2D Animation Production

Traditional 2D animation

Flipbook: This is an old type of technique, which gave

people the impressions of movement through illusion.
Flip books are often illustrated books for children, but
may also be geared towards adults and employ a series of
photographs rather than drawings. Flip books are not
always separate books, but may appear as an added
feature in ordinary books or magazines, often in the
page corners. Flipbooks are essentially a primitive form of animation. Like motion pictures,
they rely on persistence of vision to create the illusion that continuous motion is being seen
rather than a series of discontinuous images being exchanged in succession; this is also
known as the phi phenomenon. Furthermore, I will not be using a flipbook in the creation of
my product as this method would not be practical and would not meet the 30-second mark.
A flipbook is better used for projects that are around 3 seconds.
Cell animation: Cell animations are created by placing similar frames in sequential order.
Generally, cell animations create movement by showing 24 frames per second. Nowadays
cell-based animations are created by using specific software, but in the past this type of
animation was hand drawn. The most important frames were drawn by the most expert
animators and the 'in between' frames were drawn by the less experienced.
Cell animation were also developed by using limited materials such as paper and pens as the
technique was created in the olden days where computers werent even created yet.
Therefore, this technique was created to counter the lack of computers.

Rotoscoping: A rotoscopes output may slightly deviate from

the original true line of the image that vary between frames.
When the frames are animated, an unnatural shake that is
also referred to as a boil may result. However, the effect is
more commonly used to remove a single object form a movie
scene in order to use it on a different background. One of the more famous examples is the
light saber effects used in the first three Star Wars movies that were created by rotoscoping
real sticks that the actors held. The biggest advance in the technique is using computers to
construct the animation of the frames that the engineer or animator traces.

Drawn on film: Instead of using the traditional methods of

photographing, digital rendering and creating animation sequences,
Drawn-on-film animation is done directly on the film reel. Drawn on
film animation technique needs a lot of talent and exact precision,
since there is no going back to alter it, you will end up doing the
whole animation sequence right from the beginning. You do not
have to worry about straight lines, most of the animation sequences are more like scribbles.
An undeveloped film can be used like a piece of paper, animators can stick anything on to
the film reels. Sometimes animators create these drawn on film animation by just scratching
and etching directly on the film reel with a sharp object.

Digital techniques for 2D animation

Instead of GIF and JPEG a vector graphic does not use a pixel grid this means that the vector
graphic allows a high resolution on images which have a curves, angles and points. The
vector graphic can allow this by the use of different paths, these paths can be determined by
a line, square, triangle or just a curved shape. The paths can create simple drawings or
complex diagrams. The paths are even used for define the character of specific typefaces.
vector-based images are not made up of a specific number of dots, they can be scaled to a
larger size and not lose any image quality. If you blow up a raster graphic, it will look blocky,
or "pixelated." When you blow up a vector graphic, the edges of each object within the
graphic stay smooth and clean.

Bit depth describes the potential accuracy of a particular hardware or software that
processes audio data. The more bits that are available, the more accurate the resulting
output form the data is being processed. Bit depth is commonly used in analog-to-digital-
converters and bit depth is commonly seen in digital-to-analog-converters.

The word bit depth sampling is about the size of the sample of the audio can take up. There
are 16 bit of data and there are 24 bit of data. These are the different sizes of audio files and
24 bit being the largest taking up a lot of storage. The High colour is the colour scale, which
is also used for the pixel gradient. The High colour determines the colouration of the image.
It also helps the image quality for when you magnify the quality. The BPP or bits per pixel are
the number of bits stored per pixel of an image or displayed by a graphics adapter. The more
bits there are, the more colours can be represented, but more memory is required to store
the image.

Adobe Flash Player is the standard for delivering high-impact, rich Web
content. Designs, animation, and application user interfaces are
deployed immediately across all browsers and platforms, attracting and
engaging users with a rich Web experience. This means that flash is a
very suitable software for me to use for making my animation, as this
software is the only software that can handle animation and other large
file projects. Flash also provides me with a large amount of animation
options that other softwares such as director could not offer.

