This animated short was made through Storypanda and became a digital book for kids. These steps will teach you how to make animated videos.
I use the following tools:
- Photoshop
- Premiere Pro
- Toon Boom
Step 1: Decide the Story You Want To Tell
First, you need a story. A good story.
My story is inspired by the love my grandparents shared. My grandfather passed away shortly after my grandmother’s passing due to a broken heart.
I wanted my animated short to tell a personal story and to dedicate it to my grandparents.
After you have decided what you want to convey or show, you can begin to storyboard it.
If you’re looking for a more structured plan, you can also write one. Start drawing and let your imagination guide the direction of your film.
Step 2: Create the Characters
Designing characters for animated videos is a good place to begin.
My characters were developed in a 3/4 rotation.
You can draw your characters in a variety of perspectives (e.g., facing the viewer or away from them) so they can see details.
Step 3: Create Your Storyboard
While a storyboard doesn’t have to be very realistic, it will help you later.
Label all panels properly after you have completed them.
Once you are satisfied with the results, you can scan them to have them in digital form.
After scanning your panels, you can move them into an editor program.
Premiere Pro was my choice because it works well with After Effects, Photoshop, and Photoshop.
You will need to work a little bit to separate the panels and save them as layers in your favorite graphics editor. This will depend on how many panels were drawn.
Step 4: Create the Animatics
This step is the fun part: making animatics.
What are animatics? These are simple mock-ups of how the film will look.
It could be just a sequence of panels to show us how the story flows.
Start timing the elements as they move.
Step 5: Creating the Background Layout
Once we have a solid story, and the animatics look great, we can begin the video production.
The background layout can be used as a starting point.
Start drawing them in the correct field size according to your field guides
You know your background so you can only draw what you need.
You can re-use the background in another field size later on. Draw a larger-sized background to allow you to use it both ways without losing pixels.
Tip – If you decide to do a close-up in the beginning and then change your mind about a mid-shot later, the cam keys will show you the field size that you will use for each scene.
Step 6: Create Dope Sheets
Exposure sheets and dope sheets are extremely useful as timing is crucial in animation.
A properly prepared dope sheet can help you when animating.
Step 7: Create the Rough Animation
Once you have timed the animation, you can start animating. Let the lines flow and push the poses.
Use the key poses that you created in the storyboards.
Make sure to write down how many in-betweens after cleaning up. Keep characters on separate layers.
Step 8: Clean-up
After you’re happy with your animation you can begin to clean up the line art.
Decide what kind of line you want to use.
The border is thick with cartoony lines and the inside has thin lines.
I used a regular line for my animation because it was most compatible with the style I wanted.
In-Betweening and coloring can be difficult work.
Step 9: Inbetweening
In-betweens are essential for smooth animation.
There aren’t always enough in-betweens.
To animate an action scene, you only need a few keys. More in-betweens will give you a more subtle result.
Let me show you an example I created using the diagram below.
- I first put numbers 23 and 31 in a lightbox.
- Add in-betweens to it by labeling it with the number 25. Number 25 is exactly halfway between 23 & 31.
- Draw the breakdown using the lightbox.
- Take drawing numbers 25 and 31, and add them to make number 27.
- Once you’re done with the first one, take numbers 27 and 31 to make the last scene number 29.
Step 10: Digital Inking, Painting, and Painting Backgrounds
Background art will need to be added between your characters using inking.
I use scanned crayons, watercolors, and Photoshop to create my backgrounds.
Label all layers. The animation will be placed between them to create depth.
Step 11: Digital Inking, Painting, and Painting of Characters
This step will allow you to color your animation.
I was able to scan my animation using a special scanner To color the characters, I used Toon Boom software
The hard work we put into cleaning up the mess from earlier is paying off.
Coloring will be easy with great linework and closed lines.
It will be more difficult to use the paint bucket tool quickly to fill in animations if there are many open lines.
Step 12: Compositing
Toon Boom can be used to combine all of the artwork and characters.
Combining elements into one scene is called composing.
Any other program is also possible.
You now have to put the movie together and make it flow.
Making My Animation Short into a Digital Book
This is my story about how I turned the animated short film into a digital story.
Storypanda reached out to me after my animated short film was shown at several film festivals.
They helped me turn my story into an interactive app for kids.
I didn’t have to create any animations for the book. However, I had to separate all animation from the one I had created when I made a short animation.
I labeled all layers and used Storypanda’s field guide to make sure that the artwork is not lost when the book was opened on an iPad.
I was an animator and it was a thrill to see my animations on the iPad.
I believe digital is a great new opportunity for the creative sector.
These are pages from the book
Create your animations with fun!
