Research

What is Animation?

First thing is first, i didn't know much about animation and how it worked so i decided to do a little research so i knew exactly what i was getting myself into. Here is a simple explanation of what animation it.

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2D or 3D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision. It can be created and demonstrated in several ways.  The most common method of presenting animation is as a motion picture or video program, although there are other methods.

Frames Per Second (fps) - In Animation

Frames per second is the amount of still images (frames) there are in a video/animation per second. Each frame is a picture. The frames per second indicate how many times the picture will be changed per second.

In animation the amount of fps you choose to have depends on the quality and 'flow' you want to create. There will either be 12fps, 25fps or 30fps. The more frames you have, the more smooth the animation will flow. 

Looking at existing animations.

I thought it would be useful to look at existing animations to get a feel for how they move and the amount of frames per second. This particular animation uses 12fps which i was rather surprised by because the human figures moves pretty smooth for such a little amount of frames!

Here is another animation made with 12 frames per second.

This animation is very simple but humorous. I enjoyed watching it and i can relate this project to it quite a lot. Not only the 12fps but the simplistic form which my animation will have and the music playing to the animation. The music helps understand the story and it gives a sense of intensity and drama to the whole scene. I also think the small amount of colour is used very well because it helps understand the 'teams' in the animation but it hasn't been over used.

I am now going to look at animations which have a lot more colour in them to see how they look and the 'feel' they give due to me being unsure whether i will be using much, if any colour in my storyboard and animation.

This animation is based on a very simple story and it is quite simple how it has been put together. Due to the animation having a few 'jumps' throughout it, i am assuming it is 12fps. However, i could be wrong. The block colour in the animation gives the feel of a cartoon. This is appropriate in this story but i think it would have worked just as good if it was simple life drawings and less complicated drawings.

Flip Books!


Flip books are another way which can turn hundreds of still draws/images into an animation. Here are some examples.

This flip book is really interesting and it is in colour. The hundreds of images used to produce this long story is amazing. The story isn't made very clear but regardless of that i was still amazed at the amount of detail and goings on in this story.

This flip book is very precise and it is such a simple story but the drawings are in so much details and every tiny step the characters take has been recorded and it moves very accurately and smoothly. I love this one and making a mini flip book is definitely something i will take into consideration to experiment with.

This next flip book is amazing!

I love this flip book, it might be because the characters are well known but the witty story and movements in the animation is very details and its just amazing!

At the moment i feel like i am content and i understand exactly what the brief is asking me to do and now that i have researched other animations, even the more simple ones i feel i can move a step forward in putting pencil to paper and start generating ideas of simple stories which work well in relation to the piece of music i have been given.

I am now going to research existing characters and possible animations to see how some animations are created and how animals move.

Firstly i decided to look into Walt Disney and some of the animated characters.

For many years Walt Disney used hand drawn animation, in which doing so they created many of the worlds famous characters today, including Mickey Mouse. 

Here is one of the original animated Mickey Mouse cartoons, in black and white.

I love this video as it is very old and original and because Mickey Mouse is so famous today it is nice to see the changes what have been made over the years and compare them to how it used to be. It shows the advances in technology and the way in which people move with time. This doesn't only apply to the way the animation has been produced but it also applies to the advances in colour.             

Here are some of the hand drawn characters of Walt Disney. They are very 'sketchy' but very accurate. I have always been a fan of disney therefore i find it really interesting knowing how some 

of the films were produced and
how the characters came about. I do like the current disney character but i am starting to like the black and white versions. I am now going to look into particular characters which could help me with 'movements' in my storyboard and animation.
DumboI have decided that there will be an elephant in my storyboard and animation, therefore i thought it would be appropriate to research dumbo because at one point in its life, Dumbo was a hand drawn animation.

Above is one of the original hand drawn animations for Dumbo. The black and white makes the images very interesting, however i think a touch of colour would compliment these animations because they appear to be a little bit dark.

Here is a small animation of Dumbo and how she originally came 'alive'. As we can tell, the drawing is very old and has been developed so much since then. Here is an image of the current Dumbo.

How do elephants move?