The first thing that needs to be done before animation is having a specific story that needs to be animated.

Stories can
be used as scripts just like in movies so that you can visualize the flow of the storyboard or scenes that you want to
capture/ create in your animation. After having the storyboard, you can now proceed in designing the characters of the
story.

There are a lot of software that can be used in this part. I prefer using Krita which is a free and easy drawing program.

Steps in creating/ designing a character

1. Sketch your character in a separate layer.

2. After having your rough sketch, add another layer for the lining. Be sure to check that you are in the right layer.
3. Duplicate the lining layer. In this part you will be separating layers for each body parts depending on the way
how you want your character to move later in the animating process.
4. After finalizing the lining, you can now add colors to your character.
5. Make the finalized layers visible before saving it. I prefer saving it as a PNG type so that it will be easy to use in
the editing.

Characters are not the only thing that can be seen in animated videos. Backgrounds add an important role to it that
makes the setup of the scene more natural and complete. The making of the background is pretty similar to the steps I
have shown in creating a character.

After having all your illustrations done and compiled, we can now start in the animating procedure. This part will be the
hardest and will consume a lot of time. Although there are many animation software that can be used, I use Cyberlink
Powerdirector, a free video editing software which contains some effects and transitions which is easy to use for those
who wants a simple animation.

Steps:

1. Upon opening the program(Cyberlink Powerdirector), import your compiled PNG and JPG files that will be used
in the animation.
2. In the first layer of your timeline, click and drag your background.
3. Add another layer below it and here you will be adding your moving objects which are the characters that will be
seen in that scene.
4. Adjust your characters and apply some effects that you want.
5. Add Transition effects at the start and end of a background for a smooth entrance and exit to the scene.
6. The timeline will show you the flow and arrangement of your animation.

Now you have the flow of your animation and the final thing we need is add some audio effects and its narration.
The software that I’m going to use is an audio recording and editing tool called Audacity.

Steps:

1. Setup your microphone that you’ll be using in the recording.

2. Add a mono track and click record to start recording.
3. Use the script used in your storyboard.
4. After having the recordings done, export your file as an MP3 type and click save.

All we need to do now is add the recorded audio to our file in cyberlink.

1. Import the MP3 file to Cyberlink Powerdirector.

2. Add the MP3 file to a music track in your timeline.
3. Adjust and sync your audio based on the timing of every scene that will be shown on your timeline.
 4. After finalizing and syncing your project, you can now start rendering it and save it to your desired video
format( AVI, MPEG-4, etc.)
5. You can save it as an editable file .PSD for future editing puposes.

And there you have your animated video. If you still want to edit some details from the video, you can still open the
saved PSD file and do the necessary editing that you want to add.