Animation

217 Pages·2013·5.126 MB·English

by  Selby, Andrew

Animation
Andrew Selby
Laurence King Publishing
Published in 2013 by
Laurence King Publishing Ltd
361–373 City Road
London EC1V 1LR
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
e-mail: [email protected]
www.laurenceking.com
Design © 2013 Laurence King Publishing Limited
Text © 2013 Andrew Selby
Andrew Selby has asserted his right under the
Copyright, Designs, and Patent Act 1988, to be
identifi ed as the Author of this Work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may
be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopy, recording, or any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publisher.
A catalog record for this book is available
from the British Library
ISBN: 978 1 78067 097 3
Design: Unlimited
Series designer: Jon Allan, TwoSheds Design
Picture research: Jemma Robinson
Front cover image: Lost and Found, produced by
Studio aka; based on the book by Oliver Jeffers;
adapted and directed by Philip Hunt
Back cover image: Toon Boom Storyboard Pro
Images, courtesy of Toon Boom Animation Inc.—
toonboom.com
Printed in China
Introduction
5
The signifi cance of animation 7 / Uses of animation 7 / A model for future
communication 8 / The defi ning principles of animation 9 / Twelve principles
of animation 11 / The animation pipeline 13 / Preproduction 13 / Production 15 /
Postproduction 17 / About this book 17 / An animation timeline 19 /
1. Preproduction—Planning and Scriptwriting
25
The animation pipeline in preproduction 26 / Scheduling a production 27 / Animation
job roles 29 / Scriptwriting 32 / What is a script? 32 / The vocabulary and language of
animation 35 / Animated language 36 / Approaches to scriptwriting 37 / Premise 39 /
Story ladders and friezes 40 / Plot 41 / Animation plot themes 42 / Genre in animation
42 / Categories of animated genres 43 / Script development 44 / Prose brief 44 / Step
outline 44 / Event analysis 44 / Synopsis 45 / Treatment 45 / Analyzing a script 46 /
Conclusion 46 /
2. Preproduction—Concepts, Ideas, and Research
47
Concepts and ideas 48 / The signifi cance of ideas 49 / Investing in ideas 49 / Starting
points 50 / Developing a conceptual framework 52 / The studio environment 53 /
Capturing ideas 55 / Drawing and visualizing tools 56 / The animator’s toolkit 57 /
Idea development 58 / Flipbooks to test ideas 61 / Evaluating ideas 62 / Pitching
concepts 64 / Research 66 / What is research? 66 / Collecting accurate reference
material 67 / Identifying and formulating a research methodology 68 /
A sample research methodology 70 / Collecting and appropriating research 71 /
Reviewing the research 71 / Conclusion 72 /
3. Preproduction—Development
73
Animation pipeline 74 / Storyboarding 75 / Storyboarding: from single to serial imagery
75 / The art of storyboarding 76 / Masters of their art 77 / The development of visual
narrative in animation 78 / Creating a storyboard with a visual narrative 79 / Style guides
82 / Layouts and scenes 84 / Planning and formulation 85 / Types of camera shots 88
/ Development drawings 89 / Imagination and observation 89 / Fundamental aspects
of composition, placement, and emphasis 90 / Character design 94 / The bones of
character design 94 / The art of character design 96 / The role and function of character
96 / Developing characteristics 101 / Narrative construction 103 / Conclusion 104 /
4. Preproduction—Sound
105
Animation pipeline 106 / Understanding sound 106 / The anatomy of sound 107 / The
principles of sound 108 / The importance and use of sound 108 / Audience perception
of sound 110 / Sonic interpretations of space and time 110 / The grammar of sound 111 /
Stems of sound 112 / Dialogue and narration 112 / Troubleshooting voice recordings 118 /
Music 119 / Sound eff ects 121 / The working sound studio 124 / Collecting and processing
data 125 / Mixing desks 125 / Conclusion 125
5. Production
127
The animation pipeline in production 129 / Introduction to basic techniques 130 /
Simple motion devices 131 / Cel animation and traditional 2D processes 132 / Drawn cel
animation 132 / Rotoscoping 133 / 2D computer-generated images 133 / Stop-motion
animation 135 / 2D stop motion 135 / 3D stop motion 137 / Sets and lighting 143 /
Checking the fi lming of stop-motion animation 147 / 3D computer-generated Images
148 / Designing and modeling 148 / Rigs and texturing 149 / Animating and lighting
151 / Visual special eff ects, rendering, and compositing 151 / Unorthodox animation 152
/ Pixilation 152 / Brick animation 152 / Auteur or artistic processes 153 / Performance
animation and live-action hybrids 154 / Installations 155 / Machinema 156 / Augmented
reality 156 / Sound in production 157 / Conclusion 158
6. Postproduction
159
The animation pipeline in postproduction 160 / Preparing the production 160 /
Managing postproduction 161 / Visuals 162 / Non-linear editing 163 / Synchronicity 165
/ Color correction 165 / Understanding color 166 / Titling and credits 168 / Sound in
postproduction 169 / Producing a soundtrack 169 / Digital mastering 172 / Formatting
172 / Release and distribution 173 / Video and digital video formats 174 / Marketing and
publicity 174 / Film festivals 176 / Conclusion 178
7. Animated Futures
179
Education, knowledge, and understanding 180 / Skills for future employment 181 / Skills
and attributes 181 / Understanding and evaluating yourself 182 / Answering your critics
183 / What are employers looking for? 184 / Skills 185 / Promotion 186 / The portfolio
187 / The showreel 189 / Print-based promotion 190 / Websites 192 / Website checklist
193 / Social media platforms 194 / Gaining experience 194 / Opportunities, applications,
and interviews 197 / Job advertisements and opportunities 198 / The application form
199 / The cover letter 199 / The résumé 200 / The interview 201 / Representation 202 /
Making it! 204 / Conclusion 204
...
