character animation has 29 frames at 24fps. All character animation is done within graphic elements in Flash. This way, it is much easier to move and reposition the animation as a whole rather than moving each individual frame.

1. First, I begin with a gesture sketch of the animation using basic shapes (blue). The gesture sketches are done to get the foundation and timing for the animation. This step would probably be a basic pencil test in the industry. It may take a while to get the timing done right but it is very important. Many times additional inbetweens are added to make the movement more fluid and look and feel more realistic.

Depending on the speed of the action, for this animation, it was mostly done on one's with a couple drawings on two's. For those of you who don't know what one's and two's are, it just determines how much exposure time each drawing gets. On one's means there is a drawing every frame, two's mean there is a drawing every other frame. One's are for fast action and two's can be used for normal paced/slower movement.

2. After I am satisfied with the timing and how it looks, on a new layer I will go over each frame and redraw everything a little bit tighter and add some generic detail, like Sonic's quills and also add the crosshair centerline on the head to position the facial features (green). The centerline is key to positioning Sonic's facial features because it shows which direction his head is turned and naturally how much of each facial element is visible.

3. Once everything looks right, I create new layers for each body part and redraw the character with all of the details (grey). After details are drawn, I smooth and optimize the line art.

At this point, I break up the character's body parts into separate layers (much easier to deal with and tweak later). Usually I will have L/R arm, L/R leg, body, head, eyes, mouth, and nose. Lots of undo's and erasing happens in this step so it pays to be organized.

4. In a different color, usually pink (because it stands out), I draw the shading lines to determine where highlights and shadows go (not shown).

For each body part layer, I will create a new layer above it and draw in the shading lines. I will smooth and optimize these lines and then cut and paste the contents into each named body part layer.

5. Lastly, I apply color. After it is colored, I will go back and delete all of the pink lines and the now empty layers they came from.

Hopefully you have obtained some valuable insight from my methods and techniques which you can use in your workflow. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns or post in the forums.