Animation is the art and science of creating animated characters that come to life onscreen. An illusion can be created by rapidly projecting images one after the other to produce the effect. Animation, in its most basic form, involves quickly shooting a series of related still images that creates the impression of movement.
Based on an optical trick called persistence of vision, our brain quickly merges images that come more rapidly into view than can be held by our eyes for one-tenth of a second. Animation typically requires 12-24 images for every film frame to give an illusion of movement. However, before CGI became widespread, there were other means. Move characters around within a 3D program to accomplish this goal.
The 12 Principles of Animation
These 12 principles form the cornerstone of animation education. The 12 Principles were a set of core concepts created by animators during their transition from shorts to features during the 1930s. Through trial and error, these animators eventually refined these principles to raise the quality of their work and elevate their standards.
These principles aim to create the illusion of living. These animation guidelines allow us to create characters who appear as though they have personality and weight in an otherwise realistic world. Although 2D animators designed them, these characters can also be utilized for 3D Animation and other types.
1. Squash & Stretch
When an object changes shape due to external forces acting upon it, it is known as squashing and stretching. Squash occurs when an outside force strikes an object from its opposite direction and compresses it. In contrast, stretch occurs when something pulls at an object to distend it or moves quickly enough for enlargement
2. Anticipation
Anticipation refers to any smaller movement which precedes and signals when the large movement will happen.
3. Staging
Staging a shot means creating an environment where its content and narrative function become clear and unmistakable.
4. Straight Ahead Vs Pose-to-Pose
Animation can be achieved in two distinct ways, straight-ahead and pose-to-pose. Straight Ahead refers to creating each frame from start to finish; pose to pose is creating key poses and then adding subsequent poses as filler material.
5. Overlapping & Follow-through
A phenomenon in which different body parts move at different rates is called overlapping and follow-through action. Drag is the term used to refer to when an area of the body falls behind as movement commences.
6. Slow Down and Speed Up
Objects' tendency to accelerate before decelerating when moving between locations. They may also be known as the ease-in or ease-out method or simply as "easing."
7. Arcs
Arcs derive their concept from nature: living organisms move along curvier paths rather than straight ones. Artistically creating beautiful arcs is the mark of an experienced animator.
8. Secondary Action
While direct actions refer to larger movements or gestures taken by characters, secondary actions involve smaller actions that support them in performing them. These actions help make their point by drawing attention to the attitude and motivation driving this movement.
9. Timing
Timing refers to how many frames represent one action and determines its speed. This is the key principle, and mastering it takes years of dedication.
10. Exaggeration
Exaggeration refers to depicting something as more exaggerated or extreme than is realistic - this will allow your Animation to reach further.
11. Solid Drawing
Cushmann's Technique For Drawing 3d Characters. Solid drawing is a technique that involves positioning characters to give an illusion of volume, weight, and balance in their form. To draw for Animation, it is essential that you can draw characters in any position or angle.
12. Call
Appeal We use "appeal" as an umbrella term to refer to any design skill which makes someone attractive. Character design and Animation both play an essential part.
Animation Types
There are various kinds of animated graphics, and they may already be familiar to you. Let's examine their parallels and dissimilarities in more detail.
1. 3D Animation
CGI (Computer Generated Imaging) animation has quickly become one of the most prevalent types of Animation used in feature-length films and television programs alike, becoming even more so as TV programs and short films continue to increase in popularity.
Animation techniques for live-action filmmaking also apply to creating digital characters for games and anime animations. An animator uses digital tools to position their character, then utilizes motion paths (or "splines") to map their movements between poses.
The computer then interpolates keyframes until an animator is satisfied with their Animation and begins changing specific frames until their Animation designer meets their expectation.
Animation is an intricate process requiring numerous specialists. Once modelled using bones, controllers, and rigs, the character must be animated before texturing and lighting their finished item.
2. 2D Hand-Drawn Animation
Simplified by Name Traditional Animation, commonly known as cel animation, is one form of 2D animation art. However, we prefer calling it hand-drawn because this term emphasizes its central attribute - Animation produced entirely by hand.
Cel animation is likely familiar to you. Cels were sheets of clear acetate used by animators for painting characters frame-by-frame onto Cels, and cel animation evolved from this.
In the 1990s, most animation studios stopped printing cells and began digitizing drawings instead. Today, hand-drawn animators draw directly on tablets rather than paper.
Hand-drawn Animation can take the form of digital or analogue drawings; or a mix of both. Hand-drawn animators still employ similar principles and techniques utilized during paper cell animation in its earlier forms.
3. 2D vector animation
There are numerous new methods of creating 2D animations using virtual puppets constructed with bones and controls similar to what can be found on 3D characters. They allow for full control over them.
