First things first!

We’re telling a story! You do have a story to tell don’t you? It’s the first step in creating an animation project. Usually novices begin to draw on the first frame of the Animation Module, without even having the slightest and idea of what will happen in the final frame. This is definitely not a good strategy for quality results. As with any project, animation takes planning. Before you start drawing, stop and think for a moment “What is my story?”

No matter how small your project, it is always worth investing a few minutes to think about the details of your animation. Questions like “Who are the characters?” “What is the perspective?” “Where are they?” “Where are they going?” “How many scenes am I going to include?” The longer your animation, the more care you should take with the answers to these questions.

For professional animators, this planning results in what is known as a script, which is nothing more than a written text that tells a story which an entire team can understand and make into a reality. In this case, it’s only you, but even though you are the only one who has to understand the story, it’s still good practice to write out your story to organize and prepare yourself and your thoughts for the future. When you think about your script’s importance, think of the importance of plans for an architect or sheet music for a musician.

For our example, we’ve deliberately chosen something simple, we are going to create a very simple animation of a butterfly moving through the scene following a trajectory similar to the one in the following image:

Fig #31. Trajectory of the butterfly (basic example)

The butterfly will appear from the left side of the screen and disappear off to the right in a matter of a few seconds. That is all. Probably you are thinking that this is too simple, that perhaps it seems a waste of your time, but do not forget, you need to learn how to use the tools before you craft a masterpiece. When you have acquired great skill, we hope you’ll tell us about it and show us the fruits of your labour. It is important though not to forget, as an artist, to plan your project before you start to draw.
Good, we now have ready a mini script for our example, so let’s get to work!