03-09-2008, 09:18 AM
Hand-drawn animation is very different from a still pen-and-ink drawing. If you have trouble with rigid, step-by-step instructions, the art may simply be beyond you. At film rate, one minute of animation requires 1440 frames; at NTSC teevee rate, 1800. There is just no way to create thousands of similar drawings without adopting a mass production, assembly line approach.
The keyword here is "similar". If the animation is to look smooth, each drawing may vary from the one on either side by only a very small amount. Any part of the scene that is not intended to move must be drawn in exactly the same place in each frame. Otherwise, it will appear to jiggle.
Serious animation is rarely done by one person, no more than a car is usually built by a fellow in his garage. Look at the credits for any animated film; you will often see that hundreds of people are involved, just as animators. There will be storyboarders, background artists, and a slew of people who draw characters. These will usually be split into pencil sketchers and inkers. Pencillers will be further divided between keyframe artists and "tweeners". The latter draw frames in between the keyframes and work very quickly indeed. Add to this a small army of photographers and many of the same workers as any film -- grips, photographers, sound editors, hierarchies of directors and producers.
Some great animation *is* done by single artists; they work long, hard, and fast. They may or may not develop formal systems -- after all, they don't have to explain their methods to anyone else -- but they do adopt mass production techniques of some sort. They must.
I've dabbled in animation and even using the computer, it is arduous work. Before I attempt an animation, I ask myself: Is this necessary? If there is any way to avoid animating a work, I'll keep it still.
The keyword here is "similar". If the animation is to look smooth, each drawing may vary from the one on either side by only a very small amount. Any part of the scene that is not intended to move must be drawn in exactly the same place in each frame. Otherwise, it will appear to jiggle.
Serious animation is rarely done by one person, no more than a car is usually built by a fellow in his garage. Look at the credits for any animated film; you will often see that hundreds of people are involved, just as animators. There will be storyboarders, background artists, and a slew of people who draw characters. These will usually be split into pencil sketchers and inkers. Pencillers will be further divided between keyframe artists and "tweeners". The latter draw frames in between the keyframes and work very quickly indeed. Add to this a small army of photographers and many of the same workers as any film -- grips, photographers, sound editors, hierarchies of directors and producers.
Some great animation *is* done by single artists; they work long, hard, and fast. They may or may not develop formal systems -- after all, they don't have to explain their methods to anyone else -- but they do adopt mass production techniques of some sort. They must.
I've dabbled in animation and even using the computer, it is arduous work. Before I attempt an animation, I ask myself: Is this necessary? If there is any way to avoid animating a work, I'll keep it still.