Creating your own cartoon character is a fun and exciting activity. Do you remember the time when you were a kid, when you just loved to draw cartoon characters along with the squiggles? There is no rule that you have to stop this hobby if you are still into it as you grow into an adult. If you want to engage in character animation, there are a few factors to consider. First, think of the word character. What do you want your cartoon to be all about? Imagining what your hero or heroine's character will be can help you get an initial idea and determine how your cartoon will look like. Start with the basic geometric shapes. Circles, squares and triangles are a good way to start your drawing. Then put in the details as you go along. Remember to include in your study drawings the different facial expressions of your character, like what it will look like when angry, happy or sad. Draw about five to seven initial drafts of your characters before going on to the next step.
Once you're done with your cartoon and you are satisfied with the initial sketches, then the next step is to write the script, which is the challenging part. It is important to have a script if your character animation will involve several cartoon characters and voice actors. The longer your animation feature is, the better your script will develop. It will help you in creating a solid storyboard, which is a small series of pictures and drawings of your complete animation. It will contain the highlights and important scenes of your plot. Your scenes do not have to be detailed, the basic sketches and rough drawings will do because the storyboard will just serve as your guide. You can even draw stick figures and simple geometric shapes for the background. With this, you don't have to necessarily record your audios in order.
There are several free or paid recording software available both for the Mac and PC platform. But since this is your first character animation, just go for the free or trial ones. You will also need a good quality microphone. A mic that can filter out background noise is a good choice but can be costly. Time your voice according to your animation. Or time your animation according to your voice. But it should be stressed that you should time everything. Otherwise, your animation will look like a dubbed foreign cartoon where the lips don' match the words!
Study animation various software and stick to the one that you feel most comfortable working on before looking for more advanced software. Of course you also have to consider the effects you are going to us like the background noise, music and the sound effects. Again, because you have a storyboard, you don't have to do the animation in sequence. You can go through the scenes and just arrange them when you're done. As easy as that, you can distribute copies of your animation feature. Remember to ask for feedback so that you can improve on your next project. Who knows, maybe one day you will be able to join the rank of the elite in the field of being a character animator?
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