Trying to get started in computer animation, how do I begin?

[ToastiestZombie]

So pretty much all my teenage life I've wanted to learn how to do something that I can show people and make them say "wow", and something that I personally love to do. I've thought and thought and I would really love to start to learn how to animate so I have a good, impressive skill under my belt. I've done some flash animation before, but only very simple things. For an example of something I've done in the past: http://toastiestzombie.deviantart.com/art/Bubble-Bubble-BUBBLES-295037081 (Caution, Ponies). So I have some basic tweening knowledge, and as you can see I know how to make a looping animation look naturally looped. Other than that that's pretty much all I know, so I'm in quite a beginner's stage.

So, to any animators or simple artists out there I'd like you to give me some advice on how to get started in animation, the big dos and do-nots and some online lessons or books that would help me. Please note that I am of quite a young age, and will only be learning this as a hobby as I don't really plan to do it professionally. So, I'm kindly requesting some advice.

Also, as a side-note, I do know that the key to learning anything is practise, practise, practise. All I really want to know is things specific to computer animation.

 

[Frezzato]

Blender is free (and safe), so no risk in downloading it:
http://www.blender.org/

Learning how to use it is another issue entirely. It seems like a huge investment in time however.

 

[Eleuthera]

Is your goal 2D "cartoon" animation? Or 3D modelling/animation?

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

snip

3D animation is very complicated and takes programs that (if you haven't seen them before) look like they're designed by NASA. Blender (like the above user recommended) is free, so if you really want to try, that's the best program to get started. Pixar's preferred program is Maya, here's a screenshot of the interface.

Spoiler

It's very hard to teach yourself a program like this, you'd need a lot of free time, and, if you want to make your own characters, have to learn the other stages in the pipeline first (modeling, texturing, rigging) before you can even start animating.

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If you want to continue animating for a hobby, I'd suggest just becoming really awesome at Flash, you've already played around with that program and it's easier to dive into than Blender, Max or Maya. Flash combined with traditional 2D animation can produce some really awesome results, so maybe try buying a light box and a bulk feed scanner and some books on old school animation.

 

[lechat]

snip

3D animation is very complicated and takes programs that (if you haven't seen them before) look like they're designed by NASA. Blender (like the above user recommended) is free, so if you really want to try, that's the best program to get started. Pixar's preferred program is Maya, here's a screenshot of the interface.

Spoiler

It's very hard to teach yourself a program like this, you'd need a lot of free time, and, if you want to make your own characters, have to learn the other stages in the pipeline first (modeling, texturing, rigging) before you can even start animating.

--------------------
If you want to continue animating for a hobby, I'd suggest just becoming really awesome at Flash, you've already played around with that program and it's easier to dive into than Blender, Max or Maya. Flash combined with traditional 2D animation can produce some really awesome results, so maybe try buying a light box and a bulk feed scanner and some books on old school animation.

3d isn't really that much harder than 2d and depending on what you are animating and how long it is 3d can be faster - try doing a 3d rotation of a house or person in 2d and 3d as a comparison. the 2d would require thousands of drawn frames while 3d would just need a model and some camera work

the actual animation itself can be done by basic key framing (move time to 2 seconds, move box, key frame) if you don't want to learn rigging, but physics and IK features or packages can cut down on the work you have to do dramatically.

modeling and texturing is gonna be tough especially if you are not used to working in a 3d environment but you can always stick to primitives and basic mapping or downloadable models until you get a grasp on it or decide its not for you

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

3d isn't really that much harder than 2d and depending on what you are animating and how long it is 3d can be faster - try doing a 3d rotation of a house or person in 2d and 3d as a comparison. the 2d would require thousands of drawn frames while 3d would just need a model and some camera work

the actual animation itself can be done by basic key framing (move time to 2 seconds, move box, key frame) if you don't want to learn rigging, but physics and IK features or packages can cut down on the work you have to do dramatically.

modeling and texturing is gonna be tough especially if you are not used to working in a 3d environment but you can always stick to primitives and basic mapping or downloadable models until you get a grasp on it or decide its not for you

There's no question that 3D can be faster and more efficient than 2D, that's why we now have full length 3D animated movies instead of 2D, but getting into 3D is not easier than getting into 2D, especially if you're self teaching. Once you learn the programs, yes, it's easier, the problem is learning those programs. Half of what you just said may sound like gibberish to the OP.

