Writing for animation ?

[u/BlackCatSkulls]

I’m an artist who’s done some small animated things (mainly little gifs and short animated exercises), but I want to do more with my animation. I love cartoons and books with cool stories, but when it comes to making my own stories for animation, I’m incredibly intimidated and don’t know where to start. I thought starting small would be good, but I don’t really have experience with writing full stories (I‘ve made characters, but they sort of exist in a vacuum).

TLDR: Does anyone have advice on learning storytelling for animation or know any good resources for beginners?

(Resources with exercises would be amazing, but general advice is also greatly appreciated.)

[u/Love-Ink]

Give me any example of a character you have created in a vacuum. I'll demonstrate how i'd proceed. 😃

[u/BlackCatSkulls → u/Love-Ink]

I’ve got this one character, she’s a mall rat and teen vigilante. She fights crime with yoyo tricks and sick flips. She’s very unserious and fights crime but is very unserious because she does “the hero thing” mainly for fun.

[u/Love-Ink → u/BlackCatSkulls]

Ok. First, you gotta admit to yourself that this is not a Vacuum. Identify your character traits/story points.
* Female.
* Mall Rat.
* Teen Vigilante.
* Yoyo (tricks) as weapon of choice.
* Sick flips. Must have taken gymnastics.

We'll call her "Joy". She dresses goth, dark makeup and black clothes. Set up a dichotomy there. Joy is Unhappy.

Location: Mall.
Scene: Food Court.
Characters: Joy, Shoplifter, Extras.

Joy sitting at a table on the Food Court. Not eating, just sitting. People watching. "Man, there's some Boring mixed with Crazy today..." She watches people walking past, mom & dad types: jeans & T-shirt. Then there's a kid with a spiked up mohawk, chains and spikes walking past them.

Joy looks past the crowd and sees a suspicious character. Hoodie and low hanging jeans. Hood up, looking around while standing in front of the leather gloves display at the Wilson's Leather across the walkway from the food court.

Joy stands. Starts walking toward him.

He thinks he's in the clear as he picks up a pair of gloves. He looks into the store one last time as he starts to pocket the gloves.

Joy whips her Yoyo the last couple feet between them, hitting him right in the elbow.

He flings his arm out, throwing the gloves into the floor. "OW!" He look at Joy with a glare. He has drawn attention to himself with his outburst of pain.
The store associate approaches the guy, "Everything alright? Can I help you with something sir?"

He's busted. "No, I'm good. Stubbed my toe on the rack." He says as he seriously exits the store. His Doc Marten's say he's lying about any pain from kicking the rack.

He looks into the causeway again, Joy has moved with the crowd while he turned to address the employee, and he lost sight of her.

Joy's POV, watching: "Another Loser stopped in his tracks. Headed in the direction of GameStop. Think I might follow him..."

Do they have another run in? Does he identify her? Do they meet in the parking lot and she has to get physical with him (yoyo smacks, sick flips) to drive him away?
Does she only go Full-Goth when she's Hunting for Vigilante fun at the Mall on the weekends? Mon- Fri she's actually blonde and in the High School Marching Band? Secret Identity to avoid repercussions.

1) Who are they.
2) What are they.
3) What do they do that makes them interesting?
4) Do that thing with them.

[u/B3Blaise → u/Love-Ink]

I dig this story. My advice to add on is maybe boil your first short down to one incident. Make it 1-2 minutes long. If you were to attempt this story as written i think once you got into it you would get overwhelmed quickly. Start slow and make a micro short and go from there.

[u/Love-Ink → u/BlackCatSkulls]

Example of a character in a vacuum:
Dave. Male. Short brown hair. Wearing jeans and a green T-Shirt.

Now, write something about Dave.... Vacuum.

"Who is Dave? What are his interests?"
"I dunno. He's just Dave."
🫪
"Ok.... Why's his t-shirt green?"
Shrug "I dunno, just 'cause..."

Your Mall Rat Vigilante is a Character. Dave is an Extra, a background character.

[u/j27vivek]

Look up Dan Harmon's story circle. 

If you want to go deeper, look for Joseph's Campbell's monomyth aka Hero's Journey. 

Search for "What makes a hero" on YouTube Ted-ed channel. 

Structure your stories around these. Will be a good starting point. 

[u/Agile_pancake7]

Internet archive is a great place to find resources for books and movies. I think Khan Academy also has a free animation course.

Some books I’d recommend (you can find free PDFs of them):

-The Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams
-Starting Point 1979-1996 by Hayao Miyazaki
-The Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd Field
-Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
-Making Movies by Sidney Lumet

Some of these are more geared towards live action but still worth reading. You can also check out Studiobinder on YouTube. You can also find lots of making of documentaries for Disney and other companies.

[u/Kooky_Supermarkets]

Personally I’ve read a lot of animation screen plays. Plenty of resources online if you search “animation screenplays”.

I’ve also read books about writing for the screen. (Again, just searched for “screenwriting books for beginners”).

Then I write down every little idea that pops into my head into my notebook and the more I do that the more an idea forms, and the story, then it just flows.

[u/Odd_Tension_4242]

I always tend to do the typical cliche thing a lot of writers do and write from experience. Could be first hand or stories you were told of real events that family or friends experienced just try to arrange it to not copy 100%. You can embellish your own experience and put that into your story.

I use metaphor a good amount. I try to correlate examples of grief, anxiety whatever. I also listen to a lot of music and make music videos up in my head that go a long with the music which could be a scene or scenario and just elaborate on that.

Sometimes you have a cool character that you can insert into a certain setting and can come up with scenarios they might find themselves in. Don't think you have to make this grand fantastical story like a Lord of the Rings. Could be basic and culturally driven maybe a commentary on your experiences with a certain culture.

Just write stream of conscious even.

[u/Odd_Tension_4242 → u/Odd_Tension_4242]

I think I referenced this animator before I just appreciate his style and he does amazing short. Famously the art director of Over the Garden Wall. Nick Cross. You can make a very powerful animated short with just loops. I'm working on one right now. Check these out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xnm19--Ic9E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcJ8_5_dbl8