Making animations look polished

[Sander Van de kerkhof]

not sure what kind of advice you are looking for but i think it helps your animation to let your motions ease in and out and to use a motion blur.

but there really is no “formula” to making it look professional this comes down to your skill as an artist

sander,

[Dex Craig]

And think about color space. Visualize a color wheel and consider using elements from opposite sides of the color wheel. Even just a tiny bit of orange in a largely blue animation will pop. It’s an old painting trick, actually….

HTH

[Rich Rubasch]

A lot of it is instinct. Here’s a story…

Back in grade school there was a kid in my class that was clearly an artist. He could draw or mold clay and everything looked hyper realistic. His mother was an artist and it ran in the family. I would watch him in class, even try to sit like him and hold the pencil like him, but could never get his amazing detail and clarity.

Once we had an art assignment to mold clay into any animal…I chose the buffalo because it had such a distinct shape I though it would be a breeze. I made one that I thought was pretty good. We all showed the class, and when we were about done, I showed him to ask what he thought. He said it was pretty good, and he grabbed it, moved it around a bit in his hands and…whala…there in front of me was a lifelike miniature buffalo, which looked little like the one I made, but strikingly like the ones I have seen!

Now I do motion graphics, have won many awards, am a real client pleaser and have made a decent career of it. Still, I will watch a reel from Ted Gore or Shane Ross or some of the others and simply shrink back into my chair and ask what my work is missing…’cause it’s missing something!

Keep at it. Try different things. You will find your “look” and you will either be able to sell it or you might make a good producer! Go to an art show. Notice how each artist has found a niche and a look that they just seem to keep doing over and over and it sells. Not many artists stray from their one style. So find yours. And show the world that that is the way that you would “polish” that particular animation!

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media