Starting out in 2D Animation - General

I like to make stop-motion animation for Youtube. My desire is to be a film director when I grow up. I make stop motion animations with Lego products, and I'm getting much better at it! You can check out my channel with the links to the left. Anyway, I was thinking to expand my animating skills. First, I wanted to try 3D animation. When they released the Source Film Maker, I thought it would be the perfect tool to start with. The interface is friendly enough, but my computer doesn't meet the requirements. So, I thought I'd dabble in 2D animation. I just downloaded Pencil, the 2D animation software, and I'm currently learning to use that. Are there any other tips and recommendations you would give to a newbie like me? Thanks

I think this is the wrong thread to post this in, but you're pretty new here. So welcome to facepunch, you may want to look into the creationism corner for advice and tips for this stuff. Once you got a few videos, come back here and share with us.

Sorry. When it said "Flash movies and that kind of crap", I thought this was the forum to post it in.

well you didn't even post any of the work you have done before.

OP, take the URLs from some of your videos and post them in media tags.

First in his lego playlist. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or74GF0ZmRY[/media] A lot smoother than most youtube lego videos. Did you use lego's software? If so, then you seem to have a pretty good idea what 15 fps feels like in terms of timing. If you want to get started in drawn animation, I'd recommend 1. sharpening your drawing skills. Important for obvious reasons. 2. look up a "bouncing ball" tutorial. Your timing is ok (for a lego animator), but this kind of tutorial will get you up to speed on traditional techniques for setting up your animation, and help get you acquainted with important concepts like easing. 3. Think more about content. Just based off of this and your portal 2 animation, it seems you just take a concept and roll with it. Planning out a beginning, middle, and end and pacing them appropriately will make your animations way more entertaining to watch. For better advice you should probably go to the creationism corner, because there are people there with actual experience.

My only gripe with that video is the sound effects seem to be a little off in timing, plus a few things don't make sounds at all. For lego stop motion animation it certainly does look decent though

Thanks guys!! Here is the full playlist- [url]http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0D8527F03F61519E&feature=plcp[/url] And you can see the full channel with piano covers and stuff in the link under my username.