how to make a cartoon

Royal Rover

Hi all

Quick question ?? How do you actually make a cartoon from start to finish - let's say for example it needs to be 20 min long - would it cost me thousands?? I only ask because i was approached with a script which the writer would like to make as a cartoon. Any help greatly appreciated.

ztoical

Royal Rover wrote: »

Hi all

Quick question ?? How do you actually make a cartoon from start to finish - let's say for example it needs to be 20 min long - would it cost me thousands?? I only ask because i was approached with a script which the writer would like to make as a cartoon. Any help greatly appreciated.

Are you an animator? Do you have any background in the development of scripts or animated projects? That can effect the cost level greatly.

Budget would depend on alot of factors - what type of animation, how complex the story [number of characters, props, locations, VFXs, music etc] the quality level your looking at and what you want to do with it. You can do some simple animation style work in programs like flash or TVpaint, if it's limited characters, locations and props a small group of people could knock something together that would be good enough for the likes of youtube or at the other if your looking for something to enter into festivals and approach tv networks with your taking much closer to the million mark.

To expand on exactly what happens start to finish with an animated production - script goes through several drafts then is broken down for assets [characters, props, locations]. Assets are then brought to conept art stage which normally inculdes turnarounds of characters and breakdowns of props and locations with colour and texture references. Most of the voices and sounds are reocorded at this stage and X-sheets created. Project is then storyboarded and the storyboard panals are then turned into an animatic which is the whole project laid out in the correct time codes. Project is broken up in sequences and scenes which then go through animation. Depending on if it's hand drawn or computer there is a different order. Hand drawn goes to key animation - usually 3 passes, then in-betweens again 3 passes, clean up then ink and paint. CG will go to layout, rigging, modelling, and colour and again it's usually 3 passes at each stage. Everything then goes to editing which involves putting all the different elements together. With CG everything is rendered out together but with hand drawn each character and all overlays, underlays and backgournds are done separately and will need to be composited together. FX's and sound added, any additional items like credits added then outputted and tech checked. That's a very very rough overview. 20mins is a long time in animation as it's broken down into 24 frames per second which means you've roughly 30,000 frames to cover but you treat characters, props, and layouts seperate so it's 30,000frames each...the more characters, props and locations the more compilicated and expensive the process becomes.

Cy_Revenant

Somewhat relevant, but a friend of mine made an wrote, directed and animated a short in under 24 hours a little while back.

So I guess the quality of animation you're looking for is a factor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTjOTU18Md4

ztoical

Cy_Revenant wrote: »

Somewhat relevant, but a friend of mine made an wrote, directed and animated a short in under 24 hours a little while back.

So I guess the quality of animation you're looking for is a factor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTjOTU18Md4

Thats a really nice project but just to nit pick it's closer to a motion comic then an animated short as there isn't actually any animation in it...it's a series of still images and camera pans.

It is possible to produce good shorts and even feature films on a small budget but what you need people involved who've got the backgrounds in not only animation but also in production as it's the production side that makes or breaks most projects. There plenty of 'cheat' options for getting work done cheap and quick - take Ryan Estrada's One Month Animated Feature were he used stock film and photos as backgrounds and secondary characters and just animated one character level. It all comes down to the over all look and quality you want to get.

K.O.Kiki

eanlison wrote: »

Do you have any background in the development of scripts or animated projects? That can effect the cost level greatly

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Hell's Kitchen?
Possible bot?

Konata

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Hell's Kitchen?
Possible bot?

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K.O.Kiki

Konata wrote: »

Oh, I do love this forum >_>

And the forum loves you back.

In a twisted, nay sadistic manner of speaking.