How To Make An Animated Short Film

Making your first short film is a great way to experiment with storytelling and filmmaking. It’s also a pretty inexpensive way to start your career as a filmmaker! While there are plenty of free resources available, most people begin by investing in their own filming equipment and supplies.

Don’t worry - you will not need professional grade gear to get started. Many things can be picked up second hand or even rented from your local movie theater.

There are many ways to make your short film (no matter what style you choose to go with). Some prefer using a script while creating their story, whereas others create stories “on-the-fly.” Either method works, it just depends on how fast you develop your writing skills!

Making your first short film is fun for everyone. No matter who you are, or what kind of creative work you do - this article has tips that anyone can read through and apply to themselves! This includes individuals with no artistic talent who are able to produce interesting visuals.

Write a script

Writing a screenplay is not a straightforward process. It’s not like writing an article or even a short story, where you get to use bullets and paragraphs as tools to emphasize key points. With a screenplay, what matters most are the scenes.

So how do you write a scene? That is the crucial question!

In fact, it’s such a important question that I made a whole book out of it: The Scene Book (https://scenebookapp.com/). In this book, I break down every single element of a screenwriting scene into five main topics: Setting, Character, Dialogue, Action and Emotion.

That’s right; everything in storytelling comes back around to emotions. When we feel something for a character, we want them to achieve their goal. We care about their fate.

When we feel things for the setting and dialogue, then our bond with the movie grows strong. And when there’s action, well, we enjoy watching that so why wouldn’t we want to make movies ourselves?!

Now here’s the tricky part: translating all those fundamentals into one seamless narrative arc. But don’t worry - I’ve got you covered.

Decide on a theme and storyboard

Choosing a genre and topic is the next step in creating your film. Depending on the length of the movie, you can choose between making an animated short film (2-4 minutes long), an animated feature (20+ minutes) or even both!

The first thing you will need to do is decide on a them - what area of filmmaking this part of the process covers. This could be choosing your main characters, deciding on a setting, picking a theme or question for the film, etc.

After that, you will want to start thinking about how to write a script. A good way to get into writing mode is by brainstorming ideas and then editing down the best ones. You may also like to read some general tips on how to write a screenplay before moving onto writing yours.

Next up are the acting lessons which can be found here. Once you have learned these, you can begin practicing with yourself as either the character’s side or opposite. The latter is more difficult but very helpful if you ever wanted to try performing a role outside of acting.

Fund your film

Before you start filming, you’ll need to fund your project! This can be done in several ways, but the most common way is through private investors or producers.

You should definitely try to gain some initial funding via this route before starting to look for outside investment. By having enough money to shoot at least a few scenes of your movie, you will have more opportunities to find people that are willing to contribute to your project.

Producers usually give you a small amount of money per scene so make as many videos as possible to get as much funding as possible.

Another way to gain funds is by creating and selling merchandise such as t-shirts, hats, and bags with your movie’s logo on it. People often earn extra money from these types of products so why not create yours now?

By making yourself available to meet up with other filmmakers and posting pictures and trailers of your short online, you’ll surely attract attention and maybe even collaborations.

Get your equipment

First, you will need some very important tools to make your film. These include camera, computer, headphones, notebook, and notes software. You do not have to have all of these pieces totally finished before you start filming, but it is helpful to be prepared for any unexpected things that may happen!

Your camera should at least be able to shoot 1080p HD video. A good starting budget is $200-500 for this piece. More advanced can pay more than twice as much!

You will also want to have access to a computer or device with internet connectivity so that you can upload and edit your videos later. This cost around $100-$300 depending on how much RAM you have.

Headphones are also extremely helpful while editing because it helps drown out other noises in the room such as traffic or people talking. There are many free and paid apps that one could use to edit their films.

Lastly, you will need somewhere to write down ideas and concepts. This can easily be done using Google Suite (Google Docs, Spreadsheets, and Forms) or Microsoft Office Online. They are both accessible through most laptops and/or tablets.

Make a cast and crew member list

After creating your story, next is coming up with your main characters. This is arguably one of the most important parts of making any movie or show!

As you know, stories are made of protagonists and antagonists. For your film, your main characters will be someone who wants something very badly and another person who stands in their way. These people can be individuals or groups of people.

Their want cannot be larger than life- it must feel true and emotional for the audience to care about them. The antagonist should be clear opposites of the protagonist, but not necessarily evil - they may just be trying to protect what they believe to be theirs.

Your main character does not have to be clearly good or bad, but there needs to be a reason why everyone else in the story looks up to them and wonders how could possibly threaten them.

After deciding who your main characters are, find ways to include at least two of each into your script. You do not need to write for every single one, but you should have at least two versions of each character.

This includes having a villain that grows over the course of the movie and a hero that changes throughout the story. Your audience will connect more strongly to the films if you use off-screen examples to help explain their traits.

Plan out your shot list

The next step in producing your animated short film is deciding what shots you will need! This could be done by looking at different types of stories, determining how many characters there are and what moods they can convey, or even just thinking about fun pictures you want to include.

Once these have been determined, it’s time to start creating your pre-production plan. You should now make a note of all the equipment you will require for each shot so that you do not run out before filming.

It is best to buy or rent the needed pieces first, then as soon as you feel like you have enough coverage, head back down to the store to check out stock! This way you will not waste money buying something that already exists.

Planning out your shot list well ahead of time will also help save you some time, as you know what you will need before you go shopping.

Plan out your edit list

After deciding what genre you want to film, next is creating an overall story for the movie! This is defining how long each section of the film will be. You can use different formats to do this such as establishing shots, action scenes, conversations, etc.

After establishing the main plot points, it’s time to start writing or pre-writing individual scenes. These are usually focused on events that happen within the scene and how the characters respond to them.

It is very important to know what your character wants, so make sure to write lots of drafts of the scene with detail. Once you have done this, move onto the next step!

Blank page - no content? No problem! Take some time and research what equipment needed to create your movie and what software requires it. If there isn’t much information available, don’t worry about it!

There are many free resources online that offer tips and tricks for filming, developing, and editing your movie.

Practice filming

A short film is usually less than one minute long, so it’s important that you practice your filming skills before trying to make something longer.

Many people start making videos by creating a video of themselves talking or doing some kind of action.

This isn’t very interesting to watch because you don’t see anything else going on in the movie. You also can’t show anything beyond yourself, which makes the movie feel quite boring.

To fix this, try filming different things or interacting with other materials. Try taking a few minutes every day to shoot nothing specific, just to get into the habit of keeping the camera moving.

Practice shooting outside or in a room you already have access to, just to create more variety for your movie!

After all, a lot of the work comes after the initial filming, so why not be prepared?

Another way to improve your filmmaking is to take courses online or through educational facilities. There are many ways to learn how to do certain things such as writing scripts, producing songs, directing films, etc.

By learning about the various parts of the industry, you will find there are similarities in everything from production to marketing.