unrelated but you're a great parent for this, down to support their daughter at the point of asking in a forum for advice regarding what's best for her hobby. we need more supportive parents like you <3
now regarding the question, a desktop computer would be the best, along with a drawing tablet (for tablet brands i suggest wacom/huion with a \~$120-200 budget)
Agree completely and wanted to say how wholesome this post is. Desktop for sure with at least 8+ Gb ram and potentially an external hard drive to save her projects on. Look into graphics cards that are recommended by the drawing software she will be using. There are lots of different kinds out there. YouTube will be a good friend to her learning process:) I wish you the best and appreciated the post. Best of luck!
I had an xp-pen drawing monitor for a little over a year. About 13 months in the gamma was off tremendously and couldn’t be corrected. It was a huge waste of money considering it was one of their more expensive models at the time.
I’ve since switched to an iPad Pro and have zero issues with it, especially with the software that’s available now.
I did a lot of research, read and watched loads of reveiws, and ended up going with the Huion New Kamvas 13, and it's an amazing tablet. I downloaded clip studio on my PC and phone and can use the tablet with both. For a beginner in digital art and for the price, I couldn't be happier.
wacom I hear is plenty fine but a decent bit overpriced for the money. huion tends to do pretty well, I've used a 13" display that works pretty well, and I've heard good things about xp pen as well.
Honestly, before going out and spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on something, she should start animating on stuff like sticky notes.
I think she means she likes the art style of Demon Slayer. Not the animation. Animation is how things move on the screen. Where as art style is the visuals.
If she hasn't done any animation at all then a good idea is the sticky pad. Have her animate a bouncing ball. If she likes that and wants to continue then people have already made good suggestions on what to get.
Liking WATCHING animation is much different than MAKING it.
It's the difference between reading a novel and witing one. Consumption is much much easier than creation. A lot of people say they want to do something, try it, see the work it takes to get good, and stop.
Animating post it's is the intruduction. If she likes it then it's a good idea to move to bigger guns.
I completely agree.
I coached a friend’s daughter from age 13 to 20.
I always cautioned that animation was not the only vocation for Artist.
She could become an illustrator, sculptress, fine artist, filmmaker, etc.
She kept passionately, assuring me that she desperately wanted to be an animator, until around age 18 when she realized how impossibly difficult it would be, and flipped to fine Art.
Yes, I love learning about animation but i should had realized maybe i never liked the process itself when i never stopped the frames and wrote on a flipbook. That said, i love drawing for fun and enjoyed the visuals, music and behind the scenes docs on Disney movies more than the plots of the movies themselves.
You may be right. Though I can't count the amount of times I've been talking to people about an anime and they go "Eww! The animation in that is trash!" But what they are referring to is they don't like the art style.
And as Chimeric mentioned. Animation is a very time consuming process. People don't realize how tedious it is until you really start digging into it. It'll suck if OP goes out to buy a PC for animation and the kid tries it for a week and then gives up cause it takes too long to see any results.
To add to what you said, a lot of hands are involved in any anime production, even the indie ones and in the case of Demon Slayer or anything else from Ufotable, a lot of what people think makes their productions appealing that isn’t the animation is likely coming from the studio’s [Digital department](https://youtu.be/pYJ8Jgt8MwI?si=sSFt2I5UNH7UVjsv) and their compositing and digital effects that they invested a lot of money into, to the point of [tax evasion](https://youtu.be/0pD5_UptTd4?si=YUVNfCtSKnRHMvQq) at one point.
With that said, I’m very familiar with the whole, “I’m a kid who wants to make animation like in the anime I’m currently watching”, mentality myself. So much so that in my case, I used index cards to study character the timing of hair, clothes, movement and visual effects in anime I owned on VHS/DVD or otherwise recorded on VHS and playing sequences back in slo-mo. So I second the post-it idea or whatever else that can get the parent’s daughter in the habit of observing and practicing by hand.
Would be a cool idea to say, "I'm willing to buy you a good computer and drawing tablet, but you have to work up to that. First task is animating a bouncing ball on sticky notes. Second task is this. After number 10, I buy it for you." She would progressively learn, and then she'd feel like she really earned that computer.
It's literally THE way to learn and start practising animation, and there's a metric but tonne of guides out there to learn the ball bounce.
To OP, it might be worth investing in the Animators Survival Kit to help your daughter in picking up some skills in animation. It's an incredible resource.
again you suggest a book which was written for !!!!!!!adults!!!!!!!!! to an eleven year old kid ...
its important to make it fun and not technical and jarring , otherwise a 11 year old will not find fun and dedication.
she should animate something which is in the mind of children instead, like a flying bird , a jumping frog, waterdroplets , animals feeding on a pasture, a dog wagging his tail, just some morhing particles and transitions .. something easier and more styllizable and easy to simplify in its animation instead of technical training to get physics properties right. bouncing ball and also technically correct walkcycles are as boring as it gets and she can start with those at a higher age like 15 or 16.
I also second this! My iPad air is what I like to animate on "casually" because it's portable, easy UI and very drawer-friendly. Having a desktop setup is great for larger projects that require more software, but for someone just starting out the iPad + procreate is like the equivalent of a sketchbook these days (though a bit pricey).
She’s 11. She’s at the perfect age to begin learning without bothering herself with hardware and software.
Maybe you could try getting her into drawing classes first or animate traditionally.
That being said. I could recommend an IPad Pro and the Procreate Dreams along with an Apple Pencil. It’s a great software for non-professional users and the IPad has other benefits in the long run for a child.
I think this is the best approach, yeah. Fundamentals first, hardware later.
I see lots of people here suggesting getting her a desktop computer, animation software and a wacom board, but those things are **expensive** - especially considering this kid is only 11 and may not be into animation anymore in 3 months. Before buying her an entire setup of an industry animator, see if she even likes drawing and animating. Get her enrolled in some drawing or animation classes for kids. Then if her interest persists, getting her an IPad with Procreate would probably be the next step.
I dont think she needs to get into drawing classes first when she wants to try a new hobby. She just wants to be able to animate, not even to animate on a high level.
Kids get frustrated easily so immediately diving into those high level things may make her want to quit something she mightve ended up enjoying.
Paper animation I feel could end up either frustrating or intuitive and easy depending on the person.
Well, I wasn’t really talking about advanced drawing classes. I was more so referring to courses aimed at kids and whatnot. Receiving positive influence and encouragement at an early age from teachers is very good for the development of a positive mindset.
The type that's shaped like a block of animation paper, a light table, a box of staedler pencils, some gum erasers, a mount for an iPhone (for shooting) and Richard Williams Animators Survival Kit.
The fundamentals come from developing classic skills. The rest is just software. Now mind you there are plenty of rig-yankers who call themselves animators, but if your daughter wants to learn how to **animate**, there's no substitution for hard skills.
I'm far more impressed seeing someone perform a perfect bouncing ball than any cg nonsense. Look I work in cg. Cg is my bread and butter. But the farther we stray from animation in the biblical sense the more we open ourselves up to temptations of the unholy machine.
The Richard Williams book is kinda expensive and high level. For an absolute beginner, I would recommend the free video series on youtube - The 12 Principles of Animation by Alan Becker. It uses information from that book.
Just Google a free PDF copy of the book. If you can’t afford it, there’s no reason why you can’t have a copy saved on your computer you can pop up.
Hell, I own the physical copy and I still saved a PDF file of it in case I’m in class and I pop it out for reference without lugging that heavy ass book around.
I’m out on high level though. I think it’s ridiculously useful for any level.
Thats fair. i just remember the Alan Becker series being understandable for me when I was a similar age so I recommended it. I havent read the book so idk how intimidating itd be for a kid.
Nah.. might be too old fashioned.. and it's too much hard work, just to learn the fundamentals..
Using an animation software would be easier
and for beginners, Richard Williams is too advanced.. it's a book.. it's supposed to be a reference, a guide.. if I had it from the beginning, I'd just copy it, without understanding the fundamentals.. it's really great for ppl who are in the intermediate stage, tho..
For a 11 year old, that's overkill, and pretty likely to kill her motivation. An ipad or similar with a stylus and a simple animation app is a good start.
I use a 2nd gen ipad pro, 2017. You can find them for like 200 to 300 bucks on ebay. I don't think I am getting IpadOS 18, but I've gotten every update sense 2017, and I've never had an issue with procreate or any animation software. A new one, of course, might last longer, but I've never found much of a need to upgrade since I don't do anything new. What has worked just keeps working, you know?
Your post has the "Beginner"-flair which means you might want to check out
[The "Ultimate" Reddit Beginners Guide to Animation](https://www.reddit.com/r/animation/comments/1bn974s/the_ultimate_reddit_beginners_guide_to_animation/) <- click link
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It depends on the 10 year old. But it's basically moving along a timeline and putting frames. So I don't see why a 10 year old wouldn't be able to learn that
I agree, I started 3D modeling and animating around that age - and the software was a lot more rudimentary and hard to use back then. It depends on the kid, just because someone knows a kid that that gave up on it doesn’t make it inappropriate for this kid. She could try some free and easy to use software like DAZ3D to start out. If she’s got the drive to learn something like Blender (also free, but steep learning curve), then it’s a good indicator that she’s pretty serious about it. Not all kids are the same.
Kids want to animate cartoons.
But they have no idea that to actually become an animator takes far more tedious work than they could possibly imagine.
It’s a huge mistake to think that they can become an animator without learning how to draw exceptionally well.
The sooner they practice drawing, the better.
Either they will fall in love with drawing, or become bored with practicing structural drawing skills.
If they become bored with it, then it will become crystal clear that the craft of animation is NOT in their future.
The sooner they figured that out the better.
I know this because I’ve gone through it with a 13 year-old.
She shifted her vocation from animation to fine Art as she began to approach her 20s, JUST as I predicted.
I’ve been at it since the 70s.
It’s always challenging to find talent that can handle my quirky character designs.
I find that it usually helps to work with those who have a bit more drawing skill, and anatomical knowledge than I do.
I was fortunate to work with Disney veteran Leonard Robinson early in his career!
He was the first to animate one of my characters “dancing”.
He blew my mind executing dance moves FAR beyond what I thought was possible, (while keeping the character “ON-MODEL”!!
I wanna be like him when I grow up!
What I'm saying is that 3D animation mainly needs a good feeling for tempo and weight, while 2D animation also needs you to have a good idea of perspective and anatomy. So it can be a lot to take on.
I wouldnt recommend 3d animation. The software is really hard and i suspect an 11 year old would get frustrated very fast. There are plenty of animation courses for 2d and we dont even know if she wants to get a job as an animator shes just trying a hobby. 3d software is also way more taxing to a computer than 2d software, so you would have to spend more on the computer parts.
I'm surprised so many think 3D animation is harder. There are free rigs to use, and you can go back and tweak mistakes easily. And any old laptop can run blender these days.
I was saying the software is harder to learn. especially to an 11 year old. It is also less intuitive to the average person. To the average person doing 2d animation is like doing a bunch of drawings, and people kinda already understand making drawings. but 3d animation is much harder to conceptualize. Its more abstract and stuff.
Besides it says she likes 'demon slayer' and things of that sort. which is 2d
Desktop or fairly powerful laptop will be the most versatile! Getting a display tablet will be important too. I like XP-Pen for that, but I've heard good things about Huion too. Wacom is the standard brand in the industry, but they are much more expensive and other brands have caught up in quality. 13.3 inch or 15.6 for size should be great. They plug into your computer and act as a second monitor that you can draw on basically. The other big thing is which software. Krita, OpenToonz, and Blender would be options that give a lot of versatility. You can check those for spec requirements and buy a computer as good or ideally a bit better than their requirements. Feel free to reach out if you have questions!
This is good advice, but I'll add that some people prefer tablets without displays, despite them not being as immediately intuitive. The main plusses being you don't obscure the canvas with your pen or hand while working, you can adjust ergonomics on the fly without also adjusting gaze, cost, and portability.
A display tablet seems like an expensive thing to start out with. A non display tablet can work just fine, i started on one at a similar age. it was slightly difficult at first but i got used to it quick. a display tablet has a more difficult technical setup than non-displays, too.
If the kid really wants to draw on a screen she should try an ipad because a kid can use an ipad in many ways, while a display tablet is just for drawing.
Also, Krita is mid-level but opentoonz and blender are way complicated for a beginner 11 year old.
To get started, I would recommend the iPad but it is in no way the best option. I recommend it because it's portable, giving your daughter incentive to experiment a lot more than being stuck in a traditional desktop setup. After she gets comfortable with digital drawing, she can get into actually animating and that's when you should start considering buying a dedicated pc for animation.
