Program for animation: overview, description, instruction and recommendations

Today you can create cartoons without leaving home. There are a lot of special software products with which you, having become a little familiar, easily create an animated film. This is a very fascinating activity. You can create animations both for professional use and simply as a hobby. This article discusses only some of the possibilities of computer animation. In fact, this sphere is constantly developing: new programs are being released or those already working in this field are being updated. The market offers many software products, including without payment, but in no way inferior to paid ones.

Lesson for children

For children there is a lot of entertainment. You can walk, read books, go to sports clubs, watch cartoons, finally. But why only watch? After all, you can create them yourself and please your friends and relatives with your creativity. This kind of activity develops children's imagination, fine motor skills, increases the level of computer literacy. For this you need:

• Think of a story;
• Take plasticine and blind characters;
• Using the technique of stop-motion to revive them;
• Follow the instructions of the software product;
• Parents can be assistants for their child-animator.

For example, a good animation program is the Movavi video editor. It can be downloaded in the version for Windows and for Mac. In order to make sure that creating cartoons at home is not difficult, you need to start to do it. This video editor has the ability to zoom in and out of frames, crop and paste video, voice, effects of old movies, etc.

Computer program Pencil

If you really want to start creating animated cartoons, then it's worth studying the technical solutions developed for this. For example, the animation program Pencil embodies the author's fantasies in reality. It allows you to work with raster and vector graphics. The editor himself has an English-language interface. However, it is intuitive to the user. The tools for drawing in the Pencil program are standard. There is a panel of options that serves to change the diameter of the instrument, color, blur the borders, etc. There is a scale for framing the timeline. To create a cartoon, the images are drawn one by one and assign numbers to them from the latter, that is, in the reverse order. For example, if there are 5 fragments in the video, then the first one is assigned the number 5, then press + in the keys on the scale and draw the second one. Assign the second frame number 4, then + and so on. Thus, we get a cartoon with a countdown. Pencil is a program for animation, which allows you to edit the created cartoon frame by adding or removing fragments. For the voice acting there is a speaker button, in the same section change the frame rate. With the help of classic Saveas save the cartoon to the computer.

Software solutions

There are a number of programs with which you can create different animations. Programs in Russian: Movavi, CartoonMaker-designer "My Favorite Heroes", Aurora 3D, Synfig Studio, "Animation 3D", Anime Studio Pro with Russian key and others. For example, "My Favorite Heroes" is an excellent solution for small animators. Having mastered the program, the child will be able to create his cartoon world in 20 minutes, which will give him the opportunity to feel himself a creator. He can create not only cartoons, but comic books. As a rule, children are interested in animation and animation. Programs that enable children's dreams to be realized are designed in such a way that it will be interesting to create animated films not only for children, but also for parents. In the editor CartoonMaker young animator is accompanied by favorite heroes of fairy tales: Robin Hood, Munchausen, King Arthur and others. In its arsenal, one hundred and fifty different animation options, thirty background sets, fifteen characters, more than two hundred sound effects, the possibility of a format in. Avi, the creation of titles and many other functions. Synfig Studio is a free and easy-to-use program for creating vector two-dimensional graphics. Suitable for Windows, Linux and Mac.

Which program to choose?

Among the producers of animation programs, Autodesk leads. It has such packages as 3ds Max, Maya and Softimage XSI. Excellent product from the German developer Cinema 4D. He has the opportunity to work in many languages, including Russian. A very interesting Canadian solution is Houdini. It's hard to say which animation program is the most successful development. Each of them has its own merits and, of course, its shortcomings. However, all of the above software, and not only him, but also other programs, found their niche in the CG market. To distinguish any of them does not make sense, but consider for example some are necessary. 3D graphics today are in demand everywhere: television, film industry, advertising, video clips, games, design, architecture, printing, medicine, criminalistics, engineering, etc. Everyone chooses which animation program for the computer will suit him, based on the OS version, technical Characteristics of the PC, its financial capabilities and professional activities.

Animation technology

Animation is a very laborious process. Its technology is to force inanimate images to move on the screen, thereby receiving an animated film. When using the hand-drawn animation, the frames are composed of pictures, each of which displays the movement of the object. For example, the first figure is exactly on the second one, she already tilted her head slightly, the third one - the head inclination became even larger, etc. As a result, when they are connected, a video will appear, where the figure tilts its head. Figures are taken on a per-picture basis and projected onto the screen. For an audio video, this is twenty-four frames per minute, for a mute it's sixteen. Thanks to the animation, you can create effects that can not be realized in real life: the characters will move in space and time, in an instant a house will be built from sand grains, the characters walk through the air, reincarnates in different personalities or animals, etc. In addition to the hand-drawn, there are also Plasticine and puppet animation, silhouette and collage ... There are such programs for 3D animation that give the chance to create projects worthy of a level of high professionalism.

How to make animation in Morfeus

This editor is very easy to use and will perfectly suit the beginning animator. After downloading and installing the program, start it with the shortcut on the desktop. Then follow the instructions:

• Choose an option to work with the desired image.
• Click on the "Next" button.
• The editor will prompt you to download the desired image for later modification.
• Specify the path to the image (click on Load Picture).
• Again, "Next."
• The main editing window is launched.
• Set the range of modification of the picture with Add Dots.
• We put points along the contour (or in places where you do not need to change the image).
• Drag the direction of the picture change.
• Click on Preview to see the result.
• We save the modified image (the menu File - export movie and the Export button).
• A couple of seconds, and the animation is ready!
• We look through the drawing with the standard tools of the system.

Recommendations for creating flash animations

• Create images for the cartoon (preferably in a different program - for example, "Photoshop").
• For the first steps, we use editors like gif (you can use Easy GIF Animator Pro), which have all the basic features for creating the first simple cartoon, even from two frames.
• One of the best programs for flash animation is Macromedia Flash Professional, which allows you to create your own drawings, add sounds, banners and much more.
• Interestingly: to create a variety of animation effects using the program Easy GIF Animator, Corel Photo Paint, Ulead GIF Animator ...
• It is important to use clear images to work! Vague can not be edited clearly!

The technology of creating a puppet cartoon

To create a good puppet cartoon, it takes a lot of talent and skill. The viewer is very demanding on how the dolls look on the screen. Characters of such animated films can be made from plasticine, paper, plastic, wood, rags ... The master's task is to make them very realistic. When creating a doll animation, the characters, similarly drawn, frame by frame change their position. The doll is neatly put in the right position and the shot is taken. To change emotions, several heads, individual parts of the face, etc. are made specially. Thanks to the modern technologies of shooting such a cartoon there is a special program. Puppet animation with modern computer technologies has become much easier, while the opportunities of animated artists and operators in the embodiment of their ideas have expanded.

3D Education

Modern society is technologically advanced and is not going to stop there. Animation and the film industry today can not do without computer specialists in this field. Therefore, computer education has become relevant since the first grades of the general education school. There are enough courses and circles where animation for children is studied. The program on these courses is different in its focus, so you can choose the right one. Production of three-dimensional animation has its own directions in technical specialization: modeler, set-up, texturiser, visualizer, animator. If you want to become a multiplier or a 3D animator, you need to decide which direction to develop. To develop professionalism in this area there are also a number of programs both on a paid basis and on a free basis. Many free editors are not inferior in their functions paid. These include a simple program for animating Synfig Studio. An excellent product for solving many 3D tasks is Blender. Although among commercial decisions regarding functionality, the choice is still much broader.