Essay/Term paper: Animation

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Music

My personal enjoyment with animation has inspired me to write
this essay, pertaining to animation. Since I was a child I have
been fascinated with cartoons; from when they started out to be
black and white, and until now with full colour and computer
effects. To better perceive what my personal feelings about
animation are, I must first discuss in full detail, a general
overview of how animators bring traditional animation alive with
motion.

Animation seems like a smooth movement of drawn sequences of
artwork, pasted together to form a single sequence of animation.
This is the basis of animation, but animation is far simpler than
it may seem. "The true meaning of animation is that it is a
series of drawings strung together to create the illusion of
smooth fluent movement."1 But the process of creating this so-
called illusion, is a pain staking process during which artists
must spend tremendous hours of agony to produce only seconds of
animated film.

Before an animator goes about creating an animation he or she
must have the knowledge of several rules of animation, which
animators around the world follow. The first rule of animation is
that an animator must hold the understanding of the techniques
used to produce single cells of animation. Second rule, and one
of the most important ones is that, the animator must have great
patience, so that his or her piece of artwork is not rushed, to
prevent the animation from looking choppy and not as smooth as it
should look. Finally what is required from an animator is "it
takes commitment and effort to make the basis of animation come
alive with fresh ideas."2 The following is not a rule of
animation, but is often taught to animators around the world.
"Animators were often taught that animation is only limited by
the imagination and skills of its creators."3 Using these rules
animation companies hire artists who are familiar with the rules
previously discussed, but to create a feature full-length
animation you need more than just these rules. Below the process
of creating a feature full-length animation will be discussed in
further detail.

To create a traditional animation requires a team of cooperative
artists and editors. It also demands a collective, creative
approach, within which the individual artists and editors of the
team must harmonize and communicate well with the other members
of the team, for the final product to be successful. Because so
many personnel are involved in producing a single piece of
animated film, creation of this is very costly. Companies must
create a team of animators that are willing to work together to
get the finished product perfect the first time around. No matter
how modest or ambitious the project, the team of animators follow
a strict number of structured procedures, and must possess the
understanding of the concepts and terminology in traditional
animation.


When the team has been assembled. The team begins a long process
of set procedures, which all animators worldwide use. Below the
many set procedures are described in full detail.

1.Script
The script is the first stage in all film production. In an
animation script, the visual action in the plot and performance
is far more important than the dialogue.

2.Storyboard
The storyboard is a series of roughly drawn images that convey
the action described in the script. This scene-by-scene portrayal
helps the writer, director and animation team to access the
content of the project and to correct any deficiencies in the
scripted story.

3.Soundtrack
After the script and storyboard are completed, the recording of
any dialogue or key music is undertaken. Since traditional
animation relies on perfect synchronization of the picture to the
soundtrack, the animator must receive the recorded track before
beginning to draw.

4.Design
Designers create visual interpretations of all the actors in the
script. When these interpretations are approved, the actors are
drawn from many angles on a model sheet which the animators will
use as a reference.

5.Leica Reel
A Leica reel is a filmed storyboard which can be projected in
synchronization with the soundtrack. It helps the director see
how the film is shaping up and make any changes to its visual
aspects before animation is begun.

6.Line Tests
Line tests are animation drawings, produced in pencil on paper,
filmed to the precise timings of each scene. As line tests are
approved they are cut into Leica reel, replacing the original
drawings and giving the director an even better idea of how the
final film will look.

7.Cleanup
Cleanup artists take the animation drawings now and clean them
up, to give them a consistent visual style.

8.Trace and Paint
When a cleaned-up line test is approved, each drawing is
transferred to a sheet of celluloid or acetate (a cell) and
painted in the colours of the original design.


9.Backgrounds
Background artists produce the animation's backgrounds, the
background is everything behind or, sometimes, in front of the
actors that does not move.

10.Checking
The finished animation cells are passed to the checker, who
makes sure that everything is correctly drawn, traced, painted
and prepared for the cameraman who is to finally film it.

11.Final Shoot
When the checker is satisfied that all the artwork for each
scene is correct, the artwork is passed to the camera operator
who shoots the final scene.

12.Dubbing
When the whole film exists in final form, and the director is
satisfied with it, the editor, with the director, chooses sound
effects to go with the action in the film. These sound effects
are then laid in synchronization with the action, and mixed with
the voice track and music on one complete soundtrack.

13.Answer Print
Creating an answer print involves merging the sound and picture
on one piece of 24 frames per second film, the film is now ready
for projection!

The above described how traditional animation is created. But
now with the computer becoming more useful and more tangible in
its usefulness in everyday society, animation is going through a
dramatic change, with newer and easier alternatives in creating
and editing animations, on work stations and home computers.
Highly known animation studios like Disney and Silicon Graphics
are stepping up to a higher and more advanced level of animation,
by using computers to create animation effects that traditional
animation techniques would never be able to create. Special
computer effects that were created on computers were observed in
the movies "Abyss", "Terminator 2", and "Jurassic Park". All
these movies had some computerized animation added to the film
producing special effects never seen previously on movies until
now. This is because computer-generated animations are more
flexible than traditional animations, because it can be altered,
viewed, and manipulated in any way the computer animator wishes
by a click of the mouse. Furthermore computer-generated
animations appear to be more realistic, to the audience, because
realistic objects can be scanned into the animation by a computer
scanner easily, and be used as part of the animation. But the
most attractive feature computer animation holds is that
"animations done on computer are cheaper and take less time to
produce."4




