Creating Your First Animated Short Film with Blender.

There is only one way to get started as a film maker, and that is to make your first film. It can be an exciting journey but not an easy one, for me that first film took 5 years to make from the first baby steps of learning how to animate to submitting it to festivals, but my second film is halfway done now and I'm only 6 months into the process. the goal of this article is to help any budding film maker by passing on the lessons I Learn along the way.

Step 1: Script Writing

The foundation of any great film is a compelling script. This is where your story begins to take shape. Here are some practical steps to help you craft your script:

1. Define Your Concept: What is the heart of your film? Is it a comedy, drama, or fantasy? For example, if you choose a fantasy theme, jot down a specific scenario, like an enchanted forest where mystical creatures gather for a festival. Try to keep this step simple, you'll find that as you follow the steps the story fleshes itself out, its easy to get caught up trying to create a full concept out of thin air.

   
   

2. Create Characters: Develop engaging characters with relatable motivations. For example consider a shy character who must overcome their fears to follow a dream or resolve an issue they face. In short films its better to work with only a few key characters at most, often as few as 1 -2 characters.

   
   

3. Structure Your Story: A good story typically follows a three-act format: setup, confrontation, and resolution. Outline key events in each act. For example, introduce your characters in act 1 and their current normal life, followed by the challenges or dangers they may face in act 2, and conclude with a resolution in act 3. In short films these steps can be a challenge to convey so its often better to keep the story simple rather than try to cram the whole plot of Back to the future into 5 - 10 minutes.

   
   

4. Write Dialogue: Ensure the dialogue sounds natural and helps progress the plot. In a short film pretty much every line of dialogue should serve a purpose and drive the film forwards as you're working within a tight time constraint.

   
   

5. Revise and Edit: Don’t shy away from revising your script multiple times. Don't be afraid to ask for feedback from friends or if possible other film makers.

   
   

Once your script is ready, you're set to move on to the storyboarding phase.

Step 2: Storyboarding

Storyboarding is a vital step that helps visualize your film before starting the animation. Animation takes a long time to create and the last thing you want is to go into it not knowing exactly what it is you need to make. This is one of the biggest issues I faced in my first film, I simply didn't give pre-production enough focus and had a lot of months work wasted when I realised I needed to change direction.

1. Break Down Your Script: Split your script into scenes and pinpoint key moments that need illustration. this can involve any key moment, from characters emotional moments to action or even just the first moments characters enter a new scene.

   
   

2. Sketch Your Scenes: Create rough sketches for each scene to focus on composition and action. the idea is that you could look through the story board and essentially watch it as a basic unfinished version of the film. Try to illustrate as you'd like it to look on screen, and if you aren't an artist just draw the basics, stick men are fine.

   
   

3. Add Notes: Include notes about camera angles, character movements, and special effects. This acts as your roadmap during animation to guide you towards creating what was envisioned and save time on creating unnecessary models and shots.

   
   

4. Review and Revise: Review your storyboard to ensure it effectively communicates your vision. It can help to compile the illustrations into a video so you can watch it as a rudimentary version of your film. This is where you will want to make adjustments to anything that you want to change, its much easier to change things now than later once the animation process is under way.

   
   

5. Create a Shot List: Compile a detailed shot list from your storyboard, including scene durations and specific actions. This will act as to do list almost as you create each shot you need for the film. It can help to organise your shot list so that all shots that take place in the same location for instance are compiled, so you can work more efficiently rather than having to keep swapping between which files you're working on within blender.

   
   

With your storyboard complete, Its time to start making your film within Blender. For me I had to learn how to use blender before I made my film, If you're in the same boat there is a huge amount of learning materials online and Blender is free to use. I'd recommend starting with YouTube tutorials from the likes of blender guru to get to grips with the basics.

Step 3: Animation in Blender

Blender is a robust tool for animators, its free, has a huge amount of community support for learning and a huge array of plugins available. Follow these steps to animate your short film:

PRE ANIMATION STEP: Voice Acting: If your characters speak, consider hiring voice actors. And if you're on a shoestring budget hope that your family and friends are both willing to help and can do a passable job! (this step should be completed before animation so you can animate your characters to the audio recorded, for lip syncing purposes)

1. Set Up Your Project: Open Blender and create a new project. Its time to make your first film!

   
   

2. Model Your Characters and Environments: Start building 3D models of your characters ,settings and props. I like to see each model as a digital Actor, Prop or location. For example if your character has a sword, create a sword, and that can now be used however you need in as many scenes as you need.

