Consider your resources. Your imagination might be limited, but chances are, your budget and your talent are not. When brainstorming a new idea for a cartoon, keep in mind how much you can afford to invest in the process and what your artistic skill is capable of producing.
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If you are a beginner, you might want to stay away from stories and themes that require animating complex scenes, like huge battles or intricate machinery. Your animating skills may need to be refined and practiced more before you are ready to tackle a project of that size.
Also keep in mind that you will need more equipment depending on how complex you want your cartoon to be. A claymation cartoon with two dozen characters and four sets will require more supplies than a cel animation with only one scene. If budget is an issue, keep it short and simple.
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Think about length. The right length for your cartoon will vary based on the market you are trying to distribute it in. Knowing the length from the start will help you brainstorm a story that can fit within that time frame.
If you want to create a cartoon that could develop into a long-term show, your cartoon will need to be either 11 minutes or 20 to 25 minutes.
Cartoon movies can go anywhere from 60 minutes to 120 minutes.
If a one-time cartoon made for the Internet is all you want to create, you can create a short running from 1 to 5 minutes. Creating anything longer may turn people away from viewing it.
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Know your intended audience. Even though cartoons are traditionally aimed at kids, there are many cartoons made for older adolescents and adults. The age group and other audience demographics should shape the ideas you come up with.
For example, a cartoon about something tragic, like the death of a loved one, would be better reserved for a slightly older audience. If a young audience is your target, you would be better off choosing a topic that is a little simpler to understand and more concrete.
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Work from your experiences. Another way to put this would be, “write what you know.” Many storytellers write stories based on events, feelings, or relationships they experienced in their own lives. Make a list of possible life events you have been through that could be the underlying idea behind a cartoon.
If you want to create a cartoon with a serious tone, think about life experiences that really mold and shape you: an unrequited love, the loss of a friend, working hard toward a goal that seemed impossible, etc.
If you want to create something more humorous, take an everyday situation like waiting in traffic or waiting on an email and exaggerate how difficult the situation is in a funny way.
Alternatively, you can use something already funny to create a humorous cartoon.
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Use your imagination. Of course, there are many plot that do not involve any trace of life experience. You can use your interests and your imagination to craft an entirely new premise, as long as you include enough relatable details to help people connect to the characters or the story.
Relatable details include underlying themes that are universally appealing. For example, most people can relate to a coming-of-age story, regardless of whether that story takes place in the contemporary real world, in a futuristic space-age setting, or in a sword-and-sorcery fantasy setting.
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Design an appealing protagonist. Make a list of character traits you would like to see in a protagonist. Write positive features as well as faults to avoid making a character too perfect.
This is an important step no matter how simple or complex your cartoon will be. While a character in a longer, more serious cartoon will need to develop more, a short, funny cartoon will need a protagonist with a clear goal and clear character traits that allow him or her to react to the conflict in whatever way he or she does.