Animated videos are a powerful sales tool. However, not everyone has the skills to create compelling animation, and hiring a freelancer isn’t in the budget for a lot of new companies.
Animatron Studio Pro is a true animating hack that gives even newbies all the tools to create great graphics and videos, and lifetime plans are on sale for over 90 per cent off.
The streaming giant is well known for their original movies, sitcoms and investments into various franchises, but Netflix's library of anime content has grown nicely over the last few years as well. Here's 9 films or series that are worth your time.
Video: Laika animator Kevin Parry's "100 Walks" is a reference video for animators that's pretty fun for the rest of us, too. If you really want to use these walks as a reference, there's a straightforward version on YouTube, but this Twitter version moves faster and has a snappy soundtrack. Our favourites are "flower child" and "hot tea".
Game maker (and co-founder of game studio MiniBoss) Pedro Medeiros knows pixel art, and he wants to teach you. Every Tuesday since September, he's posted an animated GIF demonstrating an aspect of animation.
Whether you're new to anime or already a harcore fan, there are two streaming services that you need to know: Crunchyroll and Funimation. One brings you subtitled simulcasts of shows currently airing in Japan, while the other provides dubbed versions of all-time favourites. Either way, you'll have more anime than you'll ever be able to watch. Let's see which one is best for your viewing pleasure.
In Japan, anime is a big part of popular culture and is adored by people of all ages. In Australia, the genre has been mostly consumed by school kids who saw certain shows on morning TV, or hardcore fans who track down cult shows on disc and online. Since 2015, this has started to change, and it's largely down to the free streaming service AnimeLab. Here's what you need to know.
The creation process behind 2D animation conjures nostalgic images of smoke-filled rooms where animators laboured over their slanted drafting tables, flipping between thin pages while sketching a character into life. Those days may be gone, but 2D animators work in new ways to tell stories with their art.
Google has partnered with 3D design and visual effects software vendor Autodesk to provide efficient 3D image rendering services for artists and developers through its Google Cloud Platform. Here are the details.
Toonz, the software used to create Studio Ghibli films like Spirited Away and TV shows like Steven Universe and Futurama, is now OpenToonz. It's open source and free for any budding animator to download and use.
Japanese animation can feel like an impenetrable fortress of obscure slang, iconography and inside jokes. After 16 years of fandom, I'm quite comfortable with it. But what about curious outsiders who don't care to memorise, say, the differences between each and every Sailor Moon adaptation? This guide is designed to help intrigued westerners dip their toes into anime and manga.
Pixar has been working on a piece of software that will simplify the animated filmmaking process allowing animators at the smaller end of town to make movies like the big studios do. And it wants to give the software away for free by making it open source.
If you've ever wanted to make your own cartoons, learning the basic principles of animation from two of Disney's greatest is a great way to start. This video course explains each of the "12 Principles of Animation" in an entertaining and easy-to-understand way.
Brief news items of note for Lifehacker readers, including: Queensland speed camera earns $150,000 on its first day, Civilization: Beyond Earth gets slapped with a $50 "Australia tax", get a customised mouse mat for $0.99.
Plotagon is a screenwriting app for PC and Mac that turns your scripts and treatments into animated shorts. The app is currently in beta and free to download, which makes it a great visualisation tool for frugal filmmakers. To show you what the app is capable of, Allure Media proudly presents: Lifehacker -- The Movie...
We've shown you how to make your own comic strips, but what about animations? DoInk is a free and sophisticated web-based tool that brings your still images to life.
If you'd like to make an animated GIF but don't want mess around with downloading software, GifNinja is a web-based application for converting images and video into animated GIFs. GifNinja will turn a series of five uploaded images or a four second long video clip into an animated GIF—four seconds isn't a set cap, but the GifNinja FAQ suggests it to keep the GIF files under the file size limitations of popular social networking sites. You can adjust the speed of your animation for the effect you desire, don't worry too much about the initial adjustment you'll be able to refine it after seeing how the speed looks with the actual images you've uploaded. Once you've finished tweaking the speed, you have the option of making the picture available to the public for viewing and rating or simply downloading the file without the public display. Alternately you can upload an existing animated GIF and have GifNinja break it apart into the separate frames which can be viewed immediately or downloaded in a zip file. The service is free and there are no watermarks or alterations made to your image. GifNinja
