We are living in the golden age of animation. From Wall-E to Up to Moana to Coco, animated films are using an expansive artistic palette to tell stories that evoke raw emotion and deliver important messages. Visionary writers and directors are using the endless possibilities of the medium to show us the future, take us to faraway worlds, or even give glimpses of our everyday reality from new perspectives. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Even Walt Disney started small, making simple animated shorts for advertisements. If you one day want to follow in his footsteps, or take animation to the another level, you can take the first step here and now.
Advice to Future Animators
The Pixar Team once laid out its official advice to aspiring animators in the form of a list of items that should be in your toolbox if you want to make it in the industry. First, they said, you must be an actor. You don’t necessarily need to be Meryl Streep, but you should have a good awareness of how body language and facial expressions can communicate emotion and humanize characters. The second tool is pretty obvious; you should be a solid artist, and not just on a computer. You should be able to bring characters to life with the old reliables—brushes, pens, pencils, etc. Next, they stress the importance of being a part of a team, because every animation studio succeeds through a group effort. Finally, in addition to your traditional art foundation, you’ve got to know your way around animation software. Many big studios use proprietary programs, so don’t worry about learning each one inside and out. Just start with one simple application and you’ll begin to understand the basic mechanics. We recommend Animatron Studio, and not just because it’s currently on sale for $49.99. It’s one of the best tools for beginners, and animation and marketing pros swear by it, too. Just ask Disney, Fox, Facebook, Google, or NASA.
What Tools Do You Need?
Animatron’s intuitive, browser-based interface makes it easy to create engaging animations and graphics, whether you’re designing videos for YouTube, HTML5 banners for your company, or a funny cartoon for your friends. Mine its library of thousands of pre-animated characters, backgrounds, and props—or use the vector drawing tools to make your assets from scratch. Already have some art from a project you’ve been working on? You can import your own graphics, photos, audio, and video and start playing with them instantly. Nearly everything is customizable, and you can export in a variety of formats to match your project—from HTML5 to SVG to GIF to video with universal playback. You can even practice your Pixar-friendly collaboration skills by sending out project links and working with teammates in real time.
So whether you’re starting at square one, putting in your time at an ad agency before breaking into the film biz, or just trying to tell your stories in a new way, Animatron is going to get you there. The regular cost of this software can run up to $1000, but this very special deal will get you lifetime access for just $49.99.