Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi,

I`m in the process of developing a new website for some characters I`ve been working on. Does anyone know how best to use animation on a website? How long it takes to create and what kind of costs are involved?

The website is aimed a younger audience and their parents. They`re childrens characters.

Any experience or advice in this area is appreciated.

Thank you.

Des Shanahan.

Flash is the best way to go for children`s interactive/animated content on the web.

Definitley Flash. I am a former Nickelodeon animator and I can tell you
animation is very involved and time consuming. There are sooooo many
variables.

How will the storyboard reviews work and how many revision
stages will there be? Do you want backgrounds? How many characters
are there? Have they been designed because character design is a whole
separate process than actually animating them? What will the characters
be doing? Will there be several characters interacting? Will there be
sound and voices that the animation must be timed with? Or will it be a
silent thing maybe with word balloons like animated comics? How long
will each animation be? What level of interactivity is involved as far as
clicking on things? What is the age bracket of your audience?

The thing is, you don`t have to have elaborate animation to capture
childrens` attention. The simplicity of production on the hit show Dora
the Explorer may be a good model for you. Of course, I don`t know what
your concept is really.

The simpler the production structure, the less time it takes and less it will
cost. A good Flash animator will know all the tricks to keep time and
money reasonable. A good cartoonist will know how to create characters
that are easy to animate on the web.

Now I have not a clue what something like this would cost. I have been
out of animation for several years and I worked for the studio, not on my
own. I know you were posting a general inquiry but I think you need to
answer the questions I posed as well as more details.

When you have a more detailed proposal of what you are looking for in
animation, I`d be happy to email it off to some of my working animator
friends to see if they are interested in some freelance work. But most of
my friends are traditional animators and storyboard artists that work with
pencil on paper. I`m not sure what their Flash experience is. But you
never know.

Thank you both for your replies.

I thought flash might be the best medium.

The website is to serve as an introduction to the characters for the now. There are four characters. I have a character sheet for each. I have had some artistic impressions done of them and I now wish to use the website as a means to promote a book that I am working on containing the four characters.

At this stage a short (5-10 seconds) animation for each character along with a bio would support what I am trying to achieve. The animation is merely to introduce the characters individually with their attributes. The home page will have links to each character page where a short animation will accompany their bio. I don`t think any character interaction is neccessary at this stage.

Would be good to have sound...

Steve, if  you`ve any contacts that have flash experience, I`d love to speak with them. You`re on the right lines with Dora the explorer! Simple characters coupled with learn through adventure stories.

The age bracket is the 4-8 year old group.  

Regards,

Des

 

Des...

I will put the feelers out to my animation buddies in L.A. to see if there is
interest. Email me your contact info for me put it in the email to my
friends so you can be contacted directly.

artist@campsteve.com