Becoming a full-blown animator is a long, arduous process that most won't ever make it even halfway through. This is not to discourage you, but rather, to state the obvious: art is difficult to create. Even if you're lucky enough to have all the true assets required to be successful in the field (i.e. artistic talent, drawing capabilities, production efficiency, etc.), that doesn't mean those factors will mesh together and set afire a glorious road to success for you. Instead, you'll have to rely on your current talents, continue to build on those talents while adding new ones, and hone those skills while you wait for just a bit of luck to cross you by (OK, maybe a whole hoard of luck).
Now that I've sufficiently depressed you, let's get back on a positive note. This is not, I repeat, NOT impossible. Laying out an effective game plan for your approach to success is key to making this all work out for you in the end, however, so let's begin with the first step. Though not the most exciting part of becoming an animator by any means, laying out your vision for the animation you want to create can help you identify what remaining needs you have. Once identified, you can start working towards acquiring the tools and skill sets you require to overcome or accomplish those needs.
The most essential thing to remember about animation is that it amplifies any problems that you may already have with still images. Even though a still picture often tells a story, story doesn't play the same crucial role as it does in animation. Motions need motivation to make sense, so laying out a story line is absolutely the first thing you want to do. If your animation idea is primarily visual at this point, setting up a blackboard or easel and drawing out parallel visual and story elements can be very useful.
One of those easels with multiple sheets of paper that you can fold back, similar to those easels your elementary school teachers used, is probably your most useful tool. Start by drawing a simplified version of the first 10 seconds of the story you want to animate. Now, turn each second into 3 pictures, so you can show some of the minute motions happening during those three seconds. Remember, each second will eventually contain 24 separate pictures, or frames, so if this process is already becoming tedious for you, now may be the time to reconsider becoming an animator. Continue drawing until you have those first 10 seconds sketched out. What have you accomplished? A lot more than you'd initially think. You've created your first crude animation, and in the next article, we'll talk about filling in those missing elements. If instead you've decided to give up, I still insist that you keep on drawing. The animation world is vivid and complex, and though we're approaching the whole process here, you would never be hand animating a motion picture by yourself, so don't stress yourself out too early.
You've been there before. Face to face with a friend. You ask her how she's doing. She says "fine." But you know she's lying.
How is this relevant to creating animations? It's extraordinarily relevant!
The reason you know she's lying, despite her words directing you to the contrary conclusion, is that her facial expression is telling you. Sure, words can speak the truth, but they are also the most easily manipulated form of communication people rely on. Facial expressions, on the other hand, rarely lie. Even the most practiced people in the art of deception have difficulty getting away with false expressions forever.
As you begin to animate, you'll need to be able to draw convincing expressions on the faces you're drawing. Characters brought to life require human qualities to be mentally and emotionally resonant with your audience. Many people are quick to identify a disconnect between the story you're trying to tell and the visuals they're actually seeing. That disconnect can be a huge burden on you, especially if you've worked so hard to get everything else right. Below, we'll go over some critical tips designed to help you create animations with authentic expressions of emotion. Technique at this stage is less crucial than the need to convey the correct emotion or feeling.
Step 1: Find a place to draw where you can easily erase parts of your work and refill the missing spaces. A pad of paper and a pencil with an eraser can work, but is less than ideal, as eraser marks can become problematic with relentless erasing. A dry erase marker board is the most useful tool, as it's easy to wipe away mistakes, so you can quickly correct a facial expression you've drawn that isn't quite perfect.
Step 2: Attempt to draw three of the most basic emotions portrayed on human face. Start with 'happiness,' then move on to 'anger' and 'sadness.' This part of the process can be a bit tedious, but keep drawing faces with these emotions, over and over again. What you're doing is building up versatility. After you've drawn two hundred angry faces, you'll have drawn enough variations of them to always be able to pull the 'right' angry face out of your pocket and use it in an animation.
Step 3: Now that's you've gotten the basics of the three major emotions down, attempt to transition from one to the other. Being able to accurately portray a transformation from a happy face to a sad one can help you convey deeper emotions underlying your overarching story. Moving from happy to sad can be poignant, and this can help set your animation apart.
Step 4: Expand. Move on past the basic three emotional expressions, and draw everything from an insane face to a depressed face. The minute details here, such as the small variation between a sad face and a depressed face, can help you capture in your art even the most detailed facial expressions. Limiting yourself to sad, angry, and happy won't get you very far in the end.
