2D Animation Techniques

By Owen Court

12 Principles of Animation

The most important Principle Helps to add realism into an animation Shows weight and mass of an object

Bouncy Ball is a great example

Squash And Stretch

This helps to sell the animation to an audience.

Shows things that people do subconsciously It helps an audience prepare for an action

Anticipation

Traditionally from Film and Theatre Carefully placed objects that draw your

attention Characters and lighting strategically placed

to make the audience focus.

Staging

Straight ahead action means drawing each individual frame.

Makes animation look more fluid and adds character and depth

Can be difficult to keep proportions and depth linear. Better For realistic Sequences Pose to pose means drawing a few key frames of the

animation, and filling in the blanks later. This works for more cinematic and emotional scenes

where proportions and composition are key. Computer animation has eradicated the issue of

proportions when framing straight ahead Action.

Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose

These two techniques help to add realism and depth to an animation. Aims to add laws of physics to the piece.

Follow through focuses on the loose body parts that move, and aims to keep them moving even after the body stops.

Overlapping makes sure that you are not using the same time frame for each body part. An arm will move at a different speed to a leg for instance. This helps to add realism through non-perfectness.

Follow through and overlapping action

This makes sure the animation of objects and characters comes to a more realistic stop and start.

Any object that is moving needs an acceleration and deceleration time.

This emphasises the extreme poses and makes the animation feel more realistic.

Slow in and Slow Out

Natural objects usually move in an arc. The joint of an arm for instance causes your

arm to bend and loop slightly. Drawing with a slight arc can add more

depth and realism to a drawing. This does not apply however to mechanical

drawing.

ARC

Adding more depth to a character and scene to add more realism.

This could be swinging his arms and putting them in his pockets, Whistling a tune, or simply showing emotion through facial expressions.

Often unnoticed at first glance, but subtly add depth and personality to a character.

Secondary Action

Correct timing helps to add realism Makes it look like objects obey the laws of

physics. Depends on the number of images drawn

on the length. Helps to establish mood and emotions for a

specific character.

Timing

Can add more life to an animation Stops the animation looking dull and boring Depends on the style of animation Cartoons are more exaggerated and often

feature lost of exaggeration. Tom and jerry is good example of this.

Exaggeration

Thinking about your scene in a more three dimensional way.

Adding depth/weight and mass to your objects to make them seem solid and real.

Often takes time to perfect with people taking classes on drawing to hone in on their skills.

Solid Drawing

Appeal shows charisma and charm in a character.

This helps to add depth to the characters and really makes them feel relatable and genuine.

Appeal

Digital Animation

Software and their uses.

More traditionally used for drawing and photo manipulation.

People can make simple gifs using Photoshop.

Helps to create backgrounds and scenes for 2d Animations

Good for Preproduction and Production. Can also be used to add effects in post

production

Photoshop

Flash is used for animation Has a range of different tools for animation

that help to make it easy and accessible. Previous version include bone tools to help

move around a “puppet” easily. Good for pre production(animated

storyboard) and produciton.

Flash Professional

After effects is most commonly used to add effects to a finished scene.

Can use the puppet tool to animate a character/object.

Best for post production.

After Effects

Can be a good way to quickly illustrate a point to somebody.

Easily accessible tools and very fast interface.

Not really useful from an animation point of view however.

MS Paint

Image Capture

Image Scanners more commonly referred to as just scanners, are a device used to process a physical page and transfer it to the computer as a digital file.

Conventional image scanners use either a charge-coupled device or a contact image sensor as the image sensor. These aren’t as high quality as the Drum scanners however they are more affordable and are easier for the everyday consumer.

Scanners

Pros One good thing about scanning images/documents is that you are able to turn a physical piece of work into a

digital piece. Scanning images into a computer is much faster than reproducing the same document by hand. Scanning a document makes it much safer and less likely to get lost. You are able to cut down on the amount of physical documents that you need to store. Modern a4 scanners are very thin and lightweight, making them practical and ergonomic in your work

environment.

Cons One con of scanning in documents is that you are not able to edit the documents after they have been scanned. If your computer crashes or breaks for any reason you may lose all of the documents on it without a backup. Depending on what file format you save the image as, the file sizes could be really large. For example a .TIFF Scanners are not built into computers, which makes them an extra expense onto of your computer. If you want to scan anything larger than an a4 piece of paper, scanners start to become very expensive.

Scanners Pros/Cons

Digital cameras use a glass sense to direct light into the sensor for a short amount of time.

This light allows the sensor to generate an image and recreate what is seen in the real world.

With Digital SLR’s you are able to change the Iso, which determines how much light gets through to the sensor.

Digital cameras come in a range of different sizes. From small compact cameras to large DSLR’s.

The point and shoot cameras allow you to quickly capture images without any knowledge of how a camera works.

A larger DSLR allows you to alter the parameters of the camera to capture exactly the image you want.

Digital Cameras

Pros Digital cameras come in a range of different sizes and specifications, allowing you to choose the camera that’s

right for you. Small point and shoot cameras allow you to take a camera anywhere to capture the moment. Digital SLR cameras are available which allow you to change lenses and get professional looking images. The file sizes of digital camera images are often quite low. With the expandable memory slots, you can often add up to 64gb of storage to your camera, making it ideal for

trips. The image quality of new compact cameras is stunning, and for amateur photography or family images, there is

really no alternative.

Cons Large SLR cameras are often expensive. The standalone body often costs over £300 and then adding expensive

lenses on top can make photography a real investment. Mastering the techniques of photography can take a lot of time and effort. Making money through photography is often hard and can lead to much frustration.

