Unit 53 2D Animation Production

Unit 53 2D Animation Production


Animation Research and History

 Some history and research about animation, the way they are made and its different types.

definition of animation

A simulation/illusion of movement created by displaying a series of pictures, or frames.

A bit of history

The first signs of animation that was made by humans were animal caves painting that were often depicted with multiple sets of legs in superimposed positions to represent motion (like an animal that was running).

Another sign of art that try’s to show motion within an image is a 5200-year old bowl that had five paintings that showed different phases of a goat leaping up at a tree.

(1824) Thaumatrope is a toy that consists of a small disk with pictures on each side (like a bird and a cage), the disk was attached to two pieces of string of equal length. When the strings were twisted and then released the disk would spin rapidly making both side of the disk show until the disk would slow down and stop. Whilst the disk is spinning we can see both images flicker quickly making a form of animation or motion (like the bird being in a cage).

(1831) Phenakistoscope is an animation device that consists of a disk with 13 or so images that represented different phases of the animation; the disk has slits between each image so you could see the animation happen in front of a mirror when you spin the disk. The animation was very simple at the time and it would just loop doing the same animation again and again so you couldn't really create a full length story for the animation.

(1834) A Zoetrope works in the same way the Phenakistoscope works but instead of using a disk with images printed on it, you would use a strip of paper with the images of the animation on it, and you would put this strip of paper inside the bottom of the cylinder part of the device and then spin it to show the illusion of motion when looking through the slits in the cylinder.

   

(1868) A Flip book is a small book filled with images that showed different phases of an animation, to see the animation happen you needed to flip through the Flip book at a constant speed to see all the images create the illusion of motion. This is were animation got to get a bit more complex because the length of the animation depended on how many pages the booklet contained, and the animation wouldn't loop so you could create more of a story for the animation.

(1877) Praxinoscope is the first device able to project animations on a screen.

It was basically a Zoetrope with mirrors and a light projector. This device is kind of what started the idea of showing films to a wide audience instead of watching an animation by yourself(basically the start of cinema).

              

In 1911 animators had started to make stop motion films like "The Cameraman's Revenge" which used dead insects with wire limbs.

In 1914 films like "Gertie the dinosaur" where made, where they would photograph all the drawings/frames of an animation and then project them with a projector (like the cinematograph).

Gertie the dinosaur was one of the first films to combine live action footage with hand drawn animation. 10,000 Drawings were used in the making of the film.

Also in 1914 Earl Hurd, one of Bray Studios employees invented the cel technique. Which involved animating on transparent celluloid sheets. Animators photographed the sheets on a non-animated background image to have an animation on a non-animated background.

In 1915, rotoscoping was invented. Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over footage, frame by frame. This projection equipment is called a rotoscope, although computers eventually replaced this device.

In 1958 colored cartons had started to air on television.

In 1995 the first computer generated image (CGI) feature film was released,

It was Pixar's Toy Story. CGI films are made with 3D software that allows you to animate 3D environmental objects.

In 1998 a Wallace and Gromit short film called A grand day out was made by a team of animators.
The characters and the film became popular in the stop motion animation industry and the team later on made more short films and even a feature film called The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit.
These are clay animation stop motion films.

In 2002 animators started to use motion capture to animate specific scenes or characters in a film or videogame. Motion capture is the process of using motion capture suit on a person who will perform the desired movements for the animation. Motion capture was used to animate Gollum from the Lord of the rings film. Here is an example of motion capture in use: 

Animators now days mainly use computers to create their animations.

For 2D animations, people would usually use Adobe flash or other popular animations programs. Here is an example of an animation made in Adobe Flash. 

For 3D animations, people would usually use blender, Autodesk Maya or other popular animations programs. Here is an example of an animation made in Blender.

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Storyboard And character designing

Making a storyboard for a flash animation about the old folk story Yallery Brown

This was my first storyboard, it's very rough and doesn't have much detail.

Character designing Yallery brown and Tom

First Yallery Brown design

This was a rough drawing to give myself an idea of what the creature would look like. When i first red the Yallery brown story i imagined Yallery brown looking like a small orc/goblin creature something that would look a bit like gollum from Lord of the rings.

 Second Yallery Brown design with more detail

I didn't quite like the way he looked yet.

