Troftgruben Learning Anime Studio

Bring life to your imagination with the power of Anime Studio
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-84969-958-7
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 354 Seiten

Written in an easy to follow manner with practical exercises, this book takes you through every aspect of Anime Studio, guiding you to create your own original cartoon. Learning Anime Studio is for newcomers to Anime Studio or animation in general. Hobbyists and newcomers with ambitions of being an animator will get the most out of this book. However, intermediate and long time users will be able to use various chapters as a reference to some of Anime Studio's tools and features. The book also serves as a guide for the new enhancements introduced in Anime Studio Pro 10.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Troftgruben, Chad

Fachgebiete

• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik EDV & Informatik Allgemein

Leseproben

Chapter 1. Stepping into the World of Animation

While I'm sure you are excited to jump in and start animating a cartoon using Anime Studio, there are a few steps we need to take beforehand. Cartoon production, no matter how you approach it, is a very involved process and animating is but one piece of the puzzle.

In this first chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Constructing your animation blueprint
• Installing Anime Studio
• Opening Anime Studio for the first time
• Editing preferences
• Setting up your first document

Constructing your animation blueprint

In this book, we will be creating a very simple animation that won't be using a script. However, once you have finished learning the basics of Anime Studio and it's time to move on to your own works, you will need to know the proper procedures in constructing a blueprint for your productions, especially when it comes to more complicated animations.

You may have an idea of what you want to do, and that's great. But it's important to form a more structured plan before getting started with production. This can be overwhelming, especially if you're not used to writing or expressing ideas on paper.

This chapter will help get you started and become comfortable with this process. You wouldn't build a house without a blueprint and the same applies to animation and film. Jotting down notes, mapping an outline, drafting a screenplay, and finally sketching a storyboard is the key to a well-planned and successful animation.

Coming up with ideas

When starting out, most animators usually have a basic idea of how they want to tackle their cartoon. This idea or premise is what drives the urge to animate in the first place. But what happens if you have no ideas? Maybe you have one idea but not enough content to base a substantial story off of it. Or maybe you want to create a series of episodes and you can't think of worthwhile concepts after a certain episode or point. This can be a real struggle for people starting off with animation.

Writing what you know is a good way to approach a story as it will allow you to create a rich environment for your cartoon to thrive. It will make your cartoon believable, allowing viewers to invest themselves into your narrative.

The following is a figure of Mr. Binek's Class, a cartoon that takes place in a school and is loosely based on real events and characters:

Let's face it; can be misleading. As an example, let's say you want to create a cartoon about a solider during World War II. Maybe you want this animation to take place from a certain perspective, or in a different country that you've never visited. It's safe to assume that most people reading this were not involved in World War II, which can make writing difficult. So how do you in this case? Simple; you make it your point to know! Research is the key. Learning as much as you can about a time, event, location, and so on will help build credibility towards the universe you want to conceptualize and mold. Even better, if possible, interview people who lived to experience these incidents. The same goes for traveling to the places you want to include in your story. Any information you gather will help shape the credibility and believability of your animated universe.

Identifying what is funny

Not all cartoons have to contain humor. However, most modern animations, especially on the Internet, are meant to invoke a laugh or two from their audiences. I'm sure you've stumbled across many cartoons you've found to be funny. There may also be videos that others love that you can't understand the humor behind. So, the big question is, what is funny? How can you be sure what you're writing is funny, and more importantly, it is going to stir up laughs from other individuals and gather positive feedback? The best advice I found on this subject comes from an older, but valued source, Mark Clarkson's Flash 5 Cartooning. If you think it's funny, it's funny. You cannot please everyone, but there's a good chance others will find humor in your creation. So stick with what makes you laugh and believe in your animation. If you do that, you'll at least make one person laugh.