Glossary 206 / Further reading 207 / Resources 209 / Index 210 / Picture
credits 215 / Acknowledgments 216
Related study material is available on the Laurence King website at
www.laurenceking.com
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Animation is a compeling and extraordinarily adaptable form of audio-visual
expression that is highly effective in fusing moving images and sounds
together to tell stories and explain ideas. The medium allows exponents to
explore theories and inform audiences, and its fl exibility as an artifi cially
constructed form means that it is well suited to a vast range of communication
applications. From obvious examples such as movies, television series, and
advertising commercials, through developing uses such as websites, mobile
applications, and gaming, to more diverse applications in the fi elds of
medicine, engineering, and architecture, animation proves that it is a medium
that has the ability to entertain, inform, educate, and inspire. Animation permits
and encourages the creation of cinematic visual trickery by making unreal
events seem real and transporting an audience to new places of discovery.
Major Hollywood studios are increasingly turning to animation and special
effects (SFX) techniques to realize their creative ideas, and other organizations
and governments are also waking up to the possibility of using animation to
explain, reinforce, or promote their message.
In recent decades, animators have found increasingly inventive ways of
using animation. Today it pervades much of the landscape of popular culture,
being a medium of choice to push boundaries, cross traditional disciplinary
divides, and support and enhance other creative work. While animation’s
history is relatively short compared to other arts disciplines, this needs to
be juxtaposed against the prolifi c and accelerated advances in technology,
such as the growth of the Internet, the developing reliance on mobile
technology, and the need for greater visually oriented support for social
media. Such technical leaps have created changes in global social and
economic conditions and have encouraged increased interest in the
subject of animation—an interest that is likely to grow and spread over
the coming years.
The spirit of animation as an evolving form of
audio-visual expression is encapsulated by
Oskar Fischinger’s Kreise, released in 1933.
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The signifi cance of animation
n
o In his book The Fundamentals of Animation (2006), Paul Wells states that:
ti
uc “Animation is the most dynamic form of expression available to creative
d
o people.” When one starts to examine the subject in depth, it becomes
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(cid:2)I clear that animation has a profound effect on the daily lives of many of us.
n Most people experience animation through children’s television programming
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ati and animated feature fi lms. Some of the greatest sequences in world cinema
m
ni are animated feature fi lms that are etched into our collective memories. Who
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can forget the magical “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” sequence in the 1940 fi lm
Fantasia? Or, in the more recent realms of animation history, the enchanting
story of Carl and Ellie’s love affair, life, and passing, in the Disney(cid:129)Pixar
animated feature fi lm Up (2009). These collective memories and experiences
are largely attributed to the dominance of the greatest pioneer in animation
history, Walt Disney (1901–66). The impact that the Walt Disney Studios has
had on cinema audiences—indeed on popular culture generally—is vast and
far-reaching, albeit supported by important outputs from Warner Bros. and
UPA (United Productions of America). However, this American “super studio” Walter Elias “Walt” Disney (1901–66) is indelibly
dominance has also meant that other versions of animation have sometimes linked to the growth and development of
animation. The company he cofounded with his
been overlooked or not given the credit they deserve by mass audiences. brother Roy, the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio,
For many, the true signifi cance of animation can be measured by such has today evolved into The Walt Disney Company
and is a media and entertainment powerhouse.
elements as its inclusion in the annual Academy Awards, the growth of © Disney
international fi lm festivals, the distribution of feature fi lms, documentaries
and short fi lms on cable or satellite channels, and the Internet revolution that
has opened up new audiences for the form globally. Furthermore, the study
of animation as a subject in its own right—including its history, technical
advances, and wider cultural context—is recognized through a multitude of
internationally published specialist magazines, academic journals, seminars,
and conferences, trade magazines, online forums, blogs, and microblogs.
