i found a site with a very detailed timeline about animation starting from 1824 till 2005 which i thought id share because it was very helpful in my 2D animation research
Monday, 12 September 2011
Anime Backgrounds
A very good video showing how to use water paints and pencil to finish with a beautiful background for a screen in Anime
Anime Techniques
By Chris Moore ( www.ehow.com/way_5418442_anime-techniques.html )
Examples added by me
When drawing and designing anime, attention to detail is stressed in almost all its techniques. Characters are designed to show descriptive emotions. Even small objects are drawn to be as realistic as possible, while rooms and scenery are drawn out with the detail of an architect's blueprint.
Colours
Most forms of anime use a two-color shading system for characters and other objects that move and are animated. These objects use colors separated into two contrasting shade groups (like flesh colors and red or blue hues). There can sometimes be a third color for shadow or gloss, and the objects are outlined in smooth, black lines. Meanwhile, backdrops and scenery are drawn with blending shades and without black outlining. This helps make the scenery more realistic and helps separate it from the foreground.
Characters
While characters are designed to be as realistic looking as possible, certain body parts like the hands, feet and hair are often drawn larger than normal. This not only allows for movement to be more visible, but also more exaggerated. The eyes are drawn big and glossy as a way to show emotion. The most famous trait of anime is hair, which is frequently drawn in crazy styles and unnatural colors to differentiate one character from another. Clothing and fashion are often made to be trendy with the times, but the Japanese culture of school uniforms is popular.
Scenes
When filming movement in a scene, anime often uses a trick called "panning." Objects in the scene are "rotated" to help simulate a camera giving a sweeping shot around a real life scene. Objects in the closest foreground and farthest background move faster than those in the middle to help give a more three-dimensional feel. Depth of field is also used, in which a character or object meant to be the point of attention is shown in focus while the rest of the foreground is blurred.
Examples added by me
When drawing and designing anime, attention to detail is stressed in almost all its techniques. Characters are designed to show descriptive emotions. Even small objects are drawn to be as realistic as possible, while rooms and scenery are drawn out with the detail of an architect's blueprint.
Colours
Most forms of anime use a two-color shading system for characters and other objects that move and are animated. These objects use colors separated into two contrasting shade groups (like flesh colors and red or blue hues). There can sometimes be a third color for shadow or gloss, and the objects are outlined in smooth, black lines. Meanwhile, backdrops and scenery are drawn with blending shades and without black outlining. This helps make the scenery more realistic and helps separate it from the foreground.Characters
While characters are designed to be as realistic looking as possible, certain body parts like the hands, feet and hair are often drawn larger than normal. This not only allows for movement to be more visible, but also more exaggerated. The eyes are drawn big and glossy as a way to show emotion. The most famous trait of anime is hair, which is frequently drawn in crazy styles and unnatural colors to differentiate one character from another. Clothing and fashion are often made to be trendy with the times, but the Japanese culture of school uniforms is popular.Scenes
When filming movement in a scene, anime often uses a trick called "panning." Objects in the scene are "rotated" to help simulate a camera giving a sweeping shot around a real life scene. Objects in the closest foreground and farthest background move faster than those in the middle to help give a more three-dimensional feel. Depth of field is also used, in which a character or object meant to be the point of attention is shown in focus while the rest of the foreground is blurred.
Time-lapse Photography
Time-lapse is where you take a photo with a fix camera in the same place maybe one picture every second, minute, hour week and so on to make a sequences of movement over a long or short period of time a good example of this would be of the weather changing which is usually always shown using time-lapse photographic instead of speeding a 24hr video up stupid amount you can just used the 24 pictures taken each hour to show the same.
First Walt Disney Cel Animation.
Steam boat willie
This was the first of many Walt Disney's animations using the cel animation technique as you can see in todays Disney's films the movements are very smooth and show how they have learned new tricks and techniques along the way from this clip here.
This was the first of many Walt Disney's animations using the cel animation technique as you can see in todays Disney's films the movements are very smooth and show how they have learned new tricks and techniques along the way from this clip here.
Saturday, 10 September 2011
Very Helpful Infomation.
