UNIT 34 2D ANIMATION

PRODUCTION Mock Task for Task 1

UNDERSTAND THE TECHNIQUES AND

DEVELOPMENT OF 2D ANIMATION

2D ANIMATION

2D Animation is a computer based generation of digital images

mostly from two dimensional models such as 2D geometric models,

text and digital images and by techniques specific to them. The word

may stand for the branch of computer science that comprises such

techniques or for the models themselves.

2D computer graphics are mainly used in applications that were

originally developed upon traditional printing and drawing

technologies, such as typography, cartography, technical drawing,

advertising.

TRADITIONAL 2D ANIMATION

What is animation? 2D Animation has existed since the 1800’s, it is a drawing followed by

another one but it is drawn in a slightly different pose, this goes on

and on for 24 frames per second.

The creation of moving pictures in a two-dimensional environment,

such as through traditional cel animation or in computerized

animation software. This is done by sequencing consecutive images,

or "frames", that simulate motion by each image showing the next in

a gradual progression of steps. The eye can be fooled into perceiving

motion when these consecutive images are shown at a rate of 69

frames per second or faster.

FLICK BOOK

What is a Flick Book A Flick Book is filled with pages which have a drawing on every page, whilst flicking

through the pages really fast the image changes and creates an animation to

simulate a motion or some other change in the image.

A flip book or flick book is a book with a series of pictures that 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. Flip books are often

illustrated books for children, but may also be geared towards adults and employ a

series of photographs rather than drawings. Flip books are not always separate

books, but may appear as an added feature in ordinary books or magazines, often in

the page corners. Software packages and websites are also available that convert

digital video files into custom-made flip books.

CEL ANIMATION

Cel Animation is a traditional form of animation used in the production of

cartoons or movies where each frame and scene is drawn by hand. A full

length feature film produced using cel animation would often require a

million of more drawings to complete.

Actual celluloid consisting of cellulose nitrate and camphor was used

during the first half of the 20th century, but since it was flammable and

dimensionally unstable it was largely replaced by cellulose acetate. With

the advent of computer assisted animation production, the use of cels has

been practically abandoned in major productions. Disney studios stopped

using cels in 1990 when Computer Animation Production System (CAPS)

replaced this element in their animation process.

ROTOSCOPING

Rotoscoping is a technique in which animators use to trace over shots, frame by

frame, for it to be used in animated movies and live action. Live action film images

were originally projected onto frosted glass panel and have been re-drawn by an

animator.

The technique was invented by cartoonist/illustrator/writer/and inventor Max

Fleischer, who used it in his animation, Out of the Inkwell in 1915 animated series.

The live film reference for the series main, animated character was ‘Koko the Clown’

he was supplied by one of his brothers Dave Fleischer performing choreographed

movements while dressed in a clown outfit. Max Fleischer invented the Rotoscope

method in 1917.

DRAWN ON FILM

Drawn on film animation is also known as direct animation or

animation without a camera. This is an animation method where film

is produced by creating the images directly on film stock, as opposed

to any other form of animation where the pictures or objects are

photographed frame by frame with an animation camera.

On blank film the artist can draw, paint, stamp, or even glue or tape objects. Black

film or any footage can be scratched, etched, sanded, or punched. Any tool the artist

finds useful may be used for this, and all methods can be combined endlessly. The

frame borders may be observed or completely ignored, found footage may be

included, any existing image might be distorted by mechanical or chemical means. A

third method takes place in a darkroom, using unexposed film that is exposed frame

by frame. The artists places objects onto the fresh stock and then uses a small light

beam to create the images. This third category of work has to be sent to a lab and

processed, just like films created with a camera.

PHOTOGRAPHIC ANIMATION

Photographic Animation is a method as old as the Motion Picture

Industry in which motionless photos e.g. artwork, or other objects

are filmed with the use of an Animation Stand. On the Oxberry

Master Series Stand, the compound platform of the animation

stand moves East-West and North-South or varying degrees of

these parameters and bends at angles up to 45 degrees in any

direction with mixtures that cover the compass rose.

2D BITMAP GRAPHICS

Bitmap images are also known as raster images, they are made

up of pixels in a grid, these are small dots of colours which

together form what is seen on the computer screen.