Photoshop is another software that provides many image-editing features for raster (pixel-
based) images as well as vector graphics. It uses a layer-based editing system that enables
image creation and altering with multiple overlays that support transparency. Layers can also
act as masks or filters, altering underlying colours. Shadows and
other effects can be added to the layers. Photoshop actions include
automation features to reduce the need for repetitive tasks. An
option known as Photoshop CC (Creative Cloud) allows users to work
on content from any computer. Furthermore, due to these qualities I
feel that adobe Photoshop is a good software to pair with Flash as I
can develop the graphics on Photoshop and animate the graphics on
the software flash.

Pioneers

Joseph plateau
In 1829 joseph plateau submitted his doctoral thesis to his mentor Adolphe
Quetelet for advice. The Phenakistiscope, invented by Professor Joseph
Plateau (1801-1883) and The Stampfer Disc, invented by Professor Simon
Stampfer (1792-1864) are both the same devices, done indepentently by
these two scientists.
The device was mentioned to be a scientific experiment in creating the
illusion of movement and how our eyes are able to experience this.
The phenakistiscope and the stampfer disc are able to create the sense of illusion of an
object moving this was created 60 years before the invention of films. However, this early
method of creating live in static images was not the first successful attempt to show
animated images.

William George Horner (9 June 1786 22 September 1837) was a British

mathematician; he was a schoolmaster, headmaster and school keeper,
proficient in classics as well as mathematics, who wrote extensively on
functional equations, number theory and approximation theory, but also
on optics. His contribution to approximation theory is honoured in the
designation Horners method, in particular respect of a paper in
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London for 1819.
William Horner created a mathematical method of solving algebraic equations.
Horner is also largely remembered only for the method, Horner's method, of solving
algebraic equations ascribed to him by Augustus De Morgan and others. He published on the
subject in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London in 1819, submitting
his article on 1 July. However, Fuller has pointed out that, contrary to De Morgan's
assertion, this article does not contain the method, although one published by Horner in
1830 does.

Charles-mile Reynaud (8 December 1844 9 January 1918) was a French

inventor, responsible for the first projected animated cartoons. Reynaud
created the Praxinoscope in 1877 and the Thtre Optique in December
1888, and on 28 October 1892 he projected the first animated film in
public, Pauvre Pierrot. at the Muse Grvin in Paris. This is also notable as
the first known instance of film perforations being used.

Eadweard Muybridge (9 April 1830 8 May 1904, born Edward James

Muggeridge) was an English photographer important for his pioneering work in
photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection.
Hollywood could not have devised a more titillating scenario. Eadweard Muybridge, an
eccentric inventor, was on the verge of a truly revolutionary discovery when
his young wife had an affair. Muybridge killed the suitor in cold blood and
was later acquitted on a verdict of "justifiable homicide." He resumed his
work and developed a miraculous process for capturing movement on film,
laying the groundwork for the motion picture industry.

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 October 18, 1931) was an
American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices
that greatly influenced life around the world, including the
phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting,
practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park",
he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass
production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention,
and because of that, he is often credited with the creation of the
first industrial research laboratory.

Lumiere Brothers are French inventors and pioneer manufacturers of photographic

equipment who devised an early motion-picture camera and projector
called the Cinematographer (cinema is derived from this name).
Auguste Lumire (Oct. 19, 1862, Besancon, France, April 10, 1954,
Lyon) and his brother Louis Lumire (Oct. 5, 1864, Besancon, France,
June 6, 1948, Bandol) created the film La Sortie des ouvriers de lusine
Lumire (1895; Workers Leaving the Lumire Factory), which is
considered the first motion picture.

Developers
Walt Disney

During his life, Walt would often try to recapture the freedom he
felt when aboard those trains, by building his own miniature train
set. Then building a 1/8-scale backyard railroad, the Carol wood
Pacific or Lilly Bell.

