Cartoon Movie Creator

[Ponddude]

Does anyone know of, or has used any software that creates cartoons?

I will be adding video to the display next year and am looking into different types of software out there to help create some videos. Does anyone know of anything out there or have you used anything?

[kevin]

A couple of good programs to check out are:

1) Flash of course. Easy to use and create simple animation.

2) Anime Studio by eFrontier is a full feature animation software.

And if you want to get into high end 3d animation check out Poser.

I use all 3 and have had great success with creating new animations, just not enough time to really get the videos put together.

[Push Eject]

TrueSpace from Caligari is pretty incredible too. It has it is 3D, but you can get 2D shaders.

Link: http://caligari.com ... and it's free.

[Ponddude]

Thanks guys!! I will certainly look into those!

[Vic Fortenbach]

I have also been thinking of using animation with video on LOR for next year.

Some of the starting questions I have had to ask myself are:

What kind of animation do I want to have; hand drawn, computer, or stop motion.

What king of time frame do I have?

How long do I want to make the "video" or how many videos.

Do I have to learn a computer program to make computer animation.

If I choose hand drawn, (I can't draw). How much will an "artist" cost?

Stop motion sounds easer, but you have to create the figures (Barbie/Ken dolls) and sets? It seems very teadious and time consuming.

If you go with stop motion or hand drawn, I still have to some how edit to a final "work of art"

Sony Vegus is one software title I have been looking at.

Any other ideas on starting this type of project?

[Texan78]

Sony Vegas can only be used to put your video or movie together. It won't create the animation or anything like you are wanting. I use Vegas to piece everything together.

I use Adobe After Effects to make my animations, but like any Adobe product get ready to empty the wallet. I will create my graphics in Photoshop CS3 and Fireworks and then import them to After Effects to create the animation. Then once all that is done and if I have more then one, I will open it in Sony Vegas and put the clips together to make my video. If it is just straight video clips I will just use Vegas to put everything together.

Here is the link to After Effects....

http://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects/

Here is a simple animation loop I made with the method above that I plan to use between shows once S2 supports looping with video or the ability to use video with animation sequences. You might have to allow it up to 30 seconds to load depending on your connection.

http://www.mesquitechristmas.com/video/standby.html

[BryanLeggo]

Some of the starting questions I have had to ask myself are:

What kind of animation do I want to have; hand drawn, computer, or stop motion.

What king of time frame do I have?
- You have a year. Seriously, this is labor-intensive. You'd do better to produce something very small and then see how much time is left for any future steps.

How long do I want to make the "video" or how many videos.
- Short. One. See previous answer.

Do I have to learn a computer program to make computer animation.
- Of course. Any commercial programs will be a steep price. Freeware is out there but even a free 3-D modeling program will have a HUGE learning curve. A simpler web-oriented tool like Flash would be eaier.

If I choose hand drawn, (I can't draw). How much will an "artist" cost?
- Forget hand-drawn. Major studios can't even afford this and they outsource the grunt work to cheap labor in Asia.

Stop motion sounds easer, but you have to create the figures (Barbie/Ken dolls) and sets? It seems very teadious and time consuming.
- All animation, especially any traditional form is extremely time consuming. Robot Chicken is 15 minutes an episode and is done by a guy with years and years of experience. Pixillation using real people as puppets MAY be a little more feasible but...

If you go with stop motion or hand drawn, I still have to some how edit to a final "work of art"
- Adobe Premiere Elements, Pinnacle Studio, Several others have cheap ($100) consumer market version available. A learning curve here, too. Real editors like Final Cut or Avid are costly. I think Sony Vegas has a a cheaper consumer version now - not sure.

Any other ideas on starting this type of project?
- I have many ideas but the first thing you must figure out is the scope of the thing. If a 20 minute light show means 20 minutes of un-looped animation to go with it then you'd better get started about 18 months ago. I'd seriously consider alternatives like: 1. Videotaped puppetry, 2. Cardboard cut-outs, 3. pre-existing animation shorts or 4. Running a youtube contest for best animated short and award a prize which will STILL be cheaper than doing it yourself. There is a huge collection of existing work, including old TV Christmas specials that already have musical soundtracks that could be incorporated into a 20 minute program. Youtbe and Vimeo alone will give you dozens of potential ideas of mateirals to be used.