Just read thought the whole "Methods of animation and terminology " on Blackboard aimed at us doing the 2D animation, if you haven't read it yet and your taking this Unit ... don't be stupid and get reading if you ever want to understand all the different methods, how to do them and what they all mean.
The Techniques used in 2D Animation
( information Sourced from www.eHow.com and is not my own )
Animation is a sequence of frames that conveys movement. Traditionally, these have been a series of illustrations shot at 24 frames per second. Animation is a varied art form and thus the list of methods for 2-D animation has expanded well beyond pen and paper. The following is an overview of the principles of 2-D animation technique.
Animation is a sequence of frames that conveys movement. Traditionally, these have been a series of illustrations shot at 24 frames per second. Animation is a varied art form and thus the list of methods for 2-D animation has expanded well beyond pen and paper. The following is an overview of the principles of 2-D animation technique.
The Art of Movement
- Will the motion snap? Will it have an attitude? Deciding how the drawings will move is the fundamental aesthetic of animation. Animation is an art form; you are free to select as unique or realistic a style as needed for the desired effect.
Timing
- Once you decide how the animation will move, you have to decide how much time that action will take. This is referred to as timing. To do this, you can play the action in your head and use your instinct to determine the duration. For a more precise measurement, you can use this method with a stopwatch. Some animators will act out the motion with their bodies to better understand the action they're drawing.
Spacing
- Next, determine how the drawings will be placed between each other. The spacing of drawings can create weight and believability when done correctly. To achieve this, remember that when more drawings are added the more time they will be seen on screen. Fewer drawings equals less time and therefore a shorter action. If the motion is at an even time, then the drawings must be spaced evenly from each other. When the motion speeds up or slows down, drawings are spaced differently in two ways: Slow In and Slow Out.
Slow In
- Think acceleration, similar to the action of reaching out your hand. The action starts slow but gets faster as your hand accelerates upward. This is executed by padding drawings together at the beginning of the action, showing longer onscreen, to using fewer frames, father apart as the action completes, thus the ending is appearing for less time onscreen.
Slow Out
- This is a term for deceleration. The action starts fast and ends slowly, creating a slow out. At the start, drawings are placed father apart from each other, with many drawings padding the end of the action. This creates a slowing effect.
Key Frames
- These are usually the first frames drawn, and represent the major points of action. Key framing the animation is a general way of laying down a foundation of the most important poses. The biggest benefits to using key frames is the ability to see if the animation works with a relatively low drawing investment. As a note, not all animators use key frames, as it can make animation look stiff or unnatural. It also depends largely on preference.
1s, 2s, 3s, 4s
- Animation is recorded at 24 frames per second. The term 1s, 2s and so on refers to how many frames are shot per drawing. If each drawing were shot only once, a 1 to 1 ration of one drawing to one frame shot, this would mean the animation was shot on 1s. If each drawing was shot twice, one drawing for every two frames, would be called 2s, and etc. Contrary to popular opinion most animation is not shot on 1s, but rather 2s unless the action needs to be particularly smooth as in dancing or an underwater scene
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
The types of 2D animations
Stop motion 2D animations
This type is a painstaking method of animation used in both 2D and more so in 3D in which you had a still photo of each frame, by redrawing the frame slightly different to the last, or for 3D moving the object or image slightly too to end up with a sequences of images which can be played in order to give the illusion the image in front of you is being animated.
Cut out and Collage Animation
The style of cut out and collage is I'm sure a well known one to many people and it pretty much holds its own seen it came to are screens I'm sure by now you know what i mean as long as your of an older generation yup that's right you guessed it South Park.
South Park is one of the leaders in using this type of style which its simple cartoons with strong story lines that aren't for everyone..
The is style is pretty much the same as stop motion so its more a technique if you like using previously made characters and using different cut out images to animated them such as different mouth shapes to show a character talking in so many frames using these images in the different stop motion pictures.
Rotoscoping
rotoscoping is i would say an easier way to making an animation but none the less a very artistic finish depending how much time you are willing to put in to each frame drawn, essentially this type is tracing a movie that has already been filmed by drawing over each frame in the movie clip, the video clip is sometimes kept to give colour or in most cases deleted after completing each frame individually to give a movie like animation.