Besides his other interests, Walt attended McKinley High School in

Chicago. There, Disney divided his attention between drawing and
photography, and contributing to the school paper. At night, he
attended the Academy of Fine Arts, to better his drawing abilities. Walt discovered his first
movie house on Marcelines Main Street. There he saw a dramatic black-and-white
recreation of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

During the fall of 1918, Disney attempted to enlist for military service. Rejected because he
was under age, only sixteen years old at the time. Instead, Walt joined the Red Cross and
was sent overseas to France, where he spent a year driving an ambulance and chauffeuring
Red Cross officials. His ambulance was covered from
stem to stern, not with stock camouflage, but with
Disney cartoons. Once he returned from France, he
wanted to pursue a career in commercial art, which
soon lead to his experiments in animation. He began
producing short animated films for local businesses, in
Kansas City. After the short films, this gave Walt
notoriety around Kansas and this is where the
cartooning animation began to shoot up for Walt.

Hanna-Barbera

William Denby Hanna and Joseph Barbera have had a powerful and lasting impact on
television animation. Since the late 1950s, Hanna-Barbera
programmes have been a staple of television entertainment, and
many of the characters originally created by Hanna and Barbera for
the small screen have crossed into film, books, toys, comics and have
become cultural icons. The first short cartoon film that hanna-
Barbera was called Ruff & Reddy which was created in 1957 and
ended 3 years after in 1960.

THE SHOWS

Ruff & Reddy 1957-60

Huckleberry Hound 1958-62
Quick Draw McGraw 1959-62
The Flintstones 1960-66
Snagglepuss 1960-62
 The Yogi Bear Show 1961-63
Top Cat 1961-72
The Jetsons 1962-63
Jonny Quest 1964-65
Fantastic Four 1967-70
Scooby Doo 1969-93
Pebbles and Bam-Bam 1971-72; 1975-76
The Flintstones Comedy Hour 1972-74
Yogi's Gang 1973-75
Superfriends 1973-86
The New Fantastic Four 1978-79
The Smurfs 1981-90
Pac-Man 1982-84
The Jetsons 1985
Funtastic World of Hanna Barbera 1985
Foofur 1986
Pound Puppies 1986
The Flintstone Kids 1986-90
Wildfire 1986
Snorks 1987
Sky Commanders 1987
Popeye and Son 1987

Warner Bros

The original Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, as well as all of Warner Bros.' short subject
production divisions, closed in 1969 due to the rising costs and declining returns of short
subject production. Outside animation, companies were hired to produce new Looney
Tunes-related animation for TV specials and
commercials at irregular intervals. In 1976, Warner
Bros. Cartoon alumnus Chuck Jones began producing
a series of Looney Tunes specials at his Chuck Jones
Productions animation studio, the first of which was
Carnival of the Animals.

Beginning in 1986, Warner Bros moved into regular

television animation production. WB Animation
President Jean MacCurdy, who brought in producer
Tom Ruegger and much of his staff from Hanna-Barbera Productions A Pup Named Scooby-
Doo series (19881991), established warners television division. A studio for the television
unit was set up in the office tower of the Imperial Bank Building adjacent to the Sherman
Oaks Galleria northwest of Los Angeles. Darrell Van Citters, who used to work at Disney,
would work on the newer Bugs Bunny shorts, before leaving to form Renegade Animation in
1992.

In 1991, Warner Bros distributed its first animated film, Rover Dangerfield. Its title character
is a dog whose look and mannerisms are inspired by his voice actor Rodney Dangerfield. The
film received mixed reviews and under-performed at the box office due to lack of promotion.
Three years later, Warner distributed Don Bluth's Thumbelina, which also received mixed
reviews from critics and under-performed at the box office.

Norman Mclaren

In 1968, Norman Mclaren was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and promoted to
Companion in 1973. In the year 1977, Mclaren received an honorary doctorate from
Concordia University. Furthermore, in 1982 he was the first Anglophone to receive the Prix
Albert-Tessier, given to persons for an outstanding career in Qubec cinema.

In 1986, Mclaren received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Festival of Animated
Film - Anima fest Zagreb.

In 2009, McLaren's works were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme, listing
the most significant documentary heritage collections in the world, joining such works as the
Gutenberg Bible and The Wizard of Oz.

