The importance of keeping things neatly placed and labeled should never be considered overrated. When it comes down to animation if you do not have everything placed right especially when working with a group of people on a project things can get really gruesome. Every time you create a new texture or save a new model you should always make sure to place things in folders that are easy interchangeable and named for easy understanding of what it is there for. Also deleting any unwanted or unused materials, models, or files of any kind within those folders can make things much easier as well. When things like this get over looked that is when you start to find that you will have problems transferring files or even working withing your own computer because of the clutter and missing file locations that can occure from this causing you a huge headace.

Thinking in the aspect of a director is not something that comes easy. It takes allot of imagination and determination to create an animation that is portrayed with the proper principles. To think like this just imagine the director of movie and the type of things they need to do and research to make the movie appeal to you in the most realistic way possible. Now take that mentality and induct it into the world of animation in which you control every aspect and outcome. Doing this can make such a difference with producing an animation on a professional level and is something you should start practicing at the very beginning of your start of the road to becoming a great animator.

Principles of animation

So if you are not new to animation then you should already have an idea about the principles of animation but for those just starting out it is a great way to take whatever work you are planning to do or already have started and give it the feel of real live motions and personalities within your characters. One of the most influential principles is "follow through and overlapping action" which refers to the movment that is caused by an object or person moving in a direction and the indirect movment of what it is attached to, for instance a body moving foward sudenly stoping might cause other parts of your body to still move forward. Also anticipation is another great priciple which is when you cause the the audience to have the notion that something is about to happen so that the setting makes it feel more realistic. There are many more principles to animation but in my opinion these are the most influential to animation for they give the effect of realism.

From the stand point of a novice starting out in animation I feel that there are a few things that should be mentioned to anyone else that might plan to step into this field. First off would be that creating your basic shapes is the best thing to do when starting out because it helps you to get use to the tools in the program that you are using but is basic to the point where it should not stump you. Second would be to start creating your own textures from your own images and that is because it gives you a broader range of customization within the program you are working with by dictating colors, shades, and realism. Third and one of the most important of all is of coarse learning how to properly use your lighting to make an animation have depth and a more visual aspect of shape in a 3-D environment. Through these 3 things you will find that after practicing and creating with these aspects that the rest comes much easier.