Is it too late to learn how to animate?

Any advice that could be offered is appreciated; I hope I'm not coming off as too demanding or grating.

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do you want to work in 3d or 2d? either way, you're going to want to read this.

if you want to work in 2d, you can try opentoonz. its the new ghibli software that just got made free. or if you're feeling supremely masochistic, buy a lightbox and a shitload of paper.
can you draw? do you draw? if not, START DRAWING MOTHERFUCKER. anatomy, lifedrawing, whatever.

want to work in 3d? you can do worse than blender. be warned that getting used to it first it can fuck you up for learning every other software.

>>87709087
It's never too late to learn something new. ESPECIALLY not for you. Knock yourself out, anon!

>>87709087
>Is it too late to learn how to animate?
no
>I already fucked off my chance to go to cal arts (I decided to go to boring person college out of fear of not getting a normal boring job).
Not a problem if you're not going the industry route
>what hardware is essential to beginners?
some sort of graphics tablet, can't go wrong with wacom
toon boom for 2d
maya for 3d
i learnt using flash but flash is trash
>practice techniques?
animation is something you can teach yourself
learn the 12 principles and just start making stuff. college is good for getting professional criticism but just go to /ic/ because they're one of the few boards where people actually know about what they're talking out of their ass about.
>Keep in mind that I don't plan on making any money off of this or pursuing any jobs in animation.
Good. You won't get rich so this is a healthy mindset. Do it because you love it.

>>87709350
>>87709285
>>87709275
Thank you, anons.
This was really helpful. I think I have a solid plan to start out with now.
Cheers, guys. I hope you all have a good day.

>>87709087
>I already fucked off my chance to go to cal arts
Good, better for the rest of the animation industry.

>>87709431
remember, every tutorial you'll ever need is a google search away

>>87709087
>Is it too late to learn how to animate?
Fuck no it isn't. I spoke to a cartoonist who told me he didn't get into the industry until he was 28.

> I already fucked off my chance to go to cal arts
Good, you just saved yourself decades of debt. A friend of mine never attended any art school and he's been offered a job doing character designs and a publishing deal. Hell, an animator who runs his own animation company looked at some of my stuff and just said "You know, we're hiring people who can draw right now." Never once asked me if I attended any art school.

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>>87709443
>lol cal arts is bad maymay
OP already stated that he was not interested in getting a job in animation.
but any excuse to bash cal arts, right?

Very rarely is it too late to learn to animate, or do anything in art really. Keep in mind, a lot of top animators today are fucking old. It's not all a bunch of spry young'ns, after all.

College and whatnot isn't as much an issue as long as you're disciplined and take critique to heart, and always take time to look at your work to see what you can improve on. Only thing you'll really miss out on is connections, which, since you're not looking to make a job out of it, isn't an issue.

Hardware: Starting out, any ol' Wacom will do really. While a fancy screen tablet would be great, it demands more out of your machine, so go for an Intuos. I prefer the look and layout of the Pro models, but realistically you'll get the same essential function out of the cheaper base models. (Hell, I'm running with an old Intuos 4 myself. Love the crotchety bastard)

Your computer will want to be at least okay specs wise to handle what you might want to do. Decent ram at the least- so 8gigs there. A good processor, so at the least some kind of i5 or equivalent. If your computer cost you at least $600 and was bought in the last 2 or 3 years, it probably has all this already if not slightly more.

Programs wise, you can begin with programs like The GIMP to get a feel for it, though it's definitely not an animation program and its interface is not suited for it. A more adaptable program for it would be Krita, though, as it has a dedicated animation interface. Both are great programs and are entirely free.

I can't think of practice techniques that haven't already been mentioned. Those aside, observe other animators' works, take critical looks at your own work, and most of all, don't give up. That sounds cheesy, I know, but artistic ability of any kind is a muscle, not a magic "Oh, I get it!" epiphany.

>>87709680
Hey thanks, anon I'll look into Krita

>>87709771
No problem, but I have an addendum-

In the event I'm wrong about the animation interface: I know that at least the current beta version has it, which is always available on their website. I haven't checked the non-beta news in a while.

>>87709680
FREETARD DETECTED
don't listen to him, free animation software is all garbage
just pirate something good and buy it when you can afford to

>>87709087
The thing about animation is you don't need to know how to draw to be good at it.
So no, its not too late.
Also I'd say you made a good decision going to a "boring" college to get a "boring job considering the animation industry is really over saturated and you'd be working a un related job regardless going to cal arts or not.

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>>87709087
Yes you are too old for this
You had to start learning how to animate when you are 7 years old, then it's too late

>>87709087
>is it too late to....
NO.
>but...
JUST DO IT. Get off 4chan, and get some learnin'.