There are two major ways to go about producing a computer-
generated animation. The first and most used process is called
"Stop-Frame Cinematography", where an artist draws each cell of
the animation or cuts out pictures, then puts all the frames of
still animation in an special scanner which scans all the
separate cells into the computer. Then the computer animator
arranges all the frames in the order, that it will be viewed in.
Then the artist colours and edits each frame of animation with a
computer paint program. After the animation on computer is
completed the soundtrack and background voices are digitized into
the computer, and mixed synchronously together. The final process
of creation is where the foreground animation is merged with the
background, and the mixed sounds are synchronized with animation.
After the animation is completed it is printed to film by a
computer film printer, and is ready for viewing. The second
process, which with the production of powerful high speed
computers is becoming more familiar in films with computer
generated animation and special effects, an example of this
process is in the films "Jurassic Park" and "Terminator 2". The
process I am describing is referred in the industry as "Computer
Object Renderization". This is where a computer-generated actor
is created by a process called "Wire Framing". This process is
like bending and shaping metal wire to create a solid human
figure or sculpture; at this point no colour or texture has been
created. After the wire framed actor is created, it goes through
a process referred as "Texture Mapping", where texture is added
to the wire framed actor, producing depth and dimension to the
computer actor. This process could be thought of as paper mashing
a wire sculpture. Now the actor appears to be three-dimensional
with shadows and shades added to the actors darker areas of the
skeletal form. The computer actor is now ready for details like
toes, fingers, nose, eyes, etc... to be added, to make the
appearance of the actor more realistic. Now that the computer-
rendered actor is completed with all its human or animal like
details. Its movement can be controlled by a electronic suit
which has several movement sensory devices located on key areas
of the suit. That means a human actor can put on the suit, and
his or her movement will be transferred to the computer and
processed as digital information. This causes the rendered actor
to move on the computer monitor. After the actor's movements have
been acted out like the script needed, voices are sequently
merged together creating a single sequence of animation. Now the
actor can be printed to the film's background, creating full
feature animation. This is how animation studios produce computer
rendered animations.








Due to the tremendous pace at which computers are becoming more
widely available in our everyday society today, almost anyone
with some general computer knowledge can now produce simple
computer-generated animations, with a home computer and some
computer hardware, like a computer image digitizer, computer
drawing tablet with sensory drawing pen, colour film printer,
sound card with microphone receiver, and finally a video camera,
these devices will enhance the computer's graphics capabilities
for doing computer generated animations or movies. Secondly what
is needed to create computer animation is computer animation
software which can execute fairly complicated graphics
applications. Finally, the most important piece of equipment
which is needed, to create sophisticated graphical animations is
an abundance of external computer memory or RAM. This is, because
it takes enormous amounts of memory to animate computer images
which contain colour. This equipment has its limitations whereas
it can only produce simple computer animations, nothing like "T2"
or "Jurassic Park". "Long stringed sequences of animation like
full-feature cartoons, contain vast amounts of information that
must be stored and manipulated."5 "This enormous kind of digital
computer information requires the kind of power and storage
capabilities that only industrial size supercomputers can
provide."6 These sorts of computers, cost a significant amount of
money, making it nearly impossible for the general public to get
at this technology.

Ever since the "first animated cartoons were produced in 1910,"7
involving such animals as "Felix the Cat" and "Mickey Mouse", and
on to feature-full length classics "Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs", "Fantasia", and many more, the history of animation has
been characterized by the almost constant introduction of ever
more complex forms of animation. "Beginning in the 1960's, films
showing abstract colour designs in motion were programmed by
means of computers that calculate intricate movements with
amazing precision."8 Today computer animation has achieved the
ability to create moving images and backgrounds of great
complexity. This advanced innovation in animation, has prompted
the multimedia world to manipulate this technology to adapt to
their needs. Such as using computerized animation widely in their
television commercials, titles, and in producing more convincing
music videos for the consumers. Computer animation has just
become popular in our society, it has not even began to show its
full capabilities. For in the near future we will be graced with
the presences of it in every technological medium; such as in
multimedia advertisement, video entertainment, and in the
education system. We must either accept this technology and learn
to use it, or be left in the dark, falling behind in the
technological world.






Even though many companies are using computerized animations to
promote their product or film, old-style cell animation continues
to be the sole technique which quality animators, such as Disney
Productions use, but with computer-generated objects still often
mixed with the traditional animation, adding a new outlook to the
animation. As we near the year 2000, and enter the high-tech age
of computer generated graphics and animation, I believe that the
true admirers of the art of animation will always have a
nostalgia for the techniques first used by the pioneers of
animation.











































Reference


1.Compton's Encyclopedia, 1991 edition,
Vol.3, "Cartoons."

2.Randy McCallum, Cinemation
(British Columbia: Motion Works Inc., 1992), p. 19.

3.ibid., p. 23.

4.Edward Desmond, "Beyond Mickey Mouse," Time
(Nov.1.1993), p. 32.

5.Toolworks Encyclopedia, 1992 edition,
CD ROM, "Animation."

6.ibid., CD ROM.

7.Compton's Encyclopedia, 1991 edition,
Vol.3, "Cartoons"

8.Toolworks Encyclopedia, 1992 edition,
CD ROM, "Animation."





























Bibliography


1.Brown, Robert. "Cartoons." Compton's Encyclopedia,
(1991), Vol.3, pp. 163-165.

2.Desmond, Edward W. "Beyond Mickey Mouse." Time, Sept.27,1993,
pp. 42-47.

3.Elmer, Philip. "Video Game Boom." Time, Nov.1,1993,
pp. 16-20.

4.McCallum, Randy. Cinemation. British Columbia:
Motion Works Inc., 1992, pp. 1-193.

5.Redmond, John R. "Animation." Toolworks Encyclopedia,
(1992), CD ROM.

6.Young, Harvill. "3D Imaging Technology." MacWorld, Sept.1,1992,
pp. 276-285.