How hard is it to produce an Anime?

[Jammin]

So this is it. I have an entire anime universe in my head planned. Characters, storyline..everything. I'm thinking I'll make an english anime like Avatar: The Last Airbender. But if absolutely required I'm prepared to go to Japan.

So the question is, how hard would it be for me to put it out there?

[Hikari Tsukishiro]

You mean to actually get backing by a company, and producing it with teams? Very very difficult.
You also have to have some kind of influence and connections.
Either that or you get lucky with your portfolio and prior experience in some medium.



And Japanese are unlikely to have a director that is not Japanese for animation.
They will most likely not listen to someone that needs a translator, considering that they already have a whole lot of Japanese people who have ideas already.

Making an animation alone with no team?

If you meaning making one, GO FLIPBOOK STYLE for the cheapest animation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktMQw1tu5Co

On a serious answer, Makoto Shinkai does a lot of his animation alone with just his home computer(awesome), but he tends to take years to do each one. Characters are kinda stiff, but I have loved his work ever since I have watched his Wind-A Breath of Heart- Opening.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=makoto+shinkai&search=Search

[T51R]

One, you need to get the copyrights sorted before you even put your proposal together. Next, you need sort out the pitch. It's art to us, but to a company it's all money. And money means, basically, marketing. Who are you pitting this thing together for, who's gonna watch it, and what do you think your viewership is gona be like? You'd need to suss all this out before making your pitch to the company, and generally every anime produced now has been very well accepted in manga form in Shonen Jump or some other periodical.

I'd reckon maybe trying to get it into one of their mags before trying to get astudio to pick it up; it'll also give you an idea of how well it will do and who's gonna get into it.

Just my $0.02.

[The Xenos]

Ok. First. Avatar the last Air Bender is NOT anime. It's animation. Anime is the Japanese term for animation. I think it's even off of some French term. We call Japanese animation 'anime' out of respect. It's sure better than the neigh racist Japanimation. If you live in America, call it animation dammit. Quit making everything Japanese.

Second. You're never getting your 'anime' made right off the bat. At least not on any professional level. Check out even smaller shows like Megas XLR or Venture Brothers or Clone High. Look at how difficult it was to get those shows made and the group of people that made those had been working for at least years in the American animation industry. (Ok, I still don't know how 12 Ounce Mouse ever got on TV. I'm sure whatever you have in mind is miles better than that.)

So there you go. Get working in the animation industry first. Then you may eventually get to make your own stuff.

Nowadays there is one thing you can do. Get flash, learn flash, and make your own web animations. That's your best bet. Create a home brewed animation, post it on a website or get your own website. This is similar to webcomic and how those have become a gateway to getting known. Only drawback is that just about everyone is doing that. I can think of one web animation that made its way to DVD, that Broken Saints. Oh and Homestar Runner / Strong Bad.

Oh yeah, if animtion is too much work, which I'd think it is. Try doing it as a self published comic or web comic.

[T51R]

^^^And Happy Tree Friends.:D

[Yun Lao]

Like any media related project; movies, games, etc; it's going to be hella difficult and competitive. It's best to try and get your stuff out like through flash movies (like recommended earlier) a comic, or manga if you do happen to go to Japan (Afterall, most animes are based off manga).

[Paploo the Ewok]

So this is it. I have an entire anime universe in my head planned. Characters, storyline..everything. I'm thinking I'll make an english anime like Avatar: The Last Airbender. But if absolutely required I'm prepared to go to Japan.

So the question is, how hard would it be for me to put it out there?

http://www.janscottfrazier.com/animinjp/index.htm

Jan Scott Frazier is one of the few people from the US to work in the japanese industry, and probably has the most experience [worked on OVA's like BubbleGum Crash and Riding Bean in the late 80's/early 90's, and later ran a colour company, as well as directing some shows, and making one of the earlire CD Rom manga anthologies when that was a trend, alongside the creator of Kimagure Orange Road and Lea Hernandez]

It's very hard, and may lead to much insanity. http://www.janscottfrazier.com/writings.htm as seen in other writings.
I know I've posted these links before on this forum, but y'know, it's really the only/best resource for this kind of thing.

