I want to start learning how to do animation. I'm serious.
>Where should I start if I want to learn how to animate for film, or movies etc?
>What I know if I want to learn how to animate for the sake of employment?
>Are there any special classes I could take to do or help me with this in college; maybe give me reason to still slog through it all?
>What programs should I start out with when we're talking about animating things similar to the MMD style videos you see on Youtube?
>What are some other programs like Poser Pro?
>What are some concerns I should be worried about if I'm going into animation?
I've had experience with things like Autodesk Inventor and I did quite a few projects with it; some have even impressed my old teachers and students, but that's not the kind of animation I want; it feels lifeless and people use it for engineering.
I'm dropping out of college to chase after an old childhood dream. I know this looks like a really juvenile thing to do, but I'm 20 now, and I'm getting nowhere with my life. I haven't told my parents, but I'm about to. They'll probably ridicule the shit out of my decision, but I don't care.
Yes, I've accepted the fact that this is a foolish and needless pursuit to risk my future over, but I'm absolutely fucking tired of studying for a future that I don't know exists.
I'm actually a great student. The thing is though, the very reason why I was able to keep up with my work and do the things I needed to do, was because I had no idea as to what I wanted to do in the future. I thought that if I just worked hard, eventually it would come to me when I became an adult.
Well, here I am. 20 years old, and about to drop everything for the very same reason.
Honestly, I'm pretty terrified of what they might tell me. I've already stopped talking to them despite living in the same house as them, and this is going to be the first thing I've ever said in months, so you can imagine how awkward this will be.
But I want to escape.
You need to decide a kind of animation to pursue. (frame by frame, motion comic, 3D, traditional, digital, etc.)
In the meantime, there's books you should study like "The Animator's Survival Kit". There's also good stuff on youtube, there's tutorials everywhere. Utilize them.
The best way to learn to do animation is to start doing it. You don't have to go to a school for it but you do have to have enough motivation to keep pushing yourself to work and improve. Study, practice, watch good animation and dissect how they do it, learn how the pros do it and adapt it to what you want to do.
If you want to do anything for yourself you're also going to have to practice drawing. I suggest going to /ic/, they have a useful sticky and can give you more resources.
>>16913409
Also, don't drop out of college to pursue this. Practice it on the sidelines and see if there's college courses you can take. Yes dropping out of college will give you more time to work but that's also a huge risk and a foolhardy one to take. If the animation falls through, you are going to regret wasting college while you had it.
Take it form someone who does art as work, it is damn hard to support yourself with it and impossible to do so when you haven't built a platform. That old adage about keeping your day job is a good one, because before you can live as an artist you have to survive as an individual.
Hang in there, keep studying, sneak animation in wherever you can. Once you graduate you'll have more time to work on it, and you'll have a way to support yourself while you do it.
Then, as you improve and start to market yourself as an artist, you can ease yourself into the animation, art, and freelancing life. This method is tried and true and it -works-. Especially now where you have things like Patreon to help provide income.
But before you can depend on your art for income, you need the skill you develop through practice, and you need the audience you develop through creating content. But of these are readily achievable but they do not happen immediately. I understand the desire to drop everything and I know that doing both work and art is difficult. But it's the people who can push through that who survive.
If you have any other questions, I'll hang around and try to help.
>>16913433
Are you familiar with a program called Poser Pro? How can I approach learning how to use such a thing? Is it difficult? Do I need prior knowledge of certain things beforehand?
Also, is there a certain major I could follow that would help me in this animation pursuit? I'm currently a pre-pharmacy major, and I absolutely despite every second of it. I would rather die than waste away handing pills to someone for the rest of my life.
I'm a huge fan of some of the things done with that particular program. I think it was Monty Oum who made it as renowned as it is now. I remember looking at his work as a kid, and just feeling this chill of...liveliness go through my spine, seeing the characters darts around the screen and doing movie-like feats that I wouldn't ever have thought to make a fanwork of. I looked up to him.
Is it too late for me to strive to be like him? I know I don't really know much about what it means to be an adult and worrying the future, but I think its chasing after little things like this that makes life what it is.
I really don't want to give this up.
>>16913626
Poser in my experience would not be good for animation, but I've never used Poser Pro and it might have something new I'm not aware of.
It's never too late to strive for anything, but again you have to be able to support yourself first. You can't make art when you can't eat, you know?
3D animation isn't my specialty but Source FilmMaker is free and could be a good place to start. It comes with all sorts of stuff like models, sets, and textures, mostly based around Valve products, but if you're new to animation it's a decent place to start without a price tag.
