Common Mistakes that can ruin your Animated Short's Production

Here are my top common mistakes that not just beginners, but I and many professionals do when making short animated projects that may jeopardize the production itself. This excludes anything like writing, story, character - but rather the actual making of process.

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[YoannDessin]

The ''too big, too epic'' mistake is very accurate in all projects really

[meogatopreto]

Don't know if it helps, but I also list the scenes from "easy to hard". the easy ones requires simpler animations/movements or has less details, and I do those first. This makes you produce a bit faster and then you have more time to work on the shots that have more complicated animation or movement.

[wheatherd]

"Storyboard gets the overall idea and feeling across; Animation gets the subtext across" 👌

[AdaptiveReasoning]

It's hard to put so much thought and work into something that goes nowhere. So, I guess I will give you permission to mourn. Because that's what I needed after working on a book that I couldn't sell after five years. It's ok to take a break before you get back onto the horse.

Just aim to get back onto the horse.

Whatever you made I know you learned something you can use for a new project. I know you can do it better and faster than before. Your other project wasn't a failure as long as you still ride.

[marcosgomezolivos]

It is true, sometimes we put a heavy burden on ourselves when thinking about each project that comes to mind. We started out very enthusiastic, but then we began to hesitate. Will it be as good as I think? Will people like it? and we began to abandon the project little by little ... then we went to another and so ... Very good video. Thank you.

[kdvr]

Please dont stop making videos on animation. Youre only one of few who tackles this field. Really appreciate the free content you offer to us.

[Necrossauro]

Watching this while working on my next short haha
One of my tips is "personal films have personal deadlines". It's nice to keep on a schedule of your film, specially if you are doing it on your free time or you want it to be ready for some festival. But sometimes life doesn't care about your perfect schedule, you might need to stop working on your film to get your life on track. Or even, you want to keep on your schedule no matter what and this affects your health. Taking breaks and having a flexible deadline is important as working on your film.

[RossOzarka]

Making ambitious projects is not only doable, but also nets rewards. You just have to scale the animation way back. I spent three years making a 50-minute adaptation of a 16th Century Play. Since it was so long, I animated the whole thing with rough drawings on bits of cardboard, rather than with cel animation. When I was finished, I emailed it to every prominent industry person I could, and I ended up getting lucky and now I make cardboard animations full time.
If you want to make an epic story, maybe you are not interested in animation so much as you are in writing, storyboarding, art direction, or other disciplines that involve narrative. If you have the advantage of not being a CalArts student, then just make a super-rough animatic of your epic vision and get as many people to watch it as possible. Maybe you will get lucky too and meet a producer who needs your skills at making fast and cheap animation. The low-budget end of the market needs animators just as much as the high-budget end does.

[queas]

This is a great list. I want to back you up on not making your film too epic or long. I had my storyboard supervisor for my grad film literally draw an x through the entire middle section my of the board I drew, hand it back to me, and say, "there's your film." I was too shocked to be upset. Considering how much work it took to finish what was left, I clearly owe the man a bottle of scotch. I'm working on a project right now that could probably use his magic x.

[marvelousworks]

I wish I knew this last semester. I went big for a short film for class submission. Totally derailed - didn’t finish. Now I’m playing it safe.

[stelomation]

Being someone who likes to make animated shorts during my free time, I feel like some mistakes can also be made because of lack of resources. There's one I short I made where I rendered it and I had no idea how to toggle the frame rate cause I was using a different video editing software at the time, and as a result the animation has a lot of ghosting and blurs. I guess that's a mistake I can say I made.

[superjboy]

You know what's actually crazy making a feature film entirely by yourself. This guy on tumblr Toodrawtothink has been working for years on some amazing 2D western and honestly I can't wait for it to be done. He is clearly skilled, and I know for a fact that he planned it all out. He occasionally updates where he is with the project and he also showed that scenes he had to update because of the design. Everything you talked about here is evident on his tumblr. It inspires me to make bigger works one day maybe even something as crazy as his, thank you so much for this video!

[danielleporat]

my main one is the "too big" problem. the more I'm working on my current wip the more unachieveable it feels. and this is after scaling it back a lot and commiting to less animation work.

[WillyToons]

Great video, just about everything in here was something I noticed when making my short films. I would also add that you should BACKUP everything!

[AdondisArt]

Your animation course is about the only tutorial learning service i would actually consider purchasing just because how skilled you are at explaining concepts

[FlashFastBlack]

Great Vid Toniko, I finally finish my first "real" short. What a mixed bag, finishing it was so anticlimactic, I thought I would jump with joy but really I just want to put it all behind me. Now i'm finding that figuring out what I want to do next is the real struggle.

[artbyshea]

😂😂 your shot film in the background literally made me cry oye, this video's message was great. I do put a bit expectation on my art to take me to places and it makes the whole process less fun.

Thanks for the touching message man.

[xxchocoecaramell]

aayy this sure came in a great time 😂😂

[secondjaw]

i did not expect 10:04 😂😂 very informative and helpful video as well !

[marymikel]

I'm honestly doing something too ambitious BUT....So far I'm enjoying the process and I'm accepting it WON'T be perfect. And I'm not even gonna cry trying to make it that way. I've already had a cry session.