# Advice from Animators?



## Rook (Jul 2, 2009)

Well, I have a story to tell and , though I know how much hard work it's going to be, I've decided the best way to tell it is through an amateur animates series. I've always had a great love for animation, and I've admired people on Youtube, like AlliKatNya who have actually taken a step forward and made their own series by themselves.

I know my art will improve as I go on, and I'll finally have a good enough creative outlet, but I'm at a bit of a loss for where to start.

I've made my very first animations, and I've decided, since I don't own Flash (or want to) that frame by frame is the way to go. I've found out how to use Photoshop and Movie Maker to make effective animations, but as for issues such as anatomy, walk and run cycles, voicing, music and dialouge writing, I'm going to need some help.

At least one other person I can trust to review my work, make corrections and suggestions, story boards, just someone I can talk about this with,  (though except in terms of voice acting and music, all the real animation and writing will be done by me), preferably someone experienced with at least one of these elements.

So if your interested at all please post here and tell me what you think or give me helpful contact information/references please.

I need all the help I can get! :3


----------



## Internet Police Chief (Jul 2, 2009)

Rook said:


> Movie Maker



Just... stop right there. Really, it doesn't matter how good you are at Movie Maker, it just doesn't have the capabilities that things like Flash do.

Plus, last I checked, Movie Maker can't export to .flv/.fla, meaning you aren't really going to be able to upload it to, well, any website and make it possible to view easily.

Honestly, if you want to seriously get into internet animation, you will need to get (how you do so is up to you) a version of Flash and learn how to use it.

I took two years of Web Design in high school which was basically a Flash CS3 class. If you decide to get flash and want some pointers, go ahead and hit me up in PMs or IMs, whatever. I'm far from GOOD with flash, but I do know how to use it.


----------



## Rook (Jul 2, 2009)

I really disagree with you there, you don't need Flash to be an animator at all, it's a completely different style of animation than what I want to use personally.  Movie Maker can optimize (if the settings are changed) picture duration, and that's really all you need to animate since it makes the pictures move quickly, like a flipbook.

(EDIT: Also, as for FLV, there are converters you can use for that :3)

But I'm sure you know this, I'm not looking for my animation to be professional, just serviceable (and hopefully of good enough quality for me) to tell the story. I see no reason to spend hundreds of dollars for a  personal project.

Besides frame by frame animation will I think, in the long run benefit me more in terms of practice.

(EDIT: By the way, this dosen't mean I'm not open to learn Flash, I realize it's the most powerful modern animation program,  I just don't want to wait until I get the resources and time to buy/learn it before I start my project. )


----------



## Internet Police Chief (Jul 2, 2009)

Flash IS frame by frame. That's all it is.

There aren't converters, because a .flv file is so much more than just videos/pictures strung together flip-book style.

I mean, go ahead and try it if you want, but it isn't going to work well.


----------



## Rook (Jul 2, 2009)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NheddeknD4&feature=channel_page

The animating for this was done in WMM, except for the flashes and effects which were added in Sony Vegas.


----------



## Azerane (Jul 2, 2009)

I think it sounds like a great idea. Having dabbled a little bit in animation myself in the past, I've been itching to get back into it. All I have is windows movie maker and I'm happy to use it, I know how to use it etc. Whatever works for you. If you want to animate using it, then I say go ahead. It may not be on quite the same level as some other programs, but being an amateur animator, I would say it doesn't matter. Go your hardest. I would offer to help, but I'm not sure I'd have the time or be very committed to someone elses project. Best of luck to you though.


----------



## Rook (Jul 2, 2009)

Thank ya both for your opinions, and no worries, I don't expect someone to dedicate time to my project since animation is very taxing, and I don't want to be dependent on someone over the net to do this, it would just be nice to have an experienced consultant on board with me.

Plus I'm looking for voice actors, which I most certainly can't do alone, so whoever is interested  can hit up this thread or PM me.

I think I might have to look for someone whose experienced with audio and sound editing because I'm at a complete loss when it comes to that o.o'

I've already decided to use original music to avoid issues with copy right companies on Youtube, and I've contacted one person on here, so if your also interested in me debuting your music (with credit) then also hit up this thread. xD


----------



## Teshia (Jul 3, 2009)

I would suggest Anime Studio.  It's geared toward the 2d hobbiest, can be used like flash, or even for frame by frame if you want.  The cheapest package is about $50, and if you're drawing everything by hand it will have all the tools you'd need or if you're impatient it has shortcuts like bones and tweening.

The problem with most of the programs you mentioned is that they don't support music/sound integration.  There are lots of free programs for frame by frame work without sound, like Pencil and Graphics Gale.  However, adding music in Movie Maker is way too much work, requires a lot of math, and is often out of sinc when the file is exported.

Try the Anime Studio Trail and see if you like it. http://my.smithmicro.com/mac/graphics.html

Also, since you're a beginner, I'd suggest you take it slow.  Start with a 10 second project.  Then move to a 30 second project and so on.  It takes a lot of frames, and therefore time, to make an animation look smooth.  More often than not you won't be able to see how the animation looks until you get it all on the computer.  This is hard because you'll start noticing mistakes and a lot of the frames will need to be redone.

First: Storyboard
Second: Add Keyframes
Third: Do secondary Keyframes (sometimes called actionframes)
Fourth: start adding in-betweens (the frames in between the keyframes)

Here is my favorite book on the subject, and something I think you might find useful: http://books.google.com/books?id=ZmwxHQAACAAJ&dq=the+animator%27s+survival+kit


----------

