Why am I animating again? Oh right. I wanted to get better at it.

I've spent about 12 hours storyboarding, and another 6 or 7 on character design. I was happy to announce that my "Little Red" project was underway and I could finally start illustrating in flash/photoshop.

I'm having a difficult time understanding how trees and leaves move in the wind. So I've had to stop and try studying stuff in nature before really pushing onwards. I animated it a little bit...but they feel stiff and un-natural. So I erased them and re-continued. Of course part of my problem is probably the amount of detail that I'm putting into everything, but I think I'm ok with that. It will obviously take a long time to finish. I'm estimating that with a couple of minor problems, that at the pace I'm working I should have it done within the month. Of course that estimate can change barring stupid shit, like my computer crashing, (knock on wood, oh god PLEASE knock on wood.)

I posted for help in the animation forum, so until I hear back from someone who can actually help me, I guess I'll start doing some vector shots of the main characters to put on Newgrounds here.

Below is what I've started off with. Peace.

Now I have 30 days to get Flash to work. Hopefully I can finish my animation before my trial period runs out. :( I've decided my first animation is going to be a re-hash of little red riding hood. Its been overdone to be sure, but since I havn't spent a lot of time animating, I thought it would be a fun silly project to get my feet wet. I have many projects that I want to work on, but I need to get my animation skills better before trying to do something on those kinds of scales.

Currently I'm working on just backgrounds as I think they will be the easiest, but am unsure about how to do the process. I'm, not sure if I want my characters animated in the library and the brought to the stage, or if I should animated different things on different layers on my stage to begin with. I feel like the stage option is the easiest to follow through with. On this first piece I'm going to be focused on three things.

1. The first being atmosphere. I want to make sure my world is big and real enough for my viewers to feel a part of it.
2. Lighting. though mainly because this adds to the realism of number 1.
3. Smoothest animation possible. I figure anyone can probably animate stick figures, so I'm going to work on making it as smooth as possible.

Being a noobie I may only accomplish one of these things, but I'm ok with that.

Been trying to download Photoshop? Anyone have any ideas? I'm tired of trying to fill out surveys...Its way too expensive!! :(

So I'm somewhat new to the whole animation scene. I think the last version of flash I used was CS3. So here I am. Hi.

My real name is Bonnie, I'm from Vermont (that little state known for having more cows than people.) and I work on an organic dairy farm. I'm more of an illustrator than an animator, but hope to even myself out a bit. I went to college for art but didnt finish yet because I can't afford it.

I'm slow in uploading. I take my time on shit. I'm a bit of a perfectionist. Except on my profile picture. Because i couldnt care less about my profile picture.