Storyboardings

Take from this what you will.

The derpiest walk cycle ever... EVER.

Walk Cycle Evaluation

This is a very short flash animation of a walk cycle featuring my animation's protagonist, an onion.

Unfortunately I was having issues with settings in flash and colouring the circle in was proving incredibly difficult so the rendering is very choppy and not to my liking. Also as this was a mandatory part of the brief which is the only reason for its creation as there's no place in my actual animation for a proper walk cycle. 

This flash was primarily made as a learning experience and that taken into account I think it works well.  It helped teach me the basics of flash, such as how to tween objects to make them move smoothly between frames and how to alter and implement sounds. From here on I can build on these newly found skills for my actual animation. 

I feel all in all that this walk cycle is a bit of a fail, but this is mainly because as there's no need in my actual animation for a scene like this. This fact massively effected the way it ended up, if this wasn't the case then I would've felt more obliged to polish it until it was completely perfect.

Unfortunately I also experimented with tween before finalising the flash and it doesn't completely work as I would've wanted to, but I put this down to inexperience with the application and this should fade with time. I also feel that whilst exporting the flash video it became slightly choppy which I couldn't have really had any effect on.

These are some of the comments I've had on the video to date. They basically reinforce what I already thought so that's some more encouragement to sort out the issues.

[B]Teh History of Animation[/B]

A Brief Look-back at Animation

Animation has come a long way in its history. We're at a stage where animation has become entirely seamless, obscenely high-def and so widely accepted that a large percentage of current high-budget movies and television programming falls into the category of animation - however it wasn't always like this. You only have to look back 22 years to see the first feature film made entirely from animated material.


There have been many milestones on this journey to the media mainstream though:


Oldest Remaining Animated Feature Film - 1926

Though it's by no means the earliest animated feature film, The Adventure of Prince Achmed, by Lotte Reiniger, is the oldest known remaining animated feature film.

As we're now in a visually spoiling age in the world of animation anyone would be forgiven for looking at images from this film and judging them to be graphically awful, but you have to take into consideration that it came from an age where the field of animation was completely bare and the concept of it all was entirely new.


The method of animation used is called silhouette animation, invented by Reiniger herself, where cardboard cutouts were manipulated and subject to frame by frame animation. This method would've been very time-intensive and luckily modern methods have advanced and improved since then, allowing for more aesthetically pleasing and easier to produce media.



First Feature Filmed in Three-Strip Technicolour - 1937 

It should come by no surprise that Walt Disney, probably the most well known name in animation, attained a fair number of firsts in animation. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was incredible for its time and was the first animated feature filmed in three-strip technicolour.

In just 11 short years it's amazing to see how far the field had come and as a result, The Adventure of Prince Achmed to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are incomparable, possibly due to the sheer man-power required to make Snow White.  A method called rotoscoping was employed for the film, in which footage is painstakingly traced, frame by frame, to make sure that each frame is consistent with the last. In total, during the making of Snow White 166352 hand-painted cels were exposed to the camera at a rate of 1960 per day. Once again though, luckily technology has advanced past the need for individual frames. 

Despite being so old however, the story of Snow White has more than stood up to the test of time and still stands comfortably in many top 50 films lists, and by doing so securing itself a Bluray rerelease in late 2009.


First Feature Film Using Xerography Process - 1961

Disney later followed on from Snow White, Fantasia and Lady and the Tramp, all of which were firsts in the field of animation, and produced the first feature film using the xerography process. 101 Dalmatians used this process primarily to cut prices after the flop of a Sleeping Beauty, which was incredibly expensive.

The animators were aided in production by the use of modified Xerox camera. They used this to transfer the animators sketches directly to the animation cels. By using xerography it became a lot easier to reproduce each frame, but at the price of not being able to deviate form a scratchy outlined style.

One of the huge difficulties that came with animating the dogs was the spots on each individual dog and keeping up continuity between frames. In total, the film contained 6,469,952 spots, all individually drawn. The animators would place one 'anchor spot' on each dog and placed the remaining spots in relation to that. A daunting task considering the parent dalmatians had 72 and 68 spots respectively, and each puppy had 32.


Fully Computer-Animated Feature Film - 1995

With the release of Toy Story in 1995 the very logical milestone of fully computer animated film was met. Apart from the previous accolade, Toy Story will also be known as the film made that started the Disney/Pixar collaboration, one that to this day stands and puts out many great animated movies.

