Traditional animation

How Animated Cartoons Are Made (1919)

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.

Process

Filming

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

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

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

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

FPS

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]

Tools

Cels

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

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

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]

References

  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.