People who work in animation or CGI on OCR?

[JohnStacy]

It was mentioned in the discord that there were people who worked in both animation or CGI. I am working on a large musical project, as part of my master's thesis in composition. I wrote this piece in sync with a speed run, using more of a soundtrack mentality. A thing that a few people involved with the project have expressed concern about is copyright - using game footage of a first party nintendo title is not a good way to prevent issues down the line. Somebody asked me "What if it were like Fantasia?" The Disney movie from the 1940s that created animations to sync to recordings of classical music.

The main issue is expense. I have found 3 animation studios and 2 independent artists to scope out costs for traditional animation. The budget requirements have varied from 24-60k for the whole project. I was expecting around 30-50, so it is within my expectation range, but that is not possible. I don't know anything about CGI. I don't even know where to start with that.

What kind of project would this be? Basically creating a new video in sync with the audio, somewhat in the same genre as Zelda, but using none of that IP. I have some preliminary ideas for a script, but if it turns out that this production is possible I will get on writing that. I am open to ideas and suggestions. What are your thoughts?

 

 

[Garpocalypse]

Animation is ungodly expensive for what you get, not that I don't have a deep appreciation for the skill and the people who pursue it but unless you already have a huge audience to show it to there's not much of a point in taking on that kind of expense.  Best bet would be to find someone reputable who is well versed in After Effects or Blender to work with you.  It won't be Disney quality art obviously but you should get something that fits your project for a few k at most.  

You could even learn these programs yourself to try to fake it until you get something passable....

Hell that's what I'm doing. :]

[JohnStacy]

You're right. Maybe I should just do it myself.

I actually came to realize some things since I originally posted. When Unreal 4 was released for free I played around in it a bit, and watched some speed level design videos. I thought I wanted to make a game, got overwhelmed with how little I knew about game development and quit. I did like messing around with environments. Even before this, I was working on a game (got an hour of gameplay done) in RPG maker VX. Before that I finished a quest in Zelda Classic, but the gameplay was rather boring. People enjoyed exploring the world I created (there were single areas that were the size of the whole overworld from Zelda 1). I had much more fun doing level design than anything else. Essentially, every time I wanted to sit down and make a game, I got swept away in the visual aspect and designing the world. The end result was basically a playable movie with a good soundtrack (music composition being the other area I would focus on).

Yesterday, I came to the realization that I never actually wanted to make a game. I just wanted to tell a story. I'm going to embrace this now.

Do you have any tips of how to start?

[Garpocalypse]

I'm no pro at creating the visual aspects for the Youtube medium but having been at this for 1.5 years and am only now just finishing up my first music video that's not completely unwatchable, I can share some of the very general things i've learned.  Expect to spend significantly more time in your studio if you choose to go this route but if you have the social life to slay then definitely go for it as creating all aspects of a music video is very rewarding...

...just not in any monetary way...

You can start by looking up some animated work you are fond of and find out what programs they use. Mostly though you are going to decide between working with a 3D modeling program like blender or a 2D VFX program like After Effects. There is some overlap between the two but what you choose is GREATLY going to impact how you work and how much time it takes to render.  I was interested in learning Blender up until a short time ago as I realized just how long it would take to create and render a simple 10 second animation.  Since there are only 24 hours in a day, and you need to hit a few hundred hours at least before you know enough to create something original, I decided After Effects was more what I wanted to go for and spending what time I could on it would be more beneficial.  

Once you've pulled the trigger on a piece of software start looking up various tutorials to create what interests you. Something to keep in mind though is that unlike the way a lot of DAW's are these days not a whole lot of what you learn beyond the various theories carries over between programs well. To clarify, if you start with something like Blender due to the low cost of entry (free) then decide to jump to something else it will be like learning from the ground up again so spend some time doing your research beforehand.  

Good luck with your project!

Edited August 25, 2019 by Garpocalypse

[The Coop]

Animation is a nightmare to dig into, both 2D and 3D

I'm not trying to scare you away, but rather trying to let you know what you'll be getting into if you do it yourself... or know what you'll be asking of someone if you hire a person to make what you need. With 3D, you need to be able to create (or buy) decent looking models, which is a project in and of itself. Even if you just factor in modeling bodies, objects, clothes, setting up the lighting, creating textures, and all of that, you've still got a long road ahead of you before you even get to actually animating the models and scenes you created (and using the virtual camera in those scenes). Not that 2D animation is much easier, mind you. There's still designing characters, designing the backgrounds, layering everything, making sure the lighting is consistent from scene to scene, making sure the character's appearance is consistent as they animate, etc. And then of course, there's doing the coloring and shading, making sure the animation is fluid enough to look OK if you're doing it in a traditional style, making sure the visual style as a whole is consistent, etc. Both 2D and 3D will require a lot of time, effort, patience, and the willingness to start over if what you're making doesn't look very good. For that matter, there's plenty of planning to do before you ever really start (story boarding what happens, choosing how high a resolution you want to work at, test animations, etc.), because winging it doesn't really work well when you're trying to make an animation that's telling some kind of story, or that's following some music.

 

That's 360x125 pixels, and it still took a while to do even with Jon Talbain being sprite edits. Imagine doing the exact same thing, but drawn by hand at an HD resolution (1280x720 and up). Granted, you'd only have to draw the background once, but everything else would need to be animated. The thought of that is what kept me from getting into traditional animation

However, you could do the crossfade animation style instead of the traditional style. That way instead of animating every frame, you'd draw out the important ones and fade one image in over another one. That would also allow you to put more detail in for shading and such, as you wouldn't have to worry about hundreds of frames of animation to keep looking the same in terms of design and visual style. You could also do zooms, pans, transitions and such to help offset the fewer frames animation, that way there'd still be a nice sense of motion with what you're making.

With all of that said, I'd recommend going the 2D route for your project. Sure, 3D would be cool and all, but 2D would be a (potentially) faster way to make your project, and it would be less costly most likely. Whether it's cartoony looking, stark black and white (like this), or more realistically drawn, I think that route would be the better one to take.