2025 March Animation #02 Recap

Okay, so it's been a few days since my last animation dropped, and I figured now's a good time for a quick recap. I get that most people might not care about this sort of thing, but honestly, I'm mainly posting this for future me to look back on.


PROJECT RECAP

ENVIRONMENT

The first two days of this project were spent brainstorming environment ideas. My initial concept was a tavern, but the camera angle limited the background depth—unless the ceiling was absurdly high, the space felt cramped. So, I scrapped that idea.

Next, I experimented with a cave, placing the entrance on the left side of the composition. But something felt off—the balance wasn’t right, and the scene lacked energy. So, I abandoned that approach too.

Finally, I revisited the cave concept but pushed the opening far into the distance. This small shift completely transformed the scene, opening it up and creating something crucial: depth.

This project taught me how essential depth is in composition. Without it, a scene falls flat, lifeless and unconvincing. Depth separates foreground from background, pulling the viewer into the world, making them feel part of the image/video. Moving forward, it’s the first thing I’ll prioritize—because without depth, a piece will never truly breathe.

ANIMATION

Surprisingly, the animation for this project wasn’t hard at all. I expected it to take me days to figure out the best workflow for the hand movements, but I found a solution almost immediately. After that, I just added some variation to the motion and tweaked Karlach’s body movements—from there, things pretty much fell into place. All in all, the animation alone only took me about three hours, making it the fastest I’ve ever completed for a project.

I considered adding a voice line or two to the render, but since the animation is only six seconds long, there wasn’t enough room without making it feel repetitive. Looping it with the same audio would have gotten annoying fast, so I decided to keep it silent.

COMPOSITING

This was easily the hardest and most time-consuming part of the entire project. Honestly, I’m not even sure how to explain it simply without turning this post into a 5,000-word essay—so for now, I’ll skip breaking down the compositing. I still need more experience before I can explain it in a way that actually makes sense.

RENDERING

This scene took roughly 11 hours and 30 minutes to render at 4K resolution. On top of that, I ran several test renders, each taking about an hour and a half. Between active work on the project (27 hours and 32 minutes) and rendering time (~18 hours), the entire process totaled around 45 hours.

A big reason it took so long was because I was still refining my compositing workflow.

Going forward, I’ll probably avoid rendering at 4K right away—it’s just too time-consuming. Instead, I’ll render at 1080p and upscale it afterward.

NEXT HURDLES

Right now, I’m facing two major challenges in my artistic growth: fluid simulation and story telling.

Whenever I study great art—whether it’s a painting, an animation, or even a well-composed photograph—one thing always stands out: it tells a story. Not always through words or direct exposition, but through subtle details that pull the viewer in. The way light spills across a scene suggests time of day, maybe even mood. A character’s pose or expression hints at their thoughts, their history, or their next move. Even something as simple as a discarded object in the background can imply action, loss, or anticipation. It’s this kind of storytelling that makes art feel alive, like a single frame pulled from a larger world.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to weave that kind of narrative depth into my own work, but like everything else, it takes practice—and patience. It’s not just about making something look good; it’s about making it mean something.

Take my recent Karlach animation, for example. While the composition might be visually appealing, I keep asking myself: "Does this make sense?" Why is the character here? Why are they doing this? When I break it down, the scene falls apart—Karlach is in the depths of a cave, jerking off with her victim staring up at her. It doesn’t hold up because there’s no real story behind it. There’s no context, no motivation, no sense of place or purpose. It’s just motion without meaning.

Moving forward, I need to approach my ideas differently. What’s the story here? What’s actually happening? Right now, I’m so focused on learning animation mechanics—getting the movements fluid, the expressions right—that storytelling takes a backseat. But that’s exactly what I want to improve. Because at the end of the day, that’s what separates good artists from the rest. Technical skill can be learned, but the ability to make people feel something? That’s the real magic.


END

Thanks for taking the time to read this recap.

If you have any cool ideas for future projects, feel free to drop them in the comments—anytime, under any post. I’m always on the hunt for the next big thing to dive into.