Perhaps, you’ve watched an epic animated movie produced by a renowned animated video production company, and it’s inspired you to create your own, but you have no idea how. Below are some useful tips to make high-quality motions graphics that can bring your story to life:
1. Get inspired
Le Guin, an American best-selling author, says that inspiration is everywhere. This keeps you motivated and up late at night. Ask yourself, what makes you want to share this story? And, what lesson will your audience learn from reading it?
Sometimes, simply looking at the artwork of your favorite artist, rummaging through your old artwork, or taking a walk in the park can get you inspired.
Some say that it also comes from the unlikeliest things. Just pay attention to your thoughts, and when the idea comes right to you, write it down immediately in a notebook to keep the flow.
2. Search for reference/Ideation
This is one of the most important and exciting parts of creating a short film. In this process, you generate more ideas through brainstorming. Indeed, bad art can bring the story to life, but a bad story can’t improve with good visuals.
Look for references about the character, setting, and mood you have in mind. This will give you a more vivid presentation of your storyline. At this point, you may not exactly have every single detail, but at least you have the visual representation, then you can move on to the next stage.
3. Making a storyboard and animatics
Take time to develop your storyboard. This can prevent working on unnecessary arts and revising illustrations over and over again. Once you already know how your story will unfold, you can start creating the animatics or simply the storyboard in motion.
This process allows you to figure out your story’s pace and is subject to change and revisions. As an artist, you know there are loopholes you cannot see unless you view it from a different perspective. The bottom line is, don’t be in such a hurry in developing your storyboard.
4. Finalize your visuals
This stage allows you to make changes to the sequence that needs improvement. Here, you can add more critical shots that you may have missed. You can also work on the speed, vegetation, and image forms. This can be technical and challenging, but when you view your story from nice renders, it couldn’t be more satisfying.
5. Choose the perfect soundtrack
Music plays an important role in any film. That’s no secret. It sets the moods, creates a perfect vibe in the background, and builds emotional responses. Try collaborating with composers who can render nice music for your film. Or browse on various platforms with filmmakers’ playlist. With a good soundtrack, you can get your audience more engaged.
6. Review playblast
With the storyboard completed, proceed with working on the rest of the shots. Model and texture your character first, then identify how many times it will appear from different angles. Remember that it is important to achieve a cohesive appearance.
Viewing playblast in grayscale allows you to see how your animation works altogether. But you may not be able to preview how some images react to light through this process. After locking down the animation, preview the render sequences.
7. Start the compositing process
Instead of spending a lot of time trying to achieve a 3D animation, before rendering it out, choose a software that gives you an idea of how the render will look as a final image. Therefore, you can easily see which part of the images need to be replaced. This can speed up your work dramatically. So find the compatible video animation software that also offers many alternative elements.
8. Apply color adjustments
When you’re done rendering the sequences, put them all together on the software so that you can see them as a whole. Then apply the necessary color adjustments if there’s one that looks unrelated. You may add an element to connect them. Basically, your main goal is to achieve color cohesion and symmetry.
9. Create a title design
Consider the shots in your short film when making a title design. If the setting is kind of dreamy, you may choose a fading style. For a tropical background, a bright font is ideal. Lastly, the ending. This can make a great impression as much as the opening, so think about how you want to cut your short film. If it’s intense, you can probably make it abrupt, leaving the audience with strong emotions.
Creating an animated short film is no joke. It takes time and dedication. But the final video can provide a sense of fulfillment. Let alone when people start recognizing it.