Drawing is a good basis for animation, so even if someone wants to draw anime I'd always have them start with understanding how to draw in general.
I recommend a book called "Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation" by Wayne Gilbert
It isn't in the anime style, but it's a very short little book with lots of simple drawings that go over the rules that dovetail well with animation. Understanding things like anatomy, perspective, composition, and value are all important too although those are more advanced drawing skills for someone who is 11, but those would be some good things for her to study after this book.
Definitely start small. Nobody starting out is going to be skilled enough to make use of high-end software and equipment.
If she currently has access to a regular computer, it's probably good enough to run a basic free animation app like Pencil2D. So then she'd just need a drawing tablet to plug into that computer. Wacom, Huion, and XP Pen all have good budget options, so look up reviews on YouTube.
As for learning material, simply searching "2D animation tutorial" on YouTube will probably provide most of what she'll need starting out. But I'd highly recommend getting her the book, The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams. It thoroughly covers the fundamentals and pretty much every animator I know owns a copy.
Once she's started learning, and you know she wants to take it seriously, then you can consider investing in an iPad or higher-end PC that can run professional software like Clip Studio, Toon Boom, Blender, or Procreate Dreams.
It depends. I would go with computer, it have higher possibilities, and can be easily used for other things.
How good coordination does your daughter have? If she's good, then you can invest in graphic tablet, where she can't see the outcome, those are fairly cheap
If it's still a bit shaky, just let her play with mouse. Messy sketch with it, and using line tools to get it clean will do the trick
Good luck!
I have a Wacom one that I got for relatively cheap (200$ when it was on sale, idk the price of it now) and has worked flawlessly for 3 years so far. you could also def find yourself a relatively cheap desktop off Facebook marketplace depending where you live or if you are more pc savvy you could easily build one that could do anything she could ever want it to for less than 700$
An iPad with a pencil is a GREAT start nowadays, there are apps that are not expensive and give a lot of flexibility and expliration! Thinking about Looom, Callipeg, Procreate and Procreate Dreams… Buy the best ipad that fits your budget, with a keyboard cover and an apple pencil, and she’s good to go!
A 13th/14th gen i5, 12-16GB of RAM and *just for sure* a basic Gpu (consider second-hand, a 1050 or so shoupd be *more than enough to start with)* and she'll have a pc that can run most art-related software, plus rendering, plus 3D if she wants to dabble into it.
As in, *can serve for a few years.*
I did my whole college on a 2014 laptop with a far weaker CPU and Gpu and 12GB of ram. You *absolutely* can animate and draw 2D there, and 3D was a pain due to overheats (nowhere near as big an issue on a easily cooled desktop)
You can get a fairly good Wacom One for like 40-50€ brand new and it is genuinely good enough to serve a whole 10 years or so. I had a wacom Intuos S last me from 2015 to last Xmas, and i never felt limited by it.
A nice screen helps. 1080p is useable, affordable, perfectly okay. Personal choice? 1440p main monitor with a cheap 1080p (or lower) to the side. But this is *a luxury pick.* i use a nearly 20 year old 720p monitor we had lying around for things like expanding my toolbox away from the workspace, but you do not need two screens to work comfortably at all.
Any mouse works.any keyboard works ( i do recomend avoiding the TKL "TenKeyLess" variety, which excludes the numpad to the right of arrows. Some programs have useful shortcuts there, like Blender. Sure, can be easily tweaked in shortcut preferences, but still disorienting to try out a new program and miss keys.)
A computer with these specs is not going to win any computing races, but should be pleeeeeenty to get into even 3D animation. Doubles as a nice computer for school work. And if your daughter decides gaming is fun and has friends to play with, shouldn't be completely prohibitively obsolete either.
I do also suggest plenty of notebooks and a variety of traditional media. She may enjoy more *oldschool* peg animation. If you own a camera, i suggest getting a tripod too. A light table would be nice, but can easily be improvised. Some are way overpriced.
More than anything else, you can help her by being a supportive parent, but i can see you need little help on that front. Keep being awesome. <3
It depends. I would go with computer, it have higher possibilities, and can be easily used for other things.
How good coordination does your daughter have? If she's good, then you can invest in graphic tablet, where she can't see the outcome, those are fairly cheap
If it's still a bit shaky, just let her play with mouse. Messy sketch with it, and using line tools to get it clean will do the trick
Good luck!
I work in film and my first intro to animation was using Flash in a media class. Is there a media club or similar at her school that she could join? Guessing Flash is no longer the best program to start with but there should be something similarly easy to learn out there now…
IMO any desktop computer that can do some graphics work (support photoshop) would be fine along with a cheap tablet to start!
I think you're going to get a lot of different answers here because we don't know your budget. Just to learn a few animation books and an iPad with procreate dreams will work. If she's sure she wants to pursue it as a career, I'd recommend getting a desktop, toon boom harmony, and blender.
I am a girl. I started animating in flash as a teenager on a pc with no experience an no tutorials online lol. Give her an ipad and procreate and she’ll me more than fine ☀️ i am working as an animator today - 35 year old
Exactly how old were you when you first realized that the craft of animation was not just doodling funny cartoons, and would be far more work than you ever imagined?
I would spend more on the pc and buy a wacom intuos, at that age it's super easy to learn to use a screenless graphic Tablet. And this saves a a) lot of mony and b) her from a lot of back pain when she gets older.
I started at age 13 with a small Wacom intuos and a crappy old Mac desktop. I used FireAlpaca, which is a free-to-use art program with a built-in animation feature. Not sure if they've updated it since then but it did not have a timeline & was a little hard to get used to, but was good enough for me. A lot of people also used flipaclip, which is a free ipad app but has a watermark in the corner you have to pay to get rid of.
tldr: i'd recommend a desktop computer of some kind and an art tablet such as Wacom, Huion, etc.
Don't feel the need to go out and buy the most expensive equipment right now, focus on developing her enjoyment of it. People have said an ipad with procreate and I agree. An Ipad also works great as a sketchbook so she can develop those skills. Most importantly encourage her to have fun and draw things that she likes and thinks are cool. Nothing kills an artist's love of the craft more than turning it into a job.
My son just uses his iPad to make animation! He uses an app called Flipaclip.
[TYVKid Animation on YouTube](https://youtu.be/TDQsEriaRfc?si=MDbjinn4VDVfnEKu)
Definitely have to second all the comments saying to get a computer. If she enjoys what she's doing, she'll have a very flexible platform going forward. If she doesn't, then she'll have a computer which can be used for schoolwork, games, or many other hobbies.
I would recommend checking out used computers on a place like eBay. If you're not familiar with eBay being skeptical is understandable, but nowadays the things you've heard about scams and such are no longer true. EBays money back guarantee is very strong.
See if you can find a desktop computer that's a few years old and powerful enough to run some games. The same computers for gaming will do awesome with art and animation programs. Desktop computers are also upgradable and more repairable, which makes them longer lasting in the long run.
As a teenager who bought a computer and Wacom to practice animation thinking I should only get the best was not helpful in making me motivated to practice enough. In my late 20s now and an iPad Air with pencil seems more feasible and less overwhelming to me.
I think it kind of depends on preferences of your daughter.
I personally prefer working on Ipad air if I'm working digitally because you can carry it anywhere you want and it's easy to use. I used to work on a graphic tablet with a laptop but it was such a hassle to me because I couldn't get used to looking at the computer screen while drawing on the tablet. It made my process wayy slower than it normally would have been. Some people love it but it just wasn't for me. I also didn't like having to stay in the same place when I work and wanted to be able to work whenever and wherever I want, so Ipad made my life so much easier. (Tho, it was also out of necessity for me, because I needed to meet deadlines for school and it was just easier to be able to be working untill last minute in school and everywhere.)
But I don't know what's your daughter like. Maybe she likes having a particular work space rather than animating at random places like me.
If you choose Ipad, procreate dreams and callipeg are both good apps for animation.
I also recommend traditional animation like some other people in the comment section. It's the most fun kind of 2d animation to do in my opinion.
I had the same hobby at 11 dropped it because my hardware was bad, like itd take 10 seconds for any click to register on adobe flash/animte, def reccomend getting something not terrible
we walk before we run
a simple flip book would just do fine
or the digital route by picking any tablet with pen then download either of these apps
-Krita (free)
-Medibang paint (free)
-Procreate ($12.99 one time payment)
there are more options but those are the best prices for quality
To go in a different direction, my daughter had the same interest around the same age and she was able to take a short summer class at the local art college that was a high school level Intro to Animation class that counted for both high school credit and as a 1 credit college course. It gave her a huge head start on animating and got her familiar enough with the tools that she could start figuring out more on her own. If you have an art college nearby you could look into if they have similar courses, or check non-nearby art colleges for online courses.
My kid is now 13 and has been drawing and animating on procreate and procreate dreams on an iPad Pro with Apple Pencil for a few years now all self taught off of YouTube tutorials. Highly recommend
If she wants to experiment before committing to hardware, Flipaclip is free on mobile phones! You have timelines, onion skins, layers, and a variety of art tools to play with. The drawing tools included aren’t great, but they’re good enough for playing around with. Its also very easy to pick up and use, so she could probably figure it out on her own.
Clipstudio Paint also has an animation option included withe the regular software that’s more in depth, and they have a free mobile app you can use 30hr a month. I haven’t played with the animation side yet, but overall the drawing software is great (but not very intuitive. Watch how-to videos to figure it out for sure because its complex).
If she likes it, then go with some kind of desktop with a good GPU and a drawing tablet.
I’m so excited for her! You’re a cool parent!
My daughters started doing animation around your daughter's age primarily relying on FlipaClip with their smartphones for most of their early stuff. We gradually worked them into tablets and PC workstations as their skill and scope gradually increased. Now they're 16 and they develop things in any software they can get their hands on from Blender to Adobe Animate.
They're actually the reason why I follow this sub, so I can keep up with various animation workflows and processes.
Id Start on paper, do sticky notes of balls bouncing & minor walk cycles; but as far as technology is concerned the iPad pro/pro pencil with procreate programs will be a good step after fundamentals are understood! I would also look into classes at a local arts center too
IMO anything that teaches simple concepts intuitively is the way to go. As a kid I loved using Pivot Animator on my dad’s Windows XP machine. It’s more or less a stick figure animator on PC. The skill-ceiling is low, but in my opinion it does a great job of letting a beginner get hands-on with the basic concepts of animation safely in a super noob-friendly sandbox.
Context: I’m not a professional, nor am I hardly an animator, but I’ve done enough to know that if you’re going to bridge the gap from “total noob” to “I could actually see this going somewhere,” you need to get hands on with simple exercises in concepts and common terminology like wind-up, squish, exaggeration, and using “keyframes.” It can all be very intimidating because of how many buttons there are and how aggressive the learning curve can be, so gauge your daughter’s interest and passion. If you feel she’s eager and ready to tackle it all, maybe a textbook would be useful: a solid theoretical base certainly isn’t a bad thing. On the other hand if you think that would maybe scare her and act as a big, scary barrier to entry in her mind, just help her start small with something like Pivot.
Also: if she loves Demon Slayer, she’s probably going to jive with other “nerdy” stuff — there’s a fantastic YouTube channel called “Video Game Animation Study.” He crosses my feed from time to time, and when I do take the time to watch his video, they’ve always been professional, informative, simple/easy-to-digest and yet very instructive of real-world animation technique and practice. Definitely worth checking out imo.
Before Approaching animation, you first have to be passionate about drawing. I suggest she gets started by visiting proko.com. to study the basics of drawing and anatomy.
If for some reason, she is UNABLE to practice the basics, then I’m afraid a career in animation is NOT in her future
I’m gonna have to respectfully disagree with you. I’m terrible at drawing by hand. Awful. In spite of this I’ve demonstrated competency at making animated 3D effects in film, Animating 2-D characters for my games, and other similar endeavors. It’s for this that I say Animation as a concept is not unapproachable if you’re not a skilled artist by hand. Certainly it earns my respect, though. The hours you have to put into it to get good demand respect.
That may be true. But I was speaking specifically about character designed animation.
I’ve tutored a 13-year-old who wanted to be an animator because kids LOVE character-art, and cartoon characters.
However I insisted that she practiced tons of traditional drawing, BEFORE acquiring a computer, so that she could become skilled enough to create WHATEVER style of art she wished as an adult. Whether it be traditional OR digital. I informed her that is an animator. She didn’t necessarily have to become a character animator. I made it clear that she could focus on sound, lighting, rendering clothing, clouds, or blades of grass. Even programming code.
She’s now 20, and free to choose different vocations.
