Okay, round two. Decided I wasn’t quite ready to give up on that little project I messed up before. You know the one. Thought I’d document this attempt, maybe keep myself honest this time.
Getting Started Again
So, I sat down and booted up the computer. Pulled up that software again – the one for making simple animations, or trying to, anyway. Last time, I just dove in headfirst, clicking everything, trying to make something fancy right away. Big surprise, it ended up a confusing pile of digital junk and I just quit.
This time? Nah. Took a deep breath. Decided to keep it super basic. Like, embarrassingly basic. The goal wasn’t some masterpiece. The goal was just to actually understand one tiny piece of it.
The Actual Process
First thing, I opened a completely blank file. Stared at it for a bit. Resisted the urge to immediately try drawing something complex.
Instead, I looked for the shape tools. Found the circle tool. Okay, good start. I drew a circle. Just a plain circle.
Then I thought, alright, how do I make this thing move? Remembered seeing something about ‘frames’ or ‘timeline’ last time but ignored it. This time, I actually looked at the bottom of the screen where that timeline thing was.
- Clicked on the circle.
- Found a button that looked like a key, think it said ‘insert keyframe’ or something simple like that. Clicked it.
- Moved the timeline marker thingy forward a bit.
- Dragged my circle across the screen just a little.
- Clicked that key button again.
I squinted. Was that it? Found the play button. Pressed it.
Did it work?
Well, yeah, kinda! The circle actually slid across the screen! Okay, it was jerky and looked totally unprofessional, but it moved based on what I did. It wasn’t just random clicking this time.
Felt a small victory there. Much better than the frustration last time. It’s not much, just a moving circle, the kind of thing a kid could probably do in ten minutes. But last time I couldn’t even manage that.
Spent another hour just doing that. Moving the circle. Trying to make it go up and down. Making another shape, a square, and trying to move that too. Still feels like I’m fumbling in the dark with most of the buttons, honestly. But it’s way less dark than before.
So, yeah. Amateurs, part two. Still an amateur, no doubt. But maybe, just maybe, making slightly less of a mess this time around. We’ll see how long it lasts.