Path Animation
Path animation is the easier type of animation and proberly the most liveless of animations its just mainly moving the same image from one side of the picture to the other without drawing each frame just using more advanced programs such as Flash to fill in the missing frames when animating an objects movement, maybe the most liveless of all but is still used in almost every animation in some way shape or form.
Cel Animation
Now this one everyone will have seen but maybe didn't know that is was done this way and the best example of this would be the Walt Disney films before they switch to digital in the 1990s. Cel animation is using a transparent cel the outline is drawn on the front of the Cel and the colour on the backside of the image to eliminate brush stroke marks then this images would be put on top a background and then using the same method as motion stop each image would be painted and photographed in sequence.
This type is a painstaking method of animation used in both 2D and more so in 3D in which you had a still photo of each frame, by redrawing the frame slightly different to the last, or for 3D moving the object or image slightly too to end up with a sequences of images which can be played in order to give the illusion the image in front of you is being animated.
Cut out and Collage Animation
The style of cut out and collage is I'm sure a well known one to many people and it pretty much holds its own seen it came to are screens I'm sure by now you know what i mean as long as your of an older generation yup that's right you guessed it South Park.
South Park is one of the leaders in using this type of style which its simple cartoons with strong story lines that aren't for everyone..
The is style is pretty much the same as stop motion so its more a technique if you like using previously made characters and using different cut out images to animated them such as different mouth shapes to show a character talking in so many frames using these images in the different stop motion pictures.
Rotoscoping
rotoscoping is i would say an easier way to making an animation but none the less a very artistic finish depending how much time you are willing to put in to each frame drawn, essentially this type is tracing a movie that has already been filmed by drawing over each frame in the movie clip, the video clip is sometimes kept to give colour or in most cases deleted after completing each frame individually to give a movie like animation.
Path Animation
Path animation is the easier type of animation and proberly the most liveless of animations its just mainly moving the same image from one side of the picture to the other without drawing each frame just using more advanced programs such as Flash to fill in the missing frames when animating an objects movement, maybe the most liveless of all but is still used in almost every animation in some way shape or form.
Cel Animation
Now this one everyone will have seen but maybe didn't know that is was done this way and the best example of this would be the Walt Disney films before they switch to digital in the 1990s. Cel animation is using a transparent cel the outline is drawn on the front of the Cel and the colour on the backside of the image to eliminate brush stroke marks then this images would be put on top a background and then using the same method as motion stop each image would be painted and photographed in sequence.
Chobits ( a fine example of Anime )
Here is an example of the animation used in anime and one of my favour anime's from the uses of the expressions to the beautiful drawings of the female persocom ( personal computer ) used in the storyline.
The rise of Anime
One of the first ever voiced over anime animation was "Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka" which was a short film made by Kenzō Masaoka released in 1933 in black and white all tho there isnt a known print of this film remaining now.
 |
| Mecha Anime |
Around the 1970s anime really started to become its own by breaking away from the Western roots and growing its own genres from withing, ones for example would be Mecha,
Mecha is a more robotic version of anime still in the same drawing style but with a touch of future and more mechaical things like robots and dromes.
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| Hentai~ |
In the 1980s the anime become accepted as a mainstream thing withing japan causing a massive increase in the amount being products and release, well known titles like Gundam and Dragon Ball Z still being aired today. Anime made its biggest change in the 1990-2000 where is would see the likes of Pokemon come to are screen kicking off all sorts of spin offs from games to trading cards.
I believe anime to have became so popular in a sort amount of time mainly because it is a cartoon that can be enjoyed by any age group where " cartoons " are very aimed and young children and seem to follow with a childish story, where as with anime it can be serious stories even to the extreme as being for a more 18+ audience also know as Hentai, graphic drawings and somewhat pervy animations, but this opens anime to a massive audience where you have certain genres for everyones liking.
