To animate a looped illustration It is not necessary to carry out a production that takes a great amount of time, in addition to that it can be much easier than what is normally believed, since you only need to have skills with illustration and of course, be very creative.
Tips for creating a looping animation
Where to start
According to one designer, the first step is about the most daring, since it consists of start some story.
To do this, it is advisable to think of something fun that is not only attractive but also easy to understand and obviously, should work fine when used in a loop animation or GIF.
For example, a project about “Game of Thrones”In which a GIF is created for all episodes. However, the challenge lies in the creative process, since animations about violent scenes must be created which must be tender and represent the entire episode.
Keep it simple
The simpler the design, the simpler the animation process is going to be and being a bit minimalist could offer greater freedom when animating. It should be noted that a complicated design will have multiple details, textures and shadows, so that it will take more work when animating, since it will be necessary to look in each of the frames.
The key is to maintain looping animation as simple and minimalist as possible, so the ideal would be:
- Use geometric shapes.
- Use spot colors.
- Try do not use unnecessary details, such as fingers and toes, the use of simple lines offers the possibility of playing with them as if they were modeling dough.
The good thing about this is that you have the possibility of using and abusing these forms without leaving aside humor, style or visual interest. Think for example of animating a very large body with a fairly small face or using very thick arms and really thin legs.
Keep in mind that simple character animations tend to be much more elegant and above all, more expressive, such as:
- Use simple lines for the limbs.
- Use somewhat thick lines on the body.
- Use 2 circles to make the head and hair.
The loops have to be perfect
Failures are very easily noticed if the looping animation is not perfect, so you should pay special attention to the small details and even more attention to each of the frames of the animation, so that you can make sure that the loop will not need some kind of retouching.