So you wanna make a LONG animated film by one person or a few like me. So I will make a step by step tutorial on how to make an animated film from pre productuon to production to post production
Pre-Pre Production
Obviously you need to brainstorm whats the movie is gonna be about, who is the villian, the hero? So basically you gonna wanna know whats the genre, is it anime, is it gonna be action, live action(probably not but there will be a step about it) Okay now you’ve done that then do some drawing concepts, i recommend doing it on paper then digitally. so just draw characters until youve got the right one you wanna plug in to your film. Also in this time you can also gather materials such as a drawing tablets and stuff like that such as software, equipments,voice actors, animators, and many other people to hire. Lets say for those of you who doesnt know some good animation apps. I will list some free ones, but NOTE these software WILL NOT MAKE YOU A BETTER ANIMATOR OR ARTIST. Same thing with drawing tablets. YOU DON’T NEED EXPENSIVE EQUIPMENT TO MAKE GOOD ANIMATIONS/ART. Okay, here are some animation apps with good animation tools to HELP YOU, not to IMPROVE YOU
Easy
- Wick editor
- Pencil2d
- flipaclip
- tupitube
- animation desk
- Calipeg
- Pivot Animator
- StickNodes
- Ibis Paint X
Intermediate
- Krita
- Synfig Studio
- Opentoonz
- Tahoma2d
- Blender
- Rough Animator
- Procreate Dreams
- ToonSquid
- Adobe Fresco
Advanced
- Toon Boom Harmony
- TvPaint Animation
- Moho Pro
- CelAction2d
- CreaToonz
- Adobe Animate
-Step 2
Pre Production
Now you have your characters and stuff like that we need to write the script whats gonna happen and stuff like that. So just write your script of EVERYTHING thats gonna happen, so voice acting. For those of you who is gonna be adding voices to your film your gonna have to write yout lines for the voice acting. So what there gonna say and stuff like that. Now your done with writing your script now we need to storyboard, if your one person animating,voicing and doing everything by your self like me then you may not need to but for me i didnt but it is recommended. If your too lazy just do like a live action recording of what gonna happen at a scene like not the whole entire movie but probably some parts of the movie. Okay lets say your done with your storyboarding and your script and stuff like that. You need to draw probably the updated version of your concept art so maybe if your happy with your one from the pre-pre production then put it in. Put the art and start copying it and draw it digitally on Krita or any drawing software. And also draw the envirment, the vechicles, machines or any other random stuff that is gonna be in your film. Okay now you,ve done that, GO and start casting the voices before you start animating. Okay now you’ve done that your gonna need to start gathering your materials like software and equipments but im warning you SOFTWARE AND EQUIPMENTS DOES NOT MAKE YOU BETTER AT ANIMATION OR DRAWING. Its just your skill you have. I have listed some animation apps but if you dont know what drawing tablets are right for you imma choose you some, some of them i have used and some i never used but chose to list them because how good the reviews are
Under 100 (note you cannot find any thing with a screen with this price range)
Huion Inspiroy 2 M H950P(ive tried)
Wacom Intuos Small(ive tried)
Under 200(you can find a drawing tablet in this range
XP-Pen Artist 12 2nd Gen(ive tried)
Under 300
XP-Pen Artist 13.3 Pro 2nd Gen(im currently using and really good btw)
Under 400
Wacom Intuos Pro Pen Tablet
Wacom Intuos Pro Medium
Huion Kamvas 16
Under 500
XP-Pen Magic Drawing Pad
IPAD 9(ive tried)
Above 1000
Huion Kamvas Pro 24 4K
Apple iPad Pro
XPPen Artist Pro 24 4K
-Step 3
Production aka the real grind
Okay Now you’ve got your planing and everything ready its TIME TO ANIMATE
So uhhhh i guess go animate everything but i recommend doing some basic shapes so like the first part and then do your line art and then color at the end and make sure you add cool fx and vfx and everything and stick to the script. and remember animate to your limit to make it GOOD and CRISP. remember DO NOT ANIMATE EVERYTHING IN ONE PROJECT DO SCENE BY SCENE like animate every scene seperate so new scene = new project. I also recommend putting the voices in the project for timing and sound fx later. Now render all the scenes in one mp4 file
Step 4
Post Production
This Step is the polishing part where you edit and add sound effects, so in this step do the thumbnail, movie poster, color grading and add cool stuff and compositing and all the other stuff and also do the credits and logo and intro and put the scenes together. I will also list some editing software
Capcut
DaVinci Resolve(im using it)
Shotcut
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe After Effects
For Sound Effects
Pixabay
FreeSound
Make your own sounds
Advice: When you start post production, i recommend making some kinda of teaser to leak the movie or else your not gonna get any views
Okay lets say your done now POST YOUR MOVIE and your done