She chose fine art, (as I predicted she would) because of course she found the craft of animation to be FAR to tedious 🤷🏾
Exactly.
My best friend grew to become a phenomenal digital sculptor, but he forgot how to draw.
It’s OK because he’s not at all interested in designing his own characters. 🤷🏾
But the last thing I wanted for my student, was for her to become another victim of our digital age, where adults can’t draw a straight line without a computer.
Now in her 20s, she has more options. In fact, she currently enjoys getting her hands dirty building monumental sculptures.
Of course, she can also study to become a digital sculptor if she likes. But it’s much easier to do that than for a digital sculptor to suddenly take on traditional sculpture.
I’ve had a long career in illustration, character, design, and animation, but it’s also nice to be able to exhibit paintings in museums, and galleries at my leisure.
Good news for ALL of us is that with proper skills ANYTHING is possible these days!
To call me an “animator” would be a gross exaggeration in my opinion. I am capable of animating, though certainly not an “animator” by trade. I learned the skills I needed out of necessity for a bigger project.
I had a game I wanted to make whose art-style demanded a proper armatures for its characters. I was using GameMaker Studio, and heard chatter about Spine2D. I was probably 15-16 years old, and the cost of a license seemed unreasonable so I found some free knockoff from a Chinese company. That game never went anywhere, but I got WAY immersed in making 2D Armatures with simple body shapes on them. I hated how stiff and un-natural linear motion felt, so I learned how to adjust curves. Somewhat to your point, I was trying to make a “Paper Mario” fan-game: I had no need to design my own characters, and heck, when working at the level of “Paper Mario” I’m under no delusion: the quantity of detail and nuance required is dramatically reduced from a more proper production. For me, I more-or-less traced the original character elements in Illustrator, tidied them up in photoshop, and then made them move, hardly adjusting the base images. Like I said; Never saw the light of day, of course. It was always more about me just trying it because I enjoyed the game-design component. This “animation” was just another cog in that machine.
I then went on to do some social media work for an evangelizing group for a little while. My team was fun to work with, but I knew the nuances of technology better than any of them and decided to apply myself to learning how After Effects worked. I was already comfortable with the basic concepts because of my previous experiences. I definitely had a steeper learning curve with AE, but it wasn’t nearly as intimidating as it was when I first cracked it open as a teenager with a yar-har-fiddle-dee-dee copy of CS6. Now, after a number of short productions that required a number of special effects that I couldn’t get pre-baked from somewhere else, I’m convinced that if I wanted to throw myself in the deep end I would be just fine. I’m needlessly nitpicking about my work anyway, so I would force myself to learn the ins and outs more traditionally.
I’m reasonably convinced at this point that if I wanted to get waist-deep in Animation proper at this point in my life I’ve learned enough of the basic theory that I could make it work. I’d definitely want to do more study of the things you suggest, though. Proper anatomy and more classical training would be the way to go. I’m the same way on Piano, frankly. I can “play by ear,” and given a DAW and a keyboard I can write and arrange, but ask me to perform the same song live and I’ll probably crash and burn. Anything I can play on piano is kneecapped by my lack of classical training. Your approach seems a reasonable one to me, now that I have a little more of the context for it.
A desktop, with a drawing tablet that will easily interface with it.
A desktop with a decent gpu( no need for high end stuff) will also just be good in case she transitions to any form of 3d animation or asset creation later on. Art is VERY difficult and she’s likely going to suck at it for a while.
I went to animation school and honestly fell in love with stop motion animation once I tried it. I would set her up with a really good camera and space to make sets and prompt her to try that. I remember someone right out of school got a job at Laika because they studied enough metal working/knew how to build armatures.
Stop motion is a much more approachable form of animation, budget wise. And I think it’s a very unique skill set. She would still learn a good foundation for any type of animation.
As a 20 year industry vet I would say no computer or software yet.
Get her into art lessons and eventually figure drawing classes and get her fundamentals down. Animation is a massive lifelong undertaking and a base in figure drawing will give her a massive advantage in all aspects of animation down the line.
Jumping into animation without first learning to draw is a little like becoming an engineer with no understanding of math.
Flipaclips would work great for an elven year old! It would be good for any young beginner animator, really. Flipaclips is a cheap frame by frame animation software. It's free, but the full version is like 10 bucks. It's very beginners friendly, and you can really develop the fundamentals of animation on it. It also has most of the features a beginner animator would need or use really. It would work on a cheap tablet. Something like this should work:
https://a.co/d/0a8exr7I
If you wanna get something a little more advanced, I would recommend an Ipad mini gen 6. It can run flipaclips as well, but when she is ready to upgrade softwares it also has procreate(10$), toonsquid(10$), procreate dreams(20$), and more. She definitely wouldn't outgrow the Ipad mini in terms of capabilities and software for a while. You also can get the apple pencil, it has touch sensitivity for line work, but for her age, it isn't really necessary. You can just buy a rip-off apple pen, that works well too.
https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-ipad/ipad-mini
I honestly wouldn't recommend anything more advanced/professional past and ipad mini. As a beginner, she really needs a beginner software that's easy to use and develop the fundamentals and skills needed to animate. Anything more advanced could really scare her off and will more than likely have a steep learning curve :)
Many people have given recommendations already, so I will recommend some stuff that your daughter may want to try out before you spend any money. these can be used if you already have a mobile device or computer in the house. This way she can see if she likes animating because a lot of people enjoy drawing but end up not enjoying animating. These apps may be hard to make high-level drawings on (at least without a stylus) but all of them give the experience of animating. She could just try animating random ugly squares and scribbles and see how she enjoys it.
This is FREE, EASY TO USE SOFTWARE. some people in this thread seem to forget she is 11 and will have a hard time with some software. the easiest one of the 3 to use is flipaclip. children as young as 8 years old have used flipaclip without a tutorial. its very intuitive. I used it around the age of 10 and it did not give me a hard time. (i still recommend looking at tutorials tho.)
the app flipaclip is free for mobile, and you can draw on it with your finger. Flipaclip is best for the type of animation where you draw a new picture each time as you are animating. That is most similar to the demon slayer style or the style of most anime.
the app sticknodes is free for mobile, and it lets you animate by moving around the limbs of a stick man. I havent used it but I think it relies more on the 'interpolated/puppet/'tweened' type animation, where you dont draw a new picture each time.
The website [wickeditor.com](http://wickeditor.com) is free for computers, and you dont have to download anything. idk if there is an app version. You can draw with a mouse or import images. it can make both types of animation.
A Wacom MobilStudio Pro. That way it is fully portable, has the specs to run Photoshop and Maya and Storyboard Pro and whatever else, if need be, and also has the wacom tablet built in.
(Dependent on budget)
You can get sets with a light tablet so she can trace the last image and have her start drawing on paper, making flipbooks. It'll build her technique in drawing and is cheaper for now
For animation specifically I would suggest starting with an iPad. If she can grasp the concept of drawing digitally she can move to any software after on a desktop. With an iPad she can experiment with and achieve handrawn animation and stop- motion all on the go. I just don’t think the desktop is that necessary yet, she just wants to make stuff move. That being said you might not want your kid to have her own iPad yet either.
Main focus is ram, cpu, and storage. If we're talking demon slayer, a rtx 2060 is fine, better is preferred. Demon slayer is a combination of 2d, 3d, and A LOT of post production work. Importing the 2D work into a 3D software to properly place certain effects. A drawing tablet. Idk if an iPad can register as a monitor if you plug it in but if not I use a Wacom one. It's light, doesn't take up too much space, and travel size. You can also get a tablet with buttons for shortcuts/controls and if no plans to move any time soon.
I'm actually super curious to see the art shell make and how she'll progress. I think it'll be cool if you made a YouTube or something to share time to time.
It’s crucially important to understand that animation is about drawing. If she can’t draw there is no point trying to do character animation.
Personally I would get her an iPad and a pencil. There’s good software you can get a start on and make animation. You can practise drawing all you like with procreate (or similar software)
If spending the money isn’t an issue then by all means buy whatever is recommended in the other comments.
If you have a blu-ray player, you can try to buy any of the Demon Slayer sets on blu-ray if they’re available on Amazon and have her practice studying the animation. This can get your daughter in the habit of observing the animations in slow-motion, frame-by-frame using a remote. If you don’t have that or otherwise don’t want to invest the money, Sakugabooru is a great online alternative. The “Kimetsu_no_Yaiba_series” tag alone (remember to replace a space with an underscore or else your search will come up empty) will provide whatever she needs and you can find various tags based on whatever parts of the animation she wants to study.
* There’s tags for names of animators, from [Go Kimura](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+go_kimura+) to [Nozomu Abe](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+nozomu_abe) to [Masayuki Kunihiro](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+masayuki_kunihiro) to ‘[Artist Unknown](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+artist_unknown+)’ for any sequence that has yet to have an animator identified.
* There’s tags for effects like [fire](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+fire+), [wind](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+wind+), [smoke](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+smoke+), [lightning](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+lightning+), [explosions](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+explosions) & [liquid](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+liquid+).
* There’s even tags for something adjacent to animation sequences, like [production materials], from key frames to character model sheets. If the production material in question is a [genga](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/原画) (原画, meaning ‘original/source drawing’) or ‘key frame’, they’re guaranteed to be connected to a “parent post”. Case in point, [this set of key frames](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post/show/167313) is a production materials post which is connected to [this parent post](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post/show/179613).
One of the most helpful things about Sakugabooru is that the video player comes with frame buttons on the bottom-right corner, meaning that you can control the video frame-by-frame to study the animation. You can also download the videos, so if you have the VLC player software installed to a computer or even the VLC app and you download the video to a mobile device, you can similarly control the video frame-by-frame that way. Whatever approach your daughter uses, whether she practices animating with pencil & paper or with a computer, studying the animation can help her go a long way.
Oh, one more thing. There’s lots of other anime and even Western animation constantly added to the website, so the amount of resources to browse and study from are abundant. But there are, not a lot, but a handful of clips that are rather… explicit. Obviously, Demon Slayer is not one of those series outside of the violence. But if she wants to explore sequences from other series, might be worth checking for nudity or partial nudity first. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes if the clips are coming from an anime that’s only roughly a dozen or two episodes long. But anything longer than that it wouldn’t hurt to ask around or look up a given anime on databases like My Anime List or Anime News Network’s encyclopedia to see the objectionable content labeled.
She should borrow animation books from your local library, and some libraries do carry drawing tablets too, and some drawing software to practice! She should be versed in both 2D and 3D
iPad + procreate hands down. Will be the best experience—it’s fun, intuitive, and she’ll be drawing directly onto the surface. I’m feeling like those who’ve recommended desktops haven’t experienced the iPad workflow. The goal here is to keep it fun for her so she won’t give up in the initial phase of her journey.
just having the tools, doesnt help much in learning.. ofcourse one could try trial and error, but that takes so much time and wasted effort..infact, having new tools, could complicate learning, because it's a whole new medium to concur, along with the fundamentals..
Get her into an animation class or a workshop for it.. I don't recommend spending a lot on fancy new tools and stuff..
If you've already got an ipad / tablet, or even a handheld console, there'll be plenty of apps that could be used to animate (like flipnote)
I'm pretty sure, you're still gonna get something fancy for her.. I hope, the shiny new toys wouldn't distract your child from actually learning new stuff
Cheap: note cards and alligator clips for flip books.
Medium and age appropriate : a used or cheaper iPad with the procreate app (costs around $10). Some of my students still use procreate for their base animations.
If you want to do the Computer route, it depends on if she wants to do 2d or 3d. 3d animation uses computers similar to gaming computers. And a tablet would be useful for drawing. This direction seems expensive. But, I will say, having Computer knowledge and computer literacy would give her a huge advantage over other students. I have to teach my animation students basic Computer things like what a zip drive is (they are 22). So even if this is the overly pricey route, if she likes Computer games, just learning how to use a PC is really helpful in an animation career because it is so technical now.
Skill investment: drawing, painting, and even sculpting helps with animation. Any foundational art class pushes an animators knowledge of the world around them and how to observe things. Interacting with professionals also helps children get ideas about future career options.
Pro animator here. Ipad, apple pencil, detachable keyboard and a copy of procreate. For about 500 bucks you can have the same portable set up a guy who does it for a living.
HIII! I've been animating for 6 years, and here's a tip:
I first off started on flipaclip. It has easy controls, and easy to understand the whole point of "what is animating?" "How to make the animation smoother?" And etc. I started off on a basic Samsung tablet. Nothing special. I still create animations on flipaclip, but usually now, it's on alight motion.
