Animation help?

[BakaInkorp]

Well, I want to be an animator, and I don't have a single idea where to begin. I don't have a clue what kind of program I should use to animate, what ideas I should utilize, the tricks up an animator's sleeve, or ANYTHING. The things that I do have is just a bad microphone and a tablet. I don't have anything else. Where should I start?

[Koolguykai]

At 1/28/11 11:38 AM, BakaInkorp wrote: Well, I want to be an animator, and I don't have a single idea where to begin. I don't have a clue what kind of program I should use to animate, what ideas I should utilize, the tricks up an animator's sleeve, or ANYTHING. The things that I do have is just a bad microphone and a tablet. I don't have anything else. Where should I start?

GET FLASH.

[MickHarrison]

like anything else... if you want to do it, just do it.
pencil, paper, camera, plastacine, flash, zoetrope,
sand, softimage, cardboard..... just get on with it

[Celshaded]

Do you have a scanner or web camera? There is a free animation program called monkey jam that you can use. Just do your animation on paper and scan or capture the frames into monkey jam. You can even add audio.

It's a very basic program, but it's a good starting point if you want to see your drawings in motion.

[maficmelody]

Learn yourself some traditional animation. That is rolling paper between your fingers to watch your drawings move. Use a webcam on a stick to make a "down-shooter" and take pictures to capture the individual cels you make. Cycle through those cels on your 'windows pic & fax viewer', or equivalent and learn that way. When you understand the hand(drawing) motions and principles of animation, doesn't matter what you attempt on any "software" kids these days are using.. you're going to kick ass. I guarantee it. (-mens warehouse tv ad)

[Tanadrine-Studios]

I started out with basic drawing on paper/pencil... this develops your art style and trains your eye to make things look right.

After drawing, I moved on to flash, learning the basics regarding timelines, movement, how to chop up a figure into pieces to make it move, etc etc. I used the stuff I learned from my drawings to get to this point.

After that, I went on to 3d animation using my knowledge from flash and traditional drawing...

Notice a pattern here? People get good at this stuff because they do it, as other posters have said. The most important thing is that you learn from your experiences and apply them in everything that you do. You can fork out a bunch of money to get guides, or get schooling or whatever, but no one can teach you talent or desire... that's something you gotta muster up yourself.

[BillyNapalm]

I taught myself Flash over the course of a week, but I was one of those kids that made flipbooks out of my textbooks in school, so I sort of had the idea of how animation worked before I started.

Try downloading trial versions of Flash and Toon Boom. Toon Boom has a bunch of sweet tutorials to guide you through everything.