Free and Handy Advice on Advising

If you are a student then perhaps you don't feel confident enough to go around flinging your opinions at other peoples work. But here is the thing, when you do it in a constructive way it can be very beneficial for both parties involved. Having to articulate your thoughts about what makes animation work forces you to clarify your understanding of the topic. In short talking about animation (if done right as I will get to at the end of the post) can make you better at animating.

I've found some amazing free software of late that can help facilitate these conversation in person or online.

Active Pen lets you draw over the top of other programs, great for analysing the line of action in that pose or planing the arc you want something to follow.

Debut is the best free desktop capturing software I have seen by a long shot. The creators (NCH Software) make a whole range of free video and audio editing tools that seem reliable, are easy to use and don't tax your computers system like many of the commercial alternatives.

I'll add these to the Free Software section of the ARC resources, where you can find links to a whole bunch of free goodies.

So back to being a constructive critiquer, here are my tips.

• Watch the listeners reactions, you may have the best piece of advice you will ever have to give, but it will be waisted if the other person is not in the mood to listen and I'm afraid you can't make someone be in the mood to listen. Choose your time.
  
  
• Stick to the animation principles (AH! I mean rules), subjective stuff about style should only be on the table if someone asks you for your opinion.
  
  
• Don't give advice unless you can take it too, pig headed people are identified quickly and are rarely listened to ever again.
  
  
• Have your own house in order before advising others on a topic. This is the great thing about advising others, it can help you lift your own game. If your going to tell someone else their character pose is off balance then you had better make sure your poses are balanced too.
  
  
• Keep it as clear and simple as you can. I am as guilty as anyone when it comes to this one. I often find myself going off into a rant only to discover the student has a glazed look over their eyes that says, "I stopped hearing anything you are saying half an hour ago."
  
  

So get out there as soon as you can and start throwing your ideas around to those who are willing to listen, its good for everyone involved.