Create a short animated film by yourself

Forget live action. Think animation.

If you are interested in creating you own short film, consider animation over live action. There are obvious benefits to a group creative effort, but in the end, no one will be able to have their own complete creative vision realized. As long as you are comfortable doing every job yourself, you can form an animated story exactly as you wish. With animation, you can completely disregard the typical limitations of live action filmmaking. You can set your story in any setting imaginable with any characters imaginable without regard for the materials or actors or sets available. Since you create everything, you decide the style of every last detail.

Story is everything

A story can be powerful. A story can change moods and change minds. Before you can move on with the production of your animated film, you need to know your story. As with any creative endevour, the ability to tread your own path and do things differently than the crowd can be a great asset. Whether you sketch out your story in rough drawings, write down the plot points, or simply imagine the whole thing in your mind, you will eventually need to think of your story in visual terms. How do you want to compose your characters, environments, and props during each scene? What might your characters look like? How will your visual style emphasize the vital themes that your story addresses?

Who is your audience?

Films are created to be seen. It is up to you, the filmmaker and animator who will see your film. You may be creating your film for your own reasons and have no desire to share it with anyone else. In this case, the only audience member that you need to consider is yourself. Otherwise, if you are going to present your visual story to a few family members, the local community, or the entire world, their perspectives should be considered to some extent. People love to form opinions about anything and everything, and films are no exception. You may desire to create a story that you will love but would offend everyone in your audience. You can still tell this story, but the offense is a consequence to be considered.

Choose the medium of your animation

Hand drawn? Stop motion? Computer animation? Before moving on to the bulk of preproduction for your animated film, it is a good idea to nail down what materials and tools you are going to use. If your characters are going to be made of clay, then the limitations of that medium will inform their design. If you model your environments using 3d animation software on the computer, your design will have to be different than if you are doing your whole film using ink and paper.

Time to begin

Now that you know what your animated film is going to be about and what materials will be informing the design, it is time to move on to designing your world, your characters, and every shot in your film. More on that later…

Create a short animated film by yourself – Part 2

Create a short animated film by yourself – Part 3

Create a short animated film by yourself – Part 4