hope these help you:

http://blog.11secondclub.com/p/bouncing … rence.html

http://blog.11secondclub.com/search/lab … e%20basics

Try tackling the beginner and earlier exercises first before going into dialog/acting. I know its not the most fun doing ball bounces and walks, but if you can nail those down, then you can start going into the harder stuff like acting. You could also try using a rig without arms or with one leg, etc. The less stuff you have to tackle, like fingers, facials, etc , the more you can concentrate on certain steps and move your way up.

What's helped me a lot is understanding that animation (getting better at it) is REALLY so much about practice. You can read until you go blind from reading (or studying, or watching) but until you get in there and do it yourself you're not going to be very good at it. It's just how our (and many other) art form works.

The other thing is taking failure as a challenge for doing better. I tried pretty freaking hard last month on my entry and didn't even crack the top 100. That was super frustrating, but I channeled that frustration into "Next month I'LL SHOW THEM!" Now I'm very focused on getting April's entry to be fabulous. Top 100 here I come!

Hopefully some of that helps. Above all I really have to stress that first part. You HAVE to get these bad animations out of the way to learn to do better. You can't learn from just reading, it HAS to be accompanied by doing animation. So read up, but when you're done don't just move on to the next reading. Stop and animate. THEN you'll improve.

Much luck! Don't get discouraged, every animator has to start somewhere! (And truthfully be glad that you got such a crappy score on your first entry. If you look at my first one I got 36th place, so I got an inflated ego and thought I was better than I really was. That set me back like crazy! Now I know better, so I'm working hard to improve instead of resting on my laurels.)

wow! thanx so much guys and littlepenguin thanx for the links ye ill never give up so my experience will just keep growing. lets hope aprils animation is better for me

1 more question wat program is most commonly used to animate. at the moment im using maya but what do you guys prefer like 3ds max ect . @littlepenguin yes if i recieve the the same advice next month then i will keep working on it and keep tryin to learn and improve my skills as an animator i didnt once expect to just become a professional in a few days its going to take many years of practise and every piece of advice i recieve i will take and make it useful for me

Last edited by WarrenJ (04-06-2012 10:12 am)

Warren, I think the most common program is probably Maya, but the program is just a tool...it doesn't really matter...animation is animation.

As others said if you want to become an animator you should really focus on the basics first. And take advantage of the forums here, post your work for feedback & really listen to what people have to say. When we all start animation we are "babies" so to speak, an acting animation is like running...you don't expect a baby to know how to run...you have to learn to sit up first, then crawl, then stand up, then walk, then jog, then finally run. So be careful that you aren't trying to "run" too early because the more time you spend learning & understanding the basics...the better you will be later on

k

Last edited by KyleG (04-06-2012 1:49 pm)