TAG SPACE RACE - Animation Process Breakdown
The animation in the short uses a process I adopted from animator Toniko Pantoja, a former CalArts student known for his short films Crayon Dragon, Wolfsong, and Tiny Nomad, who in the last few years created an online workshop series called The StringBing Workshop (now known as the Pow-Ow Workshop)
The process involves 4 steps:Keys, TieDowns, InBetweens and Detail.
Keys are the super basic, but most important positions of the animation. I either kept them simple or included small things to indicate which character it is or their expression.
TieDowns are basically a better version of the Key but with more roughened out detail that will look similar to the final product. InBetweens are just making the TieDowns then move from point to point as flowing as possible.
Most people choose to animate the basic keys and then the actual animation over this, but I find it more complicated to layer the detail over multiple versions of the basic frame.
Detail is self explanatory, the crispened and complete lines and colour.A small note to add to how I animate in the inbetweening stages.
I keep my use of LightBox/ Onion Skinning tools to a minimum. An important thing I picked up from The StringBing Workshop was to make more use of Flipping/Rolling techniques, since an over-reliance on these tools can cause problems just as the loss of form or ignoring arcs in movements that are meant to exist. Using flipping rather than onion skinning allows your eyes to properly observe changes in movement and form, as well as enables you to catch errors and correct them early on. - See Video