Third and last Yallery Brown design 

I liked this design a lot more, for the way he looks, he looks a lot more evil and mischievous.

I think the design fits the character. I took some inspiration from the character Gollum from the lord of the rings movies.

Some extra rough sketches of the characters

size comparison: Yallery brown is about the size of a child and is really bony and skinny.

Rough sketches of tom's face.

At this stage i still didn't really know what Tom was going to look like, i wasn't too sure on how i should be drawing him.

 Second storyboard with a lot more detail and drawings.

Church bell rings 6 o'clock and sound of bells 

Tom panicking about being late

Tom running down the path with a running sound and a camera pan going to the right

Tom's point of view looking at the forest and thinking about taking a shortcut through the forest

Camera zooms into the forest

Tom arrives at the centre of the forest and hears a cry for help

camera pans from left to right

Tom free's Yallery Brown from under the stone slab 

Yallery Brown introduces himself and grants a wish to Tom

Tom arrives at the farm and all his work is being done for him

Sound for the work being done by magic (fence being put together)

One of the farmers realises that Tom's work is being done magically for him

so he shouts that Tom is a witch and everyone starts to chase after him 

Tom being chased into the forest with sounds of angry people and running.  

Tom arriving at the centre of the forest and calling for Yallery Brown to thank him and

tell him to leave

Yallery Brown getting angry at Tom for saying thank you

Tom get's thrown into the hole and the stone slab covers the hole

Camera zoom's out and we can hear cries for help

The End

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Learning how to animate with Adobe Flash

I was told to make a simple bouncing ball animation in Flash with the help of a tutorial.

this was fairly easy to make but i did get lost a couple of times not knowing how i was supposed to do something. This was a fun new thing to learn.

Making a walk-cycle animation in Adobe Flash.

I hand drawn this animation with a Wacom Bamboo tablet.

This animation was hard to make because i didn't have much knowledge of how to use Adobe Flash but after a bit of research on the internet looking for tutorials I got the hang of it.

I redid the walk cycle animation so i could add some arms and the main character's face.

The final animation with sound

To make the sound i recorded myself banging my hand on a table and then i edited the audio so it would be in sync for the animation, i am actually really surprised about how good it sounds.

Comments from people that have seen my basic walk cycle animation :

Comment number 1: smooth animation but I think that the body shouldn't be so straight and static.

Comment number 2: Feet noise are well synced and looping is smooth but the arms are too straight.

Comment number 3: Looks good but would of been better with colour and some clothing.

I agree with all of these comments, I also think that it would of been better if i had made the arms bend a bit when they moved back and forth and that i shouldn't of made the torso so static and straight and i also agree that it would of looked better with some colours and clothes but i wasn't really all that familiar with Flash to really be playing around with colours because i didn't really know how the fill tool worked yet. I also think that my lines could of been a bit less rough and sketchy.

Learning to use the bone tool in flash by making a leg kick a ball.

The bone tool is basically an easier way to create an animation it uses tween's to animate instead of doing step by step animation. I personally think that a step by step animation would look better and more natural than a bone tool animation.

To make this animation i followed an easy tutorial.

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Working on my final animation for the Yallery Brown story

Why did I choose Yallery brown over the magic paint brush?

I decided to make my animation be about yallery brown instead of the magic paintbrush mainly because i thought that the story was more interesting and i liked how the story has a grim ending.

This is an animation created by Nerogeist and i really enjoy his simple art style,

so i will be taking inspiration from his art style to create my own animation.

I think that this art style will be easier to draw and animate within flash.

New Yallery Brown and Tom designs

I decided to change the designs of the 2 main characters because i think that these designs would be easier to animate and draw because of it's simple straight lines, I made my new art style for my final animation to look more like a cartoon.

The dialogue script for my animation

I wrote a dialogue script so I would know what the characters within my animation are going to say since it wasn't going to be the exact same dialogue as what the characters say within the written story that I am using to make the animation. This was also created so I could give to my friends for when they would be voice acting.

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The Start

Tom         "Now I am definitely going to be late ... But what if I took a short cut through the forest?"

Tom   "hopefully this short cut will get me there in time"

In forest

child

voice "HELP!"

