The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
Please vote in the Forum Structure Poll. Polling will close at 2PM EST on January 21, 2025.
Starting my life at 21(aka. I need an animator)
Spectral Swallow
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Yeah, recent events have made me think about what I really want to do with my life. Thinking about it I always come back to my dream of the last 5(ish) years. To make an animated cartoon(pilot?). I realized there's probably no way I can get on with my life until I fulfill this dream. I don't mean like some absurd animated thing, but just a nice 20-30 minute. I noticed Buckley had an animated series made for his comic and what I saw seemed pretty decent quality. I've taken two jobs, to help pay for animation costs, but haven't really found anything that seems very decent, it's a long shot, but does anyone have any advice on what to do about this?
Spectral Swallow on
0
Posts
But yeah, help us out by letting us know what your part would be.
I tried doing it myself in flash, but I had 2 problems with that:
1. Anytime I got more than four or five folks on the screen at the same time, it started to get REALLY bogged down.
2. I don't have the patience for that kind of thing. I did draw ole boy in my avatar, but I can(and have) spend 10 hours animating something, and then it looks like absolute crap.
Hence the reason I got two jobs, plus my friend will be pooling the money with me. I saw 'clone high' and that was pretty minimalistic looking for something not dissimilar to that(maybe slightly better)
20 minutes is ahell of a lot of work. Just to give you a bit of perspective, cinematic film runs at 25 frames per second. If you're going the traditional frame-by-frame route, even using simplifyed/stylised art, that is about 30,000 different frames. Frequently frames are repeated to cut down on the work (meaning 2 frames identical, rather than one-then-another) but it's stil a shitload of work. Which means most studios (traditional) have at the VERY least:
A storyboarder- to set out the overall shots/sequence
A Keyframer (or 5)- to do the base drawings at the IMPORTANT moments of action- eg the start of an action and the end of it.
Several people to work on the passing frames
None of this is meant to knock you, I think it's fantastic you're going after animation. I'd recommend picking up Richard Williams' "The Animators Survival Kit", it's written by a guy that's done a lot of work in the industry, and goes into depth about technical details like dope sheets, timing and putting basic cycles such as walks together. There's also a good amount of useful sites out there, http://www.animationmeat.com/ being the first one that somes to mind.
Go after it, but keep a way of bringing in some money whilst you set up. Out of interest, are you trying to do this traditionally or digitally (Flash, 3dSMax, etc?)
And as I said, I really really wouldn't want to put forth the effort to do it myself, I'd rather hire someone.
Also one episode of a cartoon takes FOREVER to do.
So you want to be a cartoonists and draw a cartoon, but you don't want to do the drawings?
I don't understand. You want a cartoon without the draws? With clay you mean? You want to do it in clay?
As I said in my second post, I don't really want to do the drawing stuff myself. I've tried, and I enjoy drawing, But I just don't like animating.
oh. Yes, I see....
You're just not in a position of power as a writer seeking to get his own cartoon series off the ground. You have no proven track-record, and the skills you're trying to sell are nowhere near as marketable as those of an animator's. If you were an animation-prodigy, fresh out of school and looking to make a name for himself, I'd say go for it. As it is, the odds are stacked against you.
That said, I'm guessing that there are still ways to break into the business. Start sending spec-scripts to established shows - not just the big ones, but kid's animated shows, and maybe even live-action shows. You need to start to build up a name for yourself that will give people the confidence to follow you on your own tangents. Maybe look into an agent.
But, like I said, I'm hardly knowledgeable about this sort of thing. Other people will be able to advise you of ways to break into the biz - I just want to make sure that you're not going to do the equivalent of drawing up a blueprint, buying a vacant block of land, and plaintively asking "does anyone want to build my building for free?"
If either you or your friend can draw, storyboard the pilot. Make character sheets. Put a lot of work into the characters, how they look, how they act, even how they move. Give whatever animator you get to animate this pilot as much as he can possibly use. If you can paint, paint the backgrounds and scan them in (or if you can paint digitally, do that). Basically, do every single thing you can to help the animator. Record voices. Us family/friends if you have to. Have every single piece ready for the animator whenever he goes to animate the pilot.
Now, here's the cool part... if you do all of that, that will make the animator's life much much easier. Not easy, but easier than hard as hell. Trust me, if you just have a script and nothing else and give it to someone who can animate in flash and say "MAKE THIS REAL", they aren't going to do it. It doesn't matter how much money you can pay them. But if you give them everything besides the actual moving pictures, and don't expect "Clone High" as the end result, you might actually end up with something that might possibly get your foot in the door.
But not likely.