STORY DEVELOPMENT Building the storyboard is an integral part of putting together an animated feature. The process provides not only a visual interpretation of the script; it also allows designers in each department to get a feel for what is being presented on screen. Creating the visual story composed of consecutive story sketch…
LAYOUT The Layout Artist The Layout Artist sets the stage for the animation. They render pencil background layouts for each production scene, referring to the story sketch and research materials gathered on the relevant geography or time period. Although the rendered layouts never appear in the final production, they are the catalyst for…
BACKGROUND Background Painting While the characters and special effects in an animated film may be altered every frame or every other frame to create the illusion of action, the environment surrounding them is generally held behind (or in front of) them for an entire scene. The backgrounds, overlay, and underlay are…
COMPOSITION Like characters backgrounds also play a very important role and demands very special skills like layouts and paintings. Different scenarios like landscape, seascape and cityscapes would have similarities between them, which are the stylized pattern among all the elements. For example, the clouds when drawn would be made of straight or curved lines,…
LIGHT AND SHADOW Light on any character or object brings depth and dimension to it. The concept of light is very simple. The area that is exposed to the light source will look brighter than the area that is not. Light source can originate from any direction; sometimes the number of light sources can…
LIP SYNC & MOUTH CHART Lip-sync – 1 In full animation, it is important for a character to mime. When he is speaking, therefore his miming must be rarely synchronized to the soundtrack. Dialogue is invariably recorded before production and the timing of it is passed to the animator as a phonetic…
EXPRESSIONS Simple characters can be very expressive. Expressions bring life to character. These kind of simple expressions are good options for Web Animation. Expression Chart: Expression chart is a reference material to animators. Before animation begins on any character the animators will be provided with an expression chart of the…
How a Character Walks Animating a walk can be a challenge for any animator. They become much easier when we keep in mind a few important elements, such as: emotion, weight, and strong key poses. Of course these ingredients are important to any form of animation - 2D or 3D. Emotion affects every aspect…
MODEL SHEET In a model sheet you can find the respective character in different poses like side, back, front and three fourth. Animating any character without a model sheet will produce animations with major problems like non-consistency of character. Even an experienced animator will find it hard to conceive how a character looks…
CHARACTERIZATION (acting) Character animation is the ultimate achievement of animation art. It is a complex combination of craftsmanship, acting and timing. Characterization in animation is concerned not so much with what the character do. The audience is conditioned to look at human characters in human situations. In animation this can only be a…
CHARACTER CONSTRUCTION Figure construction using cylinders, circles and lines of action. Step 1: First begin with a LINE OF ACTION. The LINE OF ACTION should always be active. Avoid vertical lines — they are still and can make your character wooden. Try a sweeping curve, a diagonal or horizontal LINE OF ACTION.…
DRAWING FROM LIFE: Realistic and animation sketching Compare the above drawings with the one below, which is realistic and well shaded the above figures are defined by lines and the one below is a blend of shading and rendering. When it comes to animation, characters need to be designed in…
DRAWING WITH BASIC SHAPES: Basic shapes can be adopted to build characters and props. Basic shapes not only enable character creation, but can also be used to create non-living props like Houses, Bike, and Cars etc… Some Drawings with Basic Shapes: Drawing a…
LINES AND STYLIZATION: Applying Lines: A single line can make a big difference in creating any object or character. The above drawings are the best examples. You can find a variation in the lines that are used to create a fire, when compared to that of a raindrop or a…
Types of Animation Systems: Scripting Systems: Scripting Systems were the earliest type of motion control systems. The animator writes a script in the animation language. Thus, the user must learn this language and the system is not interactive. One scripting system is ASAS (Actor Script Animation Language), which has syntax similar to LISP.…