How to Make Choppy Animation Look Good?

The next project I have to do is an extension of the summer project, based around consequential art, the whole idea around the brief is to build a world and test out story making skills visually. The end product that I am going to be doing is a “narrative sequence”; in the form of a short animation.

I’m no animator and so I thought about what would be a feasible and good looking aesthetic to set off the whole look of the animation, I instantly thought of the Japanese anime intros of ‘Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei’, translated in roughly in English to ‘So Long Mr. Despair’. Simply the look of these openings to the cartoon series looks spectacular and hypnotic as it forms this cut out like collage style. To have such a look seemed to make up for the lack of smooth and fluid animation and I figured that it’s an approach that I should consider. The next clip here shows a whole episode known as “Mystery Train” done in the look of these openings (which is rare for the series). I’m not sure how hard it was to make the episode but it certainly looks like the animators had a lot of fun on this one! If anyone is into animation I implore you to watch the video below.

I am not expecting to animate anything better than a South Park cartoon but the Zetsubou Sensei series certainly intrigues me with its use of lighting and textures in these rare moments. I haven’t shown any spoils for my work just yet, so I’ll be getting into practice as soon as I can and we’ll see just how much this has influenced me later. Hopefully I'll see more animation that empthasises look and texture over motion.