Welcome to TVPaint Community forums !

Drawing, Animation, Exposures
In this first TVP Animation 10 training video, we're going to dive into the basic tools and techniques of 2D animation. You will learn how easily you can create the animation you want with the simplest of tools in TVP Animation 10. Don't let the interface intimidate you. With this video, you will be up and animating in minutes, allowing you no worries about graduating to larger and more involved projects!

You can check it out right HERE!

Terrence, I looked at just the first tutorial and find many problems with it. First, it is problematic that you don't include the GUI in your demonstration. A newcomer needs to be shown exactly which tools you are using and where you picked these up. Then you describe how you drew the eye too low on the face and proceed to use the cutout tool to erase it instead of picking the drawing up and pasting it where it looks better.

I also believe you spend too much time drawing the dog in what appears to be straight ahead animation -- a technique I consider questionable for the drawing style you have chosen, and shouldn't be used as part of a beginner's tutorial.

It would be much more useful if you began by demonstrating how and why the image & instance oriented timeline is ideal for creating key poses in preparation for inbetweening. From there I would go to selecting a pencil and eraser and from there continued with demonstrating more attributes of the timeline, i.e. adding blank frames, deleting frames and instances, moving images etc. Showing the actual process of drawing a character should be minimized in a tutorial that claims to demonstrate how to use the software.

@Paul, did you watch the whole $ 5 -product or the small extract/teaser from the website ?
Nevertheless, I think you're right - better to show the whole interface to get grip with palettes and timeline. To tell from the small clip it is not much information given, I just can see how a few different frames are coming out to be jump.

The first thing for a newcomer could be how Inbetweening is technical working and usually the next question is: what would happens, if I would change the position of the dog at a definite frame, what does timing mean for expression ? And another question will come up from a beginner: what is "secondary action ?".

I know it is always hard for a pro to see things with the eyes of beginners and so most of teachers are doing their lessons in "Disney-style and -rules", which imo keeps you away from real life and real study. I have always the feel(but maybe that is just me...), that teachers are doing this because it is so much easier to announce "golden rules" which have to be followed.

---Most of all I like your idea to have online tutorials for TVP-beginners, and I think $ 5 or 10 isn't too much, so I hope you continue.

was that just a teaser? I missed that; I thought it was a sample of one of many tutorials, in which case Terrence, I would recommend you reveal an entire tutorial to win subscribers ...

This is a test. I am having some trouble replying...

Thanks for the great points and recommendations Paul and Klaus. I will recut the teaser to show that there are many parts focused on the interface and tools. I also very much agree with the recommendation to "reveal an entire tutorial to win subscribers..." I will do that with my next video. There will be many more to come.

edit: This is my fourth attempt at replying. I had written a much longer reply originally and it got lost in internet limbo. Something about my ISP connecting to this site (as with many foreign sites)

Terrence, TVPaint were experiencing their own online problems and have been for several days in a state of intermittent confusion. When I wrote my first post, I was convinced that it got lost as well and decided that perhaps I was too blunt (again) and took it as the hand of providence interfering and so let it be -- two days later, the devil got into the act and my post appeared out of nowhere. I am relieved that you took my critique in good spirit because I wrote it that way as well.

yep, we are trying to solve the connexion problems, and it's not easy to keep the website/forum working at the same time.
sorry if you had a few lost posts.

No problem. It helps to know it is not just me and my horrible connection. )

We have found that the problem comes from the website downloads and not the forum itself.

Now we still need to find and fix the bug in the website. You might experience a few connexion problems during that time.

I notice I can't watch most of the videos in the gallery also. I am not sure if that is related.

Are you on Mac or Windows ?

I am on the Mac, but I now notice that some of the gallery videos are links to Youtube, which we cannot see here. Other videos work fine.

artfx wrote:I am on the Mac, but I now notice that some of the gallery videos are links to Youtube, which we cannot see here. Other videos work fine.

Unfortunalety, when we link vimeo or youtube, it just means that we are not allowed to upload a big file on our own server.

which we cannot see here.

chinese censorship ?

artfx wrote:I am on the Mac, but I now notice that some of the gallery videos are links to Youtube, which we cannot see here. Other videos work fine.

Ok, I thought you had problems with videos uploaded on our server.