What is animation?

As Paul Wells describes in his book Understanding Animation. Wells describes animation as the artificial creation of movement through means of which was previously inanimate. The word animation is derived from the latin verb, animare, which translates as ‘to give life to’.

Animation is rooted in the technique that an animator uses to creation motion and simulate movement that was not achievable by conventional recording. This involves frame-by-frame dictation and other techniques such as keyframe to make the unmoving subject to appear move on its own accord (Wells, 1998).

In a literal sense of the word, an animator gives life to their subjects.

Different types of animation

As animation is the process of giving movement to a previously inanimate subject, there are many different techniques and processes to make this happen. As there are too many to describe and refer to, I am going to look four I feel are the most prominent.

Traditional Animation

Traditional animation is the process of drawing out animations frame-by-frame and creating a 2D result, this technique is very famous with Disney animated films. Most notably the animated films created in the 20th Century such as Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio and Snow White.

Although digital art has now simplified the technique through the use of graphics tablets and digital layers in photo manipulation software, the traditional technique of drawing out each frame is by layering paper above each other using a light table to see the previous frame. By drawing out the next movement on the separate page, when played back by quickly displaying the frames continuously, movement is shown.

A very common technique to create traditional animation is to use sheets of celluloid. Using celluloid was a common practice in order to separate the animation from the background and speed up production. Here is a picture example of an animated character separate from it’s background.

Limitations of the technique include the static background, as there isn’t movement in the background, it is clear that there isn’t depth to the background and lacks a certain layer of realism as if the objects and characters aren’t really apart of the world. An invention that counteracted this was the “multiplane camera”which was originally created by Lotte Reniniger around the 1926, however, it was made famous by the refined version that Walt Disney had created and patented in 1936 for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. The multiplane was a rig that allowed layers of celluloid to be shot separately to create depth and show parallax within the scene. The way they did this was by pointing a camera down and moving the separate layers of cels  in conjunction to the position and movement of the scene. This allowed realistic shots involving the environment and created a much more immersive atmosphere for the animated features.

Here is a video published by Disney and narrated by Walt Disney himself, documenting the multiplane camera and its uses.

These techniques were the staple process for traditional animation throughout the 20th century. Towards the backend of the 20th century, digitalisation started to occur and these old fashioned techniques were started to be phased out and as of today, are no longer used as the go-to-technique. The last fully traditional technique of painted cels by Disney was in 1989 with the production of The Little Mermaid. From here on techniques adopted the use of digitally painting characters and backgrounds and scanning line work of characters. This indefinitely sped up production and made it more efficient. Digitisation of traditional animation then moved on with the introduction of programs that allowed the use of layers such as Photoshop and Flash. The use of layers allowed artists to separate frames on to different layers within the same file which saved time and spared the manual composition of frames.

The digital age of art had completely overhauled the technique that is used for traditional animation, especially with the conception of such devices such as graphics tablets which allow artists to control the cursor just like a pencil using a touch sensitive tablet, which simulated pen and paper drawing on screen. This completely made the old methods much less reliable than the new ones. http://www.tested.com/art/movies/442545-2d-animation-digital-era-interview-japanese-director-makoto-shinkai/

Usually in todays usage of traditional techniques, the old fashioned methods are only used predominantly as a nostalgic tool or when paying homage to the craft. An example of this is the 2017 video-game Cuphead. Cuphead uses the technique of hand-drawn animation for each frame for the elements and characters in the game to create an old fashioned and retro style to it.

 

Digital Animation/ Motion Graphics

Digital animation and motion graphics are a lot different from digitalised traditional animation as they don’t tend to use frame by frame techniques to achieve the movement for the piece. These animations generally have the computer calculate the position of the objects that are being animated in order to create movement.

A program that uses this process is Adobe After Effects, this program uses keyframes as a tool to create movement. Keyframes are a marker that records the properties of the layer that you intend to move whether this be its position, rotation, opacity etc. The way this works is if you make a new frame with the properties holding different values, if it is in a different place on the timeline than the previous keyframe, the computer will then calculate movement between the two keyframe points and automatically create movement between the two, if there are one or more frames between the two.