Tom  "Wha'... ?"

child

voice "Help me! Help!"

child

voice "I only lifted up the stone to look underneath, and while I was looking it slipped and fell on me. It's so dark, under here,

and I'm so frightened! Won't someone please, please help me!"

Yallery

Brown "Brown, Brown, Yellow and Brown I'm Yallery Brown!" (crazy voice)

Yallery

Brown "Tom my friend you have freed me from under the stone and in exchange for you kindness I shall grant you a wish, whatever you want Tom! and it's yours!"

Tom  "Um ..."

Yallery

brown "how would you like to be rich Tom? or have a pretty young wife?"

Tom  "no. I don't think I'd like that - there'd be too much work to do if I had those things."

Yallery

brown "So you don't like work, eh Tom? Well, that's where I can help. Just say the word Tom, and I'll do all your work for you."

Tom "Yes! Yes, that's what I want. I wish for you to do all my work"

Yallery

brown "Done!"

Tom         "Really?"

Yallery

brown "Yup!"

Tom         "Than-"

Yallery

brown "Stop! You must never ever thank me Tom, for bad luck will come to you if you do"

Later at the Farm

Farmer "Tom is using magic to cheat work, he's a Witch! Get him!"

chased to the forest

Tom         "Yallery Brown! Where are you?"

Yallery

brown "Here I am Tom, what is the matter?"

Tom         "it's all your fault and I'll thank you to never to help me again!"

Yallery

brown "I warned you to never thank me, and now you have. By thanking me Tom you have set me free, but now there is an empty space beneath the stone. I must go now, but listen - They are coming!"

Tom Scream's

The End

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The process I take to make the scenes.

When creating scenes for my animation i would always hand sketch everything with my graphics tablet and redraw everything with the line tool and after that i would add the colours.

here are some rough sketches that where drawn in flash to help me draw a cleaner version of the scene.

When Tom is running through the forest.

The forest

The stone slab in the forest

Tom deciding if he should take a shortcut into the forest

Tom 

Yallery brown

The angry farmer

The path Tom takes to go to the farm

Improved story board with colour and improved art style.

These 3 images were used to make a basic walk cycle of the main character running up a hill.

The final animation with sound, voice acting and everything.

My animation uses both tweening and stop motion animation techniques.

Interim assessment evaluation

Here is a comment i got on youtube about my animation.

"Great animation, there was a lot of detail added in the animation for example the shadows, plot is very understandable, voice acting was adequate, especially when it would have been easier to just add speech bubbles. However, at the start you were animating the mouth movements, then you stopped animating the mouth movements as much as you were, also the animation and sound were out of sync. At the end scene when Tom and Yallery Brown were standing at the stone slab they looked off key because you could only see one leg and one arm. Other wise great animation, not much bad things I can say about this."

I agree with everything this person says apart from the part where they say that the sound and animation were out of sync, because i think that the sound is only some times out of sync form the animation and not always, other then that i do agree with everything else that they say.

I am surprised that they didn't talk about the part where tom is at the already fixt fence, because I personally think that that part of my animation is the worst part because of how lame it looks and how little effort i put into that part of the animation.

That person didn't actually say on how I could improve the animation but i can think of some ways I could try improving it: I could try and make the mouths of the characters move more when they speak (lip syncing), i could try and add more detail to the main characters and give them more facial expressions.

Here is another comment I got on youtube about my animation.

"I thought that overall it was very good. most of the animations were good and the voice acting and lip syncing were a good effort. The only problems that I had was that you stopped lip syncing at the end of the animation and you could have put more effort into the broken fence scene"

I totally agree with this comment I also think that i could of put more effort into the broken fence scene  and have a bit more mouth movement for the character.

Overall I am happy with my animation even if I didn't really enjoy making it.

Here is my animation  with a scene improved to it.

The scene that was improved is the scene where Tom returns to the farm and the fence gets repaired by magic.

I am now a lot happier with this scene because it now makes so much more sense to the viewer on what is going on.

Comments on my final animation

Excellent start and narration. Well rendered flash graphic elements and character development. Some good simplified lip syncing. Great character expressions. Good use of transitions. The story flows very well. There is great use of humour in your animation.

Peers good camera shots

Early signs of syncing speech

Art style really good. 

Could use a soundtrack.

I agree with all of these comments. And I also think that the animation would of been better with some sound track (music) when the animation was quite.