Welcome to lesson 10 of Animated Loops. In this final lesson,
we're going to focus on loop ideas. I'll give you a series of simple tips,
which can help you to find inspiration when creating your own loops in future.
Let's get started. Ideas tip 1: Give Yourself Constraints.
If everything in your imagination is possible,
then focusing on individual ideas is usually much harder,
but if you can narrow down your ideas by giving yourself constraints to work
within, then it forces you to be more creative.
We've already learned about using a limited color palette,
which is one helpful constraint,
but the main constraint that I work within is length,
as almost all of my loops are no longer than three seconds.
This means that I'll have to think of ideas that are simple enough to fit any
short amount of time while doing everything I can to make those three seconds as
interesting as possible.
You can also give yourself constraints by starting with a single item or object,
then thinking of many different ways that you can use the object to create a
series of looping animations around that theme. But for a lot of my loops,
the same object that I use is the same character - me.
This helps to save time because I don't constantly have to redesign new
characters.
But the main reason that I do this is that I like to limit my ideas to just
being about things that I've seen or done in real life.
Ideas tip 2: Tell Your Story. If you're trying to think of ideas,
then the best place to start is just by looking around you,
the way that you look at the world is different for every single person.
So you should use your unique perspective to create loops that nobody else will
think of. You can base your loops on anything. Maybe you're cooking at home,
going to the beach, riding a bike,
or even just watching a film that inspires you.
Almost everything can be turned into a loop.
If you just find the repetition that occurs naturally in the scene,
this repetition could simply be in the movement as with riding a bike,
but it could also be in the scenery such as on a carousel.
Whatever scene you choose to create,
it's also important to tell a story.
Just having a character riding a bike isn't that interesting,
but if you use your unique perspective to give them a reason to be on the bike,
then you'll start to create loops that represent your personality and humor.
With this in mind, even though I like to base my loops on my real life,
that doesn't mean the finished product needs to look anything like reality.
Ideas tip 3: Be Weird.
Making your loops relatable by animating familiar scenarios is a great start,
but you can interpret these scenes in any number of ways,
and creating something unexpected is usually better than just being ordinary.
You can play around with scale, making your character huge or tiny,
and anything they interact with can be huge or tiny too.
If you want your character to fly - why not?
Do want them to hold their breath forever under water? Not a problem.
Although constraints can be good by forcing you to be more creative,
don't feel constrained by reality.
Animation can be anything.
So you should use that to your advantage by always trying to create work that's
as varied as possible. Ideas tip 4:
Don't Repeat Yourself.
Throughout this course I've given you a number of different techniques for
making looping animations.
So you should try to use them all as well as any of your own when creating your
loops. If all you create is walk cycles,
then your work is going to get very repetitive.
So if the last loop you made was based on a2D walk cycle,
the next time try a 3D loop or an isometric loop,
or a combination of any of the different techniques that you've learned about.
Force yourself to work with techniques that you're not as comfortable with
because experimenting with loops you haven't tried before it's often when you
get your best new ideas. And the final tip,
ideas tip 5: Make Mistakes.
When you're experimenting with new ideas,
not every loop you make is going to be incredible. And that's fine.
One of the advantages to making loops is that they're relatively quick to
create. So if you create a loop that isn't your best,
then you can just move on to the next one.
But whether you think your work is good or bad,
don't be afraid to post it for other people to see.
How many likes or views your loops gets isn't important,
but it is important to finish your work, share it and learn from your mistakes.
Often, my mistake is trying to make a loop too complicated.
So my next loop will be much more simple, and those are usually my best.
So experiment share, learn, and never stop animating.
If you create a lot of loops, then your work will keep getting better.
Most importantly, if you enjoy creating the work,
then other people will enjoy watching it, too. In summary,
give yourself constraints, tell your story, be weird, don't repeat yourself,
and don't be afraid to make mistakes.
If you keep all of this advice in mind,
then you should have no problem thinking up endless loop ideas.
That's the end of this lesson and of this course.
I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have.
And hopefully I've given you a bit of help to get started with animating more
loops of your own. I'm looking forward to seeing what you create.
Thanks for watching.