Traditional animation

animation technique in which frames are hand-drawn

Traditional animation is much harder than today's style of animation.[1] It often uses a stop-motion camera to "liven", or animate, the photos made by the producer.[2] When movie-makers use stop-motion, they need to draw one picture for every scene. However, there are tools to help save time with movie-making. Other types of animation, such as limited or digital animation, can also be used now. FPS is the number of times a movie is shot in one second.

How Animated Cartoons Are Made (1919)

Process

change

Filming

change

The photographer first shoots out or edits many photos. These photos are combined to make the storyline.[3] And as with all movies, not all scenes make it into the final movie.[4]

Editing

change

Many people[5] help out in the editing of a movie. But in old times, people had to draw the scenes on their own.[6] Then the stop-motion camera took a photo of a scene once a second.[7][8]

Involvement

change

Most movies or cartoons in the 1950's required very hard work of the editors.[9] To make things cheaper, though, people made limited animation[10] that used two to three copies of the same image[11] (so the stop-motion process would be two to three times faster.[12])

Current

change

Right now movie-makers use digital animation[13] to "liven the movie even more".[14] Movies from the 2000 to 2010 years are usually 1–2 hours long.[15]

Common units

change

FPS, or frames per second, is the number of scenes being shot in one second.[16] The higher this is, the more "smooth"[17] the film looks.[18][19] Most movies have an FPS of 24 to 60.[20]

Cels, or celluloids, are tools used to "preserve" scenes.[21] An editor uses a cell to draw a scene then make changes to it on the next drawing.[22] It is useful when a cartoon or movie involves moving figures or objects.

Sketcher

change

Sometimes a sketch pad is used to draft the scenes the editors think would be good in the movie. A sketchpad at first may contain a comic book that looks like an animation when the editors flip it back and forth.[23]

Live video shower

change

Often editors preview the animation with a video shower. On the stream of scenes, movie-makers test their animation and fix bugs or problems.[24]

change

References

change
  1. How Hard Is It? Anime and Animation.
  2. Producing with Stop-motion. Animation Studio, 2010.
  3. From A to Z: Producing cartoons and movies in Stop-motion. 2009.
  4. Winding Up on the "Cutting Floor": Scenes that don't make it. CG Crucher, 2004.
  5. The Crew of a Movie Maker. 2008, Anime and Animation Press.
  6. How Movies Were Made. Retrieved 10-04-09.
  7. Stop-motion filming: Animation Studio, 2008. Accessed 07-07-07.
  8. Movie Crew in toil of Stop-motion filming. Accessed 4-18-10.
  9. Toil in the 50's. Anime and Animation, 2007.
  10. Peoples' idea comes to LA. 2008, CG Press.
  11. Copying Stop-motion: CG Press. Accessed May 2008.
  12. Stop-motion speeding-up? Anime Studio, 2009.
  13. Animation in the present: CG Press and Animation Studio. Accessed April 5, 2003.
  14. Documents from current directors. Anime and Animation, May 2005.
  15. Toil coming to a Movie: A to Z Movie-Making Appearance. CG Press and Anime and Animation, June 2006.
  16. FPS Facts, CG Press. Retrieved July 20, 2008.
  17. Does FPS Affect Movies? 10-12-10.
  18. Toil Turning Into Smooth Film.
  19. Frames per second: "Makes your film go faster." CG Times, June 2009.
  20. FPS Press: "The FPS --- is between 24-60."
  21. What are Celluloids? CG Press, 2007.
  22. Cel Usage.
  23. Sketch: "Draft for an Animation." CG Cruchter, 2005.
  24. Live video showing: "A test for broadcast." CG Press, 2006.