Animate With MS Paint and Windows Movie Maker
Using common software (such as Paint and Movie Maker), you can create your own animations, for display on YouTube and other internet sites. Additionally, this article will introduce you to free (or, low cost) software that will make animation much easier than you ever thought possible, all without learning Flash or other complex programs.
Steps
- Decide what you are going to animate Before you start drawing, you'll need to come up with a good (better, a great!) story. wikiHow has several such entries to guide you; "How to write a short story" is a good place to start. Remember, effective stories have...an introduction, complications, and a resolution.
- Storyboard your script (reducing it to a series of cartoon-like drawings). See articles elsewhere in wikiHow for tips on storyboarding.
- Begin animating!. Open MS Paint (or any image processing software, such as JASC Paint Shop Pro). PSP is fairly straightforward, although there is a learning curve. Most importantly, in PSP you can add the bits that will move in your animation, as layers. Then, you move the layer to get the effect of movement (vs. redrawing your entire frame, or "cel").
- Draw your first frame (or, import a photograph). Be sure to make it look just the way you wanted it, or you'll hate the end result, and you will have wasted your time.
- Save it into the image software you are using (or, better, paste it into an animation software package). GIF Animator (GIF-A) is free and, for your first animation, it's recommended. You might also look at JASC Animator (the 'trial' version never seems to expire). Animation programs will speed your progress in far too many ways to itemize here.
- Make any adjustments you wish to make for the next cel. Usually (but not always) you will not make them drastic. This is animation, so you need to take it a step at a time. Each cel will usually be just slightly different from the last one. If you have learned about 'layers' and are using PSP, this will be accomplished with a flick of your mouse.
- Import the saved photos (or, better, the animation file) into Windows Movie Maker (MM). Do this when you have your scenes finished. Drag them down onto the story board. You will probably iterate this step many times, until you get your creation just right.
- Add titles and special effects. Once you have all the visuals exactly as you like them, then is the time to add special effects, credits, a title, anything you need.
- Add sound; it is essential for an effective film. While MM does have a sound editor, it is buggy, very difficult to modify, and is prone to hanging without warning (often requiring a complete reboot). You can edit your sound in any separate sound editing software (like Cooledit, but any comparable package should do), then drop the entire file into MM. You can download for free very nearly any type of sound you need, off the net.
- Don't forget Ambient sound. This is the incidental background sound, usually, some sort of a dull murmur; if you have none, the effect of going from "talking" to "complete silence" is jarring. You can put a soundtrack in the background, but, failing that, you should never (well, hardly ever) have a complete lack of sound. This is another time sound processing software like Cooledit proves its use: you put your ambient (or, your music) soundtrack on one channel, and your speech and sound effects on the second.
- Search for examples of animation using the software mentioned in this article. See www.youtube.com (and search there for "nzfilmprof"). "Kiwi Kids" has samples of young students using Paint; and other examples done with PSP.
Tips
- Similar to the above, to show a windmill turning, only two or three positions are required; once the windmill rotates one-blade's worth, you can cycle the windmill by endlessly repeating those 3 cells. Anything similar (like moving targets in a shooting gallery) can be accomplished with just a few repeating cels.
- Animation frequently relies on "sight gags". Observing "the rule of three" is invaluable. Show an action. Show it again (with a slight variation). The third time you begin to show it, the viewer will think "I know what's going to happen!" Here, at the third iteration, you dramatically CHANGE the action, surprising (and, hopefully, amusing) the viewer. See the honeybee sequence in "Kiwi Kids Stuff and Nonsense" on YouTube for an example ("Stuff" also has several examples of 14 year olds animating with Paint).
- With MM, wait until 'all' your visuals are exactly the way you want them, for your entire film. Then add any titles, captions, sound, etc. Otherwise, if you add a clip in the middle, 'everything' (sound, captions, etc) after than point, will require changing.
- It is more believable to animate a drawing, a statue, or some imaginary creature, than, a face. The reason? We all know how a face moves, and, it is incongruous if it does not move according to our expectations. For imaginary figures, you can deviate more from the norm.
- Perfect synchronization of lips to speech is not required. When a character speaks, it is usually acceptable simply to move his lips and mouth, but, it doesn't have to be exactly in sync. If you add a few other movements now and then (blink the eyes, shift the eyes side to side, raise and lower the eyebrows (as LBJ is shown doing), and tilt the head slightly left and right, the end effect will usually be quite convincing.
- Consider continuity. For example, if a rocket is launched to the left in one sequence, it should be shown as coming in from the left if/when it hits something (as it does correctly in Stuff and Nonsense). However, the introduction of this same clip suffers when it goes directly from the cacophony of a rock song, to a scene in the dead of the night, with people sleeping in (and under!) the bed.
- The viewer's eyes and brain will fill in a lot of action, as in this example, where a news presenter throw her arms up in the air in alarm. Only two positions (arms down and arms up) are needed to show this action (the viewer's brain makes up for the 'missing' cells.