This is essentially the main principle behind motion graphics and digital animation. These graphics are generally created as digital assets which are then animated through the use of keyframes. Using digital programs for animation mean for a lot more accuracy and less mistakes in a much smaller time frame then doing it manually without a computer. Due to the automatic calculations, a lot of inaccuracies that were once prominent such as centring and having each frame match up.

Motion graphics are mainly used as a tool display information whether this be for commercials or as web elements. They normally show visually interesting animation for the presentation of whatever is being shown on screen whether this be icons, statistics etc. The main basis for this style of animation is to find the most stylistic and creative way to show the elements on screen.

Here is an example of motion graphics in action:

 

Stop-Motion 

Stop- Motion animation is one of the most time consuming techniques of animation and still continues to be today. Stop-Motion is the process of taking a series of still pictures and lining them together to create motion by moving an object within each frame. This means every single frame of a film needs to be personally dictated and managed, in a similar fashion to hand-drawn animation. This means if a character moves in every frame for a 5 minute video at 25 frames per second (UK frame rate standard), this means 7500 frames need to be personally adjusted for just 5 minutes of footage.

This technique was first created in the very late 1800s by James Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith. The technique was born after the conception of the film camera which allowed artists to project image on strips of film in a fast sequence to create a motion picture. The predecessor to this was named lightning-sketch animation a process in which the artist stopped the camera, changed the image featured in the frame and then rolled the camera again.

Example of lightning sketch animation.

The stop-motion practice was a very popular method especially for visual effects in order to create larger than life effects for a lower cost than actually creating the physical models to use in set. Examples of this include Star Wars, King Kong, Godzilla etc. This technique was eventually outdated for use in cinema with the rise of CGI. CGI generally gives a much more natural look to the animation, especially when partnered with motion capture, than stop-motion did.

3D Animation

3D animation is now the largest and most popular form of animation. 3D animation is as simple as it’s name suggests, animation in 3 dimensions.

Within 3D modelling and animation programs on computers, animators can see the character within 3D space within its environment and can interact as if it were a real being. This means rather than being a flat surface and only appearing to have depth, the depth is real, and the objects in the background are in fact real.

The first feature-length 3D computer animated film was Toy Story in 1995 by now-Disney subsidiary studio, Pixar. This groundbreaking film was so well received that it kicked off the most popular type of animation since traditional cartoons.

This technique allows studios to very easy create a realistic looking animated films which don’t require full-photorealism. This means it can show properties from environments and physics that match our own world though still have their own style that separates it apart from other animated movies.

 

For Thursday’s timetabled session I presented the my idea for “Bonehedz”. I out forward my ideas and thoughts towards the project and the results that I wanted from it.

An area that was discussed was my choice of audience which provided an interesting topic of discussion. As my animation focuses on characters that act mischievous towards it each other, this may include comic violence, which is a very common theme upon cartoons, especially cartoons such as Tom & Jerry and The Road Runner.

This is an interesting topic as the main audience for cartoons such as the ones mentioned above are young children. These children can be from all ages including toddlers under the age of three. This is where the line of violence in cartoons is challenged. Even though the violence in these shows rarely do have harming results such as Tom & Jerry, the intent of harm is still there, more so from Tom than Jerry in the show, but Tom is always trying to harm Jerry in a number of different ways.

This sparked discussion towards it being good practice to research into the ethics of young audiences for cartoons especially for the genre of cartoon that intend to produce. This will go hand in hand with looking towards how to target audiences for distribution, especially on sites such as YouTube and Facebook where the video content is becoming a lot more accessible for young children.

More discussion included the programs that I will use to create my animations. Another student suggested Adobe Character Animator CC. They said especially for character based animation (which I tend on using) it is very useful and would be a good tool to use. I haven’t tried this software fully yet, but will definitely consider it and test it’s pros and cons towards my project.

After deciding what I wanted from the project this semester I started to conceptualise some ideas that I had. This is where I got the idea for “Bonehedz” I only spent a short amount of time creating these. (They are only initial designs, not final). I tried to make character out of simple shapes, most of the elements in the character above have stemmed from a simple circle.

