Cell-based animation is seen as one of the more traditional forms of animation. Often seen in many popular stop motion feature throughout time such as 'The Simpsons'. A 'cel' is a piece of transparent material used to draw parts of the animation on. They can be layered by various different pieces of scenery or background using another cel. These are then photographed and the next frame is drawn on the next cel. As you can imagine, this is a very time consuming task and was the norm for animation until computers started to take over and make things much easier.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs (as seen above) was the first ever motion picture to be created using cel based animation Many critics referred to this film as 'Disney's Folly' due to the disbelief that it was possible to create a full film using this method of animation. Walt Disney himself had to morgate his house in order to fund production which eventually came up to around about $1,488,422.74.
The Looney Tunes Show
First created in 1933 is a Warner brothers production created using the same method as Disney's early films. It contained an array of different characters each with there own personalities and was mainly aimed a children Sin it's creation there has been a range of movies and spin-off's using many of the characters in the show.
Conclusions
There's no need for me to provide any-more examples of animation created using this technique. Practically every animated feature up until the early 90's was created using this technique. It was widely used due to the detail which could be administered as opposed to other techniques such as cut-out. However, like most things it eventually became obsolete when animators began using digital means as a way of animating. This is due to the larger amount of possibilities and quickness of computer-based animation.
Model based animation refers to the movement of models in order to create the illusion they are animated. Models which are usually used are things such as clay models or action figures.
Morph
Morph is a 1994 model based animation produced by 'Aardman Animations.' Morph gained much popularity from the british childrens program 'SMart.' In this there would be a series of shorts showing the character morph speaking jargon and engaging in a series of shenanigans. A morph episode will be produced like most forms of animation. By this i mean the usual move object take photo frame by frame method.
Pingu
Pingu is a BAFTA award winning stop-motion tv series developed using principle of model based animation. Like morph it is produced in a series of shorts using the same methods. Also like morph, the character speak jargon making production easier in terms of casting and voice recording. Robot Chicken Not all forms of model based animation have to be clay animation. This can be seen through Seth Green's cult classic 'Robot Chicken.' A stop motion show which focuses on the mockery of pop culture and topics in the public's interest. It uses the exact same principles of any other form of model based animation. The only difference being that rather than using lay figures the animators use action figure.
Spongebob squarepants is an award winning animated television series created by stephen Hillenburg in 1996. the series started after the end 'rockos modern life' in 1996. Hillenburg teamed up with a group of writers and directors from 'nick' to product the spongebob series. By the year 2000 the show had gained massive popularity from various audiences. Like most animation in this time period it was seen as a cartoon with adult themes. Due to this a wide range of people from all ages appreciated the series. Initially the animation was done in traditional cell shade animation. However seeing the potential in computer animation they eventually moved on to using digital ink and paint.
The Simpsons (Matt Groening)
The Simpsons is a satirical cartoon comedy first aired in '1987' on the 'Tracey Ullmen Show.' The show began to gain popularity in the 90's due to it's appeal to a wide target audience. It proved the animated programmes could appeal to adults as well as children. This later beckoned in many other similar shows with similar themes. This was due to the fact many animators realised animation could be produced with adult themes in order to appeal to the older audience. The actual production of a Simpsons episode takes a lot of time (usually up to five months.) It will begin with the writing of the script and then all of the shows dialogue will be recorded. Seasons 1-14 were created using the traditional method of cell animation. This consist of drawing the scenes on cell papers and painting them manual However, eventually technology progresses and digital ink and pain is used by digitalising the cell papers. Often certain aspects of animation will be done in 3-d such as objects rolling as it makes the movement much smoother.
Family Guy (Seth MacFarlane)
Family guy was an adult cartoon first aired in 1999. The writer, Seth MacFarlene, who had many inspirations (The Simpsons being one of them.) After the success of The Simpsons Macfarlane decided to create an animated show primarily for adults. This is seen through it's controversial jokes and adult content. It has proved very successful although received much criticise due to how much it resembles other shows such as 'The Simpsons.' This show, like most animation we see today is created using digital ink and paint.
Conclusion
Animation has came a long way since the early days of hand-drawing each frame. In this day in age the process is much quicker due to the increasingly development in technology and digital means of animating. Now animations are tailored for the needs of a range of target audience, not just children. This has changed the public's perception on animation and is a widely used and respected form of film making and television production.
Upon the completion of my animation i posted onto my blog in order to receive feedback on my work. In this post i will be giving my own opinion to my finished product asweel as analysing the responses from others.
Personal response
Upon finishes my animation I was very pleased with how it had turned out. However, I was rather disappointed at the quality of the video. After doing colour correction it looked better however i was still not content with the final quality. There was an awful lot of digital noise on the visuals (normally when you enlarged the video.)
(Of cause, the fact i have presented it with Youtube's streaming quality is also a factor for it's poor quality.)
Other than the videos quality, I feel the rest of my project went very well. It came out near enough exactly how I envisioned it too and is entertaining to watch. If I was to create it again I would definitely use a better camera in order to improve the quality.
Peers feedback
I was pleased with this piece of feedback especially due to the fact that the enjoyed my interaction with the drawing. I felt this was the best part of my animation Therefore i agreed with this feedback and I am happy that people enjoyed my stop motion.