- Don't use too many different transition effects; you do not want to "take the viewer out of the story" (that is, distract him). MM may offer 25 types of transitions, but, 95% of the time, fade in/fade out is your best choice.
- To shift eyes, do this. Cut two eye holes in the face. Draw (or photograph) suitable eyes. Now, using layers, place both eyes in a single layer behind the layer of the head. All that will be visible through the eye-holes you cut, will be the eyes. With a flick of the mouse, you can shift the eyes, simultaneously, back and forth. This technique (appropriately adapted) also works well for animating the mouth as your character speaks.
- Frame size is a trade off, between quality of image and demands on your software. Setting the image size above 1024x768 is good for giving smooth edges to your frames. However, if you plan to upload your clip to youtube, it will reduce the size of your images to 320 x 280 anyway. Also, the larger your image, the slower MM will work (and, this will shorten the animation it can handle). Particularly if you use GIF-A, pick one frame size, then stick with it. If you use different sizes, GIF-A will not handle this well.
- Vary your shots: closeups, mid-range, distant, low angle, high angle, etc. Also, if two (or more) characters are conversing, jump from a group shot to individuals, and back, for variety.
- The first thing you usually see in a scene is, the establishing shot, in which you let the viewer know where he is. This is not an absolute requirement, but, it's the norm. The reverse strategy is, to begin with a close-up, then pull the camera back, to show how what you begin with, is part of, something bigger; this is known as the reveal.
- Once you animate a short clip, you can use JASC Animator to select a portion of the scene (typically, a close-up on a face), and create a second clip. This gives you two animations for the effort of one, and lets you vary your shot selection as well.
- Generally, when animating, only a few positions (sometimes as few as two or three) are required to make the action appear realistic.
- Some background in drawing skills is helpful, before you create an animation (if in fact you are going to draw your frames). If your drawings (or pictures) don't look good, your animation probably won't either...no matter how smooth it is. However, if you animate using photographs as your basic building block, even those with light drawing skills can achieve acceptable results.
- Compose your backgrounds carefully. Consider combining elements from several photographs and/or other illustrations, to get 'just the right effect.' Then, place your characters (yes, using layers!) on top of your background; with a flick of the mouse, you can move them about effortlessly. In this example, a (heavily modified) old stove, pot, frying pan, and pancakes, are pasted on top of a tiled floor and a background of windows. PSP's illumination feature gives the effect of an explosion. The stove (on it's own layer) is tweaked to dance on the floor.
- Desirable software you'll find are really big helps:
- GIF Animator, JASC Animator, or any other equivalent. You might find that "GIF Advanced Animator" is buggy, and the vendor sometimes refuses to respond to emails.
- Abrosoft FantaMorph is $100, but, will morph, pan and scan. It will generate literally hundreds of intermediate frames, given a 'starting' and 'ending' frames. It is not perfect, however, their help desk 'will' respond and 'will' make modifications, if their produce is deficient.
- Cooledit (or any other sound processing software packages).
- Boilsoft (about $30) allows you to paste smaller animations together. This avoids MovieMaker limitations, but also allows easier editing (it's easier to edit a 2 minute clip than a 10 minute one).
- You can effortlessly create transitions, using morphing software, that, 20 years ago, would take a crew of skilled technicians months. One options is Abrosoft FantaMorph, but, many others are available. Consider this example: First, Big Jim is looking at the crew of the Star Cafe on its porch (a point of view shot), then, his eyes slowly zoom in on the Cafe. Finally, what Jim saw, is now what the viewer is seeing.
Warnings
- Don't use drawings, photos, or other artwork of others without permission, and given credit when you do receive permission. For one, you will not be eligible for revenue sharing on Youtube, should your video be an exceptionally popular one.
- Copyrighted songs are a grey area: YouTube does have an algorithm which ferrets out many copyrighted songs, however, unless someone important (like Disney or Warners) complains, your clip will not be banned.
- When MovieMaker fails, it often gives error messages that are misleading (to put it mildly). MM will complain about lack of "virtual memory" or that it is "unable to store file in specified location." These are meaningless messages. Basically, you have exceeded MM's resources on your PC. You must reduce the file size; either divide your animation in half, or, reduce frame sizes.
- Be concise! YouTube limits upload length to no longer than 15 minutes, for one. Frankly, it is an exceptional animation that can keep the viewer's interest for longer than five minutes.
- Movie Maker has its limits. You could find that a clip longer than two minutes, is about as long as it can handle. To make a 4 minute animation, usually requires that you paste two 2-minute files together (using software like Boilsoft to paste them, but there are others).
Things You'll Need
- MS Paint (or the equivalent; JASC PaintShopPro, Photoshop, etc.)
- A computer (the more RAM and processing power, the better)
- A digital drawing tablet (highly recommended, but not mandatory)
