Hexhamlad Posted March 25, 2007 Share Posted March 25, 2007 Ok firstly I hope that I have picked the correct section to post in, seeing as its general i thought it was the safe bet. Anyway my question is probably very simple for someone with experience in the animation field. I have used photoshop for several years and like to consider myself as very efficent when using the program, I have only ever worked with still imagery and never thought of changing until recently. I have decided to create a short animated film and would like advice on how i would achieve this, for the last couple of weeks i have made several still images which were just ideas for the short film. Now obviously i realise i have a huge gap in my knowledge because at the moment I'm stuck with just still images, i need the program, ability and patience to bring my project to life. I have just read an article on the apple website which looked into how south park is made, I'd like to mention that I will be using a PC for the project as i do not have full time access to an apple. The article mentioned several programs one of which was adobe photoshop which pleased me, I really didn't want to change from photoshop. Could anybody suggest a sutible program that would enable me to create a short animated film. Ideally i would like someone to explain the whole process of how i would use my still image experience to create nice looking graphics but then turn it into a moving art. I realise this will be a complex process but any advice people could give me would atleast put me on the right path. Thanks Very Much Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonny_Tightlips Posted March 25, 2007 Share Posted March 25, 2007 Well, first off, do you have frames, or just a few stills? If you only have a few stills, then you gotta make a whole bunch of frames for each motion so it can be carried out visually. Which means you're gonna be taking some time. Then, once you have all those, you can either A. Put all the frames as layers in one image file, export it to Imageready, then hit "Turn layers to frames". or B. Give it to someone who has animation programs that you dont. Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4113724 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackadder. Posted March 25, 2007 Share Posted March 25, 2007 If you have all the stills you need, then Animation Workshop has a built in Animation Wizard, which builds them for you Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4113733 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hexhamlad Posted March 25, 2007 Author Share Posted March 25, 2007 thanks. i will buy the approptiate program, which do you suggest? Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4113734 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otter Posted March 25, 2007 Share Posted March 25, 2007 (edited) Zak, what in the flying jesus are you talking about? Ah. Hex, there are thousands of avenues for you to pursue. The first question to ask here is, obviously you want to make this digitally, but what is the final product? A 5 minute short? Silent? With Music? With Characters? Or just funky graphics? Then we can help you figure out what software and/or training you'll have to invest in. Edited March 26, 2007 by Otter Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4113742 Share on other sites More sharing options...
iRloading Posted March 26, 2007 Share Posted March 26, 2007 the somewhat popular thing nowadays is using flash macromedia it's even used in some of the cartoons you see in cartoon network/nickelodeon 2danimation is a bitch i'm to make a 30 second short totalling over 1200+ frames of animation ;__; Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4113782 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otter Posted March 26, 2007 Share Posted March 26, 2007 1200 frames? That'd be a 40 second clip, if you're animating at 30fps. Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4113784 Share on other sites More sharing options...