To make a 3D animation (completely from your head, no borrowed models), you first need to know the basic principals of animation (so the animation looks believable), then you need to acquire a 3D animation program (if you aren't using Blender, may set you back over a thousand dollars), then you need to learn how to model characters in that program, then you need to learn how to model environments in that program, then you need to texture that character and those environments, then you need to rig that character (or find an alternative way to make them move, I prefer rigging), then you can start animating. That's not even mentioning the extra things that bring that animation to film quality like lighting and particles (if you need them).

To make a 2D animation from your head, you first need to know how to draw, you need a light table (which costs around $60 last time I checked), a bulk feed scanner and Flash, or if you prefer, you can just do it all in Flash. The OP already has Flash, knows how to tween in that program and probably knows how to do some other stuff as well as knowing the interface. Half the battle already won.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

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(Crap, clicked post before typing anything)

I'm sorry, but I really meant to say 2D animation. I'm not all that into 3D animation, it's just not what I want to do and it's way too complicated for me. So sorry for not putting that in the OP, and not replying sooner (school got in the way).

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

I'm sorry, but I really meant to say 2D animation. I'm not all that into 3D animation, it's just not what I want to do and it's way too complicated for me. So sorry for not putting that in the OP, and not replying sooner (school got in the way).

In that case, I recommend The Animator's Survival Kit [http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284].
This and a Flash animation book may be the only ones you'll ever need.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

I'm sorry, but I really meant to say 2D animation. I'm not all that into 3D animation, it's just not what I want to do and it's way too complicated for me. So sorry for not putting that in the OP, and not replying sooner (school got in the way).

In that case, I recommend The Animator's Survival Kit [http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284].
This and a Flash animation book may be the only ones you'll ever need.

That is one expensive book, shame there's no Kindle version really. I'll have to save up for that. Any flash books you might be able to recommend?

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

I'm sorry, but I really meant to say 2D animation. I'm not all that into 3D animation, it's just not what I want to do and it's way too complicated for me. So sorry for not putting that in the OP, and not replying sooner (school got in the way).

In that case, I recommend The Animator's Survival Kit [http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284].
This and a Flash animation book may be the only ones you'll ever need.

That is one expensive book, shame there's no Kindle version really. I'll have to save up for that. Any flash books you might be able to recommend?

I know it's expensive, but there really is no comparison, it's the best book on animation you can own IMO.
Flash is a little harder, because with every program update, comes new books for working with those updates.
Flash Cartoon Animation [http://www.amazon.com/Flash-Cartoon-Animation-Learn-Pros/dp/1590592077/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361814086&sr=1-8&keywords=flash+animation+books] is a pretty good book for getting started. It uses older versions of Flash, but the basics still apply. If you want to learn action script, that's a whole different ball game.

 

[Frezzato]

snip

Okay, so 2D it is then. If you really want to just have fun, I suggest going the way of traditional hand-drawn animation.

Spoiler: Newbies:

Make some flip books. Get your hands on some pads of paper. They don't even have to match. Find an industrial mega stapler, something that can go through more than 20 sheets at a time. Now staple the top border of the pads so no sheets will accidentally come loose. Start animating on them. Make them about whatever you want. They don't have to be perfect because that's not what they're about:

Spoiler: Advanced Old School:

The best thing about this is, while the skill may never be used for anything else, the equipment may come in handy. If you're going the hand-drawn route, you might need the following:

*Flatbed scanner (it doesn't have to be special)
*Paper
*Some way to hold the paper in registration (a few sheets aligned perfectly on top of each other)
*GIMP - Free Photoshop equivalent which will be used primarily to make GIFs.

