Blender is a great tool if you are on a budget.    Why?  It is free and does everything that an expensive 3d program can do.  Blender has been used by tons of people to make shorts and movies.  Blender is not my cup of tea but for many artists they can make wonderful things.

Here is a tutorial by artist Brandon White who has created his own Anime style series.

 

Here are some of his episodes

One of the best ways to learn is to check out the behind the scenes to watch over an artist’s shoulder.

Making animation is not easy.  It is a labor of love.    It takes time, energy and you have to really stick to it.  I wanted to take this time to talk about the challenges that will get in the way of you making your own anime and how you can overcome them.

The 3 basic challenges are

Money

Time

Talent

I see these as being some of the biggest challenges.  Not in that particular order.  They do go hand in hand.  Each of those 3 elements is required for every animated production.

You need money to buy time and talent.  You need talent and time to make money.    They are all connected.    Lacking any of these will be a problem in your storytelling endeavors.

For example if you are really talented at animating you still need money to live off of but if you to make money you need to take time off your project to work.  Work then wears you down and you don’t have the time to animate like you wanted.    It is a vicious circle but one that can stop.

It really hurts if you have little of all three which is where I find myself.  My drawing style is not where I would like it.  I don’t have time to make animation as I have adult bills and have a full time day job.

Attack

 

There are solutions to these challenges.  Do not let the challenges turn into excuses.  Acknowledge the challenge and attack it.  In the next articles we will attack each of those 3 major problems.