Jason Webb's Anime, Animated Movies, and Animation

As a writer and a creative person, I love creating and telling stories. I also love finding new ways to try to get my stories out to the wider public. I've written stories as movie screenplays, I've written stories as books, and I'm even in the process of writing a story as a collection of songs in the form of a rock opera. However, recently, I've been exploring the possibility of telling stories through animated movies (or cartoons, if you prefer to call them that). Due to my love of Japan and my interest in the Japanese animation style, I prefer to use the Japanese name for animated movies, anime, so get used to the term as I'll be using the word anime a lot.

My exploration into the world of producing anime is only just beginning, so don't expect any breakthrough showcase animations or movie trailers just yet. However, I would like to share some things with you as I travel along the anime road. The quality might not be up to Studio Ghibli standards, but I hope that what I show you at least has some degree of good ideas and shows a little bit of promise.

As my anime journey continues, I'd also like to share with you some things that I think might be useful. These could be anime movies that I've found particularly enjoyable or inspirational, or books that are useful to would-be anime creators as sources of instruction or good examples of the art.

I'm hoping to have fun with my animation projects, and I hope that you have fun reading about them.

Latest Anime Updates

Jason Webb's Japanese Anime Adventure - 17th April 2011

In this episode, I present my short animation Sakura Sunrise, celebrating the Japanese sakura season and the hanami cherry blossom viewing parties. It's also a reflection of how sakura is a symbol of hope and a new start to the Japanese, especially in these difficult times.

Sakura Sunrise was created in Anime Studio Pro 7.

Anime Background Art - Japanese Anime Adventure - 6th September 2010

In the last part of my Japanese Anime Adventure, I talked about the process that I use to create characters in Anime Studio Pro 7 and showed you a short video of them in action. This time, I'm going to talk about the process that I used to create the background art for the same animation.

The method of creating anime background art that I describe here is my own personal one. It may not necessarily be the "right" way, or the quickest way, or the "best" way, but it's the way that works best for me. I really like the hand-painted backgrounds from classic anime and animated movies, so I've tried to recreate that feel, as best I can, in a digital way.

Jason Webb's Japanese Anime Adventure - 20th August 2010

In this episode, I make my first attempt at creating a Japanese anime-style character in Anime Studio Pro 7. I also play around with creating background artwork and some special effects for rain.

There's also your first chance to see a short video of my experimental work in Anime Studio Pro. It's certainly no "Spirited Away", but it's a start.