Take plenty of time to think about the purpose of your movie. Some genres are more suited to ideas than others. Drama requires a lot of deep emotions from your characters, but a comedy anime needs jokes and clever dialogue. If you aren’t familiar with genres, search online for descriptions of genres and popular animes that fit them. Watch the recommendations to get ideas on what makes them successful. Starting with genres you are familiar can help, but don’t feel limited if you want to try something new. Combining genres is possible. A show like Psycho-Pass combines police drama, psychology, and cyberpunk elements. Stay flexible. If you discover a different genre is more true to your goals, adjust your film to fit it.
For instance, a lot of action animes like Naruto pit characters against dangerous opponents. On the other hand, a drama like Clannad may focus on interpersonal relationships.
For instance, you may prefer your comedy movie to look surreal by giving characters exaggerated features like in Pop Team Epic. A more serious anime like The Ancient Magus Bride benefits from more elaborate, detailed characters. Studio Ghibli movies, for example, are often very soft and colorful. The characters don’t have complicated designs or tons of small details, making them feel welcoming to audiences of all ages. For example, horror movies are often dark and gritty. You may choose to draw realistic characters with sharp lines. For a light romance or comedy, you might draw very cute characters with soft colors. The background graphics are almost as important as the character design. A dark city with a lot of neon lights, for example, can feel both futuristic and oppressive.
Outlining your character’s personality can help you make them feel more real as you write them into the script. If a secondary character seems to have an interesting story, explore it! It could become a great part of your movie. For a simple idea of character development, think of an anime like Naruto where the main character starts out as a bratty kid but becomes successful through struggles and perseverance.
When you’re finished, go back and read the script. Edit weak spots and errors to make the script flow better. Do this multiple times until you are happy with your work.
Characters can also include animals and objects. If they play a role in your movie, you may want to sketch them out to perfect them. You may need to do multiple sketches before you get a character design you are happy with. Avoid settling for a character design that doesn’t mesh well with your movie’s concept and art style. For computer art, try a program such as Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint.
For example, draw your characters from the front, back, and sides. Draw them with a smile, a frown, a look of concern, and confusion.
Storyboarding is a useful way to lay out the script’s plot, finalize the story, and begin converting it to visual media. Your sketches do not have to be fully detailed, but make sure you have a clear representation of each scene. Black and white sketches are fine.
Backgrounds affect your characters, their designs, and their personalities. They can almost be treated as characters in their own right! Costumes are included in layouts because they are important details for background characters. For main characters, costumes are part of their designs you sketched out earlier. For example, a train in a desert can be an important setting for a western anime. Fantasy animes often have colorful backgrounds with castles, while cyberpunk animes have towering cities.
You may need to make more sketches, such as a closeup of an alley your characters stumble upon. Use staging to flesh out your backgrounds and settle upon their final designs.
For 3D work, try a program such as Blender. For 2D animation, choose a program like Animaker, Moho, Photoshop, or Pencil2D. Before computers, animation cells were hand-drawn. You can still do this, but drawing each scene takes a lot of time, especially if you work alone.
Mock-ups, or animatics, help you plan out how a tough scene will look. Use it to determine where you will put in visual effects like lights and shadows as well as other details. You don’t need to animate these scenes yet. Mock-ups are mostly for staging purposes.
Arranging your models into a 3D version of your storyboard may help you imagine the characters in your movie.
Remember to give mechanical objects realistic movement too! Even if they aren’t alive, they need to look convincing. With anime, you can often exaggerate movements. Think of how exaggerated some hero poses are or how low eyes and mouths drop in shock.
You may notice that some of your models don’t look right. This is a common part of the editing process. When flaws appear, go back to the modeling stage and fix them.
Light has an effect on the mood of a scene. A scene with low light can seem romantic, like a dinner date, or it can feel scary, like in a dingy prison. Aim for lighting that sets the proper tone. Materials can determine how light interacts. A reflective surface like a mirror may appear harsh, bright, and blinding, for instance. If you are unsure how to light up a scene, try replicating it in real life. Study the way sunlight comes in through a window, then incorporate your observations into your work.
You can create motion by arranging your scenes in subsequent order and hitting the play button in your animation program. Think of a flipbook. If you flip the pages quickly, you create the illusion of motion from page to page. Making an anime movie is similar.
Purchase a program such as Adobe Audition or make use of a free program like Audacity.
Good dialogue sounds fluid and passionate. The voice actors should speak like you imagine the characters would sound. Make the dialogue believable. Expect to record portions of the dialogue multiple times. Getting it to sound right is worth it.
You may need to go back and reanimate some portions to make them fit the dialogue.
For instance, if your movie has a scene with a car driving away from the character, recreate the scene. You can have someone else drive the car away from you as you capture it with a sound recorder. You may be able to make custom sounds. Use your voice or a computer program to create sounds without having to record them.
Music can be used to start and end your movie. A soaring tune can be good for a sweeping shot of a landscape, for instance. Monitor sound levels carefully. You can put music behind dialogue, such as by setting the music at a low level the audience can faintly hear as characters speak. Keep in mind ways that music affects atmosphere. A cheerful tune has a different feel than a mournful dirge, especially when you place it in a dark, violent scene.
Title screens are often worked into the first scenes of the movie so they feel more natural and engaging. End credit scenes are often black backgrounds with overlaid text and music. If you want, you can add art or animation, but keep it simple so everyone can see who made the movie!