Now onto the idea itself, “Bonehedz”. Will be a short sketch based animations revolving around two skeletons. The skeletons are miscreants and are always causing mischief whether its towards each other or the world around them.

For this project I really wanted to do character animation. I feel characters are a great way to show expression and emotion, especially in animation as they have to be manipulated by the animator/ puppeteer in order to create a human like aspect to them. One of my inspirations is the tongue and cheek style of Tom & Jerry. The two characters are constantly at war and often find more ridiculous ways to cause mischief.

In response to my previous post I have decided to work towards an animation to which I will design a logo and all of the elements along with it.

This is based off of the fact I feel it would be most beneficial for future work and show off my skills in a very appropriate fashion. I also looked into companies that I will eventually apply for in preparation for post-graduation work, I feel the best way to really get their attention would be to create a piece of work that shows off all of my skills and shows how I could be an asset to them.

I want to create short sketch type animations that I will set up a brand for to easily distribute online. I’m going to research into different animation techniques in order to bring different elements and levels to my work. This may include traditional techniques to enhance the look of the animation. My aim is to create a visual style that I can claim distinct creative ownership over. This will need a lot of work and research, however I feel I can really push my limits and my knowledge in this field. I think the more I push myself in this, the better my result will be.

Welcome to the research & development blog for my second semester project.

I started coming up with rough ideas well before the semester kicked off however though I have substance to each idea, I wanted to consider them in a proper fashion and take into consideration professional practice and stepping stones from the work I produce.

For this final year at university, I wanted to hone in more closely to the professional practice that I want be working in for post-graduate work. This was one of the premises for my work last semester. I created illustrations as I do intend to work in a more illustration and design area of expertise. I also wanted to push my creative flair, which I felt I did by using the Instagram platform as the baseline for my narrative.

As for this semester, I again want to be working towards my professional career more closely.

I created a mind map using a simple mind map making software called “Simplemind lite”. This has enabled me very easily to get my ideas down and look at the pros and cons of each one that I have conceptualised.

All of the themes here mostly resolve around design and illustration other than 3D modelling. Below I will discuss my thoughts and opinions in more detail for each idea.

 

3D modelling: 

3D modelling is a very popular skill that is quite sought after in the industry, especially as work including 3D modelling has increased significantly because of the rise of it’s use in mass media. My main idea for this would be to learn about 3D modelling as it would enhance my flexibility and employability. I feel 3D work is a skill that would give me an extra level to my skillset. With it I’d be a lot more flexible for different career paths.

However I also feel that to focus my last project on this wouldn’t more to my benefit than developing a skill that I will more likely go into afterwards. I feel this because I will have to learn 3D work from scratch and from there, within 12 weeks my final project will not be as polished and look as good as I possibly hope it to be, especially since I’ll still be a novice in the field. I feel it would be a smarter option to learn 3D modelling in my spare time rather than using it as my main project.

 

Logo Design:

I feel as the majority of my work is design based, I think logo design would be a very obvious route to follow for my project. I think as it is in the area of expertise that I do want to practice in then it would be most beneficial for my career to follow this route, especially for my final project in university.

I feel the downside for doing a project like this would be workload, creating a logo, is a quite a small amount of work especially to write about and work towards an R&D file. Though I could learn different techniques and challenge myself further, I feel it still won’t provide enough work that I would want for my development file.

Charity Kickstarter campaign:

This project is probably the most out of reach in my opinion than the rest that I thought of. I think the idea is very ambitious and has a good premise. However I think, as a single semester project, I think it would be very hard to get off the ground. I think as it has such a large scope and is dependable on a lot more than just myself, I think it is too much to work on for as my project.

I do really like the idea though, I feel that it could do a lot of good and could be a good foundation to raise money for sick children.

2D Animation

I am very interested in animation and feel that it could benefit me a lot by doing a project on it this semester. I have done a lot of design work towards my portfolio while at university however I feel that motion graphics and animation has been quite lacklustre in comparison.

I feel doing a project that involves 2D animation could put together a couple of aspects of digital media such as design and motion graphics. This not only nails two aspects but will also enhance my personal portfolio even further. It also follows suit quite directly from last semester as I intended to look into animation but was unable at the time.