1 The Basics
I hope that the terms used in these pages are self-explanatory; one term, however, that you may be unfamiliar with if you are new to 2D animation is fields. Please take time to read these basic notes if the term doesn't mean anything to you. Dopesheet pages are generally (not always) 96 or 100 frames long, both of which styles have their advantages and disadvantages. The pages are also divided into sub-sections which can be of 8 frames, 10 or 16 - this is just a matter of taste. The sub-divisions are only there to help judge timing. The rows of the dopesheet represent frames and the columns are levels of animation. The example above shows just a simplified view of the top part of a dopesheet and it is divided into 8 frame sections, which approximate to one third of a second. Homemade dopesheets are not ideal as most people will make their dopesheets A4 in size and this is a bit small. That said, providing that you limit the number of frames per page to about 50, a legible dopesheet can be made that fits on to A4. A4 does offer two big advantages: first, almost everyone has an A4 printer, (and A4 photocopies are reasonably cheap), second, an A4 sheet is easily faxed. Don't know what "A" sizes are? Click here if you want info If you have access to a photocopier that can enlarge, you could make your own stationery template on A4 paper then blow it up, to A3 say, which is a 100% enlargement. I do this when making my own bar-sheets. Of course, there is no reason why your dopesheets have to be any exact dimension at all. It is just that over the years, dopesheets have been found to work optimally at a certain size. They are usually a long shape – for instance, the ones I am using at present measure 535mm by 260mm (21inches by just over 10 inches). The size I recommend for making your own home-brewed dopesheets, A3, is also very close to the standard animation drawing paper known as 15 Field (the artwork is fifteen inches wide on paper that is about 16 inches wide). |