Len Lye

Lye became convinced that motion could be part of the language of art, leading him to early
(and now lost) experiments with kinetic sculpture, as well as a desire to make film. Lye was
also one of the first Pkeh artists to appreciate the art of Mori, Australian Aboriginal,
Pacific Island and African cultures, and this had great influence on his work. In the early
1920s Lye travelled widely in the South Pacific. Working his way as a coal trimmer aboard a
steam ship, Lye moved to London in 1926. There he joined the Seven and Five Society,
exhibited in the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition and began to make experimental
films. Following his first animated film Tusalava, Lye began to make films in association with
the British General Post Office, for the GPO Film Unit. Lye also worked for the GPO Film
Unit's successor, the Crown Film Unit producing wartime information films, such as Musical
Poster Number One. Because of this work, Lye was later offered work for The March of Time
newsreel in New York.

Contemporary work

Monty Python

Monty Python was born in May 1969, at the Light of Kashmir

tandoori restaurant in Hampstead; where five Brits (Graham
Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael
Palin) and an American (animator Terry Gilliam) first sat down
to discuss working together on a new BBC comedy series.
Furthermore, Since 1966, five of the Pythons-to-be had all been writing and performing in
numerous eclectic comedy shows, including The Frost Report, At Last the 1948 Show and
Do Not Adjust Your Set the last of which featured Gilliams highly-original cut-out
animations, which would become integral to Monty Pythons unique style.

The 2000s was the era of Python humour returning to the stage, with the 2005 Broadway
premiere of Spamalot. Written by Eric Idle and John Du Prez, this smashhit retooling of
Holy Grail won the Tony Award for Best Musical, and was quickly followed by the "Brian"-
derived comic oratorio, Not The Messiah, memorably presented at the Royal Albert Hall in a
40th-anniversary staging that featured many of the other Pythons.

Yellow Submarine

The Beatles were not enthusiastic about participating in a new motion

picture, the yellow submarine having been dissatisfied with their second
feature film, Help! that was created in (1965) and was directed by Richard
Lester. They saw an animated film as a favourable way to complete their
commitment to United Artists for a third film, however. Ultimately, because
of the band members' relatively small roles and the fact it was animated,
United Artists still considered them to owe another film; Let It Be would be
the third film to complete their contract with the studio.

A Scanner Darkly

A Scanner Darkly is a 2006 American animated science-fiction thriller film directed by

Richard Linklater, based on the novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick.

Originally, Richard Linklater toyed with adapting the Philip K. Dick novel Ubik but stopped
early on because he was unable to obtain the rights and he "couldn't quite
crack it". He began thinking about A Scanner Darkly, another dark novel
while talking to producer Tommy Pallotta during the making of Waking
Life. Linklater liked A Scanner Darkly more than Ubik and felt that he could
make a film out of it. According to Linklater, the challenge was to capture
"the humour and exuberance of the book but not let go of the sad and
tragic". Linklater was not interested in turning the book into a big-budget
action thriller as had been done in the past because he felt that A Scanner
Darkly was "about these guys and what they're all doing in their alternative world and
what's going through their minds is really what keeps the story moving". He wanted to keep
the budget under $10 million so that he could have more creative control, remain faithful to
the book, and make it an animated film.

Persepolis
Persepolis is a 2007 French animated biographical film based on Marjane Satrapi's
autobiographical graphic novel of the same name. The film was written and directed by
Satrapi with Vincent Paronnaud.

The animation team worked alongside Satrapi to gain a detailed understanding of the types
of graphic images she deemed necessary for accuracy. Following her guidelines, the
animators, such as interviewee Marc Jousset, commented on their use of "tradition
animation techniques" as requested by Satrapi to keep the drawings simple and avoid the
"more high-tech techniques" that "would look dated". Moreover, the film was directed by
Christian Desmares, the film was produced by a total of twenty animators.
Initially opposed to producing an animated movie due to the high level of
difficulty, producers Marc-Antoine Robert and Xavier Regault gave
protagonist, Marjane Satrapi, alternative options of film production to avoid
animation.

Genres and forms

Cinema

Cinemas use stop motion in different films. A good example of stop motion in the cinema is
the film fantastic Mr fox which is based on the novel. This film was
created in a stop motion platform and was published into the
cinemas and watched by millions.
Are ones in which individual drawings, paintings, or illustrations are
photographed frame by frame (stop-frame cinematography).
Usually, each frame differs slightly from the one preceding it, giving
the illusion of movement when frames are projected in rapid
succession at 24 frames per second. The earliest cinema animation was composed of frame-
by-frame, hand-drawn images. When combined with movement, the illustrator's two-
dimensional static art came alive and created pure and imaginative cinematic images -
animals and other inanimate objects could become evil villains or heroes.

