As with any type of film, animation takes time, patience, and a lot of planning, but anyone with a good imagination can make an animated short film. Start by writing out a script that has well-developed characters, a theme, and a beginning, middle, and end. Before starting to animate, sketch your characters in a variety of poses, costumes, and expressions to get a sense of what they look like. You can now storyboard your script by drawing out the principal action of each shot. Import your storyboard into a filmmaking program so you can use them to make a timed slideshow or animatic, which is a rough cut of animation. Add dialogue and sound effects to the animatic to make a complete story. Once this process is finished, you can animate your film by first picking a medium, like stop-motion or rotoscoping. Then, draw out your backgrounds and sketch, model, or design the key poses for your characters. Add your in-between frames to string your movie together. To learn how to cut your film into the final version, keep reading!

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