Bitmap graphics are dependent on resolution, resolution is the

amount of pixels that are in an image, this is usually seen as dots

per inch (dpi) or pixels per inch (ppi).

2D VECTOR GRAPHICS

Vector Graphics is the use of Geometrical Primitives such as points,

lines, curves, and shapes or polygons which are all based on

mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics.

The term vector graphics is typically used only for 2D graphics

objects, in order to distinguish them from 2D Raster Graphics, which

are also very common. 3D graphics as commonly implemented today

e.g. in OpenGL are typically described using primitives like 3D points

and polygons connecting these which in turn describe surfaces. These

3D primitives are much more similar to Vector Graphics than to

raster graphics, but aren't explicitly called Vector Graphics. The

equivalent of Raster Graphics in the 3D world are voxel based

graphics.

FLASH PLAYER

Flash Player is a free browser plug in that is used across the BBC website

for playing videos, animations and games. Flash Player is a software used

to stream and view video, audio, multimedia and rich internet

applications RIA on a computer or a supported mobile device.

Flash Player can be downloaded for free and its plug in version is

available for recent versions of web browsers such as the Internet

Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari on selected

platforms. Google Chrome distribution comes bundled with the sandboxed

Adobe Flash plug in and will continue to support the plug in in Windows 8

Metro mode. Each version of Adobe Flash Player is Backwards

Compatible.

AFTER EFFECTS

Adobe After Effects is a digital motion graphics, visual effects and

compositing application developed by Adobe Systems used in the post

production process of film making and television production. After

Effects can also be used as a basic non linear editor and a media

transcoder.

Adobe After Effects is mainly used for creating motion graphics and

visual effects. After Effects allows users to animate, alter and

composite media in 2D and 3D space with various built in tools and

third party plugi-ns, as well as individual attention to variables like

Parallax and User Adjustable angle of observation.

ANIME STUDIO

Anime Studio is a branded vector based 2D animation software for animators

originally spread by Lost Marble, later by e frontier. Since November 2007, Smith

Micro Software has distributed Anime Studio.

The software was originally developed under the name "Moho" since 1999 by Mike

Clifton at LostMarble, Mike currently works for Smith Micro as the lead engineer on

Anime Studio. The last Moho version 5.4 was identical with the first release of

Anime Studio Pro in 2006. The name change was commissioned by Fahim Niaz who

served as Anime Studio's original product manager from 2005 to 2007. He cited the

reason for changing the name to relate the product to the Japanese style of

animation and to market the product to burgeoning anime fans who needed a

creative outlet.

TOON BOOM STUDIO

Toon Boom Animation is a Canadian software company that

specializes in animation production software. This animation

software company is a division of Corus Entertainment founded in

1994 and based in Montreal, Quebec.

Toon Boom develops animation and storyboarding software for film,

television, web animation, games, mobile devices, training

applications, and education.

In 2005, Toon Boom was awarded a Primetime Emmy Engineering

Award. In 2012, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences awarded

Toon Boom a Primetime Emmy Engineering Award for Storyboard

Pro, recognizing its significant impact in the industry.

POWER POINT

PowerPoint is a complete presentation graphics package. It gives you everything you

need to produce a professional looking presentations. PowerPoint offers word

processing, outlining, drawing, graphing, and presentation management tools all

designed to be easy to use and learn. This software is used to produce presentations

for businesses and special occasions.

Originally designed for the Macintosh computer, the initial release was called

Presenter, developed by Dennis Austin and Thomas Rudkin of Forethought. In 1987,

it was renamed to PowerPoint due to problems with trademarks. The idea for the

name coming from Robert Gaskins. In August of the same year, Forethought was

bought by Microsoft for $14 million U.S dollars, this is $29.1 million in the present

day, and became Microsoft's Graphics Business Unit, which continued to develop the

software further. PowerPoint was officially launched on May 22, 1990, the same day

that Microsoft released Windows 3.0.

JOSEPH PLATEAU

Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau was born on the 14th October 1801 and died on

the 15th September 1883, he was a Belgian physicist. He was the first person to

demonstrate the illusion of a moving image. To do this he used counter rotating disks

with repeating drawn images in small increments of motion on one and regularly

spaced slits in the other. He called this device of 1832 the Phenakistoscope.