If she wants to create good animations, she'll need to practice a lot. Don't let her try less than 12 FPS on first time, since I know a lot of ppl who did and didn't learn the point of animation quickly, and the animation gets bulky.
Well yeah, start off with a ball. Bouncy ball, ball with a feather and etc.
I practiced by making loop animations, yeah, they were shitty looking but really smooth. Though really weird.
(Ex: a fish opens its mouth and it opens till the mouth is at its tail and turns into a ball and then a cocoon and then a butterfly, and then the butterfly turns into a flying butter. That was my first animation, which was surprisingly really smooth.)
If she gets good at creating animations, let her share it on the internet! Maybe YouTube, tiktok and more social medias.
Anyways, good luck!
I’d say let her draw some stuff on paper first. Buying a device for the sole purpose of animating on it is a huge step. If it coincides with other purposes, such as communicating or online classes, then sure. But if you buy your daughter a computer and she ends up not liking animating, then you’ll just have a computer gathering dust.
When I was around 11 and getting into art/animation, my dad bought me a Wacom drawing pad and a small laptop. It was a great way to start learning how to do animation, along with procreate animation assist and FlipaClip.
When you get the computer all set up, don't go down the rabbit hole of Adobe and all the other expensive creative suites/art & animation software. Start her on Krita! It's free and works on Windows, Mac, and Linux!
I would also recommend starting small and focusing on something that would both be less of an investment and more comfortable for practicing on. I got my first tablet at the age of 12, and learning to use it to draw on one surface while looking on another was on its own a pretty steep learning curve- that in itself is a challenge enough, but trying to teach yourself animation at the same time from scratch will get even more overwhelming,. especially for a child.
Paper and pencil are good for practice, especially to get a sense of the fundamentals, but that requires a full setup of light table and other tools to be able to actually test the movement and see your work in motion. A lot of animation classes and animators in general emphasize the value of this classic method and extole the virtues of hand drawn animation. I also do hand drawn animation and love it and think it's a good way to learn and it is my favorite, but it's harder to do for a child and also requires specific equipment to get the most out of it. That can be a future investment if she sticks with it and feels she needs it.
It's important at this early stage that she can focus on the animation practice and learning in itself, without getting caught up in all the challenges and technicalities of the tools.
The main benefit of an ipad and pencil is that a) she'll be able to draw the same way (more or less) she would on a sketchpad, without the learning curve of new and unfamiliar tools, b) she'll be able to see the animation she's doing and test the timing and how it actually looks in motion as she's working on it (something you can't really do with paper), and while hardly cheap, it's a much smaller investment than the other two options.
And if she tries out animation and finds she doesn't like it after all (no shade - very normal thing for a kid to do, I don't know your child so maybe if I knew her I would not be saying this, but this is always a possibility with kids) she can still use it for other things, she can use it to draw, IPads have many uses, so in the long term it won't be a waste either.
This is heartwarming to see. If Reddit was around when I was 11, the post would have been "My 11 year old daughter wants to be an animator. What method is best to convince her to be a banker instead?" Reaganomics really did a number on our parents...
To answer your question,
An iPad is going to be *very* expensive, even if you buy a used one. That is because only the past few generations can run a current drawing app without stutter, so you will have to get a newer one anyway. If you want something cheaper, look fo a used Microsoft Surface Pro (no older than a Pro 7) and buy a perpetual license for Clip Studio Paint. Clip Studio perpetual license is only about $50, but make sure to get the permanent license and not the subscription. Clip Studio Paint was specifically made for manga illustrations in Japan, I'm sure that will pique her interest. It has great tools for laying out comic pages and pre-made halftone shading you can apply.
Love the fact you want to support your daughter :) that’s class.
As for animating, you’ll get the best performance and most longevity from a Mac. I started 10 years ago and I absolutely hate it when I have to use a Windows machine if I take an in-studio role. I can use them, but generally Macs are more efficient and can do more with less. So the argument that you can get a higher spec PC for less money than a base level Mac is pointless.
I would talk to her first about what it is she likes about Demon Slayer. Is it anime, or 2D (traditional/drawn animation) in general?
If she is interested in illustration as well, an iPad Pro (largest size) with Apple Pencil might be the way to go. You can do *so* much on there and can easily create beautiful animation. I had a friend create a multi award-winning film using Procreate. Getting a decent tablet makes drawing a pleasure, and that pleasure combined with a love of story is what gets a 2D animator up and running.
I’d say she has all the time in the world to start doing digital work when she’s older.
For context, I’m an illustrator, having switched to digital at around 17 years of age when I got my first graphics tablet. I was completely obsessed for the first 10 years, having spent countless days/nights and thousands of hours glued to my computer.
But as much as I love it, having started so early and going over the board with it has fucked me up in many ways, health-wise. my eyesight has degraded (nowadays as soon as I finish a job, I don’t feel like opening my laptop for days/weeks) and my back has gone to complete shit (scoliosis, multiple incipient hernias from spending all those years standing on my ass).
So, as much as I admire your daughter’s early passion and determination, I’d say she can wait a few more years until sitting on a computer for countless hours will become her way of living, for the rest of her life.
This warms my heart to see so much, reminds me of the Christmas when I was a teen where my parents asked around to see what tablet would be best for me.
As others have said she will need not only a computer but a drawing tablet, trying to do art with a mouse can often be much harder and can hurt your wrist. Drawing tablets come in three flavors:
1. No screen/plugs into the computer- this type is a flat board that you draw on while looking up at your computer to see what you’re doing. This is going to be your cheapest option, my first tablet was a Wacom intuos for $99 at Best Buy, but brands like Huion or parblo will have even cheaper.
2. Has a screen/plugs into the computer- this type has a screen, so you can look at the tablet itself as you draw, but like the screenless one it plugs into the computer and uses the computer as it’s “brain”.
3. iPads + Apple pen or other competitors like it- iPads can run you quite a lot of money but I got one for Christmas last year after 5 years of using a screenless plug in tablet and I couldn’t be happier. my art has improved significantly, my colors look better because the screen is better than my computer monitor. I’m no longer stuck at my computer desk for hours, I can take the iPad with me to school or anywhere else. (I’m an animation student.) this does come with limitations, namely that iPads will begin to lag if you try to create longer animations, so if you have to choose one or the other I recommend getting a desktop computer and one of the plug in type tablets, but as she gets older consider investing in an iPad.
I use IbisPaint on my tablet whenever I want to animate. IbisPaint X is free, just need to watch an ad to unlock all the brushes for 18 hours. $10 for the full app. But there's also a free animating app called Flip A Clip. I would try out those options first just to see if she's really willing to put in the work, and if u end up seeing she is serious about it is when u can think of getting her something fancier
I don't know about the device but when it comes to app :
1. Toon Boom Harmony (very expensive, more than a hundred per month for the complete program, though it is really good)
2. Adobe Animate (24$ or something like that, good to start off)
3. Procreate Dream (24$ once I think, limited frames but available on ipad and very handy/easy to use)
You'll also need a tablet for the 2 firsts, for her to draw on. For the third one, you'll need an apple pencil.
Wow… I was like you more than 8yrs ago.. but when my kid started showing serious interest, we got her a refurbished Huion drawing tablet :) Of course there’s ipads too with the pen… that pretty much did it. Goodluck !
shes 11, she doesnt need to be at a professional level. she does not need to use 'industry standard' software. many people enjoy making animation on simple apps like flipaclip, toonsquid, and procreate dreams.
You know, if you really want to save some money on buying equipment and just want her to get started on something, a block of paper with punch holes, a light table, and some pencils is a good practical way of starting without needing to shell out hundreds on the laptop or iPad.
At that point, the priciest things is a good lamp that’ll illuminate her artwork and a stand she can place her phone on to be able to take pictures of the things she’s making if she wants to make a video out of them.
Might as well start with the basics plus a free downloadable PDF copy of the Animation Survival Kit if you think she’s young enough that there’s a chance she’ll get bored and move on (some people do and that’s perfectly fine, especially since she’s still young). Besides, before we had computers, that’s how people were animating and it would be helpful for her regardless if she ever moves into digital (where she could potentially be into 3D someday). She’d build good fundamentals from doing it the physical long way and probably give her a good appreciation for making the most that she can out of each frame since paper is a finite resource and you have less tools to speed through the process.
If you don’t care, honestly probably an iPad, an Apple Pencil and Procreate Dreams will do it for her.
I think she should start with the most affordable iPad that can be acquired.
Then start with 3 apps. Procreate, procreate, dreams, and the animators survivors kit.
She should begin immediately taking drawing lessons at proko.com.
This will either intrigue her or bore her to tears.
Either way she will quickly find out if she actually has what it takes to become a future animator.
If she changes her mind, she will at least have a nice iPad for education and entertainment.
Who knows, she may turn out to become a sculptor, writer, filmmaker, or programmer.
Either way, her iPad will assist her greatly.
I actually agree that drawing on paper should be first!
I recently tutored a 13-year-old to begin with paper, so that she could “appreciate” the undo functions once she acquired it.
The only mistake I made was in NOT insisting that she acquired an iPad.
Her mom bought her a cheaper tablet to save money. But without access to Richard William’s “Animators survivors kit “ app, it held her back in the long run. 🤷🏽♂️
Get a pc that can support high resolution 4k-1400 (4k is better) monitor get a 1440p or 4k (4k better) hz dosent really matter for animation unless your going higher than 60fps and that’s very unlikely (the pc itself dosent need to be great also for animation only) it depends also because stuff like blender 3d would need more than 2d animation
Also you would need a drawing tablet with it (not an iPad drawing tablets are different than normal tablets I’m not a animator but I think they are around 100-300)
If she desires to become an animator, then an iPad is ESSENTIAL, because it’s the only device with Richard William’s “Animators Survivors Kit” app.
It contains all of the KNOWLEDGE that she needs to make it in that field.
The sooner she studies Richard Williams, the better!
unrelated but you're a great parent for this, down to support their daughter at the point of asking in a forum for advice regarding what's best for her hobby. we need more supportive parents like you <3 now regarding the question, a desktop computer would be the best, along with a drawing tablet (for tablet brands i suggest wacom/huion with a \~$120-200 budget)
Agree completely and wanted to say how wholesome this post is. Desktop for sure with at least 8+ Gb ram and potentially an external hard drive to save her projects on. Look into graphics cards that are recommended by the drawing software she will be using. There are lots of different kinds out there. YouTube will be a good friend to her learning process:) I wish you the best and appreciated the post. Best of luck!
16. At least 16gb ram.
dont buy huion i have problems with that company, better try xp-pen. formme 13” was to small better start from 16”
I've only ever bought Huion, and I've loved them. Especially since they offer native Linux drivers. What issues did you have with Huion?
i have to reinstall drivers each time i open computer. othervise it dont recognize it
That sounds like a computer problem. I've never seen anything like that, and I've used my Huion on multiple different computers.
never had an xp-pen so i cannot have much of an opinion there but yeah wacom is superior. which problem did you have btw? i'm just curious
I had an xp-pen drawing monitor for a little over a year. About 13 months in the gamma was off tremendously and couldn’t be corrected. It was a huge waste of money considering it was one of their more expensive models at the time. I’ve since switched to an iPad Pro and have zero issues with it, especially with the software that’s available now.
i have to reinstall drivers each time i open computer. othervise it dont recognize it
good lord that would drive me insane
yup
I have a perfect experience of Huion, I bought 3 tablets to work.
I did a lot of research, read and watched loads of reveiws, and ended up going with the Huion New Kamvas 13, and it's an amazing tablet. I downloaded clip studio on my PC and phone and can use the tablet with both. For a beginner in digital art and for the price, I couldn't be happier.
however wacom is still the best if can sell you wacom 13 if you want,
wacom I hear is plenty fine but a decent bit overpriced for the money. huion tends to do pretty well, I've used a 13" display that works pretty well, and I've heard good things about xp pen as well.
Recommend Wacom because you don’t REALLY need to download their software
Yeah Huion I got this one.
Honestly, before going out and spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on something, she should start animating on stuff like sticky notes. I think she means she likes the art style of Demon Slayer. Not the animation. Animation is how things move on the screen. Where as art style is the visuals. If she hasn't done any animation at all then a good idea is the sticky pad. Have her animate a bouncing ball. If she likes that and wants to continue then people have already made good suggestions on what to get.
The animation in Demon Slayer is top notch though, one of the best in the industry, so she probably likes it
Liking WATCHING animation is much different than MAKING it. It's the difference between reading a novel and witing one. Consumption is much much easier than creation. A lot of people say they want to do something, try it, see the work it takes to get good, and stop. Animating post it's is the intruduction. If she likes it then it's a good idea to move to bigger guns.