Advertising

Most advertisements are created by stop motion animations as its a cheaper option filming
the advert instead of funding a lot of money for animation CGI etc.
CGI is used in many modern types of advertising as it requires a lot of attention but this type
of advertisement gets the best praise from the audience as they add a new level of detail
within the advert. An example of this animation technique is with the latest John Lewis
advert which consisted of animals and a trampoline as all the forest creatures and certain
areas of the dog were animated so the producers could get across their idea in a full advert
form.
 Childrens Television

Not many stop motion programmes are on the television in

our new generation, however, introductions to
programmes are common. Most of the stop motion
technique are on introductions to comedy TV shows such
as inbetweeners etc.
However, animation is involved in certain aspects of
television. For example if a person has a sky box or Virgin
media box which allows the user to have a wider selection
of channels and uses on the television use animation. It uses animation as the user uses a
remote to create the animations on the TV screen by recording programs they missed as an
animation of a record icon appears on the program the user would like to record.

Music videos

Its a rarity for music videos to use the stop motion animation technique but the common
music video created in this way was called sledgehammer
and the music video to the song was created by Aardman
studio.

An example of a music video with animation involved.

Radiohead, Burn the Witch Remember that classic
Claymation Christmas movie, Rudolph, the Red-Nosed
Reindeer? What about The Year Without a Santa Clause? They both look eerily similar to a
video for Radioheads new single, Burn the Witch, off this years highly anticipated album,
A Moon Shaped Pool. But trust us, it isn't no holiday special. The song references an archaic
nursery rhyme about baking birds into a pie and evokes imagery of a good old fashioned
witch-hunt. The video, however, takes direct inspiration from The Wicker Man. No, not the
terrible remake with Nicolas Cage, but the 1972 cult horror original in which a police
sergeant goes searching for a missing girl and stumbles across a bunch of fire-loving pagans.

Computer games

Most computer games in the common day dont tend to use the stop motion technique due
to a higher ability to create the games with CGI. Old fashion games on the other hand use
the stop motion technique for example the old Donkey Kong game used the stop motion as
frame by frame pixels made the character look like its moving. If the game is third person,
and the player rotates the camera around theyll see the walk or run cycle from a completely
new angle.

This new angle can revealing things like knee pops that may not have been visible in the
normal camera view. These are things that a game animator needs to take into account to
ensure their animation holds up to whatever the player may throw at it. Unlike animation in
a movie where the animator doesnt need to worry about how it will look from a side view
or from behind, creating animations for games need to look good from any angle. For
instance, when implementing the principle of arcs into an
animation, the animator needs to ensure the character is
following nice smooth arcing motions from any camera angle.

Mobile phones

The mobile phone has many different animation techniques such as when you unlock your
phone and all the animation zoom onto the screen of the phone that is one animation.
Being able to play games on the phone such as apps these are also animations as animation
is used to show the games etc.

The movements with the phone can translate to animation as it requires pixels
to move within the image to give the impression that the specific images is
moving. Furthermore, for this to be added in a mobile device is in certain
aspects such as the lock screen on an iPhone where you have to swipe the lock
to open the device. This specific interaction turns the phone into an animation
for the user to transfer from the lock screen to the main phone.

There are many more uses of animations within a phone from

the transitions from apps to the main-screen etc, to the apps
themselves which are classed as animations such as the app
games.

Websites

Websites have many different animations but one of the animations is animated banner
these are commonly found on the top of websites and these demonstrate what a website is
selling.

Animation happens when something created in still or two-dimensional form is brought to

life and appears to move in a way that follows laws of physics. Its the way a cartoon
character walks across the screen or how an app icon bounces like a ball while it is loading
on the desktop of your Mac. One of the words that is almost synonymous with animation is
Disney. In the early 1980s, two of the companies top animators wrote a book detailing the
12 principles of animation. The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Frank Thomas and
Ollie Johnston still provides the framework for animation today.