animation

[painter ass]

i have been writing several short scripts that I have been wanting to make into short animations. Does anyone know a cheap and easy way to get started into animation? Preferably computer based.

Does anyone know of any good sites on animation and different techniques?

can flash be converted to DV?

I recently bought a cannon gl-1 (it is nice). and I would lke to be able to use it (i.e. put animations on minidv) and use live footage mixed with animation...

any help is appreciated
thanks
-PA

[eddie]

your best bet might be to make South Park type animations - film characters using the camera, capture these images and edit using something like Adobe Premier.

dont know if thats any help

[Spoon boy]

http://www.lostmarble.com

[Ideasman]

animation is not really something
that can be learnt with ease.
Some people have got it, and some
haven't.

Your best bet is not to touch a
computer, before you have mastered
is either drawn or model based
techniques.
Note that this could take years or
Deacades, and requires great dedication
to reach the kind of standards that you
might see in the average Disney film.

Traditional techniques are better
for learning timing and weight
because they require a great deal more
skill than CG animation (I.e. Every
frame has to be manipulated manually)

Taking up animation as a carreer is not
something you can just go out there and
"DO" sadly.

[andy_winton]

Ah ha,

I say just do it.

As spoon boy says Moho from lost marble
is a good and easy way to start. I made
a simple animation with this see -

http://www.wintonfilms.co.uk

Also, if you are on the MAC there is
Toon Studio (there's a link at the apple
site). I played with this, and it did
appear to be quite good. Like moho but
on speed.

For 3D work, maybe start with any of the
free stuff you get on computer arts mags,
Brice, 4D, etc. If you have too much
money get 3dstudio.

If played with Povray (wouldn't recommend
using this for animation, unless you are
as mad as me), Blender www.blender.nl this
is v. good for some 3D animation but not
for character work, for character work
try Animation Master www.hash.com.

Oh, and get some animation books, there
are lots, start with the Preston Blair
book called cartoon animation, the
techniques apply equally to 3D if you are
not into 2D work.

Thats about it, but just go ahead and
play with them.

I recommend getting a Wacom Pen tablet,
the graphire is about 70 GBP which is
excellent for all kinds of drawing work.

Have fun,

andy

[ilpostino]

Do you have a Mac or a PC? I'd go with a Mac but then that's what I use, however I know PC's are in general used more for 3D stuff. Like Andy says start off with the free programs and get a taste for it, if you get into it and you think you'd possibly like to do it for the rest of your life then you can spend your money on the big programs.

I use imovie to edit, a couple of months ago I finished a corperate video, 1/3 of it was computer graphics created on Flash by a friend of mine. He exported the finished flash movies in Jpeg frames, I then imported them into imovie and gave them a frame count of 1 (naturally). Hey presto Flash animations in your edit program which can be exported to DV.

I'll say this though the defult frame count of my program was 24 frames when importing files, so each imported Jpeg was set to 24 frames. I had to change over two thousand frames from 24 to 1 (bastard!) then little old imovie had problems playing 2000 frames so I had to export the film in four parts to DV then upload it again as four clips and stick it together so I could export it as one movie (bastard!).

[This message has been edited by ilpostino (edited July 12, 2001).]

[Kathy S]

I have the same camera as you but as far as I know you can't do animations on it- if you know how to- let us know,

good luck with your animation

Kathy

PS WE got some stuff on flash onto premiere

[painter ass]

i have a g4 tower. it is about a year old now, 400mhz... I think it will be able to keep up to speed though. It blazes through photoshop and other graphics programs.

thanks for all the info. I d/l'ed Moho last night (thanks to the winston films website), and I am probably going to start dicking around on it later.

I have been trying to get into animation for a while, specifically claymation, but whenever I made something the story was really really bad. I have moved past my interest of claymation into more cartoonish animation. Now that I have a few scripts that I deem worthy of animating, i am really wanting to try and start. They are only 30-40 second animations.

I talked to some dude at a spike and mike's festival a while back and he made his whole animation on the comp using some sofware (my guess Moho) and a PC. I hate PC's, macs are for me. He said that it took him a while to make the animation but overall it wasnt too hard. he also said he had not had much prior animating experience.

anyway thanks aain for all of the useful animation information.

peace
-Painter's Ass

[Ideasman]

Weeeeeeee!

Lets all become animators right now!

Weeeeeeee!

...and produce load of lame shat.

Hohum.

[andy_winton]

Ideasman?

Not completely constructive. huh?

You can only learn by doing. Maybe
the first few attempts will be 'lame',
but so what?

If you stick at something, eventually
you'll master it.

A todler trying to walk, takes time.

First crawl, then walk, then run. We
all have to learn, and most of the
people on this group are here to do
just that.

I do believe that anyone can produce
animation to the level of quality of
Disney/Pixar without the hundreds of
staff and millions of dollars they
have.

I think it can be done, and that
is what keeps me focused. I'm no doubt
quite far from that goal at the moment,
but nothing a bit of time can't cure.

Trying to be positive,

andy

PS: No flame wars pleese.