This is another positive comment which i received I am pleased that they praised the title sequence. I agree with them saying that this is what 'brought it together.' This is due to the fact I initially planned for the titles to be similar to this in order to bring the whole animation together. Therefore, i am pleased that it was effective in presenting my finished product.
The rest of the comments which I received on my animation were positive. Very few viewers suggested improvements which i was rather surprised about. Mainly down to the quality of the video. Although their were a few suggested improvements which I had not expected.
This was one of the few improvements which was suggested for my animation. This viewer felt that i could have made it longer. I think this is definitely something to take into consideration. In fact, initially I wanted to have an extra scen within my animation were the character rips part of the page of. However, due to the duration I had to produce the animation i didn't have nearly enough time to finish this part of the animation. However, if I was to do the project again I think I would definitely make it much longer as I feel it is cut shot currently.
As you can see, another improvement which was suggested was to possibly make the drawing more detailed. The viewer also goes on to say that it 'isn't necessary ' Although I feel it could be effective with detailed drawings I don't feel this particular animation would benefit from them. This is due to the nature and humor of my animation. It is on a notebook therefore I wanted to make the character seem more like a persons doodle. On the other hand, if I was to create a similar animation with I different theme I think I would make the drawings much more detailed. In conclusion i personally am very pleased without how my animation has turned out. I am also happy to see such a large amount of positive comments from my animation. As i stated earlier if i was to do this project again i would use better quality camera and possibly increase the length of the film.
Here is a rough animation which we created using dope sheets A dope sheet is a table in which you outline each frame by action,sound and camera angles. Here is the stop motion which we created to go over a short four second clip.
Introduction The assignment brief for our final project was to produce and animated short using any of the techniques we had learnt. To begin with i decided to engage in research in order to help formulate ideas for my own animation. Pre-Production Research
The video above shows a very similar concept to an idea which I had in mind. This clip helped further develop ideas due to some of the ways in which the images are placed. After watching this I decide to start working on a similar idea of separate photos showing pixelation.
The video above helped me develop my ideas even more as i liked the idea of having somebody hold the photos.
This was a video i stumbled upon which gave me some more inspiration for my final project. Although it wasn't a form of pixelation I still felt it was a valid part of my research. This is due to the fact it gave me the idea of interacting with the photos within the video. This would result in a much more vibrant piece of animation and adding to the creative aspect. Characters
I will be focusing on one character. Seems as it is pixelation I will have to use somebody to model for me. They will be the only character in the animation.
Backgrounds
The initial shoot will be inside of the photography studio or some place else with room for the character to move around. After i print out the frames I will be placing the image on a table. this will give it more of a sketchy artistic feel. Each image may be place on the table slanted to make it look disorganized and more 'spontaneous'.
Audio
For the audio I will most probably have an upbeat acoustic instrumental. this will give it a more of a laid back feel. The video below shows the soundtrack which I think would compliment the visuals well within the video. It is the soundtrack of an indie game called 'AppleJack' by the musician 'This is Eden.' As I have stated I fell this would give it a much more laid feel and work nicely with my animation
Overall, my research was rather effective in formulating and developing ideas for my own stop motion. After laying the foundation of my idea i decided to write out storyboards in order to create some sort of narrative for my animation.
Production
A change of plan
Up to the start of the production stage I was set on producing a piece of pixelation animation. However, during the final stages of pre-production I had a series of epiphanies which led to a change in production. These were mainly regarding logistical problems. I needed someone to model for my animation and due to the fact the rest of my class were also working on their own I would have to find somebody else. Another issue was time schedule. My ideas were rather ambitious and would have taken a substantial amount of time to produce successfully I felt I did not have near enough time to produce this due to he fact that at this point, I had about two weeks left to finish my project. Another aspect which led to a change of plan was the technical side of things. Due to the fact it would be hot in the studio I would have to use a camera. This would mean creating it without the onion skin which 'Istopmotion' provides. This would prove very difficult and of cause add more production time onto my already tight time schedule. It was all of these aspects which led to changing the way in which I produce my animation.
Creating my animation my animation
As you can see, for the parts in which the character and objects draw themselves I drew each part line by line. By this I mean that I would draw a small part of the image then take a photo. I would then draw the next part of the image and take another. Using a webcam connected to 'Istop motion' this wasn't a very exhausting process. The software shows an onion skin layer so I could follow the line of the previous drawing and make it look consistent.
The rest of the character movement such as the wave at the start were done on separate pages of the notebook. I would simply draw the image of the character on one page. Then on the next draw frame of movement. This made it easy during production as all I had to do was take photos of each page.
The rest of my animation consisted of my hand and objects interacting with the character. This was done frame by frame like the drawing and I would change to the corresponding page once me or the object had interacted with the character.
After the actual filming process was done all that was left to do was edit. I first placed my exported Istopmotion project into 'Imovie.' In here I added the titles and credits to my piece. After this was done I imported the Imovie export into garage band. From here I simply added all of the sound effecs and music then syncronised them to my animation (This was a long and tedious process.) Finally, I exported my finish project and posted on youtube.
