How to Make an Animated Cartoon Character Starring Yourself

1. Open Windows Movie Maker in your programs list. Click on 'file' and 'new project.' Then click again on 'file' and 'save project as,' naming your file. Click on 'file' and 'import into collections' to retrieve your image.

2. With a portrait, drag the image onto the storyboard several times. Then go to 'file' and click on 'tools' and 'video effects.' Drag a video effect onto the first image and see how it appears in preview, which is on the right side of your screen. Try out a different effect on each image.

3. For animation purposes, ensure your images change in a second or less. There are two ways to achieve this.1) Click on the first image and the red click-and-drag tool will appear. Use the tool to reduce the running time of the image by moving it to the left. Repeat on all the images you have dragged into the storyboard.2) Drag the 'speed up, double' video effect onto every image. This is arguably the most important of the video effects tools, as using it on successive images will collectively give them an animated appearance. Pixelate animates just a single image.

4. Watercolor is a good effect to use to create a cartoon-style image. Drag watercolor once onto the first image, twice onto the second image, three times onto the third and four times onto the fourth. Then reverse the process, dragging watercolor three times onto the fifth image, twice onto the sixth image and once onto the seventh image.

5. You can follow the same steps with a full-length image, but you also can use the rotate and pixelate video effects for movement. Once you have followed these steps, remember to click on 'file' and 'save project.' You can then, if you wish, experiment with other video effects.