Hi Wolf!

Im an aspiring animator and I have a few Questions. I love tradition animation, but I need some pointers

So, I use the lightbox and flipping technuique. What programs can I use to ink and colour the frames in? (I currently use Gimp)

I don't exactly "ink" my drawings, I use the tool that you're supposed to use for line art. Then for the next frame I "ink" the mouth and paste that over the first frame. Then I clean it and colour it. So is there a better way to do it?

I also really need an animation software. I use Monkeyjam just to preveiw what it would look like, but I can't find anything else!



Thanks for answears!

I've also ordered the animators survival kit book!

Hey Strawless!! I'm thrilled to see another animation-enthusiast! I don't animate too much but I'm an ink/colorist (mostly colorist) for Wolf, and the program I use for coloring is simply Photoshop I have Elements 7, and it's a few years old, but it works just fine for me! Do you have a tablet? I think coloring/inking on the computer is much much easier with a tablet. What I use in inking (which I actually use GIMP for inking) is the paths tool. It's super super confusing to use at first but once you get the hang of it you get really clean, straight lines that aren't jagged.
I'm not too familiar with animation programs. I've heard of Adobe Flash but I think that's for digital animation...

I have the animator's survival kit! Very helpful

Glad to have you here!

Thanks! I have adobe Photoshop 6.0

and I use the path tool on GIMP to! But I don't have a drawing tablet.
I also wanted to start with only inking and colouring,
I'll work on animation later I'm quite good in inking and colouring but I need more practice in colouring


Thanks for the warm welcome!
When I first found wolf I was like, cool a movie about wolves.

But then I checked it out.. OMG! OMG! a TRADITIONALLY ANIMATED movie about wolves. then I fell off my chair

As an inker for Wolf and a sophomore in animation, I'll try to give you the best advice I can possibly give.. ^^ (I'm still really new, or at least I feel like it.)
I use GIMP for the 'inking' on Wolf by just creating a separate layer on top of the work, then copying those lines and pasting it onto the next picture and erasing what will be moved. I have found that to be the best method, and I enjoy doing it. (I think you were saying that you do that already though ^^' Sorry if this reply is a disappointment.)
However, there are better programns for animating in, particularly if its 2D. I'm one for using a mouse, but I would really recommend getting a tablet and try using 'Toonboom Animate.' I think it costs a bit of money, but its really worth it, especially if this is your passion. There are much easier methods of creating lines and color that I think you could learn much better with tutorials than with me sitting here trying to explain it. The catch is, it's a programn, and a very effective one while we're at it. So it costs quite some. But, if you really really like doing animation, then it might end up saving you money granted you keep buying paper and pencils for animating with.
There's another programn that's really good for scanning in animation but I can't remember for the life of me what it was called. It works well as a compiler and I had it on my PC back at home, but... It's been awhile since I've seen it since the PC broke over break and I haven't used that computer since September.

Yeah, I use the path tool on GIMP to ink, It produces smooth lines.

But I really would like to buy a tablet but my parents won't let me Buy one because have a normal tablet.

So ill stick to Gimp

Thanks for answering!

What's a normal tablet? Like one of those big computer screen things?
I got my tablet fairly inexpensive for about $50 I think because it's sort of the "off-brand", but it's great and I've had it for five years!
If you have any questions about coloring you can let me know! I don't really know too many "shortcuts", I mostly do it by hand, but I think it's very relaxing and almost meditative!

By normal tablet I mean like I-pad, my dad got it with his new phone contract

do you have any suggestions for drawing tablets? and I will be PMing you asking about colouring!

I actually got one of those monoprice tablets http://0.tqn.com/d/create/1/0/6/g/5/-/i ... es-001.JPG

they are around $50 and mine works really well!

As for animation programs, that's a little bit harder. I used to use Monkeyjam when I was on a PC. I THINK you can color your frames in GIMP then import them back into Monkeyjam to make animations (save the GIMP files as whatever file format Monkeyjam prefers, like TIF or JPG or whatever).

I am now on a mac so I can't run Monkeyjam anymore but another good one is Digicel Flipbook (http://www.digicelinc.com/store.htm). Unfortunately that one's not free. It's somewhat cheap for an art program, and very versatile for animation but still kinda steep if you're a student or relying on parents to buy it for you.

As to animating by replacing the mouth, that is a very good way to save time and is sometimes called cutout animation. A lot of Flash Animators use this extensively with mouths and we usually have them all pre-drawn and ready to just drop in. Makes lip sync a lot faster!

Keep practicing! That's the main thing. The Richard Williams book is excellent. It may seem intimidating at first but take it a little bit at a time!

I also recommend Eric Goldberg's Character Animation Crash Course for more simplified, broken-down-into-steps instruction.

Good luck :D

You can actually animate on an iPad, too -- you just need a stylus and a decent art app (one that can actually save down files for export to your computer and that can handle layers)!

I actually weighed doing that a couple years ago when I was looking at tablets, but went the Cintique route because I'm a heavy-duty animator and a light-weight mobile user.

I've been using this lately: http://www.pencil-animation.org/

I just tried it out for pencil testing tonight (I had tried to work directly in it before) and it seems to work well as a basic tool. You can import audio as well. It has some ink and paint tools as well though I haven't messed around with those yet so I can't really tell how well they work!

As a pencil tester, there are some limitations and it's a bit annoying compared to digicel...but hey it's free! Can't knock that :D

Let me know if you try it out and want to know how to bring images in. I might make up a tutorial for it. There's instructions on their website though (http://pencil-animation.org/wiki/doku.p ... ing_images) but it took me a little fussing to figure it out.

I treid to download pencil, but it won't show up. I'll ask my dad to help.
As for the monoprice I'll see if I can find one for sale I currently live in ......... (I'll PM you where ;) ) so mabye I can find another type!

And my tablet is a samsung one but I cant find a stylus that will work with it. And there are no animation app that I know of

Is it a Galaxy? It's just a capacitive screen, so any capacitive stylus will work. It doesn't need to be branded Samsung.

Otherwise it's a resistive screen, and styluses exist for those as well.

I think It's a resistive screen, but The only stylists I have found so far only work on ipads and iphones. I can't find off-brand stylists

I think It's a resistive screen, but The only stylists I have found so far only work on ipads and iphones. I can't find off-brand stylists