Okay, I've decided to test myself and make a very short hand-drawn animation, using my computer to assemble all my scans (no cels). The problem is, with me being a perfectionist stickler, I've totally confused myself about levels of animation, and want to set myself straight before I plow ahead:
If I have a scene set up like this:
-night colour overlay
-5 characters
-special effect
and then I add:
-night colour overlay
-5 characters
-special effect
[B]-shadows on the characters
-shadows cast by the characters
-highlights from the effect[/B]
are those additional 3 levels considered a new level of animation per character, or are they just considered one new level of animation overall - or, in other words, do I consider the scene to have 20 levels or 10?
and the type of shading & highlights I'm going for for is:
Obviously not at the same level of quality, but essentially the same idea.
And I know it's a stupid question, but...anyone?
The answer is, it depends. If all your characters are on separate layers, then each additional layer that affects a character is a new layer for that character. If you've combined more than one character on a layer, then the new layers would be for multiple characters, presumably.
Why does it matter though? You'll have as many layers as you'll have, so what difference does it make what each layer is considered? I guess I'm missing something in your question.
Thanks. You're not missing anything, I'm just being anal with myself about something.
Shading and shadows can add a lot of depth to a piece, but they can also add a lot of work. Flinston explained it quite well. Be aware adding them and then changing light source or action can mean tons of added work.
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