Create a cartoon character to be the star of your animation by making by a pencil sketch on paper. Add color to bring your cartoon character to life, using art marker pens or colored pencils.
Create a cartoon strip storyboard to use as a reference for your cartoon clip. Draw a series of boxed pictures to visually tell your story.
Start drawing your first cartoon frame in pencil on the last page of your layout pad. Go over the pencil outline with black drawing pen and add color, if required.
Take a photograph of the first frame with your digital camera.
Turn the second-to-last page of the layout pad over your first frame page. Retrace the drawing onto that page but change something in the drawing. Change facial features to change the cartoon character's expression, for instance, or slightly move a limb. Add outline and color, as you did in step four and take a photograph.
Repeat steps four and five to complete the number of frames it takes to make your cartoon clip, which could be between one and three minutes worth of footage for a sample clip for your show reel.
Connect your FireWire or USB cable to your PC. Upload your photographs and save.
Open Movie Maker or another film-editing program and upload your cartoon frames.
Create your opening titles by choosing the option on your menu list.
Click on each frame in turn and drag-and-drop it in the editing bar at the bottom of the screen. Add transitions, if required. Include a credits page to complete the clip.
Click on the timeline bar so you can decrease the time duration for each frame. Click on the end of each slide and move the line to the left to push it as near as you can to the previous frame on the slide line.
Play your cartoon clip to see it come to life. Save your cartoon.
Make other cartoon clips and save them all on a blank DVD to make your show reel for your portfolio.