Category Archives: General

How to Make an Animated Cartoon

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How is a cartoon made? Can anyone make one? Is it expensive? These are questions that many people who grew up with animation have asked themselves at some point. And, for a long time, the answers to the latter two questions were “no”, and “tremendously” in that order. Now, with the advent of technology of today, things have changed quite a bit. Now, anyone with some artistic skill, and a grasp of computer basics can in fact make a cartoon, the only expense is going to be time.

Ok, that’s not entirely true. It’ll still cost some money to produce a cartoon. But, where traditional animation studios (and modern massive studios) had expenses in staff and technical equipment, it’s more of an expense for the high-powered software and a decent computer to power it.

You have a myriad of choices for what software and techniques you use to animate your cartoon, and today we’re going to learn about classic flash animation, complete with implementing backgrounds, characters and audio. So, buckle your seat belt, put your tray in the full upright position, and prepare to land. Er, learn to animate!

There are a variety of versions of Flash available. This is because for a long time, Flash was a product of a now-defunct company called Macromedia. Adobe bought the rights to Flash and several other Macromedia products, and integrated them into their CS (creative suite) product line about ten years ago.

Let’s use Adobe Flash CS5, it’s the most powerful, and it’s less bulky than previous CS versions. Also, it takes full advantage of the Flash player modern browsers use. But, we also need another program to mix and sequence our voice clips. Let’s use Audacity, as it’s free and easy to pick up. Continue reading →

How to Make Animated Cartoons on the Computer

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Almost anyone who grew up watching cartoons has wanted to make a cartoon themselves at some point. In the modern age, people growing up around computers and other digital devices tend to retain their childlike creative urges even later in life. This is because with the aid of digital equipment like computers, people of any age have all the creative power they could ever want, at their fingertips.

Digital equipment changed the game for animation. Let’s look for a moment at how animation used to have to be done. A sketch artist would make a storyboard, made up of “key frames”. These frames showed each significant different angle or major pose of characters and objects in the cartoon. Then entire teams of talented artists would sketch all of the frames between the key frames. Then, another team would take each of these sketches, and paint a colored cell based off of it. Following this, a team of photo-implementers would use special equipment to place the cells over backdrops, one at a time, and photograph the result, to put on film.

At 24 frames per second, a theatrical short cartoon, the original format for cartoons, took thousands of frames done one at a time in this process. It was time consuming and very expensive!

Computers have changed this, with software to scan sketches, ink and paint frames, and assemble them directly into a timeline of animation. Mistakes can be corrected without having to redraw a frame, and any errors in positioning don’t have to waste film. Continue reading →

How to Make a Cartoon Movie on the Computer

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The digital millennium has brought many empowering changes to the way we live our lives, and how we experience creativity as well. With the advent of computers, and software for them to replace bulky equipment as well as teams of specialists, people are able to embark upon creative projects previously out of reach.

Among the many creative things individuals are now free to explore, animation ranks at the top. Animation is a popular form of art, which has been both embraced and admired by the masses since the turn of the century. In previous times, it took teams of people specializing in complex tasks and operation of intricate equipment to produce even the lower qualities of animation that could be achieved.

The process of making hundreds or thousands of frames, to be sketched, painted and positioned was a laborious task, and an expensive one. But, with today’s technology, there are alternative methods that can allow you to create cartoons as a one man … or lady … army!

There are many choices for technique, software and methodology when it comes to making your animations. It really depends on how patient you are, what kind of artist you might happen to be, and how you want the animation to look.

Even with the streamlined nature of modern animation technology, it’s still possible to do a frame-by-frame animation process for a smooth, organic animation. But, this is time consuming and laborious. There’s also the option of designing vector objects, and rigging them to a skeleton. This is called inverse kinematics, and its downside is it can look a bit “puppety”.

But, there is an animation technique that blends these, and if done properly, it can look fantastic. First, you need a scanner capable of high definition scans. Also, you need Adobe Flash CS4 or higher, though CS5 is far less bloated and bulky than CS4.

Continue reading →

How to Make a Cartoon on the Computer the Old Fashioned Way

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Animation is ingrained in modern culture and media very deeply. Few children from anywhere in the world do not spend their formative years being entertained and often inspired by the animated motion pictures and television shows that dominate the screens of the 21st century.

What started as a curious experiment by the likes of Fleischer and Disney has now become an expansive industry that not only shapes the art of entertainment, but has also contributed to the advancement of seemingly unrelated fields of science! Few people can honestly say that at some point in their youth, they did not want to try to make a cartoon. For a long time, even if we had the artistic merit to pull it off visually, this was something that would be a pipe dream for most.

That was, before the digital age took full root in society. Computers have changed a lot about how we do things, and they have also brought the power to accomplish great and beautiful works to our hands. Now, it is very easy to learn how to make a cartoon animation on the computer. It is so easy in fact, that we’re presented with a veritable cornucopia of choices in how we want to go about it!

But, let’s look at a more conventional way to animate, especially for those of us who still feel at home with pens and paper, rather than vectors and inverse kinematics. Animation has for the longest time been the art of taking a series of sequential sketches, painting over them with transparent cells, and photo-implementing them against backgrounds. Continue reading →

How to Make a Cartoon on the Computer with Flash and Skeletal Animation

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When researching how to make a cartoon on the computer, one will quickly notice there is quite a reputation around skeletal animation and vector model design. There’s a good reason for its being so highly praised, and contrary to popular belief, it’s very easy to use.

Character with BonesThe best tool for designing your vectors, hands down, is Flash. Anyone who’s used to any image editing program will instantly feel at home with Flash’s layout, and much of its thought processes. It’s best to use CS5, as earlier CS releases tend to be a tad slow on average computers.

You’ll notice almost instantly how easy it is to create stylistic lines and fills with Flash, drawing lines, snapping them together and bending the lines into curves. With any artistic talent, this process can lead to very crisp, beautiful cell models that any animation studio would be proud of.

Artistically-minded animators will also find that Flash is great for importing sketched models of characters, and rotoscoping them directly into Flash itself. To do this, simply import an image to the layer that the project has by default. Create a new layer over it, and make a white rectangle over the image. Set its color opacity to about 60% (though it may vary depending on the heaviness of the sketch’s pencil work). Make one more layer above this, and then lock the two layers below. Begin following your sketch with the line and pen tools, and in moments, you have a beautiful cell model that’s true to your original sketch.

Now, be sure to convert all of the moving pars of your model into distinct symbols (movie clips) by right-clicking on them and selecting “convert to symbol”. Remove any rotoscoping layers and imported images at this point. Now, it’s a good idea to distribute your moving parts to their own layers, stacked top to bottom by the order they overlap. Group your parts by what they belong to, so that all parts of an arm, for example, are in one single layer. Upon doing this, you’re ready to animate your model. Continue reading →