Almost any person had the thought at least once to make their own cartoon. Twenty years ago, it was rather difficult to create a cartoon without special equipment, but now inexpensive digital technology with a tripod gives an enthusiast the opportunity not only to shoot a cartoon, but also a full-fledged film.
It is necessary
- - Plasticine
- - Large boxes
- - Paints
- - Digital camera with tripod
- - Scotch tape
- - Video editor software
- - Sound editor
- - Colored and white paper
- - Lighting
Instructions
Step 1
At the very beginning, you need to understand what kind of story you will portray in your cartoon. For the first experiments, you can take a popular fairy tale or fable. You can try to come up with the main plot yourself. Write a script to understand if you will be changing the scenery, make a rough storyboard showing general and near plans.
Step 2
Take one of the boxes, cut off one wall. This gives you the basis for the decoration. Paint the rest of the box walls according to the scenario. Be sure to add a couple of voluminous objects to the set to bring it to life. For example, for a scene with a forest, put a couple of trees molded from their plasticine, for the room you definitely need pieces of furniture.
Step 3
Now dazzle your heroes, give them bright and memorable features. Do some interesting details. The arms, legs and neck of the character should move at least slightly. You can additionally sculpt the enlarged faces of the characters for close-ups.
Step 4
Place the decoration on a spacious table, light it according to the plan, lanterns, table lamps and much more are suitable as light sources. Try to illuminate the dark corners of the decoration, make reflectors from sheets of white paper. Mark the position of the tripod with the camera on the floor, put it in place, do not change the settings. Place the characters in the scenery, start shooting time-lapse. According to the script, move the characters, change the positions of the arms, head, legs. Don't try to make a cartoon in one go. Take at least ten to fifteen frames for every second of the cartoon. Do not shoot everything from one angle, try to zoom in and out. Use general, medium and short shots. Especially close-ups are important when speaking the characters' lines.
Step 5
Download photos to your computer in one folder. Specify this folder in the video editor as a source of frames, wait for the video to be edited, then watch it in its original form. Adjust the time between shots, aiming for continuous motion. If you are using more than one set, create separate folders for these shots. Edit separately scenes, then combine them into sequences.
Step 6
You can sound a cartoon in any program of a similar profile. Burn the track, then combine it with the edited movie. You can add music.
Step 7
If you don't like something in your cartoon, it seems that the action slows down and sags, throw out controversial places without a doubt, despite the time spent on shooting.