It can be hard to distinguish between artificially animated 2D characters and those created manually, so distinguishing between hand-drawn characters can sometimes take time and effort. Characters in animation feature bones to enable animators to pose them. However, they may also have parts that must be animated manually.
4. Stop motion animation
Stop-motion animation (or stop-motion for short) involves manipulating real-world objects by moving and photographing them slightly at each frame, giving an illusion that something is moving.
Claymation uses a similar process. Characters in this show are malleable but usually made out of plasticine instead of clay.
Stop-motion animation can be created with any figurine or object, including Lego animations on YouTube. Paper cut-out animation is another variation of stop-motion. This style involves creating characters out of paper shapes and pinning or fixing their joints for possibility or to facilitate changing out characters easily.
Like stop-motion puppets, these paper puppets are photographed being moved or changed out - much like stop-motion puppets do - before being photographed again for further use and movement. Pixelation is another rare stop-motion variation, with real people acting out the scenes instead.
All frames must be taken consecutively from frame one onward. Each successive frame should be captured until you reach the end of your scene. Fixing mistakes on a frame without starting from scratch is no simple matter in 3D Animation rates, as there's no option for redrawing as in 2D. This type of Animation requires great patience.
5. Motion Graphics Animation
Animation has many subcategories that fall under its purview, one such being motion graphics. Motion graphic designers allow presenters to make engaging and dynamic presentations using text, logos, and simple visual effects that move.
Motion graphic design is everywhere, from commercials and instructional videos to athletic events and news broadcasts. Character animation doesn't usually fall under motion graphics artists, yet many ideas from both fields often overlap.
Other Animation Techniques
- Claymation: Artists practising claymation employ stop-motion techniques to capture miniature clay models' movements with charmingly low-fi yet intricate animation techniques, producing results like those seen in Wallace and Gromit (created by Nick Park) featuring claymation artists. Nick Park was himself one of these famous claymation artists.
- Flip Books Animation: Flipbooks offer an engaging way to experience Animation's essence. Composed of images that can be turned from page to page quickly, flip books create the impression of moving pictures when flicked from page to page.
- Morphing. Morphing has long been a favourite technique of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror creators alike. This creative technique involves altering one image to another; popular examples can be found in music videos and live-action films of the 1980s and 1990s.
- Walk Cycle: A "walk cycle" is a series of movements to simulate walking. This cycle repeats itself to avoid animating each step; creating basic four-motion cycles can be created quickly while crafting realistic ones requires much greater care and consideration.
- Animation Lip Syncing: Although animating a mouth to match its speech can be tricky, this step is essential to creating realistic characters. Artificial Intelligence technology is now helping with this tedious process.
- Cel shading: Cel shading makes 3D computer graphics appear flat, making them look suitable for a comic book or cel animation aesthetics.
- Rotoscoping. This technique involves animators tracing animated images onto motion picture footage using a Rotoscope device. However, today's Rotoscoping process is done digitally.
- Easing CSS: Easing helps animators to create realistic movement transitions. It's an artful yet subtle practice; whenever we throw a football or open a cabinet door, they never open at the same pace; by relaxing, these everyday actions become more natural.
- Rigging: Rigging is a technique used to create animated characters in both 2D and 3D. An animator creates a "rig," or skeleton of surfaces connected by interconnecting parts that move together seamlessly to produce realistic Animation.
- Masking: Masking allows you to hide portions of an image on a background, giving the impression that a physical object is moving into and out of view.
- Mechanical Animation: Engineers create 3D representations of intricate mechanical products to demonstrate how they operate from assembly through repairs. Engineers find this method helpful in communicating product functionality to potential investors or clients.
- Typography: Typography animators create animated text for films, TV shows, and marketing purposes; font design trends may also fall within this field.
Process of Animation
1. Story
Crafting an effective storyline is the initial and primary step to creating any successful film. The story comes first. Before proceeding with further plans or decisions, make sure your narrative is strong and compelling. Spend as much time developing the story as possible to reduce production waste.
2. Script
As soon as you have an idea for a story, write it out as quickly as possible to enable us to identify any potential issues with production.
3. Concept Art
Concept art is usually created after the script has been finalized to determine its visual style and direction for a film project. Step two is always fun and allows us to see our film come to life on paper for the first time, allowing us to experiment and explore different ideas and methods.
4. Storyboard
The next step for creating a film is creating a storyboard. This step may be one of the most crucial to shaping it properly. Storyboarding allows you to envision your film from all sides and identify any issues with its narrative or pacing while sharing it with others for feedback; people tend to respond more favorably than scripts do when given such visual aids. Once we are happy with our boards, we create an animatic.
5. Animatic
Your animation is used to turn your storyboard into an animated version. We are ready to unveil our first version for review once our boards have been edited with perfect timing and temporary sound effects and music have been added (just enough to convey story beats). Animation is a fantastic way to get an early idea of our movie's direction.
