Animating (flash)

Using flash I had to create a animation and before this i had never used flash for animation until now so my first animation wasn't the best but i have got used to the basics with out using he skeletal structure in my animations the next animation i'm hoping to use this in my second one and to also create a more ambitious animation.

My first animation was of a character i had created within flash and it was very animation of him doing a jumping kick. Doing this animation tough me the basis of using the keyframes and other useful tools within flash.

2D ANIMATION

This essay will cover topics within 2D animation such as, flick book, cell animation, 2D bitmap graphic and 2D vector graphics.

Traditional animation or classic animation or cell animation is a animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand. This technique was at its most dominant form of animation until computer animation was discovered.

Storyboards are the foundation of animation whether it be a 20 second animation or 20 minutes, this is basically a comic strip of the plot at different points, its must be approved by the director in most cases.

Voice recording is where a soundtrack or a scratch track is recorded so that the animation can be closely synchronized to the soundtrack. In most cases it is easier to put the animation to the sound track. A complete sound track will have music, sound effects and dialogue, which are preformed by voice actors.

Design and Timing once the animatic has been approved it is then taken to the design departments. Character designers prepare model sheets for all the main/important characters and props in the film.  These sheets will show characters and proper from different angles, poses and expressions, so that the artist can deliver consistent work through out. Sometimes 3d models / statues of the characters will be produced, so that the animator can get a 3 dimensional view. This is basically the same for the people who create the backgrounds, settings and locations. Stylists will choose a colour scheme.

While design is going on, the timing director who is often the main director will analyze exactly what poses, lip movements and drawings will be needed on what frames. Exposure sheets (X-sheets) are created; this is a printed table that shows all the movements and dialogue frame by frame as a guide for the animators.

Layout begins after the designs are completed and approved. The layout process is the same as blocking out of shots by a cinematographer on a live action film. Its here where the background layout determines the camera angles and paths.

Animation begins when everything is approved by the director. In the traditional process of animation, animators will begin by drawing sequences of animation on sheets of transparent paper perforated to fit the peg bars on their desks. Timing is one of the most important aspects when the animators are drawing the frames, each frame must match exactly what is going on, on the soundtrack at that exact moment the frame will appear because if there is something out of sync the audience would notice and may become distracted, an example of this would be in high budget films, a huge effort is put into this being near perfect.

In high budget animation productions a team/group of people will be assigned to one individual character, they will draw the character. The team will be made up of a supervising animator, a small group of key animators and a large group of assistant animators. Once a key animator is approved, the lead animator forwards the scene(s) on to the clean up animators also known as the inbetweeners , they will draw in the missing frames that are still missing.  This is known as tweening. The resulting drawings are pencil tested and sweatboxed until approved.

At each stage during the pencil animation, approved artwork is sliced into the Leica reel.

This is the same for character animation and special effects animation, which would be seen on high-end productions. Effects animators animate anything that moves and is not a character, including props, vehicles, machinery and other things such as fire, rain and explosions.

Pencil test, after all the drawings are cleaned up, they are the photographed on an animation camera, usually on a black and white film stock. In recent times a pencil test can be done with a video camera and on a computer with the right software.

Flip books, a flip or flick book is a book with a series of pictures that’s vary gradually from one page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change/difference.

Cell animation is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional hand drawn animation. Cell animation by hand has halted in recent times as it is much faster and cost effective on a computer. Generally the character is drawn onto the cels and is laid over a static background drawing. This reduces the amount of times an individual drawing has to be redrawn, thus enabling animation companies to make specialized teams. This was almost an assembly line of production making this whole process more cost effective.

2D computers graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images, mostly from two dimensions. 2D computer graphics are mainly used in applications that were originally developed by drawing or printing technology, such as typography, cartography, technical drawing and advertising.  In those applications, the 2D image isn’t a real life representation but in its self a individual artifact with value.

2D vector graphics is the use of geometric primitives such as lines, points, curves and shapes and polygon(s). Vectors are really good because although they can be enlarged it doesn’t drastically change the file size as it is all to do with the structure of the image.

Research of my animation

When I first started to look into my animation I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do I had ideas of doing a mime a dance or even a free running clip but I came to the conclusion of doing a advert for an energy drink I thought this would be different but funny which I wanted to be a big part when people watch it.

When creating my animation I wanted to create a cel animation rather than using the standard bone tool which many of the other in my class had gone for. When I was creating my animation I watched many videos on how to create one using the simple cel.

I used a skeletal structure before adding to the frame making it into an actual animation, this took up a lot of time, as I had to do it on a single frame basis adding to each one and I think I did over 50 frames hand drawn. 

I think my animation could of been better and more advanced, because I don't think within this project I reached my potential. Overall I am happy with my animation though all thought it doesn't look like much I made it from nothing and I'm really proud of that.