(WIP) MTD "Keyframe"

I'm supposed to be sharing WIP stuff! The next animation will be a Metroid one, since Metroid Dread is coming out and I'm excited. I'm going for something more toned-down and reserved this time around.

Since some of you guys are artists too, I thought it'd be fun and informative if I shared my process while I post these WIPs. Or not, I dunno.

Anyways, as of now I can sorta divide the process of making a gif into five stages:

- Keyframe

- Gesture

- Pencils

- Lineart

- Coloring

This image is the "final" Keyframe, it's essentially just the first frame of the animation as a still image. I like to take more time with this in order to get the proportions, style, and composition where I generally want it. Apart from that, I also add in all of the "Variant Elements." These are basically individual layer groups for things like articles of clothing, layered over a Base layer of the character. These elements can be swapped in and out in order to render out way too many Variants, like in SLG. For that one there were like... nine elements I think? 

I also classify these gifs as "Loops" or "Sequences," for instance SLG is a loop, where there's no clear beginning or end, and the action sort of just, uh, loops, and FOS is a sequence, where there's a clear beginning and end, and there's a harsh cut back to the beginning. In the case of a Loop, I only need one Keyframe, so this one's good to go. But in the case of a Sequence, I need a few more. Generally only in the beginning and end, but sometimes I'll make more in the case of multiple events. Think of it like a storyboard.

After the Keyframe is done, I do what I call the "Gesture," which is a super rough approximation of the animated movement. Keep your eyeballs peeled for that one, I'll post it when it's done.