Sculpting the Animation Process

A New Holdframe Workshop is on the horizon, and we couldn't wait to show you

Have you ever watched an animation that seemed to lose steam toward the end? The opening thirty seconds are killer, but the last thirty seconds are all filler? It happens to all of us, and it's not because we're bad artists who should have stuck with law school and worked for the family firm. Sometimes we get distracted and our art suffers...but there is a better way.

Joe Donaldson noticed that a number of videos seemed to lose focus and polish toward the end, and he felt he understood the common problem. When we as artists start our projects, we have energy and time and put all of it toward creating the best possible product. However, these resources are spent quickly and slow to renew. If you dump all your effort into the first thirty seconds, then you'll have a great opening...but everything after can suffer. So how do you approach a project so that you are more efficient? Joe's answer...approach animation like a sculptor.

Just as a sculptor doesn't make a perfect head before they even start on the body, you shouldn't finish off the beginning of a video before you've even blocked out the end. In the upcoming Holdframe Workshop, Joe explains how he approaches each project in stages, polishing only when all the important steps are complete.

If you want to improve your process and produce even better animations, this is a workshop you won't want to miss. Stay tuned!

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