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The perfect age to start animation is
17

>>87710062
It's good to be an artist plus an animator. Being one but not the other is terrible.

>>87709087
Absolutely not. In fact, start right now because the earlier the better. I don't have time to make a long post, but there's already some good advice posted by other anons that you should follow, especially in which books to check out. Make sure you get a good grasp of the 12 principles of animation. A lot of it seems obvious, but it's still really easy to forget things when actually putting a body into motion. Don't feel shy about acting out whatever silly motion you need to animate over and over and study every little movement of your own body. In daily life, pay attention to the way other people and things in general move.

Also, I don't know if anyone mentioned it yet but absolutely check out Autodesk's website if you're in college. Autodesk Maya is one of the more popular 3D animation softwares and Autodesk offers free year long trials to college students. The kicker is that they release a new version every year, so basically you can have free Autodesk software as long as you're in college. Take the opportunity to learn that shit from online tutorials and if you want to keep it, stay on the lookout for awesome student discounts. That shit is far more affordable as a student.

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>>87709087
dude, i made this like almost a year ago, and i'm 21, sure it's not a masterpiece, but it's never late to learn how to animate, you just really have to invest yourself in it.
a year ago i was really shitty at drawing, but i've improved since then.

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>>87709087
>humans are living to as long as 100 years old
>"i'm 18 is it to late to learn x thing"

Start with the principles, and animate the traditional way. Do not do cut-out animation. You won't learn anything that way. Save it for later once you have the basics down.

>>87710130
agreed, fellow patrician here, animating is ONLY possible if you learn it whilst you are under the age of seven, after that you must start working on your magnum opus

Not OP but can you get into calarts if your twenty

>>87709087
18... Screw Cal Arts.
you're not too old to do ANYTHING.
Suck it up and start doing. Stop thinking about it and start doing it.

You're not too old man, I got my first animation job this year and I'm 26.

>>87713479
Why did all of my 101 classes force me to use paper cut outs for my first projects?

>>87709443
>people believed the meme

The idiots always fall for them, I knew that it would happen.

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>>87714904

wut if you are 30?

>>87715859
Stop wasting your time and just do it

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>>87709087
Fist you need to be Jewish.

Start being jewish anon, right now

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>>87710130
>I learned animation when I was 7 anon
>And now I'm a fucking millionaire
>get on my level bitch

>>87714904
''JUST DO IT'' wise words

i'm currently learning animation from Ianimate, so if you have any questions about that, i can answer some.

>>87715899

i remember reading about how mike judge just taught himself how to animate by reading about it, then did it in his spare time while working at boeing. He decided he wanted to quit his 90K a year job to draw cartoons.

i used to draw a lot in highschool so girls would notice me, it didn't work. then I tried drawing corpses because angst, that got some attention but the nonfuckable type. I tried drawing hot girls but they always came out retarded plus I can't fap to my own shit so I stopped and just became a wage slave for the next 11 years.

>>87716288
You sound like a fucking sad sack, anon. Read you some Loomis, read the Animator's Survival Kit, draw every day. Draw corpses if you want, you weirdo, just make sure you do it every fucking day.

>>87716288
I recomend you follow this guy's advice>>87716434

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>>87716037
>He made his first short film, The Tortoise and the Hare, at age 13.

...fuck

>18
>am I too old to change majors?

Is this a joke?

In America if you have not started your career by age 17 you are a failure at life.

Go work at Wal-Mart loser.

no, The Brothers Chap learned at a later age (late 20s I think) and eventually got jobs at Disney.

>>87709087
As long as you are alive it's not too late.

>>87716434
another anon here. I've tried to read loomis and some tutorials I found online but I always end up quitting because I always felt like what I drew sucked dick and that I wasn't making any progress

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>>87719925
Art is a harsh hobby as it take some time to see fruitful results. I dont like it when people say LOOMIS, as his book "Figure drawing for all its worth" is a little advance for most beginners in my opinion.

I would recommend "The Vilppu Drawing Manuel" and "Sheldon Borenstien - see it, fee it, trace it, and draw it."

But what's most important coming to terms with the fact that your first thousand drawings will suck. but you push through that and keep drawing.

>>87709087
>I'm 18
go to bed, grandpa

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>>87720086
thanks anon

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>>87720106
But when you do get the hang of drawing, i would definitely check out some Andrew loomis books. Here is a sample from his other book "Fun with a pencil"

As serious as you want your art to be. remember to keep it light and fun. Remember those figure drawings? play with them Alter the proportions, play with the shapes, have fun.

Just like video games, if your not having fun, why are you even playing it? That's how i feel about it