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Chapter 1

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Piecing together the stormThe notes from your brainstorm sessions will more than likely end up as a pile

of ideas without much cohesion or ow. This is normal because the note takingphase is meant to get standalone ideas formulated and written. You will want toorganize these notes into an outline once your brain has spat the ideas out. How yououtline will depend on your own comprehension skills. For instance, some peopleprefer bullet lists; others may want to get a mind-mapping software and organizeeverything that way. A software such as Scrivener allows you to create sections thatcan be easily rearranged, making it a prime choice for screenwriters and novelists.However, if you decide to do it, an outline is an important step in creating ananimated cartoon.

The goal of the outline is to take your notes and organize them into a roughlystructured narrative. Making the pieces t is the key. Sticking to the main ideas is

usually suggested when writing an outline, as other details such as character actionsand dialog come later on during screenwriting. If a piece of a dialog that you mustinclude comes to mind, include it. While your narrative ow may change over thecourse of the creative process, the outline will set up the building blocks to creating acohesive blueprint for you to follow, as shown in the following screenshot:

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Stepping into the World of Animation

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Writing your storyScreenwriting is where you'll want to write the story in full detail. This includes

scene details, character actions, dialog, and so forth. Think of the process as if youwatched your unnished movie and are repeating every detail verbatim to a friend.

Screenwriting is special because of the following format that it uses:

• Your scene headings, in caps, describe the scene setting

• Characters are also capitalized

• Dialog is written underneath the characters in an almost center-justied format

The following is an example of a page from a screenplay; note how thingsare formatted:

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Chapter 1

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When it's time to write your screenplay, you will want to download a piece ofsoftware that can put your words into the proper format. This not only makes the

document more readable, but puts a professional spin on your creation, especiallyif you want to sell the draft to a production company.

My rst recommendation would be Celtx (http://www.celtx.com). This freepiece of software (with an optional premium version to access cloud-based andcollaborative features) is streamlined, yet powerful enough, to draft up even yourmost ambitious screenplays. The software comes with a storyboarding templatewhich allows you to order images, apply scene descriptions, text, and more.

You can download it for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. On top of that, as of thiswriting, you can purchase a Celtx app for any of your iOS mobile devices, whichallows you to write screenplays on the go.

If you want to use the same software that many of the professionals do, investingin Final Draft (http://www.finaldraft.com) may be up for consideration. Thesoftware contains many advanced features that may help with the creative process.Plus, as I said, it's widely regarded as a pro's choice type of software. Just be preparedto pay upwards of $200 for the fully-featured standard edition.

Whatever software you decide to use, the following are some basic rules to follow asyou begin writing your rst screenplay:

• A scene heading  comes rst. As previously stated, this is displayed in capitalletters. Int. stands for an interior shot, while Ext. stands for exterior.

• Writing actions or descriptions is really no different from that of a novel.You want to be as descriptive as you can to paint a picture in the mind of

the reader. Unless you are writing the script for yourself, you will want toavoid descriptions that would fall under the category of direction (cameramovements, transitions, and so on). Also, it's proper to always write in thepresent tense.

• Character headings are always capitalized, just like scene headings.

• Dialog  is always placed below character headings.

• When in doubt, use the special commands that your software provides.You shouldn't have to think much about the formatting with the aidof the software.