I just retired (age 65) and I want to learn animation now that I have time for intensive study. I have extensive experience with Photoshop and Adobe Premier Pro Creative Cloud, I have good drawing and painting skills (i'm an amateur artist and sell my work in local galleries). I admire many of the animation shorts I see on Vimeo and making works like that would be my goal so I'm not interested in web-animation,Flash, HTML5 or interactive works.
I want to choose a tool that I can grow with, that won't limit me as my skills increase. I don't mind starting off with a professional tool and climbing that learning curve - it's better than starting off with a beginner's tool and then having to UNlearn that and starting a new tool as my skills progress. What tools should I use - Adobe Animate (which I already have via CC), or Toon-Boom, or what?
Based on an answer I got on another forum, I should make it clear that I'm interested in bitmap, not vector animation tools. I paint and draw in charcoal and paste;s and tend to represent shapes with shadows and textures instead of lines.
Also where can I find courses? I live 50km NW of Boston (Mass., USA) but so far I haven't found classes around here. Are there on-line courses - I mean real ones with instructors and students, not self-teaching tutorials?
What are some good websites and communities I should join?
Thanks in advance!
Take a look at Khan Academy, there is a course called "Pixar In a Box". It is not an answer to your question but I thought you might find it interesting.
" It is not an answer to your question but I thought you might find it interesting."
Would anyobne care to suggest an answer to my question?
FWIW I downloaded OpenToonz and I've been playing with it but I've had many crashes with it - it doesn't seem very stabl;e and people in it's discussion forum have even said that it has some stability issues and they have a "release candidate" that might be better, but really - I don't want to be a beta tester.
What can I get that's stable, good, and does bitmap (as oppsed to vector) animation and not too expensive?
Thanks in advance.
Take a look at this thread.
http://www.11secondclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=33146
I wouldn't knock Flash/Animate completely. As much as I dislike the way animations can come out, its learning curve isn't as steap as other programs. It can be ideal to use for practice and teaching yourself how to animate quickly and easily. There are many Flash animators who make wonderful animations despite the programs faults. Some also use it for roughing out animation quickly and then clean it up in a different program. I'd experiment with different things, but if you're dead set on bitmaps then I guess give it a miss.
Also for communities, this one and 11SecondClub are well-known.
Best of luck though!
www.kyalbrown.co.uk| @kyalnotkyle
I just started painting. I made myself a special notebook https://onplanners.com/notebooks/best-notebooks-for-designers in which I make sketches and so on. Soon I want to learn the technique of drawing cartoons. Tell me where it is better to read about these techniques, or in which videos will tell about the secrets of drawing?
you should get the line of thinking. there is something wrong with vector or bitmap animation. out of your mind.if you do animation on a computer. the animation will be a bitmap or a vector. I do not know what you thought video actually is. even if you paint them they will be a bitmap or vector.
the program really does not matter. you could do it in after effects. but if you like painting so much use corel painter or tv paint