Make Your Own Animation

Though it's often not considered 'real art', some of the greatest and most loved films ever made have been animated. The animation world is constantly looking for that next great filmmaker and that person could be you, so you better start practicing! There are many different types of animation, enough to fit just about every animator under the sun! Below you'll find ideas about how to animate on your own, as well as what skills you'll need to learn if you really want to be a great animator. Just get started with Step 1 below!

Steps

Traditional Animation Basics

  1. Script your animation. First, write down everything that you want to happen. This doesn't just mean dialogue, it means actions and facial expressions too. You need to have a clear idea of exactly what's going to happen before you start.
  2. Make some storyboards. Story boards are the next step: these are drawings that show major actions and scenes throughout your animation. These tell the story overall and look much like a comic book.
  3. Draw some character sheets or make character models. You'll want to have a reference to look at as you draw your frames, so that the character looks consistent and real from pose to pose. Draw your characters from every different angle and with a number of different expressions. You should also draw out what they'll be wearing, especially if what they're wearing changes between scenes.
  4. Make your animation sketch. This is a single drawing on a single piece of paper that shows all of the major stages of movement in a single frame. This will often result in a picture that looks like conjoin quintuplets or something like that, but it's designed to make sure that your key frames are correctly aligned and that your motions look natural.
  5. Draw the key frames. The key frames are the major stations of the movement that the character makes. For example, if you're animating a character turning from left to right, the key frames would show the character facing left, then the character facing the camera, and then the character facing right.
  6. Check for flow. Flip between the key frames to see how the movement looks.
  7. Do the in betweens. The in betweens are all of the minute movements between the key animations. So, start by drawing the image that should go directly between two key frames. Then do the image that goes between the key frame and the first in-between. Keep doing this until you have the appropriate number of frames to illustrate the movement (this will differ depending on what your purpose is with your animation).
  8. Check for flow again. Yeah, you should pretty much constantly be checking for flow.   
  9. Clean up the drawings. Clean any sketch lines and stray marks that distract from the movement of the character. You may even choose to ink the frames of animation, depending on what you plan to do with your work.
  10. Process the animation. Stitch the images together in a computer program like Photoshop, in order to create the final video. You can add  this reel to a portfolio or just show it off to your friends and family!

Experimenting with Other Styles

  1. Make a flip book. Flip books are a great place to start when you want to learn how to do animation. These are so simple, even little kids can make them. Flip book animation is actually really good because it mimics how real, traditional animation works.
  2. Make a stop-motion animation. Stop-motion animation is where you take pictures of physical objects and then string the pictures together the same way you'd string together the drawings in a traditional piece of animation. There are lots of different ways that you can do stop-motion animation. Common materials include cut out paper (which was famously used in making Monty Python) or clay animation (which has been used in famous films like The Nightmare before Christmas).
  3. Make an animated gif. Animated gifs are a popular medium, used widely on the internet these days. Even wikiHow uses them! You can create your own animated gifs easily, so long as you have a computer and can get a hold of basic software. Usually gifs are used to take short clips of TV shows, but you can use the same method to string together your own, hand-drawn images.
  4. Make animation using a computer. You can also do standard computer animation, but be aware that this can be very challenging and often takes years to learn how to do it well. There are a couple of different methods, including:
    • 2d animation. You can do this at home using programs like Anime Studio, or make Adobe Flash animations.
    • 3d animation. This is more difficult to do at home, as the computer power necessary to render 3d animation requires a much more powerful machine than most casual users possess. If your computer can take it, one basic program you can use is Smith Micro's Poser.
  5. Try Machinima. Machinima is a type of animation that uses real time capture of existing computer models. Usually such works are created using video games (the popular web series Red vs Blue is a good example). Machinima is much easier for new animators to pick up and can give you a great way to learn basic animation skills.

Making It Great

  1. Do some research. It's always a good idea to do your homework before trying something. Do some reading on animation techniques and what makes animation good before getting too serious about what you're doing. A good place to start is by studying the twelve basic principles of animation, as laid out by the Old Men at Disney.
  2. Learn how to create a good story. Even poor animation won't matter too much if the story that you're telling is good. Write an incredible story that blows people away and they'll overlook animation mistakes or lack of Disney-blockbuster graphics.
  3. Learn how to tell a good story. The story itself isn't the only part of animation storytelling that matters. You also need to think about HOW you tell then story. How it's presented, what order the scenes happen in, and other factors like how the characters are used can significantly impact how people see your story and animation.
  4. Master facial expressions. Animation is at it's best when the viewers are emotionally connecting with the characters. This is much easier if you get your characters making faces that convey real emotions, instead of largely static faces. Practice drawing emotions on faces. You should focus on the motions of changing emotions too, not just the poses of sad-angry-laughing, etc.
  5. Learn squash and stretch. Another part of making even the most basic animation more engaging and seem more life-like is getting the motions to seem dynamic and tangible. This is usually conveyed through a process called squash and stretch. Squash and stretch is when you exaggerate motions to help the human brain perceive them as real. A common example would be when you imagine a ball. It's much more interesting to see a ball squish down to the floor a little when it lands, instead of just seeing a normal sphere. This helps the viewer feel the motion that the ball is making.
  6. Study color theory. Color theory is the idea of what colors look good with which other colors, and how colors can be used together to convey story and emotion. Understanding color theory is essential to making your animation look professional and appealing. If you want to really take animation seriously, it would be a good idea to have at least a basic understanding of color theory.
  7. Study composition. Composition is the study of how an image should be set up on a canvas or screen in order to look good and draw the viewers attention to the important places. This is also extremely important, if you want you viewers to get the most from your animations. Do a little reading on basic compositional theory, such as the rule of thirds or golden proportions.
  8. Study perspective and 3d shapes. When you see a ball, you don't see a circle: it's a sphere. While 2d and 3d animation are technically flat (our eyes don't perceive real depth there unless the animation is in actual 3d and secondary equipment is used), our brains will enjoy the image more if it looks like there is substance to the shapes. In other words, if you want your animations to look good, you generally want to get good at showing the substance of objects in your images.
  9. Study anatomy. Of course, most cartoons show people and objects as looking very different than they do in real life. Women would be almost crippled if they had Jessica Rabbit's spine in real life! But having an understanding of how bodies work and how they're capable of moving will make your animation more enjoyable and give it a more natural feel. Studying anatomy also universally makes people better at drawing!
  10. Take classes! Finally, don't forget: you can take classes for animation! There are often cheap courses offered at local community colleges and you might be able to audit animation classes from local art schools. You can also easily find classes and tutorials online, for free or much less than you'd pay for real life courses. If this is something that you enjoy, then take it seriously and devote some resources to it!

Tips

  • Practice. Seriously. If this was a skill that could be learned overnight or by reading a single tutorial, everyone would do it. You're just going to have to devote some time to learning how to do it really well.
  • If you are deciding to make animation on the computer, consider using Flash or Photoshop.
  • A good free app that works great is FlipaClip.

Warnings

  • Watch out for virus computer programs and animation "schools" that are just out for your money.
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