Expert: Andrew Ransavage - 1/28/2010

Question
QUESTION: hi sir,
i am a self taught animator, i read lots of book about animation and watched so many tutorials on character animation.i know the basic well but still i am not getting the desire result.whenever i tried to animate something it wont work....so i don't understand whether its the lack of software knowledge or lack of practice? do i need to read more or shall i start animating more.please do suggest.

ANSWER: Start with the basics, animate simple objects and study their motion then keep moving up until you get to character animation. Work with the curve editor, motion controllers, etc... Trying to start with complex chararcter models and animation is not the best way to do it.

good luck

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hi sir,
thanks a lot for the immediate response..sir,i don't have any problem with the basics.i am trying to animate the guy standing from a chair,till the blocking phase its working properly,the timing and poses are upto the satisfaction but the real problem comes in second and third pass i,e.breakdown and inbetweens..i don't understand how to give spacing properly...could you please help it out.i shall be highly thankful to you.

Answer
Hi, it sounds like you have the keyframes and poses set properly but the tweening doesn't look right? Let me know what software you are using or post the file so I can take a look at it. It may be a simple matter of not enough keyframes or your motion curves are too linear with not enough tweening. It's hard for me to say without looking at the file...