Uses of animation
Animation has the potential to reach developed, fl edgling, or emerging
audiences in a way that live-action fi lm is unable to because of subjective,
cultural, or technical shortcomings. The form can seemingly make the
“impossible” possible and has the potential to communicate with young
and old alike, regardless of ethnicity, gender, religion, or nationality. If used
intelligently, animation can draw viewers together, crossing boundaries
and uniting audiences under thematic ideas and concerns, making it a
very attractive medium for artists, designers, producers, directors, musicians,
and actors to use to recount stories, ideas, and opinions to a diverse range
of cultures.
In many walks of everyday life animation is used to explain concepts,
deliver important information, promote goods and services, and keep us on
the move. Over the last few decades, animation has played its part by both
driving and supporting the technical and conceptual demands of a wider
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world. We now see the medium used to track satellites orbiting the Earth,
explain the power of the planet’s weather systems on oceans, mountains,
and deserts, predict the force of earthquakes, or suggest possible worlds
beyond our solar system. Animation is employed to deliver specifi c
engineering data, integrate complex pharmaceutical and clinical procedures,
and develop research models to enable a broad range of activities to occur in
many different and varied fi elds. From being the central core of an animated
feature fi lm or supplying particular special effects in a live-action feature, right
the way through to animated applications on a cell phone or animated
navigational buttons on a website, animation has a role to play in imparting
content to the audience.
Animated physics-based simulations are used to
A model for future communication spectacular effect at the American Museum of
Natural History, where the fi lm Journey to the
The success of animation as a communication form in the future may lie Stars explores the life cycle of stars through
in its residual power to be designed and read in myriad screen formats. an immersive audience experience.
The advent and growth of digital technology has revolutionized the way
that audiences access and watch animation. Digitization has streamlined
the production and delivery of animation and has broadened the scope for
audiences to become familiar with the subject. Cinema and broadcast media
have evolved with three-dimensional (3D) projection, specialist surround-
sound features, and satellite and cable content, but with the development of
mobile technology delivery is no longer confi ned to a fi xed place, meaning
that animated functionality and content features widely on games consoles,
smartphones, and MP3 players. Furthermore, animation is also “screened”
in increasingly unconventional yet interesting ways as part of live-action
performances, art installations, and exhibitions, and in virtual- or augmented- French pioneer of early cinema, Georges
reality worlds where it can either lead or support other material. Méliès, experimented with techniques such as
double exposures and dissolves in his magical
Animation is also able to contribute toward our understanding of the fantasy, Le Voyage dans la Lune (Voyage to the
shape of our future. Unlike live action, animation can be used to creatively Moon, 1902).
predict scenes through imaginary visualization, rather than simply record
events or situations from life. Additionally, certain animated sequences have
the advantage of being signifi cantly cheaper to produce than live-action
equivalents, and can provide greater information for the audience in a fraction
of the time it would take to explain these occurrences in the real time of live
action, as information can be overlaid or run concurrently, enriching the
viewing experience.
Animation can also borrow, appropriate, and assimilate other research
material from compliant resources. A good example is beamed satellite
information in the articulation of animated maps on satellite navigation
systems in vehicles. The animated graphical user interface (GUI) is designed
to present this instant information to the driver of the vehicle clearly and
coherently, not only fi nding the way to a destination, but also updating data
to warn of hazards that lie ahead and communicating alternative actions.
The world of augmented reality through mobile devices opens up huge
possibilities for animation to play a vital role in imparting and explaining
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The special effects created by Spinifex for the
opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics
in Vancouver, Canada, merged 3D animated
n whales projected onto a virtual Pacifi c Ocean
tio inside the stadium, with each breach triggering
c a physical waterspout.
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information from a remote source in a real-world, real-time setting.
Various organizations, institutions, and groups are focused on exploring
the possibilities of this emerging technology for industrial, economic,
and personal use, whether through illustrating animated walk-through
visualizations of property for sale, providing interactive museum
or gallery guides, or making hiking more exciting by providing an
interactive commentary and alternative view of the outdoor landscape.
The defi ning principles of animation
The word “animation” derives from the Latin verb animare, meaning
“to give life to,” suggesting that the illusion of movement has been given
to inanimate forms. Animation essentially involves the artifi cial creation
of images in a sequence that appears to move through the “persistence of
vision”: our eye reads the images in quick succession and our brain tricks us
into believing that the images are moving. In reality, the movement is created
by the spaces in between the frames. The Scottish-born animation pioneer
Norman McLaren famously said: “Animation is not the art of drawings that
move, but rather the art of movements that are drawn.”
In technical terms, the basic principle of creating animation is that
images are captured singly through a photographic lens or a scanner in
a predetermined order. These shots become records of the single images
and are known as “frames.” When the recorded frames are played back in
chronological order, they create a collection known as a “sequence” that
appears to make the images move on screen. Different frame rates are
required for different viewing experiences. For example, a common frame
rate is 24 frames per second (fps) for television and fi lm production (although
some countries’ broadcast formats differ, and 25 fps is a recognized format),
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