In 1829 Joseph Plateau submitted his doctoral theory to his mentor Adolphe

Quetelet for advice. It contained only 27 pages, but formulated a great number of

fundamental conclusions. It contained the first results of his research into the effect

of colours on the retina duration, intensity and colour, his mathematical research

into the joints of rotating curves (locus), the observation of the bend of moving

images, and the reconstruction of distorted images through counter revolving discs

he dubbed these Anorthoscopic discs. In 1832, Plateau invented an early stroboscopic

device, the Phenakistoscope, the first device to give the illusion of a moving image.

WILLIAM HORNER

William George Horner was born on in 1786 and passed away on the

22nd September 1837, he was a British mathematician he was a

schoolmaster, headmaster and school keeper, proficient in classics as

well as mathematics, who wrote extensively on functional equations,

number theory and approximation theory, but also on optics. His

contribution to approximation theory is honoured in the designation

Horner's method, in particular respect of a paper in Philosophical

Transactions of the Royal Society of London in 1819. The modern

invention of the Zoetrope, under the name Daedaleum in 1834, has

been attributed to him.

ZOETROPE

The Zoetrope consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the

sides. On the inner surface of the cylinder is a band with images from

a set of sequenced pictures. As the cylinder spins, a person looks

through the slits at the pictures across. The scanning of the slits

keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, and the user sees a

rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion. From the

late 20th century, devices working on similar principles have been

developed, named analogously as Linear Zoetropes and 3D Zoetropes,

with traditional Zoetropes referred to as Cylindrical Zoetropes if

distinction is needed.

EMILIE REYNAUD

Charles-Émile Reynaudwas born on the 8th December 1844 and died on the 9th

January 1918 was a French inventor responsible for the first projected animated

cartoons. Reynaud created the Praxinoscope in 1877 and the Théâtre Optique in

December 1888, and on 28th October 1892 he projected the first animated film in

public, Pauvre Pierrot, at the Musée Grévin in Paris. This is also not able as the first

known instance of film perforations being used.

Ryanaud's late years were tragic after 1910 when, his creations outmoded by the

Cinematograph, dejected and penniless, he threw the greater part of his

irreplaceable work and unique equipment into the Seine. The public had forgotten

his Théatre Optique shows, which had been a celebrated attraction at the Musée

Grevin between 1892 and 1900. He died in a hospice on the banks of the Seine where

he had been cared for since 29 March 1917.

EDWARD MUYBRIDGE

Eadweard James Muybridge was born on the 9th April 1830 and died on the 8th May 1904,

his birth name is also Edward James Muggeridge, he was an English photographer

important for his inventive work in photographic studies of motion and early work in

motion-picture projection. He took the name Eadweard Muybridge, believing it to be the

original Anglo-Saxon form of his name.

He emigrated to the United States as a young man and became a bookseller. He returned

to England in 1861 and started professional photography, learning the Wet Plate Collodion

process, and secured at least two British patents for his inventions. He went back to San

Francisco in 1867, and in 1868 his large photographs of Yosemite Valley made him world

famous. Today, Muybridge is known for his pioneering work on animals in 1877 and 1878,

which used multiple cameras to capture motion in stop motion photographs, and his

Zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the flexible perforated

film strip used in Cinematography.

WALT DISNEY

Walter Elias Walt Disney was born on the December 5th 1901 and died on

December 15, 1966. He was an American Business Magnate, Cartoonist, Filmmaker,

Philanthropist and Voice Actor.

As a prominent figure within the American Animation Industry and throughout the

world, he is regarded as a Cultural Icon known for his influence and contributions to

entertainment during the 20th century. As a Hollywood business mogul, he and his

brother Roy O Disney founded The Walt Disney Company together.

As an animator and entrepreneur, Disney was particularly noted as a filmmaker and

a popular showman, as well as an innovator in animation and theme park design. He

created many fictional characters including Mickey Mouse Donald Duck and Goofy.

Disney himself was the original voice for Mickey.

During his lifetime, he received four respectful Academy Awards and won 22

Academy Awards from a total of 59 nominations, including a record of four in one

year giving him more awards and nominations than any other individual in history.

Disney also won seven Emmy Awards and gave his name to the Disneyland and Walt

Disney World Resort theme parks in the U.S. as well as the international resorts,

Tokyo Disney Resort, Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland.