The Art of Carrie Hankins

I finished my crocodile animation. It's pretty simple but is was more of a way for me to remember how to use TVPaint. (TVP is a very weird animation program you see...) Also I haven't animated in a couple of years and needed to just take the plunge and make something. It's like an ice breaker? I guess? So I will be less afraid to make more stuff. ...





What am I afraid of? Well, making an illustration takes anywhere from 2 hours to 7 days depending on scheduling and subject matter. Obviously a character with a lot of detail will take more time to draw. Where as an animation takes months or even years to take from concept to finished product. So it's a much bigger commitment. I really want to make a film again  but with a full time job and trying to juggle a social life it can be a little tricky.

So this little guy also was my pipeline guinea pig. I needed to know how long it would take me to animated something so that I can schedule accordingly. I have to be realistic about these things also. I can't work around the clock. I only have a few hours from the time I get off of work until the time I go to bed. I still need to sleep because I need to be awake for my storyboarding work at my day job. Very important to be rested so that you have your critical thinking skills with you at work.

In addition to that as I mentioned previously I can not work around the clock, not only for my physical and mental health but there's always going to be family and friends that I always try to put before my work.

This clip is 10 seconds long. I started it on 11/16/16 and completed it on 2/10/17. So it took me 87 days to complete 10 second of animation on my own time. Again, I did not actually work for all of these days. I took time off for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and mental health days. (I gotta live too.) But that is what I wanted. I wanted to know how long it would take me to animate something without killing myself over it so that I can kind of plan around that idea.

So by that logic a 30 second film would be 261 days but that's not even counting the work that would be put into creating backgrounds and layouts. So that's where making a film while keeping your day job while still finishing in a timely manner gets tricky.

I also had no preproduction going in, he was literally just a doodle that I decided to animated on a whim  (below)

and that's all I had to work with. I think if I nailed down a character in a model sheet and had mouth sheets it might speed things up maybe. I'm trying to figure out how to limit animation simply for the sake of time. Don't get me wrong, I love beautiful animation but for a one woman production, it's just not practical.

Anyway lots of thoughts. Always have to be trying stuff and pushing forward.