Making my own Anime or Game.. or whatever.

[karak]

Well here goes...

This all goes to anyone who wouldn't mind telling me how or what to do...

This all started when I was just a little kid. Most likely when I was about 13 or 14. I got this fantastic idea to make my own game...

So, I was in 9th grade... I was in school writing up rules for my game, drawing pictures... of my characters... making character sheets, drawing up Technique books for all the characters.... Doing everything possible to make the best game for the friends that I had no matter where I was at.

So, you know the game started out pretty Beta.. but as time grew we continued to play and my story line was interesting.. thought provoking. All of the guys who played with me loved the game. It's all based on pencil and dice for now. Somewhat similar to D&D.

So far the game has been remade a total of 9 times. The rules changing constantly.. I have stacks of paper knee high of maps, drawings, characters... scenarios in the game. All kinds of things. I've spent so much time on this game it's crazy. The character development is fantastic... Every single character has such a huge history and they are all so unique.


While we play, I've even gathered over 2 gigabytes of music for every scene they unlock while playing. These songs taken from every anime or game I've ever known... To try and bring this piece to life more and more with music.

I'd love to make my own music as well for it.. That'd be awesome.

There is the story of love... tragedy... it has lots of action.. like that DBZ style a little bit.. It's got that unique fighting styles like Naruto... The heavy storyline of Seph vs Cloud is in their too... it's so much. It's as big as Lord of The Rings.

My friends and I have begun trying to do Voice Acting for the game too just with my Audio, Music and sound effects.

I myself have made video's or.. "Cinemas" as you would call it based on clips from other games that resembled their characters. Put them together with words just doing anything to enhance this piece that I possible could.

I have countless energy into this.... sleepless nights and I just have the feeling that if this was ever released into something it would hit big. I've had people come to play... in and out.. and everyone of them says the game is f***ing awesome.

The storyline was all created by of course me.. but the players themselves create it every session we play. The dice and their hard work change the storyline so much... They all make it just as much as me with their actions and what they do.

Anyways... I'm 23 now and married. I'm to the point where everyone I know is telling me to go straight ahead with this project and I truly would love to put this world wide.

I guess, I couldn't honestly put this into a "Game" it's just tooooo big. Probally would have to be put on more then one PS3 disc haha.

I came to the conclusion that an anime would suffice. I just don't know exactly where to start. People tell me I can draw good but I'd like more opinions on that.

So, if anyone cares enough to try and set me on the right track with this enormous dream of mine.. then please go ahead and tell me where to start. I'd love to get a few partners in on this project that have experience...

Anyone who is looking to make a great anime or game... i I know I have it. I just need the help to get this started.

And you don't have to ask if I'm a hard worker... I'd do anything within my reach to start this up.

Just as all of my players say to me... We started this game with just pencil and dice and you continue to constantly take it to the next level.. every age we play.

Well, I'm at the level where I want to make it. So, please if you can help... I'd be so very thankful.

[Google]

[neozf]

Welcome Karak, AFAIK there are a few threads on this board already about people wanting to make their own anime and I believe some information on ideas of how to go about doing that have also been posted, try checking the anime board here.
As for a game, I'm sure there are quite a few people here who can help, I myself have been working on a Battle Engine and I'm still currently working on it. I'm currently thinking of changing it so it would fit a DnD style game since I think that would be slightly easier to work on as well as the mechanics for it being easier to make (Although I haven't really played DnD before, only NWN...).
A few things I can think of are try making an animation with flash, there are a few good ones of the internet which may interest you (Like Final Fantasy A+ which is done in an anime style).

That's all I can think of currently, hope some of that helps in some way or another.

[Walrii]

That is probably the most literate first time post, ever.

I found the one thread where someone asked a similar question.

http://forums.editingarchive.com/showthread.php?t=4491&highlight=make+anime

Basically, the answer is use Flash. There's no way you're going to be able to hire animators and start drawing things using ink and paper. You're going to want to go entirely digital.

