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.

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.

 

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 wanted to share some of my favorite covers to some great anime theme songs.

So why am I sharing this?  Well if you are going to make your own anime you do not want to forget MUSIC!  Music is important to any anime.  It builds the moment and builds the crescendo.    You know the hero is about to win and things are going to get excited when it happens and it connects people to your story in ways you cannot even fathom.  But how excited do you get when you hear this?

Yes music is powerful.  You want people to connect to your music.   One great thing is there are tons of musicians who love anime and would work with you on creating an awesome track!  This can be one of the most important parts of your story.   So think long and hard about creating an awesome theme with an awesome singer/songwriter.    Today it is all but possible!

If you are going to make your own anime, you have to be able to animate.   One of the tools of choice is non-other than Flash, now called Adobe Animate or something of that nature.  I wanted to post this step by step guide for some of your newer guys just trying to collect information on how to animate.

Flash is where I started and I still have it on my hard drive today.  It is easy to use and was just what I originally started using as well as many Animators out there.

Adobe Animate is now available for around $20 bucks a month.  But if you cannot afford it there are tons of cool, free animation tools.

Here is the same creator above using FREE Tools.

 

The tutorials above are by Jesse Jones.  I ran into his work when several artists were animating an entire episode of Dragoball.  It was a fun project.

Follow the link below to check it out.

 

I have been following Milton for years.  I love his style.  It has a Disney meets Anime look to it.  Milton has recently been featured on various websites with his newest animation She Thor vs Hulk Zombie.   I posted it above.    He posted a nice commentary and breakdown of what he does.

 

I hope this gives you ideas on putting things together.

 

 

I just wanted to share this cool tool that could be used to add some cool FX on your animation.

http://aescripts.com/autosway/

After Effects is a truly powerful tool to start creating your own anime.   You can use various shortcuts and tools to make your story look cool without taking up too much time.

Here is the a video on how to use the tool.