Common Mistakes that can ruin your Animated Short's Production

thanks master, your words mean a lot to us

Last year when i was working on jurassica Safari Park, i Ran into the "Too Big, Too Epic" Thing and i did put it down and i was considering to never make it but, after getting a Storyboard animation up and haveing planned things out, i think it´s less challangeing (the video´s around 11 mintues and 24 seconds long) and i did plan out things pretty well by
splitting them up into scenes where i start to animate when i get some models done and ready(im a 3D animator so that´s why im saying this modeling thing)
i´ll likely edit this when i have done it or atleast a good ways into the project

Oh god, one hit me like a truck as i'm currently working on my first short film for school and so far i'm glad my teacher is reviewing my Storyboards and making shots simpler. I will be coming back to this in the coming for reference 😅😢

One thing I'd say is : the software/tools don't make the ability.
I spend a lot of time researching software and workarounds when I could be just doing it.
If it's a hobby sure, but in an academic/pro setting it can eat up so much valuable time.
Software and tools can enhance your abilities, but they can't magically make up for it.
The basics really are important.
I constantly shoot myself in the foot with big ambitions, skipping pre production and software obsession.
It would probably be more useful to do bouncy ball exercises lmao

reason 1 and 7 absolutely slapped me in the face. i have never made a short film before (only comics and illustrations) and i know that the film i want to make is too ambitious and epic. and i definitely cannot finish it by December if that's my end goal. I'm also banking on the success too much when admittedly, i haven't done enough vis dev work for the film and I'm already daydreaming about its success. so from a 10 minute short, I'll make a 1 minute and 30 second proof of concept of my idea so i can test things out! thanks for the vid toniko!

I'm honestly doing something too ambitious BUT....So far I'm enjoying the process and I'm accepting it WON'T be perfect. And I'm not even gonna cry trying to make it that way. I've already had a cry session.

I messed up the display setting for my gradfilm and thankfully my prof caught it before it was too late 😅

Wow. This is totally true even for me. I'm not an animator but I'm making my 1st comic. The schedule, high pressure on yourself, overworking, etc. A good video 👍🏾

I can't believe the Dante bit is the most replayed part.
Also, I enjoyed the scheduling /ambition talk in this vid

That meme of dmc got me so hard, it caught me off guard that it impaled me with sparda.

Thanks a lot, super useful! Very guilty of many of those mistakes. (Funny, the list of "mistakes" consists of partly 'do's' and 'dont's'.)

Thank you, i'll try to keep these points in mind. Im in the final year of animation and my story got shortlisted, meaning im gonna have to lead the project with new team members. Im so scared, but theres no backing out now. I need to do this

Can you make a video about coming up with story ideas

I wish someday my animation will recognise too

ok, so I was watching this at work. I'm a traditional painter that is transitioning to digital painting and animating due to more financial/passive income possibilities. I don't even know the subject of your shortfilm but I actually felt tears building up when this f***ing mouse died. I dont know why. I'm not on my period, I'm totally fine but this animaiton touched me and this is exactly what any animation should be aming for. It's not about the special effects, it's about telling a story and touching the viewer.

I'm starting my own very small animation short now and this advice has been super super helpful.
Just really wise and smart advice here. Will definitely be applying these insights into the short(s) I make.
Thanks! :)

I guess I needed someone else to tell me to not put pressure on my own project

I really want to shelf my current idea for later and pull a puparia with it even though I’ve already boarded it and planned it out for 10 months 💀💀💀

This is just a rant comment with no point, just done expect any conclusion if you read it
What I’m doing with my series is I’m going to have the first episode relatively simple & short, maybe 6-10 minutes with not very much going on: just a setup pilot episode to open up the story and introduce a few important characters & the story idea, with nothing that i haven’t animated before. The next one has a few things I’m unfamiliar with, such as a lot of backgrounds and some 3/4 veiws walk cycles which i’m not the best at but am still able to do, and maybe 10, 15 minutes. The next episodes are going to be however i envisioned them, maybe with some difficult scenes in the next 3 episodes simplified.
I’m also planning to work on the first & second at around the same time so there are less inconsistencies in the final animation. The problem with a series is that it’ll definitely change a lot over the course of the animation but my style hasn’t changed very much in about 6/7 months so I’m hoping the change won’t be too jarring. I’m planning for the series to be about 8-10 episodes in the first season and 4-5 in the second.
I’m going to have to cut some dialogue out because of A, the way i want to animate it makes lipsync annoying, and B, i probably won’t be able to find many good voice actors.
At firs i was going to script it & get voice acting lines BEFORE doing the storyboard but I realize now that that’s definitely not a good approach, and i’m gonna do the voice lines & script notes in the storyboard instead of writing it all out like a MAP or movie script.
Anyways this comment is over now i dont know how to conclude it
If you have any tips i’d like them i guess
Or if you wanna voice act sometime 👀👀

Thank you for such a great video it's really helpful 🥰

THANK YOU MAN. I just finished my first animation for artschool and it SUUUCKED man. I learned a lot but you're videos helped me so much that I decided to try it again next semester but with a better plan. <3

Im doing my year 2 animation right now (1 min 30 dont worry) and a lot of this advice Ive never heard before. Thank you. Ill share this around!

Yo that little mouse had me tearing up

Been a year. Hey!

Your animation course is about the only tutorial learning service i would actually consider purchasing just because how skilled you are at explaining concepts

Ok

Thank you Toniko. you always inspire me to do better.

Wait those so called friends of yours didn’t help a fellow brother out to work along with at Disney?

Yeahh .. a lot of procces with short animated film.. hope my channel will grow like u

I ned a group project

I got distracted by the fact that the dog of the intro can draw with no light at all

damn, that was really heart-warming about you journey, fam. we really appreciate you giving us alternatives and real advice outside a classroom, you're doing great work for the community. even I'm learning the basics pretty well, makes for a great start if I end up at an animation college someday. thank you.

really hard to follow your monologue sometimes with those catching animations in the back lol

i planned a gif for my first animation and a very short animation for the first fluid one

Thanks for these fab tips

These videos might just save me and stop me from becoming a burned out darth vader. Thank you🙏

Great video!

I always had a lot of respect for animatoes as that looks like so much work but listening to this reminds maybe I can do it, too if I just go at it step by step. Thanks!

Holy crap too busy crying watching the animation. No dialogue and you convey so much emotion. I'm not really here to learn animation. X3 But there is a lot of good advice for projects in general.

Thank you, Toniko, for your very wise and useful professional advices: it's a hardship indeed, to pull one's ambitions down, to adjust them to one's skills... Well, but - your drawing skills are amazing, fantastic, and your voice - I would say, - quite like your pen - so soft and so fresh...

Whew what a debbie downer

Can i film my hands as the characters instead of using storyboard?

Wish I had known these before starting my thesis, Ive had the worst time trying to complete it for making sooo many mistakes mentioned here.... on the plus side at least Ive learned from my mistakes.