Creating your own animation is now super easy. Have you seen one of those cool websites that have an animated explainer right on the home page? Typically these are expensive studio created works of art. But now new services like Powtoon allow you to make your own video in just a few hours with free animated video maker software.
Here are some options for creating your own video animations:
Powtoon is our pick for business usage. We love Powtoon because of its ease of use, animated templates, and cool animated characters.
3D Cartoon Videos, Done Right! There are hundreds of online templates available for your fast video creation. Animation projects, business, education, technology, food & drink, diverse free 3D templates will help make your stories presented differently and innovatively. Free online 3D modeling software: Design, editor, animation, rendering, & lots of free 3D models. Supports Three.JS, Blend, FBX, OBJ, V-Ray, Babylon.JS, STL.
Powtoon Skyrim special edition version check. is also our top pick because it allows you to choose between Slideshow mode and Movie mode as well as export your animation as an MP4 movie, play on the web, and even upload to YouTube or Wistia.
These days all the rage is in online services. So Powtoon was created strictly as an online application. That means that you don't need to download any software to your computer, you don't need to learn Flash, and you don't need to learn Photoshop. All you need to do is log in, drag and drop characters or props into the animation maker, and start animating your own cartoon.
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CGI Animation is a complex process that takes several steps in order to go from a simple idea to a complete animation. The steps for CGI animation are usually done by several people, with different people working on each step. There are five major steps when it comes to CGI animation: Script, Storyboard, Layout, Animation, and Final Revision. Each step requires careful planning and lots of work.
The first step when making a CGI animation is to make a script of the scene. This is a written list of all of the backgrounds, characters, dialogue, and poses that are going to be used in a scene, going in chronological order. This step is pretty much the same as the script step in other forms of media, such as films, TV shows, and plays. Trying to animate a scene without a logical plan isn't a good idea, since the animators won't have a clear idea of what to animate. They will have to then come up with a story as they animate, which can result in a sloppy, unorganized mess. Coming up with a script for the scene will help in the long run.
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The next step in CGI Animation is the Storyboard phase. This step is pretty much the exact same as the storyboard step in 2D animation; a scene is drawn out in several 2D drawings, showing a rough idea of the environments, characters, and camera angles that you would see in the finished film. The script is usually shown at the bottom of each drawing to show what is happening. In a big-budget CGI film, the animator pitches out the storyboard to the other people in the animation crew. The professional voice-acting typically isn't done at this stage, so the animator usually does a rough impression of each character while pitching out each scene.
It may seem a little pointless to make dozens, if not hundreds, of drawings for one scene in a CGI film that won't even be used at all in the finished movie, but there is a very good reason for doing this step. Pitching the storyboards to other people will give animators an idea of what scenes work and which ones don't work. Some storyboards are altered and tweaked for a final draft, while others are completely removed from the movie. Getting rid of bad ideas now saves people the trouble of having to render out the scenes in 3D. Building one little scene in 3D is time-consuming, and if a whole scene gets rendered that doesn't get used in the finished film, then it was a huge waste of time and money to animate the scene. Making storyboards of a scene is very helpful later on down the line.
The third step of CGI animation is the Layout step. Here, the characters and backgrounds for the scene get rendered in 3D. Animators use computers to build a basic model of each 3D character in the scene. Animators will usually use a reference source, such as a 2D drawing or clay sculpture, while creating the 3D model. Detailed features of a character, such as hair or lighting effects, aren't created yet. Once the characters and backgrounds are made, it is time to begin the Layout step. Here, characters are placed in the correct spots, and the camera angles for every frame are decided. Then, a rough cut of the scene is played out in 3D. This is kind of like a 3D version of a storyboard; although the dialogue and camera angles are finalized, nothing else is. There is no lighting, details, or motions (like mouth flaps) on the characters yet. All of the characters are also stuck in their basic poses. It's kind of like playing house with a Barbie doll. The model can be picked up and moved to different spots, but there is no actual animation aside from pushing a character from one place to another. This step give animators a basic idea of how the scene will look in 3D. After a screening of the scene, some things may be altered and tweaked. Scenes can be omitted at this point, but it is a lot less common to cut a scene now than it is during the storyboard phase. After getting the layouts done, it is time to begin the actual animation of the scene.
The next step is the Animation step. The basic character models are now posed and moved to their finalized movements. Everything from mouth flaps to footsteps are created at this stage. Similar to 2D animation, each frame is created and then tweaked very slightly from one frame to the next. When played in order, the individual frames make a complete animation. It is important to note that the more complex parts of a character (such as facial hair) aren't made yet, and the lighting of the objects and characters aren't created yet. This is, essentially, a rough draft of an animation. Nevertheless, finishing this step will have the film completely animated.
Once that is finished, it is time to move onto the Final Revision step. Here, the more complicated parts of CGI, such as hair, lighting, and textures, are placed onto the animation. These complicated parts are saved for last since they are typically the most difficult parts of CGI. Animating hair is very complicated, since there are hundreds of thousands of unique hairs to keep track of. They also have to be animated for effects such as wind and movement. Full hair on a character was not tried in a CGI film until Monsters, Inc. in 2001, when Sully (one of the main characters) was animated with a full coat of realistic fur.
Other revisions in this step include lighting and textures. Textures are places on various surfaces in order give them a more believable look. Rough surfaces are given bumps, smooth surfaces look shiny and reflective, etc. Applying textures to human characters can be very difficult, and it is very complicated to make a character that looks just like a real person. This is why many CGI cartoons use unrealistic characters, such as inanimate objects (Toy Story), animals (Finding Nemo) and cartoony humans (The Incredibles and Up). Call of duty through the years.
Lighting involves picking a source of light (or sources) in each scene and applying realistic lighting to the scenes. This applies a shadow to every character and object in a scene. The shadow has to be carefully rendered to make sure that it looks plausible and believable. This step can be time consuming, which is why it is one of the last things done to a CGI animation. Once all of these steps are done, the CGI animation is complete.
CGI animation is a very complex process. Each step has to be carefully completed. Entire CGI films take several years to complete from start to finish. Despite all of the hard work, it is definetely worth it to create CGI animations.
To see an example of this process, click here to see a scene from Monsters, Inc (23-19 Emergency) in four stages of animation: Storyboard, Layout, Animation, and Final.
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For a history of 3D animation, click here.
