The song I chose for my music video animation was Respect by Loco (a Korean rapper).
I couldn’t settle on a 30 second portion of this song, so I edited it in Audacity to include the specific sections of the song I wanted for my music video.
I was inspired by a collaborative animation I found awhile ago on Vimeo.
I loved the concept of starting an animation and allowing others to develop off of what you already drew. I also loved the use of bright colors in this animation and I was inspired by the fun dancing movements of the characters as well.
(Below) This is my initial storyboard, but in my final animation I changed some of my later frames. The second image is my initial style frame in ink and watercolor.
(Above) Working on my cel animations at 2am. Each frame was hand drawn with my light pad. I learned that the peg bar is a lifesaver, because it helped keep my frames aligned.
(Below) A blurry reference photo I took of my roommate. I was trying to illustrate a jumping sequence.
I wanted to incorporate some aspect of dance in my characters.
Towards the end of the song the singer spells out R E S P E C T; I wanted to highlight that portion of the song specifically because I’m very drawn to lettering as a form of illustration.
(Above: S & T) Are some examples from the animation of the letter poses I created.
Software used: Audacity, Photoshop (frame timeline), and Adobe Premiere.
I’m still planning on finishing this up to match my style frame as much as possible.
I painted these textures beforehand, and I’m still planning to continue on making a few more to incorporate in my final animation.
What I learned…
- Using Adobe Premiere is simple, but for backgrounds and incorporating color should all be done in photoshop in each individual frames before importing to Premiere.
- Have at least 100 pieces of hole-punched animation paper beforehand.
- Do a short series of test shots in-between drawing animations to check the transitions of the movements.
- Always edit your own audio; it’s a good skill to learn.
- Space out the days to draw your cel animations.