-OR-

*Tablet
*GIMP
[hr]
Remember, you don't have to know how to draw when it comes to old-school animation. I can't remember who said it, but the classic Disney character Pluto was described as a moving sack of potatoes. It's the truth. It's not about the details, it's about the overall motion.

I won't go into detail about how to animate, but I will say that, conceptually, doing it on paper versus doing it on a computer involve THE SAME concept: movement. If you're going to try and capture something of your own creation, try to make sure it's something that cannot be done in real life. Also, make it dynamic. For example, here's a fan-drawn snippet of something:

Now here's some rough animation by Glen Keane, a professional:
The primary difference between the two samples is that Keane involves motion. Yes, he's a genius at taking into account things like character and expression, but mostly movement.

The only reason I suggest going the hand-drawn route is for you to understand how to make something dynamic. Learn why something just seems more alive than other stuff you find online. It's about motion and emotion.

The alternative is just lifeless images with dialogue. Stuff like what you would find here: http://goanimate.com/

 

[ToastiestZombie]

Snip

Thanks for the help, mate. I can't imagine the amount of work that must have gone into something like old Disney movies or even shorts like Paperman, so I'm more than likely going to keep to simple things until I'm skilled enough to make something original and long-ish.

[EDIT]Also, shame on you for posting that link

 

[Frezzato]

Snip

Thanks for the help, mate. I can't imagine the amount of work that must have gone into something like old Disney movies or even shorts like Paperman, so I'm more than likely going to keep to simple things until I'm skilled enough to make something original and long-ish.

[EDIT]Also, shame on you for posting that link

Sorry, I edited my post after you had replied. I suggest starting with flip books. They're (relatively) quick and painless, and a great way to get excited about animation--with immediate results.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

I'm sorry, but I really meant to say 2D animation. I'm not all that into 3D animation, it's just not what I want to do and it's way too complicated for me. So sorry for not putting that in the OP, and not replying sooner (school got in the way).

In that case, I recommend The Animator's Survival Kit [http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284].
This and a Flash animation book may be the only ones you'll ever need.

That is one expensive book, shame there's no Kindle version really. I'll have to save up for that. Any flash books you might be able to recommend?

I know it's expensive, but there really is no comparison, it's the best book on animation you can own IMO.
Flash is a little harder, because with every program update, comes new books for working with those updates.
Flash Cartoon Animation [http://www.amazon.com/Flash-Cartoon-Animation-Learn-Pros/dp/1590592077/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361814086&sr=1-8&keywords=flash+animation+books] is a pretty good book for getting started. It uses older versions of Flash, but the basics still apply. If you want to learn action script, that's a whole different ball game.

Just ordered it, should come tomorrow. Can I ask another question? Is it possible to do the frames in Photoshop and then import them into Flash? I'm much better at digital art than traditional so I think that it would be better for me if I could do that instead of scanning.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Just ordered it, should come tomorrow. Can I ask another question? Is it possible to do the frames in Photoshop and then import them into Flash? I'm much better at digital art than traditional so I think that it would be better for me if I could do that instead of scanning.

Yes, you can do the frames in Photoshop > Save as JPG (or PNG or whatever you want) and import them into Flash as bitmaps. If you number your frames carefully, you can import them as an image sequence and Flash will put them right on the timeline frame by frame for you.

The advantage of drawing it on paper and scanning is so you can use a light box and stack the drawings on top of each other to keep consistency over several frames. You can probably also do this in Photoshop by stacking layers and changing the opacity so you can see the image underneath as you draw, it just seems like it would be a pain to do (considering 10 seconds of animation is 300 frames.)

