Should you animate before coloring or color before animating?

[alanz2223]

Hello, I have finished the main pose for a sprite (basic) and wondered for some of you who have experience, do you recommend coloring before animating or the other way around?

[MattBurb81]

I believe that coloring before animating is quicker than vice versa.

[Virt]

If you animate first and then color, you can focus on getting the overall motion right before filling in the details and shading.

[~Axis~]

It really depends on your preference and which you find easier. I would agree with Virt on how it helps to get the details right first. But coloring first helps you with the coloring not getting all confusing (as in pixel placement), but thats just me.

[DragonDePlatino]

Whenever I draw animations, I like to work in three layers. The body goes into the middle layer, the front arm/leg go into their own layer, and the back arm/leg have their own layer. I usually start by blocking in basic colors, like this:


(Very old)

After that, I add the actual color and outlines in like I've shown below, repeating for each frame. Generally, I find it much easier to get my shapes and colors right before I add my outlines.


(Also very old)

[Sketchasaurus]

Depending on the complexity of the animation and also the complexity of the final result, this sort of thing is all up to you figuring out how you approach spriting the best. For me, I don't use the same approach for everything; I have multiple methods in approaching animation.

The most important thing to keep in mind about animation in general is that you want your actions to have some believability while also being understandable/"readable" at the native resolution of a sprite.