• Written by Hajra Abdul Ghafoor
heads up: You might want to change your career by the end of this article, proceed at your own risk, you have been warned!
Among other unpredictable happenings of 2020 is the top ranking of YouTube’s biggest kids show for nursery rhymes – Cocomelon!
Trust me every kid around me loves the channel but things took a weird turn when I found myself finding comfort in Baby shark doo doo doo.. while procrastinating during the exam period and then you know, how the chain of rhymes starts while I comprehend why the baby’s head is bigger than everybody else!
Well, let’s not go there, the point I am trying to make is, no matter what your story is or how it resonates with you, the animated or anime version of it always makes it way more appealing (of course we weebs can relate!).
But once you get an idea or craft a story that’s when your real story begins!
ANIMATED MODELS, SOFTWARE AND COPYRIGHT ISSUES:
The first thing after scripting your story is, modelling your characters and scene, and then it proceeds to animation schematics. Now, as they say about learning animation: “Easy to learn, hard to master”, but they also say: “Nothing is impossible”, so I guess we should not get much scared about what “they” say, do things our way, take baby steps and focus on one thing at a time. Yes, time and consistency are the key players here but so worth the output!
Online basic animation sites:
So, for very easy, simple animations that you can make online, you can check out the following sites:
Vyond, Animasher, Xtranormal and Voki.
Learning Tutorials:
Cool thing is that, you don’t have to be a top disney level animator to create top-tier awesome animations, start small and simple!
Free: Animation 101, AnimDojo, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Animate, Greyscalegorilla (can purchase model packs and plugins).
Paid: Pluralsight, Lynda.com, Udemy, Animation Foundations.
Software:
Free: Pencil2D, Animaker (some features), OpenToonz, Synfig, K-3D, Blender
Paid: Maya, Renderforest, KeyShot, PowToon, Animation Paper
Online Available Animated Models to Import:
Free: Mixamo, Sketchfab (might have to purchase some models), Clara.io, Free3D,
Paid: cgtrader, renderpeople
Copyright Check:
To know what kind of copyright issues animators can face, you have to firstly familiarize yourself with the term “Public Domain”.
The public domain is basically any art that isn’t owned. That stuff is free to use for any purpose: reimagining, remixing or just straight up copying the whole thing.
So basically, public domain is a public property whereas copyright is private. If you see any content or image with a logo or a notion about being protected under copyright, it’s a no-no zone, RUN!
But, let’s say, you find some content without any warning or protection under copyright law, what would you do if it does not say anything like “free to use” or “available for public use”? Would you use it then?
Nah dude! That would be the case of plagiarism! You might outrun the law in that scenario but there would be no guarantee of safety from public humiliation.
The entire idea behind the public domain is that after a reasonable time where the artist can make money, his/her art should then be free for others to use, copy, alter, and/or build upon it.
Let’s take, for example, Disney’s first feature length film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. That story by the Brothers Grimm was already in the public domain at the time so Walt Disney was free to use it.
But, how long does the copyright hold?
Well, in Australia, copyright in published works generally lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years.
For unpublished works copyright duration is set by whether the work was made public in the creator’s lifetime.
If that’s settled, then, how do most YouTubers get away with things by using the term “Fair Use”?
Well, glad that you asked, let’s skim these points to get the concept of Fair Use:
- It’s a doctrine that allows for limited use of copyrighted material without getting permission from the owner
- This includes (but isn’t limited to) commentary, criticism, parody, news reporting, research, teaching
- Even if the use of a copyrighted work is covered under fair use, that doesn’t prevent the copyright holder from raising a complaint or suing you
- Fair use can only be proved in a court, meaning you have to be sued first.
What if you are sued? How to get away with it?
A judge will determine if it’s fair use by deciding:
- If you created something new vs just making a copy
- The amount of the copyrighted material you’re using
- If your work competes with the original – meaning that it affects the copyright holder’s ability to make money
- If the resulting work is a criticism, parody or satire.
Just keep in mind these points and you are good to go!
Tidbits:
Whether it is gaming industry or top media sensations like disney or pixar, seeing the stats of the past twenty years, we can safely say that animations would always be trending!
Caution: For gaming industry though, we always see the trends keep changing within a period of 5-10 years. When I was kid, it was Mario series, then within years shifted to Tekken, Twisted Metal, Need for Speed and then over the years to FIFA, Halo, Gears of War, Assassin’s Creed, Minecraft, Fortnite and now it is Among Us! (I know I have skipped many, so please don’t come at me for missing out your favs.)
So, with gaming industry, you will have to work a lot (or may be not if your idea is good enough) but you might make a lot of money in a very limited time but then the graph goes down and you have to come up with something new.
As for animated movies or anime, if your story clicks, animation is fine, the time period would be longer and whatever the platform you use to show your work, it will not matter! Let’s take the example of Cocomelon that I was being quirky about at the start, they chose YouTube to display their content, now, anybody can upload their work on YouTube, that’s not something mind-boggling right? But as the series earned more than 840.5 million weekly views, Netflix could not resist and had to come into the game and now we can watch Cocomelon on Netflix too! Dope!
So, the take-home message is, if we have an idea worth sharing (or not: our lame POV), why not do something about it, don’t just sit and wishfully wait for somebody else to act on it or make a two-statement biography for us so we can peacefully expire, there is a whole world out there missing out on something that might be a legend!
So, get your hands dirty, simply follow the aforementioned steps, work on your story, know your software, learn important stuff, don’t back out but most importantly, know your IP game or all of that would be in vain! buena suerte!
Hope this article was the boost you needed. If you have any queries, we at ONE IP INTERNATIONAL are always there for your help. Contact our team for any kind of assistance. We would be glad to be of any service!