 

[ToastiestZombie]

Just ordered it, should come tomorrow. Can I ask another question? Is it possible to do the frames in Photoshop and then import them into Flash? I'm much better at digital art than traditional so I think that it would be better for me if I could do that instead of scanning.

Yes, you can do the frames in Photoshop > Save as JPG (or PNG or whatever you want) and import them into Flash as bitmaps. If you number your frames carefully, you can import them as an image sequence and Flash will put them right on the timeline frame by frame for you.

The advantage of drawing it on paper and scanning is so you can use a light box and stack the drawings on top of each other to keep consistency over several frames. You can probably also do this in Photoshop by stacking layers and changing the opacity so you can see the image underneath as you draw, it just seems like it would be a pain to do (considering 10 seconds of animation is 300 frames.)

The opacity tool on photoshop is rather good for that, and for the time being when I can't get a light-table and a scanner I'll have to make do. When I do get them I'll probably use paper for the line-drawing then photoshop for colouring then import it into flash.


300 frames for 10 seconds? 30 FPS is a bit much for animation I think, 24FPS at most is fine for animations. 30FPS just seems a bit excessive seeing as most animations and movies nowardays run at 24. What framerate do you recommend?

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

The opacity tool on photoshop is rather good for that, and for the time being when I can't get a light-table and a scanner I'll have to make do. When I do get them I'll probably use paper for the line-drawing then photoshop for colouring then import it into flash.


300 frames for 10 seconds? 30 FPS is a bit much for animation I think, 24FPS at most is fine for animations. 30FPS just seems a bit excessive seeing as most animations and movies nowardays run at 24. What framerate do you recommend?

30 is the number for film, 24 is the number for TV, but you don't actually need to take these into account when you're drawing, it's more important to focus on the speed of the movement and draw however many frames is necessary to make it look good. (a character sneaking for example, takes many many more frames than a character who is just walking). The number is really only important if you have a set time period to make it all work (like movies have an hour and a half).

If you're making little gifs (like Escapist avatars), the more frames = the longer the animation = the larger the file size. My fire avatar was around 150 frames and the file size was right on the line of what the Escapist will allow, I had to re-render it twice to make it small enough to upload.

 

[Frezzato]

300 frames for 10 seconds? 30 FPS is a bit much for animation I think, 24FPS at most is fine for animations. 30FPS just seems a bit excessive seeing as most animations and movies nowardays run at 24. What framerate do you recommend?

Sorry, I felt I had to intervene at this point. Traditional films (as in movies) run at 24 frames per second. Long ago it had been determined that 24 frames was the minimum required to fool the human eye and brain into thinking something was moving at a natural rate. The change came for video, which was almost 30 frames per second. There's several different standards now, but this will come into play when you're ready to start making animations.

In traditional animation terms, they didn't necessarily draw every frame for movies. They did for certain key scenes in classic Disney movies, but it's a time-intensive, expensive process. Someone came up with the concept of 'limited animation', that is, not every frame is drawn, and the camera makes a certain number of exposures of that same frame. This was commonly referred to as "shooting in 1's", "shooting in 2's", and so forth, up to four exposures per frame. "Shooting in 4's" is considered to be poor animation as the motion isn't as fluid.

Again, if you're rendering to video, say 30 frames per second, if you wanted the highest quality animation, you would draw 30 unique drawings, having to account for the slightest movement. These 30 unique drawings get recorded and you have 30 frames per second.

If you wanted to cheat a little, you would draw 15 unique drawings, but those 15 drawings would each be "filmed" (or in the case of Flash, repeated) twice. You would be "shooting in 2's". So 15 frames, exposed two times, is still 30 frames per second.

Since you're getting Flash soon, I'd like to suggest a simple exercise for you:

Try and animate a bouncing ball. Don't make anything fancy (no squash and stretch), just animate a ball floating, then falling, then bouncing until it stops. Play with the motion, keep it basic, and start to learn about what seems more natural.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

300 frames for 10 seconds? 30 FPS is a bit much for animation I think, 24FPS at most is fine for animations. 30FPS just seems a bit excessive seeing as most animations and movies nowardays run at 24. What framerate do you recommend?

