The Animator's Dilemma

[Aura]

((Bart Cappotelli: Pregame begin))

Another line.  Add more detail to the shirt.  Make sure the collar is in the right place.  Stay consistent with the previous frames.

Bart sat at his desk, following the instructions in his mind as he drew on his tablet.  He had been working on this animation for a while now.  Nothing huge, just about a minute-long sequence.  He had drawn most of the frames that he needed already thanks to a 3-day weekend, but he still needed to finish the last few before he could start putting them together.

Shirt's done.  Now work on the head.

Bart started adding the lines for his character's head, being very careful not to let any lines go out of place or have the head move too far from the previous frame.  The last thing he needed was an errant frame creating jerky animation once he put it in motion.

All right, all right... crap.

He messed up.  Moved too far to the right.  Bart sighed and deleted his last few lines.  He hated making small mistakes like this.  Once the old lines were gone, he started work again.

As Bart moved onward with his work, there was a knock at his bedroom door, shortly followed by the familiar creaking of the hinges as it opened.

"Bart?"  His mother poked her head into the room and called to him.  "Lasagna just came out of the oven.  It should be cool enough to eat in a few minutes."

Bart turned to face her and called back.  "Okay.  Thanks mom."  Once she closed the door, he returned to his work, only to find that his hand had wandered a bit when he averted his attention, creating a very out-of-place zigzag on his character's face.  With another irritated sigh, he got rid of his last few lines and pressed on.

A few more minutes, and he finally had his character's head looking just about right.  Perfectly on model, not moving too far from frame to frame, pretty much ideal.

Okay, now time for the face.

With a careful hand, Bart added a face to his character.  This should be the simplest step, since he had designed them with simplistic facial features.  Problem is, he got too confident about it.  One of the eyes wound up elongated, the other was a little too low.  With a frustrated grunt, he deleted the face and tried again.  This time the eyes were perfect, but the mouth was too small.  Another sigh, another deletion, another try.

Now the mouth and eyes were perfectly proportioned, but one eye was too far to the left.  Bart deleted the face again, with an annoyed growl under his breath.  He had drawn this character a lot in the past, including earlier that day, so why couldn't he just get it perfect?

As Bart's irritation grew, his mother returned to address him.  "Bart, the lasagna's had enough time to cool off.  Come down and get some."

Bart took a deep sigh and got up from his desk.  Maybe all he needed was some dinner, then he would be able to get his drawing back on track.  Even if that wasn't the case, he definitely needed a break.  He was starting to get a headache, and that would only hurt his focus even more.

He left his unfinished sketch behind and went to the kitchen.

((Bart Cappotelli continued in 4649お願いします!))