   
   

3. Rigging: Your characters will need rigging to allow for animation, which involves creating a skeletal structure. This lets you pose and animate your characters easily. This works well for moving characters arms or legs. I use shape keys a lot for facial animation as well as many other animation needs. Google any of these terms and you'll find countless high quality tutorials on their uses.

   
   

4. Animation Techniques: Familiarize yourself with keyframing to set specific poses at distinct time intervals. One of the challenges I faced a lot and sometimes still do is getting my animations to feels like they aren't moving in slow motion or too fast. One thing that can help is to film a person doing the action and take a look at how many frames the action take to complete and when the key motions happen.

   
   

5. Add Materials and Textures: Apply materials and textures to give your models a polished look. For a more vibrant feel, use Blender’s shader editor to create surfaces that mimic realism, such as shiny apples or weathered wood.

   
   

6. Lighting: Lighting is crucial. Proper lighting sets the mood; Animation is no different to real life lighting techniques but you have a lot more control, there's a lot of tutorials online about the various lighting tools and methods.

   
   

7. Eevee Rendering: Blender’s Eevee rendering engine is a game-changer. It allows real-time rendering, meaning you see your changes immediately. When I first started the journey I had to render sometimes for days only to find out that my shot had an issue I hadn't spotted. Eevee allows you to see the results in real time and make changes to lighting and animations as needed. And then when you render the final shot its takes minutes rather than hours or days.

   
   

8. Put it all together and work through the shot list: Once you have your character models, locations and lighting all ready to go its time to work through the shot list and make your film. Try to work through the shots logically rather than in order of timeline, and keep your files organised well for a smooth workflow.

   
   

A vibrant character model created in Blender showcasing animation potential

Step 4: Editing and Sound Design

Its time to put it all together, editing comes next and of course I assume you're not making a silent film so sound design comes into play as well:

1. Edit your film: Its time to edit your film together into a final finished short. Hopefully you have kept your finished renders organised nicely and this will be a breeze, import the clips into your chosen software for editing (for me that software is Davinici resolve) and put them together onto the timeline. don't be afraid to cut and change your shots to fine tune your film.

   
   

2. Create a Soundtrack: If you're lucky like me you will be able to enlist some help in creating a soundtrack and have someone compose for you, or maybe you are musically minded and can do it yourself, or perhaps you can hire a composer to do it for you. If not there are many options for royalty free music available online but make sure you follow the requirements for usage and crediting.

   
   

3. Sound Effects: Use sound effects to flesh out the sound of your film, this can be footsteps, laser bolts from a blaster, or just creaking floorboards. These effects are called foley sound, you can record these yourself (a good microphone is recommended) or you can find many online from royalty free sources.

   
   

4. Voice Acting: If your characters speak, consider hiring voice actors. And if you're on a shoestring budget hope that your family and friends are both willing to help and can do a passable job! (this step should be completed before animation so you can animate your characters to the audio recorded, for lip syncing purposes)

   
   

5. Mixing: Use audio editing software to balance your soundtrack, sound effects, and dialogue. I use Davinci Resolve for basic audio wo and it was more than good enough for what I needed.

   
   

6. Final Review: Watch your film through and make any changes that you feel are needed, My first film had a fair few "final versions" before I realised its okay to work through several edits before you settle on a final edit. Be sure to show the film to friends and family and get feedback!

   
   

Step 5: Publishing Your Film

Once your animated short film is done, it’s time to put it out into the world for people to see. FilmFreeway is a great platform for submitting your film to festivals. Here’s how to use it effectively:

1. Create an Account: Sign up for a free FilmFreeway account to submit your film to various festivals.

   
   

2. Prepare Your Film: Export it in the required format and resolution, following each festival's submission guidelines carefully.

   
   

3. Select Festivals: Choose festivals that fit your film’s themes and genre. Research the festivals to ensure they are a good match for your film.

   
   

4. Submit Your Film: Fill in the necessary details for each submission, such as a synopsis and credits. Be mindful of deadlines to avoid missed opportunities.

   
   

5. Promote Your Film: Share it on social media to build interest. Consider creating a dedicated website or social media page for your film to keep the audience engaged and updated.

   
   

Its a wrap.

Creating your first animated short film using Blender is a fulfilling experience but not a simple one, hopefully this helps you have an easier time of it than I did. Now don't sit around dreaming of making a film, go and do it, and don't worry if your first film isn't what you had dreamed of, its a start, and once you make one you'll make another one, and hopefully with the lessons you learn along the way this one will be better than the first.