Writing down your ideas

It's safe to assume that you have some ideas for your own works even before you picked up this book. Maybe you have a handful of ideas that you would love to see be applied to your future cartoon. This is great; the problem sometimes is that ideas can come so fast that we lose track of them; or maybe the idea had occurred to you months before, and you're having a hard time remembering the finer details. This can happen a lot and keeping track of great ideas is something that must be practiced. The advice you will hear a lot is to carry a notebook with you at all times. Understandably, this can be a bit of a pain, even with ample pocket room. However, we live in an age where cell phones and tablets can be used for note keeping. This may be more convenient, depending on your preferences and hardware.

One recommendation is a piece of software called Evernote, as it allows you to sync notes from your phone, tablet, and PC with ease. It will install on almost any OS, including iOS, Windows, Mac OS, Windows Phone, and Android. You can download the desktop version at www.evernote.com. You will find the mobile versions on whichever app delivery service your device uses. The following are a few tips to keep in mind if you decide to try out Evernote:

• Be sure to make an account (which is free) so that you can access your notes on multiple devices.
• Notebooks act like folders. If you find you are accumulating a lot of notes, be sure to create notebooks for organization.
• If you wish to share your notes between devices, all you have to do is hit the Sync button at the top to put your notes in the cloud, as shown in the following screenshot:

If Evernote doesn't do it for you, there are similar tools or services such as Google Docs or SkyDrive. However, if you prefer, go retro and wield the instruments our ancestors used: a piece of paper and pencil. Some people just prefer the traditional method of note taking. The bottom line is that even if an idea seems pointless or out of place, find a way to write it down. It may surprise you how relevant that seemingly insignificant idea can become as concepts evolve.

Piecing together the storm

The notes from your brainstorm sessions will more than likely end up as a pile of ideas without much cohesion or flow. This is normal because the note taking phase is meant to get standalone ideas formulated and written. You will want to organize these notes into an outline once your brain has spat the ideas out. How you outline will depend on your own comprehension skills. For instance, some people prefer bullet lists; others may want to get a mind-mapping software and organize everything that way. A software such as Scrivener allows you to create sections that can be easily rearranged, making it a prime choice for screenwriters and novelists. However, if you decide to do it, an outline is an important step in creating an animated cartoon.

The goal of the outline is to take your notes and organize them into a roughly structured narrative. Making the pieces fit is the key. Sticking to the main ideas is usually suggested when writing an outline, as other details such as character actions and dialog come later on during screenwriting. If a piece of a dialog that you must include comes to mind, include it. While your narrative flow may change over the course of the creative process, the outline will set up the building blocks to creating a cohesive blueprint for you to follow, as shown in the following screenshot:

Writing your story

Screenwriting is where you'll want to write the story in full detail. This includes scene details, character actions, dialog, and so forth. Think of the process as if you watched your unfinished movie and are repeating every detail verbatim to a friend.

Screenwriting is special because of the following format that it uses:

• Your scene headings, in caps, describe the scene setting
• Characters are also capitalized
• Dialog is written underneath the characters in an almost center-justified format

The following is an example of a page from a screenplay; note how things are formatted:

When it's time to write your screenplay, you will want to download a piece of software that can put your words into the proper format. This not only makes the document more readable, but puts a professional spin on your creation, especially if you want to sell the draft to a production company.

My first recommendation would be Celtx (http://www.celtx.com). This free piece of software (with an optional premium version to access cloud-based and collaborative features) is streamlined, yet powerful enough, to draft up even your most ambitious screenplays. The software comes with a storyboarding template which allows you to order images, apply scene descriptions, text, and more.

You can download it for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. On top of that, as of this writing, you can purchase a Celtx app for any...

Über Autor(innen)

Troftgruben Chad :

Chad Troftgruben is a freelance animator who has spent several years learning about animation software while working on personal and commercial projects. Chad has worked with several companies for over a decade creating e-learning content. Some of these companies are Smith Micro, Lost Marble, Virtual Training Company, Packt Publishing, Train Simple, and Pluralsight. Presently, Chad spends his time being a father and expanding his animation knowledge through the creation of original works. Chad also offers a series of animation video courses through Udemy, Skillshare, and his own website.