Hi ya’ll
I wanted to introduce you to Wink! She will be the leading character in my first official manga/anime. I will be showing you guys step by step how I make this manga even though I cannot really even draw.
This is drawn by an artist I hired. I hope you like.
Have you thought of combining methods to create your own anime?
Check out this video.
This might be a great way to make your anime.
Mix with AE or use Adobe Animate
Crazy Talk actually supports MOCAP and a 3d Turn around of your character. 2d might be the faster way to go.
Plus you can add 3d backgrounds or actual backgrounds. What do you think?
If you look at some of the other tutorial videos you will see how to turn a photo into a backround.
Then you can also add some AE FX.
If you don’t have a MOCAP system try the old fashion way. Get out and film yourself on your phone or with a friend and then use that to animate the character.
So I posted about this animation yesterday. I thought it was pretty cool to see someone create an entire movie all by themselves.
So if you want to create your own animation/anime/manga you can. Here are some of the questions I asked and some of the answers I got from the creator.
1. How did you make this so quickly by yourself? 18 months felt like a really long time for me to make this.
2. Was it self financed or is someone sponsoring you? It was self financed but it was only to pay my personal bills while I was making it. So about $15k total.
3. What do you think about perfectionism while creating? Are you a perfectionist? Or do you think that would hurt productivity? Do you just move on? I mean a see a lot of great shorts which usually take folks about the same amount of time you took to make an entire movie. Perfectionism definitely hurts productivity, sometimes I would get lost in the details while texturing the characters in Mari, or when creating the blendshapes in Maya.
4. Where can I see Kaptara and Chance? Chance had me in my seat. No one has ever created this theme before in animation. Very unique. Kaptara is up on Google Play store, ITunes, XBox, etc, don’t think its hard to find.
5. What is your day job if you don’t mind me asking or is making movies it? Right now I am the Animation Director at Arconyx.
6. Do you have any making of? this is the only known compilation of my behind the scenes work on Battle Oasis.
https://vimeo.com/101570429
7. What did you start with? Do you have several shorts before attempting making a movie? I started this process about 12 years ago, learning each aspect of 3d just enough to be able to create what looked like a shot in a movie, then you just have to duplicate that work 1000 times, (1000 shots in a film about).
8. What advice would you give CG artists about making their own movie? My advice for making your own movies, is only learn the basic fundamentals of each stage, just enough to get the job done. Don’t over complicate things like, rigging, or rendering, just go with basics then try to make the lighting look unique.
9. I’ve commented alot about the cost of making animated films. I don’t think it should cost as much as it does 250 Million for Tangled. Folks told me to basically shut up and I don’t know what I”m talking about but for someone who has made 3 films themselves what do you think about the inflated budgets and what could you do with 40 Million dollars for a movie? You think you could reach Tangled quality? What if you had a 2 million dollar budget like they do on Asylum films? It’s definitely possible to make animated films a $100k budget, its just if you have a small team, no one wants to work for free, especially in this industry.
I really enjoyed watching this film. I like that this artist Mike Johnson was able to create an entire movie all on his own. Personally I’ve seen a lot of haters in the CG World basically telling folks making a movie can’t be done, you need 100 Million dollars and utterly hating the quality of a film when it doesn’t look like Pixar.
That is really sad to think. The fact is it can be done. Someone proved it can be done. It didn’t take even 1 million dollars to make and it does not need to be Pixar quality. We would all like Pixar quality but at this time it is not possible for a one man team but most audiences really don’t care. I’m sure most people would love to drive a Bentley, Porshe or Lambo but that doesn’t mean we don’t buy a car because we can’t have those. We buy the Toyotas, Hondas, Kias and Fords. They have nice cars even though they are not as fast or fancy.
Your audience is the same. You can still make a good looking CG film. Yes it may be lower quality but it does not mean that audiences will not like it.
There are 100s of stick animations out there that have Millions of views and people like them just as much as they would a Pixar movie.
So never let anyone tell you that you cannot make a movie especially if it will not look like Pixar.
Eventually technology will catch up and a one man person will be able to make a Toy Story movie but it will be the people who start now that will be there when it happens.
Yes you can make your own ANIME! I hope this site inspires and helps you.
When writing your manga, animation, anime, comic, etc you really need to hook people from the beginning. I found this awesome videos showing you how you need to hook folks in from the start.
You guys remember that quote? If you do you are probably 40. 
I’m not here to dig up the past nostalgia, I’m actually here to share more ideas on animation that might help you.
Going back to cut out animation. I know some folks hate to think of doing a series or movie that way but really it can add style, be fast and be beautiful.
Check out what you can do.
Here is a great little tutorial that shows you what you can do.
The software used is called SPINE. I think most animation software has some form of this type of animation but I really like how this one looks and moves. It is made for this very specific task and it does it well.
Check out who uses this method.
They do stuff like this using this cutout method.
Go for it. Cut out animation is not evil.
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 heard that anime is really popular in France, probably even more so than the USA. There has been some awesome stuff out of France that is for certain. I wanted to share a great animated series and game which features some super awesome character design.
Just check out those awesome character designs below. Here is a making of Wakfu. The method is very similiar to what Jazza was teaching in the post below.
Sorry it was in French.
But I think you can get the breakdown. Here is a character design.
So then apply what you learn from Jazza’s training below and you should be able to create something awesome.
Also you can hire an artist to make a puppet like this for you. That way you can use them over and over again.
In case you missed it.
Here is the finished animation.
While Wakfu may seem like it is more complicated the basics are still there. You can learn a lot from this tutorial.
Part of making your own anime is not really just a step by step process. I can share many methods with you but you as the artist need to come up with your own techniques based on your time and skill level.
Personally I’m more into the 3d CG world because once digital assets are created then you can move them around any which way you want. However there is a drawback to cg as discussed in a previous article.
I want you in your endeavors to experiment with different methods. Here is an example of how some minimal movements makes for some interesting animation.
In recent posts I talked about the good ol days of newgrounds.com and the animations that inspired me to create animations using Flash. Back in the day Flash amazed me and is still a great program for doing 2d work.
Here is a tutorials series on creating Flash animation.
I remember back in the day when I first realized you could make your own animations on the computer and then upload them for everyone to see.
I thought this was one of the most amazing things since it was something I wanted to do as a child. I first discovered Newgrounds. I remember back then in the late 90s and early 2000s that you had a lot of limitations. We didn’t really have streaming back then as we do today. Artists had to be clever and creative to keep the file size down. Today those limitations are gone but I still have to remember some of the classics that were more than just a quick cartoon with a poop joke at the end.
Here are some of those early animations that inspired me to start doing online animation.
This was one of the early OGs of 2000.
Ninjai
Genryu’s Blade: This one started many creating their own episodes. I don’t know where this guy went. He became a legend and disappeared.
Sadly I wish both these creators and groups would have kept their momentum and continued creating as they did before because with the invention of youtube these guys would have been the early innovators and would probably be a big company like Rooster Teeth is today creating content. Timing is everything.
But thanks guys for the inspiration.
