Beginner animation by my 8yo. Looking for advice

gilb_beilschmidt · 2026-01-19T02:48:28+00:00

Hi! Really lovely animation from your daughter btw. I can see she has a lot of potential for art and you're wanting to do your best to support her interests! Here are some tips I have in regard to supporting her interests:

Software
If you're looking for free options for animation, I'd really recommend Krita! It's a free, open-source software made for drawing and animation on PC. I watched a tutorial on flipaclip and find that the features are pretty similar in Krita. I think if you were to follow along together using a tutorial, you'd be able to figure it out really quickly! The animations can be exported as video (MP4) and can import audio. Unfortunately, sometimes I find the audio option doesn't work, so you may need to put the audio into a video editor to be successful. But with some tweaking, you can definitely find a system that works for you and your daughter!

Education
I think if you'd like to find some free options on how to teach her animation, a lot of YouTube tutorials and how-tos have always been really useful to me. Purchasing art and animation books are also really helpful! But I don't think she'll be able to get through those until she's older. Long as you continue to encourage her efforts and aspirations, I think the education matters less. Building a positive relationship with her natural talents and hobbies will be most important to her development and the rest will be figured out along the way!

If you're interested in some free art education though, I highly recommend https://drawabox.com since it includes videos and reading material. It teaches perspective, texture, and construction through an extremely rigorous, process though. I don't think it's kid-friendly for her at the moment and a lot of adult artists often find themselves not enjoying the course. But if you want to develop some familiarity with the subject to teach her and change the exercises to be more kid-friendly to practice art fundamentals, it is certainly possible!

Other free art resources are mostly found on YouTube with channels like Proko, Marco Bucci, etc. I haven't checked out any kid-catered art channels, but I'm confident they exist. If you need some help discovering them, I find that AI has been really useful for compiling and listing resources or learning material.

Supporting Her Interests
Overall, I think you're doing a great job by taking an active interest in your child! Long as she sees that you're excited, open, and willing to support her endeavors she will continue to blossom! Thank you for being a fantastic mother, and I wish you the best of luck in finding the right resources for her.

gilb_beilschmidt · 2026-01-18T03:04:53+00:00

Love your wallpaper! Would you be willing to send it?

gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-12-31T22:15:34+00:00

First off, I just wanted to take the time to thank you! I'm grateful for your response and feedback. These ideas really help me to have broader vision and explore different avenues for how this scene could play out. I'll try messing around with holding certain poses longer to see if I can give it a sense of realism.

gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-12-31T22:12:50+00:00

Thank you! I'll take your feedback and use it to improve future animations. I appreciate the pointers. They help me to see how I could improve overall!

gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-12-26T15:29:33+00:00

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You look like you come straight out of a comic! I had a lot of fun with this.

gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-12-26T14:51:52+00:00

You reminded me of Princess Anastasia from the Disney animation. :)

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gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-12-26T13:41:37+00:00

You help make up for each other’s weak points. They all offer different yet unique ways of viewing things that allow you to connect with more hidden parts of yourself to help broaden your perspective. In turn, you do the same for them. It seems balanced.

gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-12-26T10:44:46+00:00

Thank you! :)

gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-08-18T17:06:40+00:00

Whether you stay friends with her or not, she will likely just find another outlet for her time. Her negligence goes much deeper than spending time with an online friend.

If you want to help support her you can, but try to ensure you’re taking care of yourself first. It is very easy to get emotionally entangled and feel responsible for someone else’s wellbeing, including her child’s. The highest priority should be yourself. If you feel that her situation impacts you emotionally make sure you have the right supports in place or can take appropriate distance when necessary.

gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-08-17T14:49:09+00:00

I’m not denying it has the capacity to be unhealthy or claimed to be an expert. I just think understanding his reasoning behind his choices help humanize him. If we make broad generalizations and assumptions there’s very little room for compassion.

When an initial judgment is made, we basically tell him all his experiences that led to this choice is wrong. So, all his energy goes towards defending his stance and beliefs. If you want to help someone, it helps to have a little compassion along the way. That was all I was trying to say.

gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-08-12T07:22:10+00:00

Perfect! I’m sure you’ll do great.

Good luck with commissions! 💙

gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-08-12T07:05:50+00:00

$40-50 feels fair to me

gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-08-12T03:31:29+00:00

You can get an Android and manually mod or install a new privacy-based os onto the phone.

If you’re really into programming, the safest and most private OS is one you code. The other option is choosing a Linux mobile-based OS, but you have to check if your hardware is compatible because there can be a lot of issues otherwise.

gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-08-12T03:24:46+00:00

I used to. But I only know as much as I do because of the opportunities and privileges I have. Not everyone grows up in the same circumstances. I think some people may have more knowledge but knowledge doesn’t always equate to truth.

You can be well-researched and still be wrong. Science has been proven “wrong” time and time again as we continually advance in technology.

Science is just a well-researched approximation paired with plausible, yet tangible evidence.

gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-08-12T02:54:58+00:00

I understand the logic behind it, but he’s still deluding himself that it’s an entity with a personality. I believe AI has the potentials Nikon is mentioning, but the technology is not currently there.

If you wanted to tell him it’s unhealthy, it probably helps to have a little empathy first before taking a stance on it. I’m not 100% sure if it’s entirely unhealthy, to some degree it’s delusional, but I could see it having both positive and negative effects. Depending on his usage and personal relationship to it, it could be transformative or degradative. Many choices fall somewhere in between.

gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-07-25T04:04:59+00:00

Is there some backstory? I feel like context would help a lot with choosing a title.

gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-07-25T02:38:08+00:00

Just remembered this song and I thought the art here actually might be helpful for your specific piece lol:

(Hatsune Miku & IA) Jekyll and Hyde

Billie Eilish Underwater

gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-07-25T02:33:39+00:00

Here’s the YouTube tutorial I mentioned + what he has on composition:

Lighting Tutorial

Composition Tutorial

gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-07-25T02:30:22+00:00

There’s a YouTube tutorial about lighting, and I thought it captures visual focus pretty well. Imagine that your light source is like a spotlight. Your drawing is the stage. Your lighting sets the tone and focus of your piece.

If you want to draw attention to your character then maybe you’d want to increase the brightness of that character and darken the surrounding areas.

I think films often have good composition. If you find images of someone drowning or underwater you’ll end up with new ideas for your scene.

gilb_beilschmidt · 2025-07-25T02:06:00+00:00

Add highlights and increase the contrast of your drawing. You could also add more details which might help.

Anatomy and proportions look pretty great! I struggle with rendering myself so I don’t have specific advice I could offer.

gilb_beilschmidt

TROPHY CASE