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Making a story animation is a task that requires a story to be animated and needs experience with the paint editor. Vector animation is performed differently and is covered in the "Animation with Vector" section.
Obtaining an Idea or Storyline
The first step in making a story animation is to have an idea. They can be in chronological order if wanted. A storyline can be in the present or the past or completely fictional.
Drawing inspiration is often the toughest part of the project. Most animators spend a long time thinking about the "perfect" idea, which is required to make an animation. However, for the beginner, it is often more rewarding to use something easier. Getting the "perfect" idea could take a very long time and it might be better to choose one simple theme and stick with it.
Brainstorming can be a difficult process. To let the creativity flow, inspiration from other sources is usually helpful. Watching animations or reading comics is another possible way. Developing a character and then a storyline around the character is a good way to start. Characters should never be "perfect". The character should make mistakes, or even be the villain.
Story
Creating a storyline around a character is a lot easier. Think about how the character would react to various situations. Often in story animations, the storyline is less important than the little things. Make storylines open-ended. In contrast to novels, where storylines should have a clear beginning, middle, and end, cartoons have the freedom to end a plot suddenly with a twist. For example, an entire cartoon about a character trying to milk a cow, by giving an account of various attempts and how they failed—some people think that this makes an excellent material to build slapstick comedy or gags upon. Repetition is another useful tool, but should not be overused because the viewer will get bored after a while.
Being absurd (within reason) and completely unexpected is extremely important to make a funny story animation. Think about every detail, and consider whether it is possible to replace it with something which would be funnier. If talking about a spaceship, consider how it could be unusual, perhaps by adding some detail that will surprise the audience, like an unexpected bumper sticker (e.g. "How's my driving?").
Drawing
Drawing is hard for some people, especially on a computer. Here are some drawing tips to follow:
- Start with a sketch, either digital or traditional.
- Outline the needed parts in the sketch.
- Draw final in pen either traced or redrawn.
- Draw the final drawing on the computer in the paint editor, or use a drawing tablet.
- When drawing on the computer, try to simplify the final drawing by removing unneeded features.
- Color it using shading and other styles of drawing.
Animating
Drawing an animation is a bit harder—it requires a certain degree of perseverance to perfect it.
Animation is based on moving frames (a series of several pictures put together, with small changes in-between).
Some steps to follow:
- Draw the character or object.
- Move the character about 5 frames. This is called a keyframe.
- Create small movements in between keyframes to make the animation appear smooth.
Tips:
- The more frames there are in an animation, the slower it is.
- The fewer frames there are in an animation, the faster it is.
- All of this depends on how many seconds there are in between the frames. It is recommended that the wait is around 0.03 seconds.
- The fewer frames there are, the more 'choppy' the movements seem. Choppy means that the animation will seem to be skipping movements. For example, if a stick figure is blinking it will be fine, but if the stick figure is moving its arm, then the arm will seem to be moving very fast and then stopping.
- Try to have the objects move fluidly. This means that the animation needs to look smooth, not robotic and choppy like it was just thrown together.
Animation
Start by making your character. Then, duplicate that drawing.
If the main character is a stick figure make their arms and legs lines, then reshape the way that is needed for other frames. It is also possible to make the hands and parts of the arms and legs different shapes and move them around in different frames.
Frame-by-frame
It's all about doing the long part of making any story animation. The character must be duplicated with small changes, and although this can be time-consuming, it is crucial to the animation. Just remember that this part will take a while and anyone animating has to be patient.
It may be best to form a group and have various Scratchers animate parts of the story animation. Scratchers can work on the part of the story animation that they are best at. For example, if the story animation calls for a walking cycle, have a Scratcher animate the character walking if that Scratcher specializes in that area.
Uploading
To upload it to Scratch, take the collaborators' animations, and put them into one project, give credit to the collaborators, and share it.
Have Fun
The most crucial part of story animation making is to have fun. The story animation reflects on the animator's or writer's mood. Most viewers want story animations that can entertain them or 'wow' them. That is the animator's job to entertain them or 'wow' them.
Add a Twist
If a joke in the animation is obvious or overused, try adding something unexpected to surprise the viewers. This may attract their attention to the animation even more.
Aftermath
At this point, the story animation may be done, although getting feedback is often very helpful. Uploading the project on a test account is not always very effective. It could be weeks or even months before a Scratcher gets enough feedback online to go back to their story animation and make some changes.
