Animation : Work for Passion? by Donia Caster

Donia Caster

Work for Passion?

Following the path of Issa Rae, as a screenwriter, I decided to turn my dramedy series spec script "For The Love Of Hollywood" into a 2D animated series to be posted on YouTube.

I have zero experience in animation. I don't even know how to draw. However, I'm willing to learn and take online courses about it.

The series follows the story of two best friends, an actor, Johnny Cooper, and his talent agent Yassmine Johnson, on their journey as amateurs and college graduates struggling to succeed in Hollywood, for 40 years. During these 40 years we watch their development as people, artists, with their families, and with their unique relationship.

Thus, I do need people with me, #animators , #voiceactors , #digitalpainters . But for free. If you're interested in working with me to post short episodes of Johnny and Yassmine, a passion work, please do contact me.

Thank you all.

Sam Sokolow

Hi Donia Caster - I love that you're taking this initiative and making something that sounds wildly creative to push your idea and vision forward. That's what this community is all about. Animation isn't my forte but wishing huge luck and hope my network sees this and all who can support get involved. Can't wait to see the finished product!

Cam Parkes

Hi Donia Caster ! This sounds great - if you need voice actors, I'd be happy to chat!

Donia Caster

Sam Sokolow Thank you so much!! Can't wait to show you indeed and post about the show here one day.

Donia Caster

Cam Parkes Thank you Cam! I think maybe there must be a whole crew of voices - and that's why I thought about using an AI voice generator before posting here . If there are a few more, welcome on board. You're already welcomed! And I'll be so glad to chat too.

Emily J

Way to keep pushing yourself! This is a great idea!

Maurice Vaughan

Nice to meet you, Donia Caster. "For The Love Of Hollywood" sounds interesting. It's something I'd watch.

Stage 32 has Animation Education I think you'll find helpful: www.stage32.com/education/tag/animation

Donia Caster

Emily J Thanks!

Donia Caster

Maurice Vaughan Nice to meet you too, Maurice. Thanks for the encouragement! I can't really afford paid courses. Thanks!

Maurice Vaughan

You're welcome, Donia Caster. Stage 32 has great Animation blogs that are free. Go to www.stage32.com/blog, then click "Search All Blogs" on the right-hand side of the page. After that, type "Animation" in the bar that says "Search our blog" (also on the right-hand side of the page). A drop-down menu of Animation blogs will show up.

Ashley Renee Smith

Donia Caster Stage 32 also has a free job board that you can use to post available jobs or search for any jobs in your profession. To find it, click “Jobs” on the top menu bar, and you can search by profession, location, and pay/unpaid. Here is a link that you can use to go to our job board directly: https://www.stage32.com/find-jobs

Good luck with your project! =)

Donia Caster

Maurice Vaughan Thanks for the suggestions, Maurice! So nice! Will be checking it shortly. Thanks!

Donia Caster

Ashley Renee Smith Thanks, Ashley! So generous of you. I'll check indeed. Thanks for the suggestion!

Sam Sokolow

I also recommend this upcoming Stage 32 webinar called TV Animation 101. There's a Q&A with Brandon. Here's a link so you can check it out: https://www.stage32.com/webinars/TV-Animation-101-How-a-Hit-Animated-Sho...

Donia Caster

Sam Sokolow Thanks Sam, but I can't afford the price. I don't even have a credit card ( I'm 19 :) ).

Kevin Jackson

I love your idea and respect your drive to want to learn animation. That's what happened to me. I was a writer and eventually wanted to see my stories come to life so I taught myself animation. You can do it.

Ashley Renee Smith

Kevin Jackson, what were the first steps you took to teach yourself animation?

Kevin Jackson

Great question Ashley Renee Smith the first thing I did was look for animation courses in my area and I could not find any. So instead I took some film courses since I was interested in that. I started watching tutorials but honestly didn't know where to start, then I found an animation community of Facebook and started to network with the animators there. Realized I knew one of them and asked him what software he used which was Moho Pro. I started using that and binging on tutorials trying to figure things out but it was an immense struggle. I almost felt like giving up but there was a strong desire to tell my stories visually so I kept at it. I joined forums, asked questions, got introduced to the principles of animation. Studied them. Tried to apply them. I would do small little exercises to test my knowledge and post them online.

