The vibrant stories of South African animators are increasingly making headlines at international film festivals. Recently 'The Snail and the Whale' won an internationally acclaimed award and last year the film 'Zog' walked away with a prestigious Emmy.
Are you interested in joining this colourful world of storytelling?
Whether you have an interest in creating animation for games, advertising or movies, the world of animation is a highly creative, exciting and innovative.
Whether you want to simply test the waters or make a professional career of it, this article will give you tips on how you can approach the magical world of animation.
Develop an Idea of What You Want to Do
What kind of animation do you want to do? Are you planning to enter a short film competition, interested in exploring animation for fun or have you noticed the increased need for animated content on social media?
Creating high-quality animation as a professional animator will require significantly more investment than simply playing around for fun. It is therefore helpful to establish where you are in your decision, what your current skills are and whether you would like to do a formal certification or not?
Even if you are only exploring animation for the first time, researching and knowing the types of animation in the industry will guide you towards your first project. Modern feature films and video games are nowadays created through 3D animation or CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), while 2D animation is more traditional, generally more suitable for beginners and exciting for those who want to explore hand-drawn, classic styles.
Investigate all the interesting types of animation out there and be sure to explore stop-motion animation, 2D vector animation and motion graphics animation. Beginners can also explore various types of animation techniques they can try in this article.
Equipment to Set Yourself up For Success
When we think of animation our mind immediately wanders to modern films, gaming and the app or software we need. Future animators can however learn a lot of basics before even touching a computer, the web, an app or animation software.
Animations were historically created through drawing and combining these drawings together in layers is what created movement in traditional animation. The ability to draw remains a fundamental and inexpensive way for future animators to explore and express shape, form, layers and movement.
You need very little equipment to set yourself up for learning to draw and if you are new at it, you can consult an experienced drawing teacher from Superprof. Your drawing will help you to create interesting characters with quirky features, a critical step before you animate an object or actions around them.
Fans of traditional animation use drawing and celluloid sheets to create basic animations. Learn more about the equipment you’ll need, above and beyond pencil and paper, to make your first celluloid animation.
Try out Animation Software and Online Animation Tools
An important decision you’ll have to make as a professional animator is the software you’ll want to use. Luckily as a newcomer you can still freely explore the hundreds of options and their available features, online.
Some software programs allow you to create animations for free while the more professional animation programs usually offer a 30 day free-trial period. As a new animator you will quickly get an idea which programs you like best while learning about useful features for users like animated templates, free objects and stock videos.
To get you started we created a shortlist of six of the best animation programs for beginners and you don’t even need drawing skills to get started with these:
- FlipaClip
- GoAnimate
- LightMV
- Moovly
- Powtoon
- Toontastic 3D
Be sure you create a couple of videos before settling on one animation program. Some might offer a drag and drop tool or a useful pre-animated object, text or character you can use while starting out.
Animation makers generally include a tool and properties that will allow you to layer sound and text to your videos before moving over to your video editing. You’ll spend a lot of time on the platform you choose for your video making, so be sure to list the pros and cons before you download a full version with the properties, styles, objects, elements and templates you'll be using.
Read here about the types of 2D and 3D programs professional animators use.
Start Small and Gradually Build Your Skills and Project Complexity
The good news is it’s quite easy to start animation with all the free software and online animation programs out there for beginners. Becoming a good animator however, will take commitment and dedication.
approach your process with patience and know that with time you’ll be able to learn the tools and tricks of the trade. Using a free, animation maker online will enable you to create simple basic animations, but we will recommend you gain a couple of years in experience before taking on a massive project like a film.
Start small with a simple, animated one or two minute video and continue to build your skills as you go.
You can also follow the steps in this article towards creating your first animation.
Seek Creativity Every Day
Animation is incredibly creative and the industry is always changing. Look out for new short films, follow the Emmy awards, the Oscars and SAFTA awards to see how animation is changing the film and entertainment business.
It’s also important to continue your personal exploration of art in general. Don’t forget why you fell in love with the arts and if you are a painter, you should continue painting to feed your soul while building your new interest in animation. This process will also contribute to you eventually finding your own voice in the business of animation.
Understand The Moving Parts in Animation
Good animations are created by teams who understand how various content experts come together to create a flawless and emotionally moving piece of art. You'll require the right story, good dialogue, music, sound effects and editing skills to create good animation videos.
A professional animator has a passion for how design, effects, sound, colour and shape can come together to create story and as a newcomer you’ll have to educate yourself about the industry and the important people to look out for.
TIP: Knowing what goes on in the industry might open doors and opportunities for you, especially if you want to launch your career with competitions or internships.
Educate yourself around creating characters, how to do storyboarding and how each frame build the timeline that creates the animation. You can also record your own sound at home and layer it to your video before uploading it onto social media.
Learn to Use Animation Vocabulary
You’ll come across a couple of terms and words in your research around the world of animation. Like any industry, it has its own terms and language and knowing the basics will not only help you to select an animation maker or software program with properties you’d like, it’ll also enable discussion with experienced professionals.
Here are some of the basic terms they use in the industry:
- The timeline is a prominent feature of animation software which is used to change the timings of the animation and the order of elements in the timeline.
- Scenes and shots are not used in the same way as live action film-making and in animation they sometimes use them interchangeably.
- Keyframes are the core images that defines a scene while breakdowns illustrate the core motions to move the image from one scene to the next. The finer details and connecting the various dots are known as in-betweens and in 3D animation this is generally done by computers.
- Frames and frames per second are used to define the frame rate. A frame is a single image or shot and the rate per second is how quickly the film moves from one frame to the next. Animation is generally done at a rate of 24 frames per second.
Explore The Core Concepts in Animation
Walt Disney Studios developed core 2D animation concepts in the 1930s and these are still being used by animators today. Having an understanding of the history and how animation developed to what it is today will not only make it easier for you to learn, it will also make it possible for you to develop new animation angles and techniques as you become more experienced and professional.
Animation education programs usually include an explanation of these 12 principles of Animation:
- Squash & Stretch
- Anticipation
- Staging
- Straight ahead vs pose-to-pose
- Follow through and overlapping action
- Slow in and slow out
- Arcs
- Secondary action
- Timing
- Exaggeration
- Solid drawing
- Appeal
There is so much a beginner in animation can learn, so be patient and enjoy discovering and learning while you go.
Consult Experienced Animators and Artists
Whether you want to discuss the pros and cons of animation software, the foundations of animation techniques or simply how to get into the industry, the best advice will come from someone in South Africa who has professional animation experience. On Superprof we have a range of experienced private tutors who can help you advance your skills, assist with technical queries or prepare for exams.
You can find a Supeprof tutor in your area today who will be able to give you a drawing tutorial online and most of our tutors offer they first lesson for free.
Share Your Gift with The World
It is important to share your work and creativity with the world, especially if you plan to do this in a professional capacity one day. It takes a lot of courage to show something you’ve created as it opens the door for criticism, but remember that it's not about you personally and you are still learning.
Part of being a creative professional is the ability to take positive and negative feedback and becoming better and more skilled out of that. Not ALL feedback is valuable and learn whose judgement to trust while you craft your animation skills.
Are you ready to create your first animation?
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