I've made a few poor attempts at animation over the years. Nothing fancy, more like 4-6 frames at most. However, I always have a very hard time with keeping the relative size/position of all moving elements about identical from frame to frame. Small mistakes stand up so much in animation! This problem comes up partly because I can't see through the paper very well, so it's very hard to use the previous frame as a reference by placing it underneath the image I am drawing.
So, I was wondering if you can suggest any kind of paper that you can see through without too much trouble and that resists relatively well to being erased on / inked (bonus if it's relatively cheap, as I said it's for my own amusement more than anything else). I don't want to get ripped off, so I prefer to ask here before I head over to an art store.
Like jtorch,I don't have a paper suggestion. But a cheap interim solution could be to put your sketch for frame 1 in a sheet protector and trace an outline with a black vis-a-vis/write&wipe marker. Put the paper for frame two on top for drawing. Regular typing paper should be thin enough to see the dark lines of the marker underneath to use as a guide. When done with frame two, put it inside the sheet protector and wipe off the old outline and trace another for frame 2, etc.
I recommend getting a lightbox. Seriously, I don't animate on paper without one. Plus they're handy for comic-making. You can get one at the local art supply store and tape a plastic pegbar to it. (http://www.cartoonsupplies.com/index.ph ... ae63e83bab)
Hole punches are pricey so I'd suggest you just order paper pre-punched, so long as you get the right kind of punch for your pegbar. As for thin paper, you could try Gilclear - (http://www.cartoonsupplies.com/product_ ... ae63e83bab)
tracing paper is how the pros do it, well AND a lightbox usually.
I've never tried it old school way, I've done my hand at flash though, spent a weekend to get a simple jerky walk animation, and that was the end of that
You could try drafting vellum. It's similar to tracing paper but may be better for drawing on (supposedly). I've never used it myself but some friends of mine did use it as their regular paper for drawing comics.