Digital Camera Pros/Cons

Drawing tablets are an input device that allows a user to freely draw with a pen just like they are using pen and paper.

This peripheral device allows people to plug straight into their PC and start drawing on software such as Flash and Photoshop.

The standard tablets allow you to draw while still using your monitor as your primary viewing device, However more expensive drawing tablets inclulde LCD monitors underneath that allow you to draw onto the tablet while look at the tablets screen aswell.

Drawing Tablets

Pros You are able to buy a cheap drawing tablet for under £50. Drawing tablets allow you to draw straight onto the computer without scanning images. Tablets come in all different sizes depending on your needs. Expensive tablets often allow you to look directly at the tablet to draw.

Cons For a reliable and good drawing tablet you will have to spend a fair amount of money on them. Drawing tablets don’t make you an artist over night, you will still need time to practise and develop your skills. If you want professional software you will often have to spend more money on this such as Adobe Photoshop. Drawing tablets are not standard with computer, making them an extra expense on top of the original computer.

Drawing Tablets Pros and Cons

Different Types of Digital Graphics

One type of digital graphic is that which has been scanned in by you or downloaded from the internet.

A scanned image starts off as a physical piece of work, but when you scan the image in it gets converted to a digital piece of work.

This method allows you to change pieces of work by hand before scanning them in allowing for perfection.

Scanned images are also a good way of producing digital artwork if you are not comfortable using software such as Photoshop to create images.

Images (Scanned/Downloaded)

Computer generated graphics can be made in programs like Photoshop and Illustrator.

They allow you to quickly create stunning images. If you have no drawing skills then creating graphics on the

computer will be a quick and simple alternative. To the right is an example of a logo that could be made in under 5

minutes using Photoshop and a little knowledge of the software. There are many open source pieces of software that are free to

download and can do many of the same things as the expensive pieces of software.

This type of graphic is most commonly seen in the working field, companies use CGG logos and interfaces to create stunning advertisements and logo’s.

Computer Generated Graphics (Logos, Interfaces)

CGI images are those that are produced digitally to look either lifelike or “real”.

To create CGI images you usually use a piece of software such as 3ds max or Maya. These allow you to create 3D models that are accurate and look realistic.

This type of image creation is very advanced, and takes lots of time and practise to develop a style and your knowledge of the software.

Many modern day films and TV shows incorporate CGI imagery to achieve shots that would not normally be possible.

Computer Generated Images (Lifelike imagery, motion graphics)

Bit depth refers to the number of individual bits that are needed to represent the colour of a single pixel.

This can either be in a bitmap image, or in a single frame of a video.

Image Depth (Bit Depth)

Image resolution refers to the amount of detail an image can hold.This can either be a Digital Image, Film image or another type of image.

The higher the resolution “1920x1080 > 1280x720” the more detail is in the image.

Resolution is all about close together lines can be, while still being visibly resolved.

Image Resolution

Image dimensions means the size of the width and height of an image.

With most programs this is measured in pixels vertically and horizontally such as “1280x720”

Other pieces of software allow you to create images in other types of units such as Inches and Centimetres.

Image Dimensions

File Compression and Extentions

The advantage of saving images as .jpeg is that you are able to change the file size and the compression rate of the image.

The quality of jpeg image can drastically change depending on the quality that you select.

The quality can be set between 1-10. 1 being the worst quality and 10 being the best quality.

The file size goes up as the quality increases.

Jpeg Images

Lossless data is a form of data compression that allows the original data to be reconstructed without loosing and quality.

On the other hand lossy data isn’t able to perfectly reconstruct the data and makes an approximation as to the original image.

Lossless Compression Vs Lossy Compression

Jpeg allows you too save the file in different sizes. You can choose between 1-12. 1 being the smallest file size, 12 being the largest. Their is a middle ground around the 7/8 mark, where the quality still looks great while the file size is relatively small.

PNG’s allow you to include a transparent background.

Image File Types

Avi – A compression method because it is available on most modern computers and devices. However it is a large file.

H.264 (mp4) – the most commonly used compression method for videos. The file quality is great and the file size is relatively small.

Video Compression

Legal And Ethical Considerations

Legal Considerations

Grants The rights to a piece of work to the original creator.

Helps to stop smaller companies/individuals steal peoples work.

I will be sticking to this law by not stealing others work, and not using content that is either theirs or that I have not paid for.

Copyright.

I will make sure that I do not break this law by not saying anything negative about a specific person. Defamation means saying or painting a bad picture about a specific person that may tarnish their reputation.

I will avoid this by not referencing famous people in a negative way, if I talk about them it will be in positive way.

Defamation

To make sure that I can produce my work legally I will make sure that all of the software that I use is legal and licenced.

Because I’m at college this isn’t a big deal, but any work that I create at home will have to be on a licenced version of the software.

Licenced Software

Ethical

Ism’s incorporate everything such as racism and sexism.

I don’t want to insult anybody so I will not be making any sort of racist or homophobic comments so that I will not insult anybody and get myself in trouble.

Ism’s

Plagiarism basically means that you are stealing or using another persons content/ideas without acknowledging that they were the original creator.

It would be like stealing a character that a friend created and then saying that you were the person that created the character.

I will make sure I don’t plagiarise by doing lots of pre-production and getting character/scene concepts complete, irradiating the need for me to copy.

Plagiarism

One common issue is that content can often be overly sexualised. This can be for many reasons, either the company feel that a sexual premise fits in with their brief, or they feel like over sexualising women may bring in a more male audience.

I will avoid this by not sexualising women within my animation. They will be appropriately dressed and will not be wearing skimpy clothes.

Overly Sexualised