Deburuman is an artist and animator who has generously posted many of his works on YouTube. I've chosen Parts 1 and 2 of his "How to Make an Animation" series for this post. The narration is in Japanese but there are English subtitles.
The only thing that has changed since 1989 when Deburuman made the movies is that you now have a lot more ways to shoot animation, using webcams, video cameras, and digital still cameras. (My animation software is at StopMotion-Software.com.) The Single-8 film he used to make these movies is still available (as is Super-8 film) if you want to shoot on film.
How to Make an Animation Part 1
Deburuman starts with the flipbook and shows just how much work it is to do drawn (cartoon) animation. Claymation and object animation are faster.
How to Make an Animation Part 2
In part 2, Deburuman goes into pixillation, special effects animation, and time lapse photography. His food animations are really clever.
Be sure to have a look at Deburuman's other movies. I just have to include another one here. It's particularly exciting to me because he turns a 12 segment phenakistoscope into an animating dodecahedron.
