From the course: Learning 2D Animation Principles

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Understanding X-sheets (dope sheets)

Understanding X-sheets (dope sheets) - Flash Professional Tutorial

From the course: Learning 2D Animation Principles

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Understanding X-sheets (dope sheets)

When animating a paper and pencil back in the pre-computer age, one of the tools that the animator had to use very well was the exposure sheet, also called the dope sheet. And this was a gigantic sheet of paper on which you would write down your camera instructions as well as your dialogue, the leveling of the scenes, like which layer the background went on, which layer the characters went on. And it would go from bottom background here to the top layer on the left. And of course, as you can see, we had a limit number of levels. There was quite narrower range of possibilities with the classic X-sheet than we currently have with our modern timelines. Nevertheless, they were a very great tool, and the important thing was to use them to make notes on your X sheet. For example, if you have musical beat, you could mark them out wherever they occurred, and this would enable you to plot your animation very, very efficiently. And using, using the X-sheet wisely was a very good thing to learn.…

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