hi :) I want to get into animating, but I have no clue where to start. What app do you use? And do you have any tips for beginners? Your dracula video was really cool!
Thank you! I'm very much a beginner myself (in fact I didn't even consider my video "animation" but then my art prof jokingly shoulder tapped me so I guess it is), so not good for advice, but I'll link some of the stuff I've referenced so far :) Actual animators, please feel free to chime in!
For my Dracula Daily 2025 video, I used Medibang Paint for illustration and Shotcut for video editing. Medibang isn't the best, but I'm too used to its textbased interface (dislike memorising icons). Meanwhile I'd HIGHLY recommend Shotcut, it's my favourite out of all the vid-editing softwares I've tried (Wondershare Filmora, Kdenlive, Openshot, Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve). Premiere Pro was incomprehensible to me (I still haven't learned it), and my almost 5-year old laptop struggles to run DaVinci. Adobe After Effects is popular as well but I've not tried & it's again difficult (for me). Capcut's popular for with beginners for vid-editing, but I've not tried.
Shotcut's learnable for me, and it's opensource! It even has a forum where users can get questions answered! I might make a behind-the-scenes on how I made my DD2025 vid, just so that I don't forget my process. In the end, what you use depends on your needs—Shotcut is sufficient for my current purposes of editing clips + adding very basic effects. I'll probably have ambitions that necessitate more advanced software, but with limited hardware I've no choice but to brute force a workaround elsewhere.
As for tips, I'd say just do things step by step. I understand the ambition to Be Perfect, but remember that there's a learning process, that the 1st project, or even the next 100 projects, would probably be ass to mid. And that's fine! If I was aiming to be a fulltime professional, that's another matter, but right now I'm just learning.
It's also important to have a plan—my DD2025 vid was done mainly to figure out a workflow for Dracula Reanimated. I've settled on "storyboard→ colour thumbnail/storybeats/visdev→rough animation→clean(er) lineart→base colours→lighting and shading→compositing with effects/postproduction", but aha. I need to learn Opentoonz/literally any animation software before trying anything. I've tried Flipaclip, but it's not ideal for me (quite intuitive though, good for making short practice clips like below):
If you've not tried it before, I'd recc doing a storyboard animatic to familiarise yourself with shot composition and vid-editing! My DD2025 vid doesn't really follow convention, but my DD2023 one does, and it was a great learning experience. I still followed a "rough storyboard-> colour/grayscale thumbnails->final renderings->vid-editing" process for DD2025, as seen below (click for higher resolution):
1) Alex Grigg tutorials for animation learning
2) HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN ANIMATED SHOW (every video Gabby Caldera makes is amazing. I found this AFTER I'd finished my DD2025 vid, but was amazed I'd basically followed the same process as him)
3) I Studied Character Design - Here's (almost) EVERYTHING I know.
4) Biggering fan Storyboard (top tier storyboard to me)
5) Let it Go fan storyboard (just great)
6) How I Animate by Myself — Full Process explained!
7) Transformers IDW AMV "Till All Are One" (also top tier animatic, great example for what vid-editing can do without necessarily having to use an animation program)
8) Transformers Megatron AMV (by same person as above, also incredible)
9) Infinite Surface with Jesse Thompson youtube channel—just all around good channel, has a great video on Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein that still has 3 more parts coming!!)
10) The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams (haven't read this but I really should)
This is a non exhaustive list, there's an (almost intimidatingly) endless amt of resources out there.
Most important of all, take breaks, rest your eyes, and don't be too hard on yourself. Good things take time.