Gildedguy welcomes you!
Hello! I’m Michael, the creator of Gildedguy and this website.
If you are at all curious about making your own animations or games, then you have come to the right place. Don’t worry if you have low skill or passion: just skim and learn a little bit about the general process.
The best way to get good is to understand and apply the principles, not by just copying others.
Below you will find straight forward answers to common questions to get you started.
Animation FAQ
Animation is a beautiful visual medium that enables the you to tell stories with nearly no limits on your creativity.
If you can imagine it, you can animate it.
Do I need programs or software to animate? What should I use?
No, you can animate with just pencil and paper. Flip books! That’s how I started!
But you will eventually want to use a program to animate faster. I suggest Flash Professional (any version 8+). It is both beginner friendly and allows you to grow to do advanced animation.
Flash is a paid product, but you can get a free trial (it has recently been renamed to Adobe Animate CC).
I do not suggest Pivot, Animaker, or other free animation software since I have not used them. They also seem to be marketed towards mouse-users, who cannot draw, which will limit your abilities in the long term. If you want to quickly get into animation, just use pencil and paper!
Do I need to be a good drawer to animate?
All you need to know is how to draw a line where you want it to go. Don’t worry about being good yet. You’ll naturally get better at drawing the more you animate!
How do I share my animation with others?
There are many screen capture programs that will let you convert your animations into a video file. You can then upload that video to a sharing site (like YouTube, Newgrounds, or Hyun’s Dojo).
Do I need a pen tablet to animate?
If you are starting out, no. You can get by with just the mouse for quite awhile until you feel like upgrading. But beginner pen-tablets are cheap nowadays, so getting one earlier will speed up your progress by a lot.
How long does it take to do one of your animations? How long will it take me?
My longer, music-synced animations take a couple months to finish. But those were very detail-oriented, lengthy projects. Your first animated shorts (not practice) should each take less than 2-3 weeks to complete.
Where did you get the music and sounds for your animations?
I’ve downloaded the music using YouTube to mp3 converters, while many of my sound effects are from free sound packs I’ve gathered over the years.
Do you make money from animation? Can I?
I have made money from my animation in the past from prizes and sponsorship. There are many ways to make money from animation (crowdfunding, freelancing, working at a studio), but you have to be good at it first!
Ready to take the next step? Watch these videos.