How to Produce 3d or Computer Animated Movies

Producing and making computer animated movies can mean the same thing. Producing could also involve the post-production and other activities to get the movie to an audience, big or small. Once you have made the final cut of your 3d animation film, there is more work to be done. Here's how to produce computer animated movies.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. 
    

   Realize that producing movies is a business and it takes some project management skills to take such an effort. The movie project has a life: a beginning and an end.

2. Secure funds for your computer animated project. Below are areas that you have to think about to come up with a budget to fund. Add emergency cash to handle situations where the animation effort goes over budget.

3. Purchase at least one medium or high-end computer system. You may need more computers if you want to do other work on the computer while one computer is rendering or making a final animated scene.

4. 
    

   Understand the legal concerns when you make a project for commercial use. If you intend to make money with the computer animated film, you should consider how the profits get distributed if other people or organizations are involved with your work. An example is music. If you used copyrighted material without permission you may owe the artist and the producer of the music money.

5. Learn how to make computer animated movies. There are many resources online and in books that will show you how. See the tip below for a good article on how to make computer animated movies.

6. Acquire the music and sound you need for the 3d animated project. You can make these yourself, purchase music and sound, purchase the rights to use, contract an artist to make the composition, or hire a sound effects company to provide the sounds you need. Sometimes a music provider will also provide sound effects.

7. Hire the voice actor or actors need for any narration or dialogue. This can be you and it will not cost anything. Another resource is family and friends. Amateur and professional actors can be expensive, depending if they are a member of a union or not. The rates can be determined by the length of the movie and possibly by the number of DVD copies made.

8. Edit the movie. Once the computer animation is complete you will have to edit the scenes and put the voice, sound, and music together until you are satisfied with the product. You can have the filmed screened to an audience before you make a final cut.

9. 
    

   Initiate the DVD production. Once you have a master computer file for DVD burning, you can start production of your computer animated film in DVD. A single DVD burner on your computer will not be enough. You will need to buy a disk duplicator or hire a company to make copies. You also need to consider all the things that go with DVD production such as the design of the label, DVD case, DVD cover, blank DVDs and the initial quantities needed. If demand is great during the purchase of initial releases, then you can buy more production materials.

10. Advertise and promote your computer animated work. There are several ways to do this. Word of mouth, internet marketing, print media, film contests, film festivals, conventions, and television commercials are good examples. Giving away copies of the movie for free at first is one way to promote the work.

11. A computer animation project can fail even if the movie is good. You can always use the 3d animation film as an example of the work you can do in demo reels and portfolios for getting a job that requires someone with technical skills in computer generated imagery or CGI.

Tips & Warnings

• For details on how to make the actual computer animation, research the subject online or in books. One article, How to Make 3d or Computer Animation, list several resources on computer animation education.

[txconejo]

on 9/29/2009 Thanks. I'll have to give it a go.