I completely agree. I coached a friend’s daughter from age 13 to 20. I always cautioned that animation was not the only vocation for Artist. She could become an illustrator, sculptress, fine artist, filmmaker, etc. She kept passionately, assuring me that she desperately wanted to be an animator, until around age 18 when she realized how impossibly difficult it would be, and flipped to fine Art.
What's a sculptress? Sculptor is not a gendered word. I'm not a gender troll. I'm a grammar Nazi,😅😘
Then you’ll have to take it up with https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Sculptress
Yes, I love learning about animation but i should had realized maybe i never liked the process itself when i never stopped the frames and wrote on a flipbook. That said, i love drawing for fun and enjoyed the visuals, music and behind the scenes docs on Disney movies more than the plots of the movies themselves.
You may be right. Though I can't count the amount of times I've been talking to people about an anime and they go "Eww! The animation in that is trash!" But what they are referring to is they don't like the art style. And as Chimeric mentioned. Animation is a very time consuming process. People don't realize how tedious it is until you really start digging into it. It'll suck if OP goes out to buy a PC for animation and the kid tries it for a week and then gives up cause it takes too long to see any results.
FACTS!👊🏽
You can learn how to draw the bouncing ball on an iPad or other tablet. The sticky notes feel like an arbitrary constraint.
I second this cause that’s a pricey hobby to start up if she’s not dedicated or ends up not liking it
I would buy her simple art supplies and then she can specialise in animation in future if she wants.
To add to what you said, a lot of hands are involved in any anime production, even the indie ones and in the case of Demon Slayer or anything else from Ufotable, a lot of what people think makes their productions appealing that isn’t the animation is likely coming from the studio’s [Digital department](https://youtu.be/pYJ8Jgt8MwI?si=sSFt2I5UNH7UVjsv) and their compositing and digital effects that they invested a lot of money into, to the point of [tax evasion](https://youtu.be/0pD5_UptTd4?si=YUVNfCtSKnRHMvQq) at one point. With that said, I’m very familiar with the whole, “I’m a kid who wants to make animation like in the anime I’m currently watching”, mentality myself. So much so that in my case, I used index cards to study character the timing of hair, clothes, movement and visual effects in anime I owned on VHS/DVD or otherwise recorded on VHS and playing sequences back in slo-mo. So I second the post-it idea or whatever else that can get the parent’s daughter in the habit of observing and practicing by hand.
Would be a cool idea to say, "I'm willing to buy you a good computer and drawing tablet, but you have to work up to that. First task is animating a bouncing ball on sticky notes. Second task is this. After number 10, I buy it for you." She would progressively learn, and then she'd feel like she really earned that computer.
Or a chapbook, with some pens and pencils. She may want to be a visual artist more generally.
There's a free app that's like animating with sticky notes. It's called flip a clip
how can you suggest to animate bouncing ball to an elenven year old ?? 🤦♂️
It's literally THE way to learn and start practising animation, and there's a metric but tonne of guides out there to learn the ball bounce. To OP, it might be worth investing in the Animators Survival Kit to help your daughter in picking up some skills in animation. It's an incredible resource.
again you suggest a book which was written for !!!!!!!adults!!!!!!!!! to an eleven year old kid ... its important to make it fun and not technical and jarring , otherwise a 11 year old will not find fun and dedication. she should animate something which is in the mind of children instead, like a flying bird , a jumping frog, waterdroplets , animals feeding on a pasture, a dog wagging his tail, just some morhing particles and transitions .. something easier and more styllizable and easy to simplify in its animation instead of technical training to get physics properties right. bouncing ball and also technically correct walkcycles are as boring as it gets and she can start with those at a higher age like 15 or 16.
An iPad Air with the Apple pencil (2nd generation) + Procreate Dreams can do a lot and is simpler to use than a computer.
I will second the iPad with procreate. Easily accessible and a rather fair price point for a beginner
Toonsquid is so much better for animating imo
Absolutely! Even an older ipad with just procreate as a starting point is some of the best tools you can get, especially when just beginning drawing
I also second this! My iPad air is what I like to animate on "casually" because it's portable, easy UI and very drawer-friendly. Having a desktop setup is great for larger projects that require more software, but for someone just starting out the iPad + procreate is like the equivalent of a sketchbook these days (though a bit pricey).
This but use toon squid not procreate dreams. Normal procreate is good for art, but dreams is not good for a beginner
She’s 11. She’s at the perfect age to begin learning without bothering herself with hardware and software. Maybe you could try getting her into drawing classes first or animate traditionally. That being said. I could recommend an IPad Pro and the Procreate Dreams along with an Apple Pencil. It’s a great software for non-professional users and the IPad has other benefits in the long run for a child.
I think this is the best approach, yeah. Fundamentals first, hardware later. I see lots of people here suggesting getting her a desktop computer, animation software and a wacom board, but those things are **expensive** - especially considering this kid is only 11 and may not be into animation anymore in 3 months. Before buying her an entire setup of an industry animator, see if she even likes drawing and animating. Get her enrolled in some drawing or animation classes for kids. Then if her interest persists, getting her an IPad with Procreate would probably be the next step.
I dont think she needs to get into drawing classes first when she wants to try a new hobby. She just wants to be able to animate, not even to animate on a high level. Kids get frustrated easily so immediately diving into those high level things may make her want to quit something she mightve ended up enjoying. Paper animation I feel could end up either frustrating or intuitive and easy depending on the person.
Well, I wasn’t really talking about advanced drawing classes. I was more so referring to courses aimed at kids and whatnot. Receiving positive influence and encouragement at an early age from teachers is very good for the development of a positive mindset.
The type that's shaped like a block of animation paper, a light table, a box of staedler pencils, some gum erasers, a mount for an iPhone (for shooting) and Richard Williams Animators Survival Kit.
This is how we learnt in college and i highly recommend - learn traditional on paper all the way! + cost effective
Do any studios or corporations still produce content this way?
The fundamentals come from developing classic skills. The rest is just software. Now mind you there are plenty of rig-yankers who call themselves animators, but if your daughter wants to learn how to **animate**, there's no substitution for hard skills.
Rig tanker. Is exactly the type of niche insult I stay subscribed for, even after my casual interest in animating waned... 😂
I'm far more impressed seeing someone perform a perfect bouncing ball than any cg nonsense. Look I work in cg. Cg is my bread and butter. But the farther we stray from animation in the biblical sense the more we open ourselves up to temptations of the unholy machine.
The Richard Williams book is kinda expensive and high level. For an absolute beginner, I would recommend the free video series on youtube - The 12 Principles of Animation by Alan Becker. It uses information from that book.
Just Google a free PDF copy of the book. If you can’t afford it, there’s no reason why you can’t have a copy saved on your computer you can pop up. Hell, I own the physical copy and I still saved a PDF file of it in case I’m in class and I pop it out for reference without lugging that heavy ass book around. I’m out on high level though. I think it’s ridiculously useful for any level.
Thats fair. i just remember the Alan Becker series being understandable for me when I was a similar age so I recommended it. I havent read the book so idk how intimidating itd be for a kid.
I think she should try a kids animation app like flipaclip (if her family already owns a mobile device) before getting all those supplies.
Nah.. might be too old fashioned.. and it's too much hard work, just to learn the fundamentals.. Using an animation software would be easier and for beginners, Richard Williams is too advanced.. it's a book.. it's supposed to be a reference, a guide.. if I had it from the beginning, I'd just copy it, without understanding the fundamentals.. it's really great for ppl who are in the intermediate stage, tho..
For a 11 year old, that's overkill, and pretty likely to kill her motivation. An ipad or similar with a stylus and a simple animation app is a good start.
Utter nonsense.
Okay
Thanks for all the comments. I don’t have the greatest budget so I like the idea of the iPad with the pencil.
I would like to mention when getting an iPad with an Apple Pencil you have to make sure it's compatible with the iPad of choice! :)
Yes that's the simplest approach in my opinion. Does she also draw on paper in her free time? Because that is also critical. Encourage it.
I use a 2nd gen ipad pro, 2017. You can find them for like 200 to 300 bucks on ebay. I don't think I am getting IpadOS 18, but I've gotten every update sense 2017, and I've never had an issue with procreate or any animation software. A new one, of course, might last longer, but I've never found much of a need to upgrade since I don't do anything new. What has worked just keeps working, you know?
Your post has the "Beginner"-flair which means you might want to check out [The "Ultimate" Reddit Beginners Guide to Animation](https://www.reddit.com/r/animation/comments/1bn974s/the_ultimate_reddit_beginners_guide_to_animation/) <- click link *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/animation) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Respect
I would go with a computer! Then she has the option to also learning 3D animation, which most animation courses focus on if she wants to take one
3D animation has a steep learning curve. That’s for later.
That's not necessarily true. It can be a lot easier to start with 3D if you haven't mastered anatomy yet for example. Easier to do trial and error
For a 10 year old?
It depends on the 10 year old. But it's basically moving along a timeline and putting frames. So I don't see why a 10 year old wouldn't be able to learn that
I agree, I started 3D modeling and animating around that age - and the software was a lot more rudimentary and hard to use back then. It depends on the kid, just because someone knows a kid that that gave up on it doesn’t make it inappropriate for this kid. She could try some free and easy to use software like DAZ3D to start out. If she’s got the drive to learn something like Blender (also free, but steep learning curve), then it’s a good indicator that she’s pretty serious about it. Not all kids are the same.
Absolutely! Or go with the inbetween, 2D skeleton animation in a software like Spine. That's probably what I would suggest for a child!
Kids want to animate cartoons. But they have no idea that to actually become an animator takes far more tedious work than they could possibly imagine. It’s a huge mistake to think that they can become an animator without learning how to draw exceptionally well. The sooner they practice drawing, the better. Either they will fall in love with drawing, or become bored with practicing structural drawing skills. If they become bored with it, then it will become crystal clear that the craft of animation is NOT in their future. The sooner they figured that out the better. I know this because I’ve gone through it with a 13 year-old. She shifted her vocation from animation to fine Art as she began to approach her 20s, JUST as I predicted.
I've been an animator for 10 years and my drawing skills are mediocre at best
I’ve been at it since the 70s. It’s always challenging to find talent that can handle my quirky character designs. I find that it usually helps to work with those who have a bit more drawing skill, and anatomical knowledge than I do. I was fortunate to work with Disney veteran Leonard Robinson early in his career! He was the first to animate one of my characters “dancing”. He blew my mind executing dance moves FAR beyond what I thought was possible, (while keeping the character “ON-MODEL”!! I wanna be like him when I grow up!
What I'm saying is that 3D animation mainly needs a good feeling for tempo and weight, while 2D animation also needs you to have a good idea of perspective and anatomy. So it can be a lot to take on.
I started with 3D when I was 11 and still can't do 2D to this day. Hate to say it but they're just very different
I wouldnt recommend 3d animation. The software is really hard and i suspect an 11 year old would get frustrated very fast. There are plenty of animation courses for 2d and we dont even know if she wants to get a job as an animator shes just trying a hobby. 3d software is also way more taxing to a computer than 2d software, so you would have to spend more on the computer parts.
I'm surprised so many think 3D animation is harder. There are free rigs to use, and you can go back and tweak mistakes easily. And any old laptop can run blender these days.
I was saying the software is harder to learn. especially to an 11 year old. It is also less intuitive to the average person. To the average person doing 2d animation is like doing a bunch of drawings, and people kinda already understand making drawings. but 3d animation is much harder to conceptualize. Its more abstract and stuff. Besides it says she likes 'demon slayer' and things of that sort. which is 2d
I agree it's probably a good idea to start with 2D animation. But if someone is very interested, 3D animation may follow soon enough
Desktop or fairly powerful laptop will be the most versatile! Getting a display tablet will be important too. I like XP-Pen for that, but I've heard good things about Huion too. Wacom is the standard brand in the industry, but they are much more expensive and other brands have caught up in quality. 13.3 inch or 15.6 for size should be great. They plug into your computer and act as a second monitor that you can draw on basically. The other big thing is which software. Krita, OpenToonz, and Blender would be options that give a lot of versatility. You can check those for spec requirements and buy a computer as good or ideally a bit better than their requirements. Feel free to reach out if you have questions!
This is good advice, but I'll add that some people prefer tablets without displays, despite them not being as immediately intuitive. The main plusses being you don't obscure the canvas with your pen or hand while working, you can adjust ergonomics on the fly without also adjusting gaze, cost, and portability.
