Timelines / Sequences

[Timelines / Sequences] 

[Objects / Layers]  [Timelines / Sequences]  [Lessons / Exercises]

An Introduction to how to map out your animations 

You can only imagine what it must feel like, for a circle to split and become two circles.  Ouch.  

Or can you guess what a deep and significant feeling it might be, to be a tree and grow?

If you can imagine or guess any of these things, then you can grasp the next concept I'm about to describe. Flipbooks can help you organize your imagination.  By mapping out the details of what you want to see over the course of a timeline, by plotting a sequence with specific events to occur at precise page #'s (moments), you can create something that is totally intense and beyond words incredible, so please post with your YouTube videos in the comments below.  I always appreciate that.  

A timeline is like an itinerary of sorts for flipbooks.  If you were drawing a flipbook of a train, for example, and you were working in a Rhodia notebook that was exactly 80 pages, you would know that if you wanted the train to make 4 stops, it would be a bit rushed if you made each stop exactly 20 pages a piece.  You end up rounding off all the stops such that maybe there'd be a 10 page intro, then an average of about 15 pages per stop will get you at around page 70, just in time for a 10 page outro. 

That's how my brain calculates pages, and yours can, too.  What made this process much simpler was that I was able to consider that by mapping it out on a single sheet of paper, you can really get into having expectations, when it came to the final outcome of a flipbook.  

Think of it this way:  it's bad enough that you can't copy and paste images on paper in real life with the same amount of ease that a computer can.  But that doesn't mean that you should cave in and just start browsing the internet again.  Get back out there with your pen and try again, my friend.  Timelines save valuable energy, by helping you to not make mistakes.  What also helps?  Try not ever using pencil.  It's a waste of time to rely on the fact that you can erase something.  When you can't erase, you make less mistakes.  I know it sounds very zen, but I'm trying to share with you my creative process here so give me a break.  I'll give you a break from my words and put up a picture.