I think the way real animations generally go is this:

1) Come up with a storyline (you're done with this part :))
2) Decide what you'll show, and do some quick story boards of it (I assume you know what those are)
3) Record the dialogue that corresponds to the storyboards.
4) Now that you have the sound, you do the video. You want to have the video first so that you match the character's lip movements to the audio (and not having to match the audio to the lip movements... plus this way you have more freedom when coming up with dialogue... improv?)
5) Save it in a lossless format (Flash's format?) and then when ready to show it to people export it as a .avi (or maybe a flash file).
6) Give it to us so we can put it on EATV (http://www.editingarchive.com/eatv/)

Good luck!

[Sim9]

Welcome to The Archive :)

If you're interested in the Anime route, check this thread (http://forums.editingarchive.com/showthread.php?t=4491) for tips. The products there are recommended, and I hear used by some professional studios. There's a bunch of threads around here with more or less the same topic, so you might try some searches, too.

If you're interested in game dev, my advice to you is prototype out your game with RPG Maker (also, try some searches :)) -- particularly if your game will be story driven and have many cinemas, vignettes, or scripted sequences. You won't need too much external help if you do this, as for your prototype you won't have any programming to do, and you can use the provided stock art. Once you've completed a chapter/slice of your game, post it up here and to your friends for feedback and iteration.

Good luck with your project! :)

[karak]

Hey guys, thank you so much for all the input!

A friend of mine suggested the use of flash too but I don't really like the way it looks... it doesn't appeal to me. Perhaps you can make it look better?

I just recently got, Anime Studio Pro.. and Toon Boom Studio ver4.

Do you guys think these are good programs? My buddy got these for me but they are rather hard to use... confusing.


What kind of Story board program do you guys recommend? I don't want this to look really corny...

I want it to have nice animation.. nice story board.. and everything else.

[neozf]

There seem to be a few tutorials for Anime Studio which you could try looking at, and as for a story board you could use something simple like a piece of A4 paper with boxes drawn on it. Try making a few animations with Anime Studio, they don't have to be great, it's just so you get used to the program and understand what each button does etc, there may also be a few good videos for it on youtube or something.

[Sim9]

That's odd, here's what's displayed on the product page for Anime Studio:
Get started quickly - Anime Studio is packed with ready-to-use anime style characters so you can start creating your own animations right away. Tutorials and sample files show you how to maximize Anime Studio’s powerful features giving you the jump needed from your first project onwards.Maybe the professional version assumes a level of expertise not in the standard version? Try working with the tutorials provided.

Also, I second the nomination on low-tech storyboards. No reason to overcomplicate it :)

[karak]

I'm wondering what kind of animation software was used to make the animes such as Inuyasha.. Cowboy Beebop... Kenshin and DBZ..


Does anyone know?

[Sim9]

Usually these things are less about the software, and more about the artists. There's any number of ways to technically achieve something, the real limiting factor is ability and manpower. :)

[karak]

Hmm, I see. But the toonboom software and the flash stuff just looks so digital and the colors just don't look natural at all like they do in Inuyasha, Kenshin.. ect.

I don't want my anime to look like Naruto. I think the animation in Naruto kinda sucks in my opinion. I mean yeah, it's good but for color and such it just doesn't appeal to my tastes at all.


So, it's all about the artists talent... Well then it looks like I'll just have to figure out how to make that old style look with using the new programs.

[combine_bob]

I can understand what you mean about things not looking "natural" in flash. Everything inside of the lines are colored one solid color, unlike the result of various drawing tools and paper used by professionals. As far as I know, all famous anime is created old-school, with a big table overlooked by a camera.

The easy way is to go digital, but this (http://www.chromacolour.com/store/digital_animation_usa.htm) was pointed out by Sim9 if you really want to give the real thing a shot. I heard that Photoshop (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/index.html) is very useful to get that "natural" look. Tablet PC's (http://www.wacom.com/cintiq/12WX.cfm) are also very helpful for drawing by hand. I also spotted this (http://www.bauhaussoftware.com/products_mirage_studioPRO.php). It has a promising timetable for lip-sync, but it looks like just another Flash-clone.

As far as a game goes, you would have a large amount of programming support from us. The tricky part is getting your drawings into a manipulable state. Flash would work ok, but a real game would require turning every animation into a sprite. The problem with that is that the quality of the pictures get killed by it (I think?), but I'm sure there's a work-around for that.

Anyways, I also recommend going digital. If you've got a one-man army going, it's a good idea to have some programs to give you support. Naruto and all of those other things have massive production teams that can handle it all without computers. Good luck! :)