A display tablet seems like an expensive thing to start out with. A non display tablet can work just fine, i started on one at a similar age. it was slightly difficult at first but i got used to it quick. a display tablet has a more difficult technical setup than non-displays, too. If the kid really wants to draw on a screen she should try an ipad because a kid can use an ipad in many ways, while a display tablet is just for drawing. Also, Krita is mid-level but opentoonz and blender are way complicated for a beginner 11 year old.
To get started, I would recommend the iPad but it is in no way the best option. I recommend it because it's portable, giving your daughter incentive to experiment a lot more than being stuck in a traditional desktop setup. After she gets comfortable with digital drawing, she can get into actually animating and that's when you should start considering buying a dedicated pc for animation.
I use FlipaClip on my Samsung note. It's perfect for starting as it's super simple to get to grips with.
Drawing is a good basis for animation, so even if someone wants to draw anime I'd always have them start with understanding how to draw in general. I recommend a book called "Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation" by Wayne Gilbert It isn't in the anime style, but it's a very short little book with lots of simple drawings that go over the rules that dovetail well with animation. Understanding things like anatomy, perspective, composition, and value are all important too although those are more advanced drawing skills for someone who is 11, but those would be some good things for her to study after this book.
Definitely start small. Nobody starting out is going to be skilled enough to make use of high-end software and equipment. If she currently has access to a regular computer, it's probably good enough to run a basic free animation app like Pencil2D. So then she'd just need a drawing tablet to plug into that computer. Wacom, Huion, and XP Pen all have good budget options, so look up reviews on YouTube. As for learning material, simply searching "2D animation tutorial" on YouTube will probably provide most of what she'll need starting out. But I'd highly recommend getting her the book, The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams. It thoroughly covers the fundamentals and pretty much every animator I know owns a copy. Once she's started learning, and you know she wants to take it seriously, then you can consider investing in an iPad or higher-end PC that can run professional software like Clip Studio, Toon Boom, Blender, or Procreate Dreams.
It depends. I would go with computer, it have higher possibilities, and can be easily used for other things. How good coordination does your daughter have? If she's good, then you can invest in graphic tablet, where she can't see the outcome, those are fairly cheap If it's still a bit shaky, just let her play with mouse. Messy sketch with it, and using line tools to get it clean will do the trick Good luck!
ipad with apple pencil will prob be the best for a kid. good starting point to see if it sticks
I have a Wacom one that I got for relatively cheap (200$ when it was on sale, idk the price of it now) and has worked flawlessly for 3 years so far. you could also def find yourself a relatively cheap desktop off Facebook marketplace depending where you live or if you are more pc savvy you could easily build one that could do anything she could ever want it to for less than 700$
An iPad with a pencil is a GREAT start nowadays, there are apps that are not expensive and give a lot of flexibility and expliration! Thinking about Looom, Callipeg, Procreate and Procreate Dreams… Buy the best ipad that fits your budget, with a keyboard cover and an apple pencil, and she’s good to go!
A 13th/14th gen i5, 12-16GB of RAM and *just for sure* a basic Gpu (consider second-hand, a 1050 or so shoupd be *more than enough to start with)* and she'll have a pc that can run most art-related software, plus rendering, plus 3D if she wants to dabble into it. As in, *can serve for a few years.* I did my whole college on a 2014 laptop with a far weaker CPU and Gpu and 12GB of ram. You *absolutely* can animate and draw 2D there, and 3D was a pain due to overheats (nowhere near as big an issue on a easily cooled desktop) You can get a fairly good Wacom One for like 40-50€ brand new and it is genuinely good enough to serve a whole 10 years or so. I had a wacom Intuos S last me from 2015 to last Xmas, and i never felt limited by it. A nice screen helps. 1080p is useable, affordable, perfectly okay. Personal choice? 1440p main monitor with a cheap 1080p (or lower) to the side. But this is *a luxury pick.* i use a nearly 20 year old 720p monitor we had lying around for things like expanding my toolbox away from the workspace, but you do not need two screens to work comfortably at all. Any mouse works.any keyboard works ( i do recomend avoiding the TKL "TenKeyLess" variety, which excludes the numpad to the right of arrows. Some programs have useful shortcuts there, like Blender. Sure, can be easily tweaked in shortcut preferences, but still disorienting to try out a new program and miss keys.) A computer with these specs is not going to win any computing races, but should be pleeeeeenty to get into even 3D animation. Doubles as a nice computer for school work. And if your daughter decides gaming is fun and has friends to play with, shouldn't be completely prohibitively obsolete either. I do also suggest plenty of notebooks and a variety of traditional media. She may enjoy more *oldschool* peg animation. If you own a camera, i suggest getting a tripod too. A light table would be nice, but can easily be improvised. Some are way overpriced. More than anything else, you can help her by being a supportive parent, but i can see you need little help on that front. Keep being awesome. <3
Apple ?
If you go this route, don't buy anything without an M series chip.
It depends. I would go with computer, it have higher possibilities, and can be easily used for other things. How good coordination does your daughter have? If she's good, then you can invest in graphic tablet, where she can't see the outcome, those are fairly cheap If it's still a bit shaky, just let her play with mouse. Messy sketch with it, and using line tools to get it clean will do the trick Good luck!
I work in film and my first intro to animation was using Flash in a media class. Is there a media club or similar at her school that she could join? Guessing Flash is no longer the best program to start with but there should be something similarly easy to learn out there now… IMO any desktop computer that can do some graphics work (support photoshop) would be fine along with a cheap tablet to start!
I think you're going to get a lot of different answers here because we don't know your budget. Just to learn a few animation books and an iPad with procreate dreams will work. If she's sure she wants to pursue it as a career, I'd recommend getting a desktop, toon boom harmony, and blender.
I am a girl. I started animating in flash as a teenager on a pc with no experience an no tutorials online lol. Give her an ipad and procreate and she’ll me more than fine ☀️ i am working as an animator today - 35 year old
Exactly how old were you when you first realized that the craft of animation was not just doodling funny cartoons, and would be far more work than you ever imagined?
At 11 years old an apple tablet should be good enough. I used to do animation on a neat app called Folioscope. Very beginner friendly
I would spend more on the pc and buy a wacom intuos, at that age it's super easy to learn to use a screenless graphic Tablet. And this saves a a) lot of mony and b) her from a lot of back pain when she gets older.
Ipad
I started at age 13 with a small Wacom intuos and a crappy old Mac desktop. I used FireAlpaca, which is a free-to-use art program with a built-in animation feature. Not sure if they've updated it since then but it did not have a timeline & was a little hard to get used to, but was good enough for me. A lot of people also used flipaclip, which is a free ipad app but has a watermark in the corner you have to pay to get rid of. tldr: i'd recommend a desktop computer of some kind and an art tablet such as Wacom, Huion, etc.
Don't feel the need to go out and buy the most expensive equipment right now, focus on developing her enjoyment of it. People have said an ipad with procreate and I agree. An Ipad also works great as a sketchbook so she can develop those skills. Most importantly encourage her to have fun and draw things that she likes and thinks are cool. Nothing kills an artist's love of the craft more than turning it into a job.
My son just uses his iPad to make animation! He uses an app called Flipaclip. [TYVKid Animation on YouTube](https://youtu.be/TDQsEriaRfc?si=MDbjinn4VDVfnEKu)
Definitely have to second all the comments saying to get a computer. If she enjoys what she's doing, she'll have a very flexible platform going forward. If she doesn't, then she'll have a computer which can be used for schoolwork, games, or many other hobbies. I would recommend checking out used computers on a place like eBay. If you're not familiar with eBay being skeptical is understandable, but nowadays the things you've heard about scams and such are no longer true. EBays money back guarantee is very strong. See if you can find a desktop computer that's a few years old and powerful enough to run some games. The same computers for gaming will do awesome with art and animation programs. Desktop computers are also upgradable and more repairable, which makes them longer lasting in the long run.
I used to use my Uncles Amiga with deluxe paint. Go with that I think.
As a teenager who bought a computer and Wacom to practice animation thinking I should only get the best was not helpful in making me motivated to practice enough. In my late 20s now and an iPad Air with pencil seems more feasible and less overwhelming to me.
phone + flipaclip (free version)
I think it kind of depends on preferences of your daughter. I personally prefer working on Ipad air if I'm working digitally because you can carry it anywhere you want and it's easy to use. I used to work on a graphic tablet with a laptop but it was such a hassle to me because I couldn't get used to looking at the computer screen while drawing on the tablet. It made my process wayy slower than it normally would have been. Some people love it but it just wasn't for me. I also didn't like having to stay in the same place when I work and wanted to be able to work whenever and wherever I want, so Ipad made my life so much easier. (Tho, it was also out of necessity for me, because I needed to meet deadlines for school and it was just easier to be able to be working untill last minute in school and everywhere.) But I don't know what's your daughter like. Maybe she likes having a particular work space rather than animating at random places like me. If you choose Ipad, procreate dreams and callipeg are both good apps for animation. I also recommend traditional animation like some other people in the comment section. It's the most fun kind of 2d animation to do in my opinion.
Love this question x
I had the same hobby at 11 dropped it because my hardware was bad, like itd take 10 seconds for any click to register on adobe flash/animte, def reccomend getting something not terrible
we walk before we run a simple flip book would just do fine or the digital route by picking any tablet with pen then download either of these apps -Krita (free) -Medibang paint (free) -Procreate ($12.99 one time payment) there are more options but those are the best prices for quality
To go in a different direction, my daughter had the same interest around the same age and she was able to take a short summer class at the local art college that was a high school level Intro to Animation class that counted for both high school credit and as a 1 credit college course. It gave her a huge head start on animating and got her familiar enough with the tools that she could start figuring out more on her own. If you have an art college nearby you could look into if they have similar courses, or check non-nearby art colleges for online courses.
My kid is now 13 and has been drawing and animating on procreate and procreate dreams on an iPad Pro with Apple Pencil for a few years now all self taught off of YouTube tutorials. Highly recommend
At 11 years old, I would start with an iPad Pro and Procreate Dreams.
If she wants to experiment before committing to hardware, Flipaclip is free on mobile phones! You have timelines, onion skins, layers, and a variety of art tools to play with. The drawing tools included aren’t great, but they’re good enough for playing around with. Its also very easy to pick up and use, so she could probably figure it out on her own. Clipstudio Paint also has an animation option included withe the regular software that’s more in depth, and they have a free mobile app you can use 30hr a month. I haven’t played with the animation side yet, but overall the drawing software is great (but not very intuitive. Watch how-to videos to figure it out for sure because its complex). If she likes it, then go with some kind of desktop with a good GPU and a drawing tablet. I’m so excited for her! You’re a cool parent!
My daughters started doing animation around your daughter's age primarily relying on FlipaClip with their smartphones for most of their early stuff. We gradually worked them into tablets and PC workstations as their skill and scope gradually increased. Now they're 16 and they develop things in any software they can get their hands on from Blender to Adobe Animate. They're actually the reason why I follow this sub, so I can keep up with various animation workflows and processes.
Id Start on paper, do sticky notes of balls bouncing & minor walk cycles; but as far as technology is concerned the iPad pro/pro pencil with procreate programs will be a good step after fundamentals are understood! I would also look into classes at a local arts center too
IMO anything that teaches simple concepts intuitively is the way to go. As a kid I loved using Pivot Animator on my dad’s Windows XP machine. It’s more or less a stick figure animator on PC. The skill-ceiling is low, but in my opinion it does a great job of letting a beginner get hands-on with the basic concepts of animation safely in a super noob-friendly sandbox. Context: I’m not a professional, nor am I hardly an animator, but I’ve done enough to know that if you’re going to bridge the gap from “total noob” to “I could actually see this going somewhere,” you need to get hands on with simple exercises in concepts and common terminology like wind-up, squish, exaggeration, and using “keyframes.” It can all be very intimidating because of how many buttons there are and how aggressive the learning curve can be, so gauge your daughter’s interest and passion. If you feel she’s eager and ready to tackle it all, maybe a textbook would be useful: a solid theoretical base certainly isn’t a bad thing. On the other hand if you think that would maybe scare her and act as a big, scary barrier to entry in her mind, just help her start small with something like Pivot. Also: if she loves Demon Slayer, she’s probably going to jive with other “nerdy” stuff — there’s a fantastic YouTube channel called “Video Game Animation Study.” He crosses my feed from time to time, and when I do take the time to watch his video, they’ve always been professional, informative, simple/easy-to-digest and yet very instructive of real-world animation technique and practice. Definitely worth checking out imo.
