Bring your characters to life using free and open-source animation software.
Making an animated cartoon requires creativity, dedication and patience, but it doesn't necessarily require money. You can use freely available resources on the web to research and analyze animation and to educate yourself about make an animated cartoon. Once you've come up with an idea, execute it using free and open-source software for every step of the way--including research, screenwriting, production and distribution--as you produce a free animated cartoon.
Instructions
Research
1. Search for "animation tutorials" using your favorite search engine, and learn about basic techniques for making animated cartoons.
2. Read the ASIFA Hollywood Archive animation blog. The ASIFA Hollywood Archive is a union-run museum dedicated to preserving the history of animation production. Its blog publishes critical analyses of illustrators and animators, and scans of rare articles and out-of-print books in the public domain. The blog also contains links to personal blogs maintained by professional animators who discuss the animation process and often respond to readers' comments and questions.
3. Read the first edition of Preston Blair's Cartoon Animation. The original edition of this classic how-to book has fallen into the public domain, making it free to read, copy and share.
4. Watch animated films spanning the history of cinema for inspiration on YouTube, Vimeo, and GoogleVideo. Just search for "animated short."
Screenwriting
5. Write down ideas you have for shots or techniques inspired by what you have read and seen.
6. Settle on a concept and write your short script using Celtx, a free, cross-platform screenwriting program that formats your writing using film industry layout standards.
7. Choose an animation technique and get ready to produce your cartoon using free software.
Production & Distribution
8. Create digital hand-drawn animation with Pencil, a free and open-source animation production program for Mac, Windows and Linux. Pencil allows you to make a series of bitmap or vector drawings with your mouse and play them back to preview your animation in real time. It uses "onion-skinning", a valuable feature that displays a faint version of your last drawing in the background of every new drawing you begin. Pencil also has brushes for coloring your drawings and an unlimited number of layers so you can keep backgrounds and characters separate from each other.
9. Create stop motion animation using MonkeyJam (Windows), iMovie (Mac) or StopMotion (Linux). Stop motion animation involves manipulating everyday objects or characters made of clay and photographing them so they appear to move. All three of these programs allow you to import photos from a digital camera, display them sequentially and re-order them as you like.
10. Create 3-D animation using Blender, a free 3-D animation software for Mac, Windows and Linux. Blender allows you to sculpt three-dimensional characters and environments using vectors. It also has tools for applying textures to the shapes you create, and for animating those shapes by moving them frame by frame across a timeline.
11. Upload your completed animated cartoon to free video hosts like YouTube, Vimeo, or GoogleVideo.