Eventually I decided to try my hand at a short film because I am the type of person who needs a goal. If I know I need to learn something because I have to finish a short film, I will learn it. If I am told to just learn it for learning sake I am less inclined to do it. I eventually got my first gig as an animator because one of my acquaintances saw me posting my tests and told me about an organization looking for an animator. This was back in 2012. That client is still my client today and they give me work at least once a year. I also won a student festival with my short animation which was a boost to my confidence.

Eventually I took it really seriously, took workshops, read books, networked with more animators and the rest is history. Well not really. I am always learning. You never stop.

Donia Caster

Kevin Jackson Any piece of advice? Btw, you're really ambitious! Thank you for your inspiring story. And we don't mind at all if you like to join our crew for "For The Love Of Hollywood" YouTube series! ;)

Kevin Jackson

One thing to note is that I used to love to draw as a child. I stopped after a while because I was told you can't make a career from drawing, at least not in my country so I strayed. So I did have a bit of a drawing foundation. My skills had severely diminished.

My advice is

1. Start simple, even if it's with a stick man or simple shapes. It's more important to learn the principles.

2. Animation is not a solo sport. Find a team. As you level up, you need to have a good team of background artists, character designers, story boarders, animatic designers, sound designers and more. It takes a village to make a top notch product.

3. If you go it alone or with a small team (Small team recommended). Focus more on a trailer or proof of concept because animation is EXPENSIVE. 1 minute of Peppa Pig costs $7,000. Naturally if you go to India or Malaysia or even Japan you can get it cheaper, but it will still take a lot of money to get a 22 minute or 44 minute pilot going.

4. Take your trailer or proof of concept and a pitch bible to content markets like Kidscreen, MipCom, NATPE etc.

5. Research similar animations in the age group you are targeting. Producers tend to look for animations that fit within the 0-3/2-6/6-11/12-16/16+ ranges. If your animation doesn't have a target audience producers will struggle to figure out how to sell your show.

Donia Caster

Kevin Jackson Thank you so much for the pieces of advice, Kevin! They really did inform me. Good luck with your career and keep your astonishing work going on.

Ashley Renee Smith

Thank you for sharing those tips, Kevin Jackson!

Kevin Jackson

Donia Caster just realized I missed a question. I am tied up in my own project development so my time is very limited. What help does your YouTube series need exactly?

Donia Caster

Kevin Jackson While I'm trying my best to learn animation, things will be much easier for me if I find an animator willing to animate my series. An experienced one's work will be much better than mine, who's learning from scratch. Also, having an animator will give more time and effort for writing the series. Not to mention that when you advised me to get a whole team of animators (designers, etc), that freaked me out. Let's hope for the best :) (thank you so much for your help, really appreciate it)

Elaine Haygood

Donia Caster have you looked into software like Daz Studio? My Editing client uses it for one of the comic books he creates and is now using it for animation. You need NO drawing/Animation skills, but there is a learning curve as the more the software does for you, the more precise you have to become in designing characters, staging, etc.

Donia Caster

Elaine Haygood II just checked Daz Studios and was surprised to see that it's free! However, it's for 3D. So far, I don't think that 3D animation will suit the show, but I'll try.

I'm learning Open Toonz because a) it's free and b) I found a website that teaches how to use it, called Animator Island.

Thanks for the suggestion Elaine! Maybe there's something similar to Daz Studios but for 2D animation?

Kevin Jackson

Nothing similar to DAZ for 2D. Closest thing is character animator 5 by reallusion. There are things like pontoons and toonly but those are very limited. Vroid is great for creating 3D characters that look 2D

Kevin Jackson

I prefer Tahoma 2D and Synfig to Opentoonz but Opentoonz might have more tutorials. Tahoma is almost exactly like Opentoonz so it’s not hard to switch after you have learned

Donia Caster

I watched a video comparing OpenToonz to Tahoma 2D. Like you said, there's so much similarity. OpenToonz is the parent of Tahoma 2D. At the end of the video, it says that Tahoma 2D is best for the total beginners.

So, thank you for the suggestion, Kevin Jackson !

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