How to get started in animation - for kids

My 9 year old is desperate to learn animation and has just been given Toon Boon Studio Express. Can anyone recommend a good manual or online tutorial we can go to get started with basics?
Thanks

Well, I presume a good start would be to work through the “Toon Boom Studio Express
QuickStart Tutorial”.
If it didn’t come with the software, you can download it here:
http://www.toonboom.com/products/eLearning/tutorials/index3.php

Try this very nice Tutorial:
http://www.toonboom.com/products/eLearning/tutorials/tbs/lipsync.php

Experiment with some of the Templates:
http://www.toonboom.com/products/eLearning/templates.php

Read the “eLearning Animation Essentials” - some are only for Toon Boom Studio -
but some are interesting for Express users as well.
http://www.toonboom.com/products/eLearning/articles/

Have a look at JK’s “Tips and Tricks” - mostly written for Toon Boom Studio
but an excellent read for everyone interested in animation in general.
http://www.toonboom.com/support/forums/toonBoomStudio/index.php?board=7;action=display;threadid=2631

And here is a little “clip” done with Toon Boom Studio Express
when I started with animation:
http://web.mac.com/nolan.scott/iWeb/Gallery/Walking%20the%20City.html

Cheers
Nolan

When I was 9 years old, and that was a really long time ago, I used to do stick figure animations in those little 4"x3" note pad books. They made great flip books. one drawing per page at the bottom of each page and then I could see them come to life by using my thumb to flip through the pages. So today’s 9 year has a great opportunity. They don’t need to make flip books to learn. They can just start out animating stick figures in TB-Express. As soon as time permits, I think this would be a great tutorial for me to create. I’ll do it in TBS but I will limit it to features that are also available in Express. I’ll post back when its on-line. -JK

Thanks very much for these great suggestions. The Getting Started Guide looks excellent.
Thanks again.
krr

It must be your birthday because here is your present. No seriously here is a two part tutorial good for TBS and TBS-Express. There is no better way to have fun learning to animate than to draw stick figures. They are easy and can do anything and don’t require you to be a skilled draftsperson. So I hope these get your 9 year old moving down the road to being the next Walt Disney or Chuck Jones. We would love to see their progress. -JK

A Good Place to Start Part 1

A Good Place to Start Part 2

These really look great. Thank you sooo much. I’ll let you know how it goes.
krr