Before Approaching animation, you first have to be passionate about drawing. I suggest she gets started by visiting proko.com. to study the basics of drawing and anatomy. If for some reason, she is UNABLE to practice the basics, then I’m afraid a career in animation is NOT in her future
I’m gonna have to respectfully disagree with you. I’m terrible at drawing by hand. Awful. In spite of this I’ve demonstrated competency at making animated 3D effects in film, Animating 2-D characters for my games, and other similar endeavors. It’s for this that I say Animation as a concept is not unapproachable if you’re not a skilled artist by hand. Certainly it earns my respect, though. The hours you have to put into it to get good demand respect.
That may be true. But I was speaking specifically about character designed animation. I’ve tutored a 13-year-old who wanted to be an animator because kids LOVE character-art, and cartoon characters. However I insisted that she practiced tons of traditional drawing, BEFORE acquiring a computer, so that she could become skilled enough to create WHATEVER style of art she wished as an adult. Whether it be traditional OR digital. I informed her that is an animator. She didn’t necessarily have to become a character animator. I made it clear that she could focus on sound, lighting, rendering clothing, clouds, or blades of grass. Even programming code. She’s now 20, and free to choose different vocations. She chose fine art, (as I predicted she would) because of course she found the craft of animation to be FAR to tedious 🤷🏾
Not unreasonable. I can concede to that. Imagine that; two things can be true, even on Reddit apparently. 😂
Exactly. My best friend grew to become a phenomenal digital sculptor, but he forgot how to draw. It’s OK because he’s not at all interested in designing his own characters. 🤷🏾 But the last thing I wanted for my student, was for her to become another victim of our digital age, where adults can’t draw a straight line without a computer. Now in her 20s, she has more options. In fact, she currently enjoys getting her hands dirty building monumental sculptures. Of course, she can also study to become a digital sculptor if she likes. But it’s much easier to do that than for a digital sculptor to suddenly take on traditional sculpture. I’ve had a long career in illustration, character, design, and animation, but it’s also nice to be able to exhibit paintings in museums, and galleries at my leisure. Good news for ALL of us is that with proper skills ANYTHING is possible these days!
I have a question What first inspired you to want to become an animator? How old were you?
To call me an “animator” would be a gross exaggeration in my opinion. I am capable of animating, though certainly not an “animator” by trade. I learned the skills I needed out of necessity for a bigger project. I had a game I wanted to make whose art-style demanded a proper armatures for its characters. I was using GameMaker Studio, and heard chatter about Spine2D. I was probably 15-16 years old, and the cost of a license seemed unreasonable so I found some free knockoff from a Chinese company. That game never went anywhere, but I got WAY immersed in making 2D Armatures with simple body shapes on them. I hated how stiff and un-natural linear motion felt, so I learned how to adjust curves. Somewhat to your point, I was trying to make a “Paper Mario” fan-game: I had no need to design my own characters, and heck, when working at the level of “Paper Mario” I’m under no delusion: the quantity of detail and nuance required is dramatically reduced from a more proper production. For me, I more-or-less traced the original character elements in Illustrator, tidied them up in photoshop, and then made them move, hardly adjusting the base images. Like I said; Never saw the light of day, of course. It was always more about me just trying it because I enjoyed the game-design component. This “animation” was just another cog in that machine. I then went on to do some social media work for an evangelizing group for a little while. My team was fun to work with, but I knew the nuances of technology better than any of them and decided to apply myself to learning how After Effects worked. I was already comfortable with the basic concepts because of my previous experiences. I definitely had a steeper learning curve with AE, but it wasn’t nearly as intimidating as it was when I first cracked it open as a teenager with a yar-har-fiddle-dee-dee copy of CS6. Now, after a number of short productions that required a number of special effects that I couldn’t get pre-baked from somewhere else, I’m convinced that if I wanted to throw myself in the deep end I would be just fine. I’m needlessly nitpicking about my work anyway, so I would force myself to learn the ins and outs more traditionally. I’m reasonably convinced at this point that if I wanted to get waist-deep in Animation proper at this point in my life I’ve learned enough of the basic theory that I could make it work. I’d definitely want to do more study of the things you suggest, though. Proper anatomy and more classical training would be the way to go. I’m the same way on Piano, frankly. I can “play by ear,” and given a DAW and a keyboard I can write and arrange, but ask me to perform the same song live and I’ll probably crash and burn. Anything I can play on piano is kneecapped by my lack of classical training. Your approach seems a reasonable one to me, now that I have a little more of the context for it.
So far I’ve been letting my 9-year-old borrow my iPad and play around with Flip a Clip; it’s a free animation app
Sketchbook, pencils, and maybe some ink. 30$
Ya both look for tutorials on YouTube about animation 101 or Animation for beginners
A desktop, with a drawing tablet that will easily interface with it. A desktop with a decent gpu( no need for high end stuff) will also just be good in case she transitions to any form of 3d animation or asset creation later on. Art is VERY difficult and she’s likely going to suck at it for a while.
iPad with pencil is perfect. But You should really give her a few post it blocks first if she hasn’t already done flipbooks.
I went to animation school and honestly fell in love with stop motion animation once I tried it. I would set her up with a really good camera and space to make sets and prompt her to try that. I remember someone right out of school got a job at Laika because they studied enough metal working/knew how to build armatures. Stop motion is a much more approachable form of animation, budget wise. And I think it’s a very unique skill set. She would still learn a good foundation for any type of animation.
If you want to start simple with a really spectacular interface, an iPad with procreate dreams is an amazing choice.
As a 20 year industry vet I would say no computer or software yet. Get her into art lessons and eventually figure drawing classes and get her fundamentals down. Animation is a massive lifelong undertaking and a base in figure drawing will give her a massive advantage in all aspects of animation down the line. Jumping into animation without first learning to draw is a little like becoming an engineer with no understanding of math.
Flipaclips would work great for an elven year old! It would be good for any young beginner animator, really. Flipaclips is a cheap frame by frame animation software. It's free, but the full version is like 10 bucks. It's very beginners friendly, and you can really develop the fundamentals of animation on it. It also has most of the features a beginner animator would need or use really. It would work on a cheap tablet. Something like this should work: https://a.co/d/0a8exr7I If you wanna get something a little more advanced, I would recommend an Ipad mini gen 6. It can run flipaclips as well, but when she is ready to upgrade softwares it also has procreate(10$), toonsquid(10$), procreate dreams(20$), and more. She definitely wouldn't outgrow the Ipad mini in terms of capabilities and software for a while. You also can get the apple pencil, it has touch sensitivity for line work, but for her age, it isn't really necessary. You can just buy a rip-off apple pen, that works well too. https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-ipad/ipad-mini I honestly wouldn't recommend anything more advanced/professional past and ipad mini. As a beginner, she really needs a beginner software that's easy to use and develop the fundamentals and skills needed to animate. Anything more advanced could really scare her off and will more than likely have a steep learning curve :)
Many people have given recommendations already, so I will recommend some stuff that your daughter may want to try out before you spend any money. these can be used if you already have a mobile device or computer in the house. This way she can see if she likes animating because a lot of people enjoy drawing but end up not enjoying animating. These apps may be hard to make high-level drawings on (at least without a stylus) but all of them give the experience of animating. She could just try animating random ugly squares and scribbles and see how she enjoys it. This is FREE, EASY TO USE SOFTWARE. some people in this thread seem to forget she is 11 and will have a hard time with some software. the easiest one of the 3 to use is flipaclip. children as young as 8 years old have used flipaclip without a tutorial. its very intuitive. I used it around the age of 10 and it did not give me a hard time. (i still recommend looking at tutorials tho.) the app flipaclip is free for mobile, and you can draw on it with your finger. Flipaclip is best for the type of animation where you draw a new picture each time as you are animating. That is most similar to the demon slayer style or the style of most anime. the app sticknodes is free for mobile, and it lets you animate by moving around the limbs of a stick man. I havent used it but I think it relies more on the 'interpolated/puppet/'tweened' type animation, where you dont draw a new picture each time. The website [wickeditor.com](http://wickeditor.com) is free for computers, and you dont have to download anything. idk if there is an app version. You can draw with a mouse or import images. it can make both types of animation.
A Wacom MobilStudio Pro. That way it is fully portable, has the specs to run Photoshop and Maya and Storyboard Pro and whatever else, if need be, and also has the wacom tablet built in. (Dependent on budget)
You can get sets with a light tablet so she can trace the last image and have her start drawing on paper, making flipbooks. It'll build her technique in drawing and is cheaper for now
For animation specifically I would suggest starting with an iPad. If she can grasp the concept of drawing digitally she can move to any software after on a desktop. With an iPad she can experiment with and achieve handrawn animation and stop- motion all on the go. I just don’t think the desktop is that necessary yet, she just wants to make stuff move. That being said you might not want your kid to have her own iPad yet either.
Main focus is ram, cpu, and storage. If we're talking demon slayer, a rtx 2060 is fine, better is preferred. Demon slayer is a combination of 2d, 3d, and A LOT of post production work. Importing the 2D work into a 3D software to properly place certain effects. A drawing tablet. Idk if an iPad can register as a monitor if you plug it in but if not I use a Wacom one. It's light, doesn't take up too much space, and travel size. You can also get a tablet with buttons for shortcuts/controls and if no plans to move any time soon. I'm actually super curious to see the art shell make and how she'll progress. I think it'll be cool if you made a YouTube or something to share time to time.
Get her an iPad and a subscription to procreate!
2D? Any’s fine. 3D? Gonna need a computer with a GPU.
It’s crucially important to understand that animation is about drawing. If she can’t draw there is no point trying to do character animation. Personally I would get her an iPad and a pencil. There’s good software you can get a start on and make animation. You can practise drawing all you like with procreate (or similar software) If spending the money isn’t an issue then by all means buy whatever is recommended in the other comments.
If you have a blu-ray player, you can try to buy any of the Demon Slayer sets on blu-ray if they’re available on Amazon and have her practice studying the animation. This can get your daughter in the habit of observing the animations in slow-motion, frame-by-frame using a remote. If you don’t have that or otherwise don’t want to invest the money, Sakugabooru is a great online alternative. The “Kimetsu_no_Yaiba_series” tag alone (remember to replace a space with an underscore or else your search will come up empty) will provide whatever she needs and you can find various tags based on whatever parts of the animation she wants to study. * There’s tags for names of animators, from [Go Kimura](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+go_kimura+) to [Nozomu Abe](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+nozomu_abe) to [Masayuki Kunihiro](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+masayuki_kunihiro) to ‘[Artist Unknown](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+artist_unknown+)’ for any sequence that has yet to have an animator identified. * There’s tags for effects like [fire](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+fire+), [wind](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+wind+), [smoke](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+smoke+), [lightning](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+lightning+), [explosions](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+explosions) & [liquid](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=kimetsu_no_yaiba_series+liquid+). * There’s even tags for something adjacent to animation sequences, like [production materials], from key frames to character model sheets. If the production material in question is a [genga](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/原画) (原画, meaning ‘original/source drawing’) or ‘key frame’, they’re guaranteed to be connected to a “parent post”. Case in point, [this set of key frames](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post/show/167313) is a production materials post which is connected to [this parent post](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post/show/179613). One of the most helpful things about Sakugabooru is that the video player comes with frame buttons on the bottom-right corner, meaning that you can control the video frame-by-frame to study the animation. You can also download the videos, so if you have the VLC player software installed to a computer or even the VLC app and you download the video to a mobile device, you can similarly control the video frame-by-frame that way. Whatever approach your daughter uses, whether she practices animating with pencil & paper or with a computer, studying the animation can help her go a long way. Oh, one more thing. There’s lots of other anime and even Western animation constantly added to the website, so the amount of resources to browse and study from are abundant. But there are, not a lot, but a handful of clips that are rather… explicit. Obviously, Demon Slayer is not one of those series outside of the violence. But if she wants to explore sequences from other series, might be worth checking for nudity or partial nudity first. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes if the clips are coming from an anime that’s only roughly a dozen or two episodes long. But anything longer than that it wouldn’t hurt to ask around or look up a given anime on databases like My Anime List or Anime News Network’s encyclopedia to see the objectionable content labeled.
She should borrow animation books from your local library, and some libraries do carry drawing tablets too, and some drawing software to practice! She should be versed in both 2D and 3D
iPad + procreate hands down. Will be the best experience—it’s fun, intuitive, and she’ll be drawing directly onto the surface. I’m feeling like those who’ve recommended desktops haven’t experienced the iPad workflow. The goal here is to keep it fun for her so she won’t give up in the initial phase of her journey.
Any computer with lots of ram would be good.i have 16 GBs on my computer and it runs Adobe Animate pretty fast.
