Do-It-Yourself Frame-by-Frame Hand Drawn Animation
I've discovered a completely free download called MonkeyJam that that lets you simply scan your drawings and assemble them as animation.
You can then add your voice using the free download Audacity, either via performance voice-acting or altering your voice to match various roles, or both. You can then make your own sound effects or purchase an inexpensive CD-ROM with thousands of sound effects that are all copyright-free. You only need a PC microphone, preferably unidirectional (omni picks up other noises) head-set style with USB plugs (makes sound cards unnecessary).
A scanner is preferable for copying the frames to the computer, because a digital camera, in order to be consistent, has to be kept mounted properly at always the same distance, plus I've found that digital cameras tend to warp objects.
With this software, your project doesn't have to use cut-out, flash-style or any computer-based animation tool such as a wacom tablet. All the drawing can be done by hand naturally, away from glaring screens and simply assembled and edited on the program! The downloads are also quick and easy and use a very fractional amount of diskspace.
Now anyone can animate affordably from home using traditional hand drawn animation!
Re: Do-It-Yourself Frame-by-Frame Hand Drawn Animation
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Some more thoughts for my fellow-beginners..
Photoshop has a coloring palette that's more advanced than what typically comes with your computer, as well as a 'Magic Erase' that automatically adheres to the outlines when clicked, removing the white paper background and leaving only the character art, that can then be displayed frame-by-frame over the background. It's able to 'layer' characters and/or objects over each other (Although this can be used to 'cheat' by having only the mouth and eyes move, for example. When this type of shortcut's overused it becomes what's known as 'limited animation', which is not that much different from flash-animation).
Photoshop's an expensive program, so I'm still looking into free downloads for a good color palette and magic eraser. It's possible to purchase an older version of Photoshop for a lot less, only make sure it works on your computer and has the functions you want to use it for.
Photoshop and similar programs (such as After-Effects) can be used to add impressive special effects, but I encourage beginning animators to focus on the quality of their character animation first-and-foremost, and once you get established with that you can decide if you want to invest in these other programs. Some of them take a bit of time and patience to learn, which can distract from the actual job of animating, but once you get the hang of it can help in other areas of animation.
After you get past the experimental stage, you'll also need to construct a small portable light stand that can sit on your desk or table. The basic design is a slanted drawing surface with a piece of fogged glass or white plexiglass covering a hole in the drawing area, where a light can illuminate your paper from underneath. You can then ink over your pencils on a fresh piece of paper laid on top. This way, you don't have to clean-up the pencil version as a final draft to be inked. It's difficult, if not almost impossible, to clean-up sufficiently anyway, and too time-consuming to do with a computer program.
Also, now you don't have to worry about spoiling your original drawing if you make a mistake while inking, or if you need to re-do something later. With this handy device, you can even pencil each new frame over the frame before it, using the previous drawing as a reference for changes in movement, expression and lip synchronization.
Another thing the light stand needs, is a ledge for the paper to rest on and a brace on the left or right side of the drawing surface to align it (both sheets can then be held in place with pieces of tape). This keeps the character movements in relation to their location on the previous frame, important for the scanning process so that the animation lines up. Instead of using an entire sheet of paper as one frame, you might consider using frame borders with a 4 to 3 ratio for each sheet. You only need to get the measurements correct on the first sheet, and then you can trace over the border for each new frame after that.
I recomend going to the local library and cleaning-out their shelves of animation related material. I'm in the process myself of reading and skimming over about 20 books. The internet's helpful, especially for free video tutorals, but the library's still the best way to get the sheer volume of information you need or might find useful. There's also many animation forums that, like this forum category, are geared specifically toward learning and sharing information about animation production.
..What I'm trying to discover is the best way to achieve the highest quality on a low budget. Higher quality means more labor-intensive, but in the long-run it's much better to have a shorter film than a bland one. The quality can also inspire you to keep working on it.
Hope this helps some other amateur cartoonists-turned-animators!
(This post was edited by Gareth708 on Dec 12, 2010, 3:46 PM)
Re: Do-It-Yourself Frame-by-Frame Hand Drawn Animation
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Just fyi, The GIMP is a freeware (aka open source, but they're kinda picky about sticking to the term 'freeware') alternative to Photoshop. The layout may not be as refined (since it is not backed by a huge company like Adobe) as the latest Photoshop CE, but the program is every bit as powerful. It was originally developed for Unix/Linux/GNU systems and has since been ported to Windows. I wholeheartedly recommend it instead of or along with photoshop any day.
(This post was edited by krisAHQ on Dec 13, 2010, 9:47 PM)
Re: Do-It-Yourself Frame-by-Frame Hand Drawn Animation
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Thanks a lot for posting this! :-) I also want to recommend checking this blog out for tips, info on materials etc. http://johnkcurriculum.blogspot.com/
Re: Do-It-Yourself Frame-by-Frame Hand Drawn Animation
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Re: Do-It-Yourself Frame-by-Frame Hand Drawn Animation
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