Animation Thumbnails are important

Thumbnails are something that many people take for granted, and as a result skip altogether, then regret later when things don't turn out how they wanted it. Many people say they don't have to, or don't have the time to, and it ends up hurting the overall project later.
One thing people say is that it takes to much time to thumbnail, when really the opposite is true. Because you have the keyframes already planned, it cuts down the time it takes by half or more. When you have it planned, you know what direction you need to take, and can drive right into what needs to be done. An important fact is that thinking is always the first step, no matter what, thinking is how you can get the story down and make sure the elements of the story make sense and can be interesting in a full fledged animation. 3D animation doesn't exclude this process either, in fact it may be even more important in 3D then in 2D. The keys are always important and shape the animation.
So, while thumbnailing may seem like a waste of time, really though, it can result in a better product altogether. The next time you want to animate, remember to make those thumbnails, you'll thank yourself later.          

Zootopia hair animation

I've been interested in this movie since hearing about it and seeing the first trailer. The movie looked amazing in the concept and the animation, so getting an article about it was very interesting.
Now, with the animation, I noticed the details with the fur and wondered just how much the studio had to do to be able to make the movie. With this detail, it wouldn't be a major thing if only one character, but this is a movie full of animals with different types of fur. So it wasn't surprising that Disney had to create a new animation program to be able to step up to what they needed. After all, they've never had this amount of detail in just hair alone, and you still have to consider lighting and muscles. The lighting is another aspect the was redone to fit with this amount of fur on all these animals. With these aspects, the characters look almost real and natural due to these extra details.
This is proof that animation is pushing technology everyday, and needs to create new software to advance the possibility and push the boundaries of what we thought was previously possible. I can't wait to see what they can do with what they have, and how they will advance this medium farther down the line.