Learning Animation 2016

2000px-Animation_disc.svgWant to learn how to be an animator? In 2016 it’s not as hard as it once was. Years ago, you needed pencils, xerox machines, white out, pencil sharperers, X-Acto blades, tape, animation cels, animation paper, cel paint oh yes and an Oxberry camera! Never mind that there were not many animation school options to choose from. Fear not however, as the digital age is here to help you and thousands of tutorials are available allowing you to learn quite a bit about animation and the various techniques out there. there are also many digital options open to the animator in 2016 allowing you to cast away all those costly supplies once needed.

Schools
In the US there are many solid animations schools to choose from but in my opinion the best of them is Cal Arts here in Los Angeles mostly for the connections it has to the studios. Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks all harvest students from there yearly. There are many others around the country as well such as The School of Visual Arts in New York City and Full Sail in Florida. In Paris, Goeblins seems to produce some fantastic animators and I drool over the shorts their students make yearly. I personally went to a small school called the Joe Kubert School located in New Jersey which is also a good solid place to learn. A decent list of animation schools can be found on AWN and while it can be daunting because there’s so much, it’s a good place to start. I believe most of art school is what you choose to put into it and the plain old ‘pencil mileage’ that you put into your craft anyway so the school does’t matter as much to a focused student.

But what if you can’t relocate or don’t have money to go to a school? There are still options open to you to pursue. One is Animation Mentor.com which will allow you to learn remotely and is run by well respected animators and artists. If you can’t afford that, I would suggest simply studying animation frame by frame and copying what you see. While Youtube doesn’t do frame by frame you can easily download stuff and watch it with Quicktime. DVDs work as well.

Traditional Animation
Of course the old school way of tradition paper and pencil is still a viable way to learn but it’s getting harder and harder to finds supplies. Animation paper and peg bars can be purchased at Cartoon Color and other places around the web and you can film your scenes frame by frame but you’ll still need a computer to digitally put them together. An excellent free option is Monkey Jam which turns your webcam into a pencil test system. You could also use as digital camera and film your scene frame by frame but that’s not the best approach. Honestly most studios expect you to understand how to animate digitally so you’re going to have to learn this eventually.

Hardware
Most gaming PCs are powerful enough to produce animation both 2D and 3d, and even iMacs and Mac Books can do it. Most studios use Wacom Cintiqs to draw with but they’re mega expensive and not for everyone. There are also cheaper knockoffs of Cintiqs such as Yiyinova, Bosto Kingtee and X-Pen but you get what you pay for and they are not as good as Wacom’s flagship offering.Fortunately there are some cheap options out there to help you. Many studios use Pen tablets such as Wacom’s Intuos line which allow you to draw on a pad and look at your monitor. They’re not for everyone and I’ve never been able to effectively use one well but many people do amazing things with them. Another cheap option is purchasing a Motion Computing LE 1700 for a few hundred bucks and installing Sketchbook Pro which has a timeline that you can animate with.

Software
Software-wise, there are a number of free options out there such as Plastic Animation Paper and Pencil. If you have deep pockets, you can’t go wrong with Toon Boom Harmony which is used by Disney, Starburns Industries, Bentobox and many other studios to produce 2d animation. Toon Boom even offers a subscription so you can pay as you go. Finally you can also subscribe to Adobe Animate and while it’s not the greatest to draw with, there are many studios currently using the software to produce network TV such as Titmouse and Renegade Animation. Globally there is Mukpuddy, and Boulder Media.

If you’re into 3d animation it’s hard to go on the cheap but Autodesk now offers subscriptions for it’s Maya, and 3D Studio Max softwares so you can sign up with them and pay monthly. In contrast Blender is a solid 3d animation program and it’s free but most studios use the Autodesk software so you’re eventually going to have to learn their interfaces somehow.

All in all there are many options open to an artist seeking to learn animation in 2016 and so you have less and less excuses to not pursue your dreams, so stop reading this and get out there! (and don’t forget to come back and do an interview for us once you’re established!)

Save 40% on the Adobe Creative Cloud until June 3rd

Adobe-Cloud-40-percent-off

Seeing as how Adobe dominates the animation industry, and you can no longer purchase Adobe software outright, I figure this might be of use to some of you out there. Right now until June 3rd you can get 40% off a subscription to the Adobe Cloud. Click here for more info.

You’re welcome! 😉

“Fude Samurai” Made with Grease Pencil v2 in Blender

If you haven’t seen anything about this yet, Grease Pencil is a plugin within the free 3d program Blender that started as a tool to allow animators to give notes on scenes and strengthen poses by using 2d drawings as a guide. A 3d animator named Daniel M. Lara has been posting short bits of animation showing off what the plugin will do for 2d animators and I have to say it’s incredible. This could really revitalize the 2d animation community. The best part of all of this? Blender is FREE! Granted, it’s not an easy tool to understand or use but they seem to be getting better and better at making the interface easier to use. Really looking forward to this tool coming out of beta.

Download Storyboard Pro 5.1 update

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 5.1 Now Available!
Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 5.1 Now Available!We are pleased to offer you an update to Storyboard Pro 5. As a benefit of subscription/support you can download Storyboard Pro 5.1 for free today!

Storyboard Pro 5.1 provides Storyboard Pro in both simplified Chinese and Japanese and continues to streamline the workflow with enhanced creative tools for artists, and better handling of project files.

What’s New

CheckStoryboard Pro provided in Simplified Chinese and Japanese.
CheckNew packed project formats – Stores the files in your Storyboard project inside a container, making it easier to handle and share project files, as well as faster transfer times.
CheckAnimation keyframes in the timeline – Provides a more intuitive way to work with layer animations.
CheckSelect tool improvements – Makes it easier to select and move drawings on the stage.

Update Storyboard Pro 5.1 today!

RubberHose ANIMATION RIGGING WITH REAL FLEXIBILITY

From the site:

RubberHose is the fastest way to rig and animate a character in After Effects. It’s an open system built specifically for handling the frustrating parts of animation while letting you stay in control of your character’s performance and the life you bring to it. You will save time and you will actually enjoy the process. Guaranteed.

http://www.battleaxe.co/rubberhose/