iRloading Posted March 26, 2007 Share Posted March 26, 2007 1200 frames? That'd be a 40 second clip, if you're animating at 30fps. yep, just a rough estimate including layers/backgrounds, etc. Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4113803 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otter Posted March 26, 2007 Share Posted March 26, 2007 Sweet. Keep us posted. What are you using? Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4113818 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hexhamlad Posted March 26, 2007 Author Share Posted March 26, 2007 Ok i will try and go into more detail. My plan is to make a short animated film, it will be comedy based so it will have characters and sound. I dont want the animation to look that advanced i would like to create quite a retro feel to things. I really cant think of a good example currently on tv but i guess that is the point of my creating something unique. Hopefully this helps, feel free to ask further questions. After all it will help me get the answers im looking for. Thanks again Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4113840 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otter Posted March 26, 2007 Share Posted March 26, 2007 Well, then, yeah. I agree with irloading. You're going to want to download flash (it's a free trial) and complete all of the tutorials. Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4113849 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hexhamlad Posted March 26, 2007 Author Share Posted March 26, 2007 Ok well to be honest i was expecting people to suggest flash but you have to realise that would mean not using photoshop to produce my graphics. I would be very unsure if they would be of the same standard. What i really want to do is create a starting shot ie - the first image people would see and then start the animation from there. Basically bringing that orginal shot to life. For example i would create the background first on individual layers then move onto the main person, by having the layers i would be free to move the postions of people or objects that needed to me moved. Obviously this is just how my minds eye sees this production. I just think that me spending say 4 weeks learning some flash would be better spent actually animating. I realise things like audio will take time to master but i was planning on creating it in silent form then fixing the audio after the visual side is complete. Anyway thanks for the help, i would really appreciate any additional advice you could give. Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4114585 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottae Posted March 26, 2007 Share Posted March 26, 2007 Yeah, Flash is definitely the way to go. The thing about Flash is that it takes some getting used to, especially if you're planning on making a short film. So start playing around with the different options and sooner or later you'll be able to do pretty much anything animation wise. Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4114700 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hexhamlad Posted March 26, 2007 Author Share Posted March 26, 2007 Ok thanks. Just to keep this in the topic, could anybody suggest some good animation website. Hopefully ones that cover short film production. Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4115087 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otter Posted March 27, 2007 Share Posted March 27, 2007 (edited) awn.com <- great forums and great folk, too. Flash operates with layers as well. If you export your layers out as .png files, you can import them into flash. The tutorials will take one day to complete. It's worth it. If you have the money, you could go for Adobe After Effects - that's what we used to animate The Woodsmen. Then you'd need a decent video editor to cut the sound and publish. Whereas Flash is a great all-in-one tool, with FAR LESS of a learning curve. Edited March 27, 2007 by Otter Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4115386 Share on other sites More sharing options...
iRloading Posted March 27, 2007 Share Posted March 27, 2007 I use flash (course required) tho they did teach us how things work out traditionally~ we basically just scanned our works and worked it out into animating it digitally through flash we're more encouraged to use flash to color stuff due to filesize etc. Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4115671 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trows Posted March 27, 2007 Share Posted March 27, 2007 If you have the money, you could go for Adobe After Effects - that's what we used to animate The Woodsmen. Using that in the course i'm doing, i'm very impressed with it. At the moment, the major advantage for me is the photoshop-styled layer modes. Still got a lot to learn, but that's life. A quick experiment I did. I'll third flash, it's fairly easy to create some decent enough animation in it if you put the time. Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4115803 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hexhamlad Posted March 27, 2007 Author Share Posted March 27, 2007 Thanks for all the great advice, i apreciate it. @Otter - Could you tell me which tutorials your refering to ? I'm more than willing to spend 24 hours over the next few days learning the very basic stuff, but obviously its very important that i got off to a good start. I dont want to just start doing tutorials blind i would rather have a good introduction into this. Hopefully you will advise me further. thanks again Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4116097 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otter Posted March 27, 2007 Share Posted March 27, 2007 Flash has some awesome tutorials built straight in. Go to help>getting started with flash and just work your way down the list. You'll learn about the basics of the library, objects, intances, keyframes and the timeline, and that's enough to get you up and running. A great site, with a lot of helpful folk, tutorials, and inspiration is http://newgrounds.com Man, I haven't been there in ages! Trows! Lookin' sweet. Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4116349 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hexhamlad Posted March 27, 2007 Author Share Posted March 27, 2007 Thanks, i'm looking through the site now. To be honest i havent used a tutorial in about 18months, these days nearly every tut is video so it makes things so much easier than previously. Thanks again, I will update with my progress. Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4116464 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otter Posted April 7, 2007 Share Posted April 7, 2007 How's it comin, bro? Any updates? Link to comment https://gtaforums.com/topic/270650-animation-advice/#findComment-4156920 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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