6. Create Assets
Based on the animation medium chosen, we will need to develop different assets for our movie. For 3D Animation, we will construct models of actors, environments, sets, and props based on concept images and model sheets as complete guides. To be able to animate them using a 3D model with controls.
For 2D Animation, we will sketch out the background and complete animation design sheets before using our 2D program to rig them if required. We will create the sets, puppets, props, and attire for stop-motion animation.
7. Previs (Previsualization)
Previs is another key step that ensures a seamless narrative experience. We develop a basic animation of characters in three dimensions using only basic camera angles and movements.
Like an animatic, we use these shots in the editing program and create an accurate version of our film with correct 3D models and camera movement.
Animation takes time, so this is our final opportunity to make significant alterations to the storyline of our film before Animation begins. Doing otherwise would save our resources.
8. Animation
Now we are ready to get animating! At this point, the film truly comes to life; we see characters moving and the soul of its narrative taking shape. Watching Animation take shape can be thrilling and enjoyable, yet taking too much time may ruin a movie if done correctly - much like with bad acting performances;
No matter how compelling the writing and story are, audiences will only care if delivered correctly. This section will elaborate on each step in Animation's six-step process.
9. Texturing | Lighting | Rendering
This step is typically associated with 3D Animation; however, two-dimensional and stop-motion Animation also undergo similar post-production steps. Stop motion takes extra time when adding compositing, miscellaneous effects, and other such things to their shots.
Texturing 3D models involves assigning different materials to different parts. Some models simulate metal, others plastic, and some even simulate skin and hair. After completing this step, we add virtual lighting effects to each photo to replicate its physical counterpart as accurately as possible.
Once our shots have been textured and lit, the rendering process begins. Here, the computer calculates all of our scene data into still images that it then outputs for viewing.
After that, we import the photos into a compositing program like Nuke or After special Effects and merge the data extracted from the original images into final photographs.
10. Editing | Color Correction
We replace our composited images with those produced during previz for editing and color correction. Color correction and grading remain to be completed before this project can be considered complete.
Color correction involves manipulating each shot's colors. Hence, they match those in previous or subsequent shots, making sure each is neither too white nor black. Grading a film can be extremely exciting; we enjoy designing an aesthetic for the entire piece. Here, we create an identity and animation style for it all.
11. Sound Design
Our production has included the help of a music composer from its inception to ensure that the soundtrack matches perfectly with what we had envisioned for this film and works harmoniously within it.
Rarely do we add music at the very end. Instead, we prefer keeping it as part of the story from start to finish. A sound designer will then master and mix the final audio, including all sound effects, such as folly, ambience, and voices.
The 6 Steps of Animation
Let's now look at what goes into character animation and examine its six steps toward success.
Step 1. Shooting Reference Video
It is essential that this step be noticed; people often assume they understand what certain actions entail and the length of time required, only to discover they were wrong in their assumptions. Often people believe they know exactly what actions require taking but make costly errors by misjudging how long this takes.
Before animating, it is wise to study the physical actions. This step is especially relevant if you are starting in Animation. Experienced animators offer a unique perspective when viewing an action as it unfolds from their perspective instead of viewing it from a viewer's perspective.
Step 2. Posing
Once you have taken a reference shot, key poses for the photo can be created. Key poses are essential to any photo or video. They must be executed perfectly if we want our image or film to convey its story effectively. Please ensure we get these poses right, as they will provide the foundation of any subsequent images taken in that frame.
Step 3: Blocking
Once we are content with our key poses, we begin reducing movement between each pose by creating "in-betweens." These poses connect the key poses.
Continue adding poses until you achieve optimal movement while remaining in stepped mode (no interpolation leads to blocky, choppy movements).
Step 4. Splining
This term refers to a technique in 3D Animation known as splining, which converts an interpolated step interpolation into an actual spline curve. Make the computer even smoother by linking your movements between poses.
But the computer isn't at fault here; its incapability of interpolation is the issue. All it can do is work with what resources it has - more efficient blocking means better results on the splined version.
Step 5. Refining and Offset
We must now modify all our keys by refining them in spline mode and improving animation curves to achieve smooth movement. Balance specific actions so it does not look like your character is "stopping and starting." By completing this step, your shot should be nearing completion.
Step 6. Add Life
This step can be quite exciting. Once your Animation is complete, it's time to give life to your characters by adding little imperfections that give them character and life.
One extra blink here or there may make all the difference between good and great performances.
Conclusion
Over the past century, Animation has evolved from an easy yet highly detailed art form into something far more intricate. Early techniques were based on losing energy - however, as technology advanced, certain aspects became simpler, enabling animators to explore new ideas and extend their creative abilities.