Sorry, I felt I had to intervene at this point. Traditional films (as in movies) run at 24 frames per second. Long ago it had been determined that 24 frames was the minimum required to fool the human eye and brain into thinking something was moving at a natural rate. The change came for video, which was almost 30 frames per second. There's several different standards now, but this will come into play when you're ready to start making animations.

In traditional animation terms, they didn't necessarily draw every frame for movies. They did for certain key scenes in classic Disney movies, but it's a time-intensive, expensive process. Someone came up with the concept of 'limited animation', that is, not every frame is drawn, and the camera makes a certain number of exposures of that same frame. This was commonly referred to as "shooting in 1's", "shooting in 2's", and so forth, up to four exposures per frame. "Shooting in 4's" is considered to be poor animation as the motion isn't as fluid.

Again, if you're rendering to video, say 30 frames per second, if you wanted the highest quality animation, you would draw 30 unique drawings, having to account for the slightest movement. These 30 unique drawings get recorded and you have 30 frames per second.

If you wanted to cheat a little, you would draw 15 unique drawings, but those 15 drawings would each be "filmed" (or in the case of Flash, repeated) twice. You would be "shooting in 2's". So 15 frames, exposed two times, is still 30 frames per second.

Since you're getting Flash soon, I'd like to suggest a simple exercise for you:

Try and animate a bouncing ball. Don't make anything fancy (no squash and stretch), just animate a ball floating, then falling, then bouncing until it stops. Play with the motion, keep it basic, and start to learn about what seems more natural.

No need to intervene and say sorry, any advice (as long as it's not "DON'T BE SHIT YA BASTARD!") is welcomed by me. I took a look 'round some animation forums and I wondered what 2's and 3's meant so thanks for clearing that up.

Aren't most movies filmed at 24 FPS still? Only the hobbit has higher than that from my experience, and opinions on 48 FPS are the biggest mixed bag in the world. It is obvious that it has a major difference for games though, as 60 is visibly smoother than 30 whereas in film and animation 60fps is just overkill.

I've heard about the bouncing ball thing, and I guess that is one of the fundemental things you need to get right before you can become a good animator. It's like how an artist needs to learn how to draw circles or a writer needs to know how to make an opening. So yeah, when I get flash I'll definitely try that out.

 

[Frezzato]

snip

It's true, a lot of movies are still shot on traditional film at 24fps (and some TV shows), but digital is the future. Like I had said previously, 24 frames was the minimum required frames that still made things look good. That's a good point to remember. Standards usually become standards not necessarily because they're better, it's usually because it's the most economical or the best compromise. A good example of this is VHS tapes versus Betamax. Betamax was a higher quality resolution, but more expensive. VHS is gone now, but for a long time it was king. I believe some TV stations still use Betamax decks and cameras.
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I think at this point (while you're young that is) it might be best for you to skip paper entirely. Granted, paper is cheap, and you don't have to buy an entire light table [http://www.amazon.com/Artograph-inch-Light-Pad-Box/dp/B003N45KRS/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pdT1_S_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=1VYKV0M7R4QNR&coliid=ILOK6JPPNNO0O] to work with it, but it's a hassle to record.
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Working with paper means you would have to keep your paper 'registered', that is, absolutely still and in perfect alignment when being drawn/scanned. This brings us back to the traditional animation peg [http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/91/1d/f1/88/98/pegbar_display_medium.jpg]. Animation pegs are cheap, but the punches required for the paper aren't. If you could find some way to keep paper registered for both drawing and scanning, then go for it. Otherwise, it might be best to join the digital world and save up for a tablet [http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=wacom] so you can start working in Flash or whatever you want like a boss. They can get expensive, but at the very least you would get some experience with a tablet (even a cheap one).