Emile Cohl
Emile Cohl was the first person to design the very first fully animated film/short movie using simple line drawing on glass which blends and transforms in to different images from one another and as you will see in the video it has come a long way since 1908 but for its time, i think its still pretty impressive
Thaumatropes
In 1826, a man called Dr. John Ayrton Paris began selling the first animated toys in London. He called his toy a thaumatrope, which is Greek for 'wonder turner'.
It consisted simply of a circle with two pieces of string attached to it. When the circle is spun, the images on the back and front blended together to form a single picture. Popular images included birds in cages, circus performers and the encounters between dogs and cats.
It consisted simply of a circle with two pieces of string attached to it. When the circle is spun, the images on the back and front blended together to form a single picture. Popular images included birds in cages, circus performers and the encounters between dogs and cats.
Flip book animation
Flip book animation is defiantly what i would say the start of real animation begain even tho it isnt a free moving animation and is manually flicked through i think it is the key to all 2D animations of then and now here is an amazing example of flip book animations !
Winsor McKay
Animator Winsor McKay first grasp the possibility of animated films in the early 20th century and produced the medium's first real classics (notably his 1914 film "Gertie the Dinosaur" which depicted a friendly brontosaurus interacting with a live man in front of the screen). His films took a long time to produce, however, since he drew them all by hand. Subsequent animators like John Bray and Raoul Barre noted the inefficiency and by 1920 had opened studios employing dozens of animators to produce films more rapidly. The studio system eventually came to dominate 2D animation.
Early history of 2D Animation.
After researching in to the historical side of 2D animation it can be dated maybe more then 5000 years ago but not of course not a moving animation but the foundation of the genreal movement of an animal show in a sequences of pictures as used today to make animations frame by frame, these examples of proof can be found in the paleolithic cave paintings which would act out such things as hunting or fighting using more or less stickmen but shown in a sequences.
One of the first examples of these sequences was found on a vase in iran around 5000 years ago clearly showing the movement of a deer in its different stages over 5 images as shown below
Even tho you cant really call this an animation it is definally a foot step in the right direction to show where the idea of animation came from but intill simple equipment was available, people drawing on the walls and vases was the closest to an animation.
The Phenakistoscope was one of the first devices to be able to view the animation of certain pictures in a sequences without having to see all the images in one go, also a commonly used device would have been the simple flip book which was a popular animation devices invented during the 19th century, the Phenakistoscope was invented in 180 AD by a few different peoples ideas but was first fully made by Belgian Joseph Plateau, Plateau planned it in 1829 and invented it in 1832 and here is an example of a Phenakistoscope.
Eadweard Muybridge
Eadweard was id say the first person to have made an animation come to life with his short clip of a Horse, he only did this animation just to see if a horses feet were always on the floor well it was running along or if at some point no feet were on the floor.
One of the first examples of these sequences was found on a vase in iran around 5000 years ago clearly showing the movement of a deer in its different stages over 5 images as shown below
Even tho you cant really call this an animation it is definally a foot step in the right direction to show where the idea of animation came from but intill simple equipment was available, people drawing on the walls and vases was the closest to an animation.
The Phenakistoscope was one of the first devices to be able to view the animation of certain pictures in a sequences without having to see all the images in one go, also a commonly used device would have been the simple flip book which was a popular animation devices invented during the 19th century, the Phenakistoscope was invented in 180 AD by a few different peoples ideas but was first fully made by Belgian Joseph Plateau, Plateau planned it in 1829 and invented it in 1832 and here is an example of a Phenakistoscope.
Eadweard Muybridge
Eadweard was id say the first person to have made an animation come to life with his short clip of a Horse, he only did this animation just to see if a horses feet were always on the floor well it was running along or if at some point no feet were on the floor.
2D Animation Production for the win !
Ill start this off by saying that i have decided to take 2D Animation as my unit in year one because all tho i do like concept art and would love to take both i had to chose one and 2D animation has a much bigger appeal to me i have always enjoyed seeing my own art come to live and this would be the prefect step towards a character designer or more on the animation side of a game other then concept art which is to me just making the front cover of a game or giving an animator an idea as to where to go with a character i don't believe it is the best option as 2D design has an element of concept art in it anyways where as concept art wont have no animation element to it.
Jai-Jai
Jai-Jai
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