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School of Computer Science UK Schools Computer Animation Competition 2011
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How to make a good animation a GREAT animation!

See below for tips!

You've invested a lot of work in making your animation. But how can you make it GREAT - make it stand out from the crowd? This page offers a few tips.

Our top tips

  1. When planning your animation, keep in mind the 1-minute time limit, so that you don't have to end your animation abruptly.
  2. Make sure your animation has a proper title screen at the start. What's the title of the animation? And who is it by?
  3. Make sure your animation has a proper "The End" screen at the end. The audience needs to know when the animation has finished.
  4. Don't let the animation loop back to the start automatically - otherwise the viewer won't know when it's finished!
  5. Sound: Watching an animation without sound can be... a bit weird! Add a soundtrack - this can often greatly improve an animation.
  6. Sound: If you do have a soundtrack music or voices, check the level - distorted sounds are horrible! And check that the sounds are clear - a soundtrack recorded in a noisy classroom can sound very bad!
  7. Sound: If you use music, you must own the right to use it. We recommend you use royalty-free music, widely available on the Web (try this article).
  8. If you have speech bubbles, make sure the text in them is BIG, otherwise it WILL NOT BE VISIBLE when the animation is projected on a large screen. Better still, add sound so you don't need speech bubbles!
  9. Make sure the dimensions of your animation are correct and appear on screen as intended.