What should you do?
Well, get some writing experiene, then make lots of comics [mabye even a webcomic] or lots of novel, and get published. These are entirely insane, only for the hardcore, won't give up fans, and are still very likely to be something you'll never succeed at. But they aren't AS insane as trying to get an animated show started. Plus, if you work is successful, and well recieved, it just might get optioned for media production, and even translated into Japanese. SpiderRiders is based on a Canadian novel series, and I believe an Australian novelist recently had her work optioned to become an anime [Deltora Quest? I think that was it]

[Jammin]

Damn, everything seems so damn near impossible to do these days....it almost sucks out the point of even trying.

I appreciate everything everyone of you said though and I'll look into those sites.:) I'll also give some webcomics a shot.

[Jammin]

Double post.

[The Xenos]

Web comics are quite a good way to go. As I said, the only draw back is that just about everyone is doing them. I myself have been involved in about 2 and a half. Three and a half if you count that college newspaper strip we posted online for a while. Oh and the half was a spinoff we did that didn't last more than a few strips. Though to be honest only one website of any of those is still running.

Of course, there seem to be many different ways of doing it. I've seen some do them as more newspaper comic strips with short gags, while others go for more of a comic book format with a page or series of pages telling full story arcs released every so often.

You have Penny Arcade which is more like a newspaper joke comic strip. You have Apple Geeks that seems to have an ongoing story. Though they have Appple Geeks Lite which are black and white short joke strips. I think MegaTokyo is somewhere between wtih joke strips, but also an ongoing story. Never cared for it and its vocal fanbase is rather a turn off.

Manga.Clone-Army.org by Dan Kim has multiple comics on his site. He has two anime parody strips, one hentai game parody strip, and a general joke strip with original character. he has a awesome longer drama/action comic (which is complete) called Paper XI. I bought an early print version of it. he has one or two original comedy/drama strips that are ongoing right now.

Webcomics have revolutionized small press comics. Instead of printing out small press comics or zines, people can just post them on a website. Depending on your deal, it is pretty much cheaper and of course gets much better circulation than print. Though I still love buying small press comics and zines at conventions. I keep thinking about talking with an artist friend about doing a book for a convention. I have a number of ideas for a number of different series myself. You have to just get out there and start writing and/or drawing.

[Ghost]

Hm, can't help you there, sorry.
Doesn't Inkthinker do animation, though? He might have some know-how on this stuff.

[Inkthinker]

whoop, double-post

[Inkthinker]

Agh... triple-post!

[Inkthinker]

Pretty much what needs to be said has been said. To this point, the only person I know of who's ever created anything close to "their own anime" is that dude who made Voices of a Distant Star, and if I recall it took him 3 years... he did most of it himself, but even so he needed help towards the end with some production aspects.

Hayao Miyazaki was in his 30's, having worked in animation for many years, before he got to direct a movie... and even then it was a Lupin III film (arguable the BEST Lupin film, "Castle of Cagliostro", but the point is that it wasn't HIS material, just his twist on the content), and it was several more years before he was able to make Nausicaa, partly because he'd made this epic manga first.

If you want to make animation, you got to work in animation... or be a slightly mad otaku-type willing to dedicate years to something which might be a complete bomb. If you can hand in the industry for a while, work your way up, gain the skills and a real understanding of what it is that you propose, then it's possible that one day you might be able to "make your own anime".

Keep in mind... on average, animation with full motion (like any scene with action) has 15 or more drawings for every second of film time... not including backgrounds, the creation of which is a discipline unto itself. Having drawn a few thousand illustrations to fill up a few minutes of time, you still need compositing tools and audio production capabilities, and then maybe you can export something web-ready which will get noticed enough to spur on something bigger.

If you want to be an animator, at least a traditional one, then my advice is to become a good illustrator first... or at least a competent one. Animation is an extension of illustration (in my mind) and cartooning, and it's difficult to learn how to understand timing and motion at the same time you're struggling with anatomy and composition.

[Inkthinker]

It should be noted that I'm not saying you CANNOT do this... I'm saying it's a great big undertaking that you propose, not a simple or small thing. Animated content takes months and months to produce, even when you're making basic-animation made-for-TV crap with a professional production house located overseas... films can take years.

Personally, I wouldn't attack anything much longer than an animated short (like, 11 minutes at most) as a solo-artist, and even then I'd probably get assistance with sound design and backgrounds, at least BG color. AND it would take as much as a year of my life to do it.

But you could slap that puppy up on Youtube or other sites, get noticed, and possibly parlay that into something greater. The potential is there... it's just that, like climbing Everest, it's not something you can just decided to DO without proper training/understanding.