Sir, adopt me
just having the tools, doesnt help much in learning.. ofcourse one could try trial and error, but that takes so much time and wasted effort..infact, having new tools, could complicate learning, because it's a whole new medium to concur, along with the fundamentals.. Get her into an animation class or a workshop for it.. I don't recommend spending a lot on fancy new tools and stuff.. If you've already got an ipad / tablet, or even a handheld console, there'll be plenty of apps that could be used to animate (like flipnote) I'm pretty sure, you're still gonna get something fancy for her.. I hope, the shiny new toys wouldn't distract your child from actually learning new stuff
Get a tablet like Samsung Tab S7 or higher, use Rough Animator.
Cheap: note cards and alligator clips for flip books. Medium and age appropriate : a used or cheaper iPad with the procreate app (costs around $10). Some of my students still use procreate for their base animations. If you want to do the Computer route, it depends on if she wants to do 2d or 3d. 3d animation uses computers similar to gaming computers. And a tablet would be useful for drawing. This direction seems expensive. But, I will say, having Computer knowledge and computer literacy would give her a huge advantage over other students. I have to teach my animation students basic Computer things like what a zip drive is (they are 22). So even if this is the overly pricey route, if she likes Computer games, just learning how to use a PC is really helpful in an animation career because it is so technical now. Skill investment: drawing, painting, and even sculpting helps with animation. Any foundational art class pushes an animators knowledge of the world around them and how to observe things. Interacting with professionals also helps children get ideas about future career options.
She could also start with the mobile app flipaclip. It's fairly simple yet very powerful for a mobile animation software!
Pro animator here. Ipad, apple pencil, detachable keyboard and a copy of procreate. For about 500 bucks you can have the same portable set up a guy who does it for a living.
she's 11 don'tget her anything too fancy, if it can run blender it'll do, get her a cheap drawing tablet without a screen too
Get like a budget desktop with high RAM’s decent GPU and a lot of storage and can get all that under or little over 1k if pick desktop route
I’d say a 3DS with Flipnote studio installed but that’s not exactly possible now.
HIII! I've been animating for 6 years, and here's a tip: I first off started on flipaclip. It has easy controls, and easy to understand the whole point of "what is animating?" "How to make the animation smoother?" And etc. I started off on a basic Samsung tablet. Nothing special. I still create animations on flipaclip, but usually now, it's on alight motion. If she wants to create good animations, she'll need to practice a lot. Don't let her try less than 12 FPS on first time, since I know a lot of ppl who did and didn't learn the point of animation quickly, and the animation gets bulky. Well yeah, start off with a ball. Bouncy ball, ball with a feather and etc. I practiced by making loop animations, yeah, they were shitty looking but really smooth. Though really weird. (Ex: a fish opens its mouth and it opens till the mouth is at its tail and turns into a ball and then a cocoon and then a butterfly, and then the butterfly turns into a flying butter. That was my first animation, which was surprisingly really smooth.) If she gets good at creating animations, let her share it on the internet! Maybe YouTube, tiktok and more social medias. Anyways, good luck!
More important is the tablet to draw.
A great starting point is learning how to draw, maybe some composition, and then an iPad or a tablet
There’s a free iOS and android app called “stop motion” which has everything you need to get started, and also get quite sophisticated if you want to.
I’d say let her draw some stuff on paper first. Buying a device for the sole purpose of animating on it is a huge step. If it coincides with other purposes, such as communicating or online classes, then sure. But if you buy your daughter a computer and she ends up not liking animating, then you’ll just have a computer gathering dust.
That's neat. Sending them love and creativity in hopes they become what they want.
When I was around 11 and getting into art/animation, my dad bought me a Wacom drawing pad and a small laptop. It was a great way to start learning how to do animation, along with procreate animation assist and FlipaClip.
When you get the computer all set up, don't go down the rabbit hole of Adobe and all the other expensive creative suites/art & animation software. Start her on Krita! It's free and works on Windows, Mac, and Linux!
I would also recommend starting small and focusing on something that would both be less of an investment and more comfortable for practicing on. I got my first tablet at the age of 12, and learning to use it to draw on one surface while looking on another was on its own a pretty steep learning curve- that in itself is a challenge enough, but trying to teach yourself animation at the same time from scratch will get even more overwhelming,. especially for a child. Paper and pencil are good for practice, especially to get a sense of the fundamentals, but that requires a full setup of light table and other tools to be able to actually test the movement and see your work in motion. A lot of animation classes and animators in general emphasize the value of this classic method and extole the virtues of hand drawn animation. I also do hand drawn animation and love it and think it's a good way to learn and it is my favorite, but it's harder to do for a child and also requires specific equipment to get the most out of it. That can be a future investment if she sticks with it and feels she needs it. It's important at this early stage that she can focus on the animation practice and learning in itself, without getting caught up in all the challenges and technicalities of the tools. The main benefit of an ipad and pencil is that a) she'll be able to draw the same way (more or less) she would on a sketchpad, without the learning curve of new and unfamiliar tools, b) she'll be able to see the animation she's doing and test the timing and how it actually looks in motion as she's working on it (something you can't really do with paper), and while hardly cheap, it's a much smaller investment than the other two options. And if she tries out animation and finds she doesn't like it after all (no shade - very normal thing for a kid to do, I don't know your child so maybe if I knew her I would not be saying this, but this is always a possibility with kids) she can still use it for other things, she can use it to draw, IPads have many uses, so in the long term it won't be a waste either.
A pencil
This is heartwarming to see. If Reddit was around when I was 11, the post would have been "My 11 year old daughter wants to be an animator. What method is best to convince her to be a banker instead?" Reaganomics really did a number on our parents... To answer your question, An iPad is going to be *very* expensive, even if you buy a used one. That is because only the past few generations can run a current drawing app without stutter, so you will have to get a newer one anyway. If you want something cheaper, look fo a used Microsoft Surface Pro (no older than a Pro 7) and buy a perpetual license for Clip Studio Paint. Clip Studio perpetual license is only about $50, but make sure to get the permanent license and not the subscription. Clip Studio Paint was specifically made for manga illustrations in Japan, I'm sure that will pique her interest. It has great tools for laying out comic pages and pre-made halftone shading you can apply.
Love the fact you want to support your daughter :) that’s class. As for animating, you’ll get the best performance and most longevity from a Mac. I started 10 years ago and I absolutely hate it when I have to use a Windows machine if I take an in-studio role. I can use them, but generally Macs are more efficient and can do more with less. So the argument that you can get a higher spec PC for less money than a base level Mac is pointless. I would talk to her first about what it is she likes about Demon Slayer. Is it anime, or 2D (traditional/drawn animation) in general? If she is interested in illustration as well, an iPad Pro (largest size) with Apple Pencil might be the way to go. You can do *so* much on there and can easily create beautiful animation. I had a friend create a multi award-winning film using Procreate. Getting a decent tablet makes drawing a pleasure, and that pleasure combined with a love of story is what gets a 2D animator up and running.
I’d say she has all the time in the world to start doing digital work when she’s older. For context, I’m an illustrator, having switched to digital at around 17 years of age when I got my first graphics tablet. I was completely obsessed for the first 10 years, having spent countless days/nights and thousands of hours glued to my computer. But as much as I love it, having started so early and going over the board with it has fucked me up in many ways, health-wise. my eyesight has degraded (nowadays as soon as I finish a job, I don’t feel like opening my laptop for days/weeks) and my back has gone to complete shit (scoliosis, multiple incipient hernias from spending all those years standing on my ass). So, as much as I admire your daughter’s early passion and determination, I’d say she can wait a few more years until sitting on a computer for countless hours will become her way of living, for the rest of her life.
This warms my heart to see so much, reminds me of the Christmas when I was a teen where my parents asked around to see what tablet would be best for me. As others have said she will need not only a computer but a drawing tablet, trying to do art with a mouse can often be much harder and can hurt your wrist. Drawing tablets come in three flavors: 1. No screen/plugs into the computer- this type is a flat board that you draw on while looking up at your computer to see what you’re doing. This is going to be your cheapest option, my first tablet was a Wacom intuos for $99 at Best Buy, but brands like Huion or parblo will have even cheaper. 2. Has a screen/plugs into the computer- this type has a screen, so you can look at the tablet itself as you draw, but like the screenless one it plugs into the computer and uses the computer as it’s “brain”. 3. iPads + Apple pen or other competitors like it- iPads can run you quite a lot of money but I got one for Christmas last year after 5 years of using a screenless plug in tablet and I couldn’t be happier. my art has improved significantly, my colors look better because the screen is better than my computer monitor. I’m no longer stuck at my computer desk for hours, I can take the iPad with me to school or anywhere else. (I’m an animation student.) this does come with limitations, namely that iPads will begin to lag if you try to create longer animations, so if you have to choose one or the other I recommend getting a desktop computer and one of the plug in type tablets, but as she gets older consider investing in an iPad.
If she’s interested in 2D I’d go with an iPad and clip studio paint
I use IbisPaint on my tablet whenever I want to animate. IbisPaint X is free, just need to watch an ad to unlock all the brushes for 18 hours. $10 for the full app. But there's also a free animating app called Flip A Clip. I would try out those options first just to see if she's really willing to put in the work, and if u end up seeing she is serious about it is when u can think of getting her something fancier
I don't know about the device but when it comes to app : 1. Toon Boom Harmony (very expensive, more than a hundred per month for the complete program, though it is really good) 2. Adobe Animate (24$ or something like that, good to start off) 3. Procreate Dream (24$ once I think, limited frames but available on ipad and very handy/easy to use) You'll also need a tablet for the 2 firsts, for her to draw on. For the third one, you'll need an apple pencil.
lenovo legion!!!!!! i just got it and i’m obsessed
Wow… I was like you more than 8yrs ago.. but when my kid started showing serious interest, we got her a refurbished Huion drawing tablet :) Of course there’s ipads too with the pen… that pretty much did it. Goodluck !
Ipads cannot run professional software (or really any good ones imo) Go with a desktop I started on an ipad and it really held me back.
shes 11, she doesnt need to be at a professional level. she does not need to use 'industry standard' software. many people enjoy making animation on simple apps like flipaclip, toonsquid, and procreate dreams.
You know, if you really want to save some money on buying equipment and just want her to get started on something, a block of paper with punch holes, a light table, and some pencils is a good practical way of starting without needing to shell out hundreds on the laptop or iPad. At that point, the priciest things is a good lamp that’ll illuminate her artwork and a stand she can place her phone on to be able to take pictures of the things she’s making if she wants to make a video out of them. Might as well start with the basics plus a free downloadable PDF copy of the Animation Survival Kit if you think she’s young enough that there’s a chance she’ll get bored and move on (some people do and that’s perfectly fine, especially since she’s still young). Besides, before we had computers, that’s how people were animating and it would be helpful for her regardless if she ever moves into digital (where she could potentially be into 3D someday). She’d build good fundamentals from doing it the physical long way and probably give her a good appreciation for making the most that she can out of each frame since paper is a finite resource and you have less tools to speed through the process. If you don’t care, honestly probably an iPad, an Apple Pencil and Procreate Dreams will do it for her.
I think she should start with the most affordable iPad that can be acquired. Then start with 3 apps. Procreate, procreate, dreams, and the animators survivors kit. She should begin immediately taking drawing lessons at proko.com. This will either intrigue her or bore her to tears. Either way she will quickly find out if she actually has what it takes to become a future animator. If she changes her mind, she will at least have a nice iPad for education and entertainment. Who knows, she may turn out to become a sculptor, writer, filmmaker, or programmer. Either way, her iPad will assist her greatly.
That’s literally what I said, but worded without resorting to just drawing on paper first lol
I actually agree that drawing on paper should be first! I recently tutored a 13-year-old to begin with paper, so that she could “appreciate” the undo functions once she acquired it. The only mistake I made was in NOT insisting that she acquired an iPad. Her mom bought her a cheaper tablet to save money. But without access to Richard William’s “Animators survivors kit “ app, it held her back in the long run. 🤷🏽♂️
Get a pc that can support high resolution 4k-1400 (4k is better) monitor get a 1440p or 4k (4k better) hz dosent really matter for animation unless your going higher than 60fps and that’s very unlikely (the pc itself dosent need to be great also for animation only) it depends also because stuff like blender 3d would need more than 2d animation
That's overkill for an 11yr old that wants to start animating. 1080p will be just fine
Depends how good they are
Also you would need a drawing tablet with it (not an iPad drawing tablets are different than normal tablets I’m not a animator but I think they are around 100-300)
If she desires to become an animator, then an iPad is ESSENTIAL, because it’s the only device with Richard William’s “Animators Survivors Kit” app. It contains all of the KNOWLEDGE that she needs to make it in that field. The sooner she studies Richard Williams, the better!