I remember as a kid wishing I could do animation.  At the time hardly anyone had a computer.  I first saw a computer when I was 9 years old and thought.  Wow!  This could be used to do animation.  What couldn’t you do with a computer?  That was  1987 or 1988.

I didn’t really have a way to animate even then.  No scanner, no money, I don’t even think they had a mouse.    But the day finally came when we got a computer.  I was 19 years old and I grabbed my first Animation Master Software for $299.  I started reading all the magazines I could as internet was still limited.  Boy did I love those PC magazines about art.

But now there is nowhere near the limits you once had.

In fact if you want to do 2d or 3d there is a ton of free software available.

Moven has been a really cool software for some years.  If you cannot afford Toon Boom or Flash this one will get you where you need to be if you want to do 2d Anime.

Here.  Feel free to download it.

ttps://morevnaproject.org/2017/01/10/synfig-1-2-0-released/

Here are some of the cool new features.

Watch and learn.

Here is another one of those videos combining 2d and 3d animation to get better results, especially if you are not the best artist and want to try 2d.

If you are not the best animator or you are the best at it refrences can be awesome and helpful.  We talked about using 3d as a reference but you can use an actual person as well.

Here are some videos talking about animating using references and still drawing as well.

 

 

I think there are ways around it by using 3d or CG type stuff but personally to do these awesome 2d things I think you need some skill in drawing.  You be the judge.

I really liked the intro this guy made.  It looks pretty good especially animated by one person.  I thought I’d share with you some of his video tutorials on how to make anime.  Again the process works in standard animation as well.

I’m going to throw this one in as well.  Animating with Adobe After FX.