Cheap ways to animate?

[Pencil_weilder]

Hello all! i'm really into animating and animation but find it hard to practice actual animating because of my lack of software and ways to get my animations on the net for critiques

i can't purchase any software until about christmas because i'm only 15 and without a job, so thats out the window.

i was wondering if there were ways to make traditional style animation and still putting them up on the net somehow?

i thought about rigging my digital camera up like a line test machine and just take a picture of every drawing i did and somehow put them together, but i'm not sure how it would come out. havn't tried it yet.

if any of you guys know any other way to go about doing this please share

help out a poor teenage wanna be animator :D

[elephant]

i thought about rigging my digital camera up like a line test machine and just take a picture of every drawing i did and somehow put them together, but i'm not sure how it would come out. havn't tried it yet.

if any of you guys know any other way to go about doing this please share
First off, welcome to the forums!
Getting your animations done in the way you just described is quite efficient.
Definitely try it out and show us the results. Also, here's a post you might find useful -- click (http://www.animationforum.net/forum/showpost.php?p=11426&postcount=19).

When animating traditionally, a light-box is essential. You can build your own or buy it somewhere, like Chromacolour (http://www.chromacolour.com/store/desktop_boards_usa.htm). They're all fairly expensive though.

One might think that Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Flash is probably one of the cheapest way to animate something, but I don't think that's true, because you would have to buy a tablet for better results.
Don't get me wrong, I know there's plenty of mouse-wizards out there who get their jobs done w/o a graphics tablet (http://www.wacom.com/).

So what can I say... animating's quite an expensive hobby! ;)

[Pencil_weilder]

Yea, it would be so much easier just getting flash or toonboom etc... but i have the kind of parents that don't just dish out hundreds of dollars for me to get something like that so i'm trying to make do with the available materials i have :)

question about the digicam idea. once i get all of the pictures uploaded on my computer how am i to put them together like an animation. are there any programs you guys know of?

thanks

[elephant]

but i have the kind of parents that don't just dish out hundreds of dollars for me to get something like that so i'm trying to make do with the available materials i have :)
I know the pain... :(

List of free video editing software (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_editing_software#Free_software)

[vicjperry]

Well, don't forget that you can always practice on the Flipbook site. You can instantly post your animations for all to see. They are offline right now for maintenance but will be up shortly.

Also, if you download a gif animator (Microsoft Gif Animator is free from tucows etc.) you can scan your drawings and turn them into animated gifs. Better than dishing out big bucks just to learn.

I do recommend flipbook to start.:D
http://www.fabrica.it/flipbook/flipbook_maker.php

[Pencil_weilder]

thanks for the links guys, that really helps :)

back to the drawing board for a few hours

[robber3000]

well you could always start off with free trials?

[topdrawer]

Personally I consider Toon boom to be the best software for anyone who likes to approach animation in the traditional way. Before I bought it I took advantage of their free trial offer. That would be a good way for you to get into it right away and begin learning how to use the program. I'm assuming they still offer the free trial.

[robber3000]

yeah, they do ;)

[RageArtworks]

http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/free/index.html A great place to start. It's like Corel Painter, just fewer features. It takes some getting used to, but it's free. I made my first animated short with it. Here's a thread I started, "How to make movies with free software" http://www.animationforum.net/forum/showthread.php?t=767

Hope it helps!

[syellin]

My first animations were done on my friend Sam's Father's old busniess cards,.. he also did promotional work for cigarette companies, so we had the old light-up displays from Bars to use for our lightboxes -lol

Now he's directing his own screenplay for Disney feature, and I've been working in TV since '95........ what a trip :)

-Stu