Animation - where to start?

[doppelkorn]

I have some ideas in my head and I'd like to make them into little cartoons. Well that's only partly true because I'd like to have actual actors act them out but animation seems cheaper and easier at this stage.

I was gonna post this in GB but thought here might be better.

I'm not a bad artist - I've done quite a few evening classes - but I've never thought about animation. Any recommendations for software/books/tips/where to start?

[madhair60]

I guess Flash is probably still the best bet.   I think the CS2 version is free, now?

[Petey Pate]

Preston Blair's book is the classic how-to-guide for animation.  While the drawing style is rather old fashioned, the basic instructions on how to make characters walk, what mouth shapes to use for dialogue, line of action, etc, pretty much still all apply.  The page on how to draw hands has been particularly useful for me personally, though they're still one of the hardest things to draw, even simplified.

Here's a link to scans of pages from the rare first edition of the book, which has nicer drawings of actual licensed characters (Tom & Jerry, e.t.c) rather than the generic ones in the reprinted issues.

http://animationresources.org/instruction-preston-blairs-advanced-animation/

There's also Richard William's Animator's Survival Guide which is more extensive and a lot more in depth, but it's not really for beginners I think.

[Steven]

There's also Richard William's Animator's Survival Guide which is more extensive and a lot more in depth, but it's not really for beginners I think.

The DVD set is probably easier for a modern audience, but obviously focuses on traditional animation on paper. There are guides for Flash but as it is essentially moving polygons I guess it just takes a lot of tinkering until you get the hang of it, there are tutorials and stuff on youtube.

[Petey Pate]

Just remembered about this recent book by Eric Goldberg (who animated the Genie in Disney's Aladdin, among other things).  I've not read it or had the chance to look inside it, but it does seem pretty cool.

[doppelkorn]

Thanks everyone. I remember doing some flash Animation at school but from memory they just put us in front of some computers and told us to animate something. Something about layers...

I'll check out CS2. Apparently it's not technically freeware but...yeah.

[olliebean]

I guess Flash is probably still the best bet.   I think the CS2 version is free, now?

It is? Where's that from, then? I couldn't find it on the Adobe website.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

If Flash proper isn't freely available, there is another program that can create Flash animation and is free. I can't remember what it's called, though.

[surreal]

It is? Where's that from, then? I couldn't find it on the Adobe website.

It's only Photoshop and even that  is a bit of a grey area - read this for more info and use the first "up for download" link in the text.  I've tried it, it is there:

http://www.techspot.com/news/51316-adobe-offering-creative-suite-2-for-free-but-they-didnt-mean-to.html

[syntaxerror]

Cartooners. (download)

[Johnny Yesno]

Blender

[lazarou]

animation seems cheaper and easier at this stage

Even the simplest of animation is probably a lot more time and work-intensive than you'd think. In almost all cases getting some folks in front of a camera is going to be quicker and cheaper unless you've got months of time to burn.

The go-to tool for 2D animating at the moment is Toon Boom Harmony, used even by crotchety old fuckers like John K, which runs into "ask our sales department" levels of pricing. Their hobbyist-level Studio offering is worth a look. If you want to keep things as simple as possible, something like Crazytalk Animator can do a lot of the work for you, but it going to be pretty limited for anything much beyond that.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

If Flash proper isn't freely available, there is another program that can create Flash animation and is free. I can't remember what it's called, though.

I remembered: http://vectorian.com/