With the development of computer generated graphics there was a huge amount of potential for what could be done in terms of aesthetically pleasing characters and backdrops. As the graphics increased, so did the difficulty and complexity of the animation. Each character was initially made out of either clay or modelled from a computer-drawn diagram before becoming their final computer animated state. Every character was then coded to allow them to talk, walk and jump. Woody alone required 723 motion controls, including 212 for his face and 58 for his mouth.

Director John Lasseter spoke about the challenges and expectations of the first fully computer animated film: "We had to make things look more organic. Every leaf and blade of grass had to be created. We had to give the world a sense of history. So the doors are banged up, the floors have scuffs." It's easy to see where this intense dedication to detail got them, Toy Story is now a modern classic and a major franchise.

The field of animated media is ever growing. With every passing year the amazing graphics and attention to detail where character design and scenes are concerned become increasingly amazing. I remember when Monsters Inc had just released in the cinema and how incredible I found the fact that each of Sully's hairs moved independently. Monsters Inc is now 11 years old and films have been getting ever more beautiful with every passing year. I eagerly await the future and the next important milestone for animation.

[B]Research into Methods of Animation[/B]

There are 4 main techniques used in animation, these are:

Drawn animation
This is the technique in which each individual frame is drawn by hand and each frame replaces its predecessor to create a seamless sequence. This method is used in various different ways and to have different effects.

Flick books are comprised of a series of pages each with the same picture as the last yet slightly altered so that when the pages are quickly flicked through it gives the illusion that you're watching an animation as apposed to lots of pictures one after the other. It's a fairly primitive method of animation and very time consuming, though if done properly it is still incredibly impressive

Rotoscoping is a method in which the animation is acted out and filmed first before projecting it through a light box and tracing over it, capturing each frame. This method is good for making sure that each frame is accurately drawn and as a result looks incredibly lifelike.

The main drawbacks of the hand drawn animation techniques are the time that needs to be invested in them. As you have to painstakingly draw each individual frame and make sure that it follows on correctly from the previous it would take you considerably longer than if you were to computer generate them. With the increased cost of time comes the more literal cost of money also as in order to create good scenes, frame by frame, you need a large team of artists working for a very large amount of time. This can be seen easily if you compare the price of each respective movie. A reported $45million was spent on The Lion King as apposed to Toy Story's reported budget of $30million.


Cut out animation

Cut out animation refers to any form of animation where shapes have been cut-out and moved around or replaced by other cut-outs. These animations are considered to be the easiest form of animation and as a result the earliest known examples of animation are using this technique. There are drawbacks, however, as it does become difficult to move multiple objects at the same time whilst still maintaining fluidity. Modern examples of cut out animation are shows such as South Park, where initial episodes used the traditional cut out animation method and new episodes use computers alongside scanned in objects to simulate a cut out animation.

Stop-motion animation

Stop-motion animation is the technique in which 3D models are created, be it out of plasticine or clay etc., placed in a scene, and moved slightly for every scene, similarly to cut out animation, to simulate fluid movement. The advantages of this method of animation is that the models hold their shape so keeping track of what the exact pose of a previous frame was can be easily done. Due to the requirements of the models (having to be moved thousands of times), it's easy to reuse individual models time after time which once again helps with continuity in that the model will remain the same throughout not only the movie but also any resulting sequels as long as the model is well taken care of. With the advantages, however, do come certain problems. As each individual scene needs to be set up and characters have to be moved on a frame to frame basis there needs to be a large time investment in any stop-motion animation. Also, if models are lost or damaged you run the risk of not being able to fully replicate your previous model and gaining possible inconsistencies as a result. Examples of well known stop-motion animations include anything done by Aardman animations - the people behind Wallace and Gromit, and Creature Comforts.

Computer Generated Imagery

CGI animation is the newest of the 4 categories and on the whole is the general technique of choice for animators. Computer generated imagery refers to creating and rendering 3D models and sets on the computer. Through the convenience of the computer you can also scan in images of scenery as well as 3D models for rendering on the computer at a later point. With the price of powerful computers becoming ever cheaper CGI is becoming an easier and easier method to use to create an animation. Through this method there's no need to create thousands of individual stills, be it by drawing them or taking shots of models, you can create and move a model of a character with just the click of a mouse to accommodate for any sequence at a possible fraction of the cost. If you imagine these examples of what can be done with CGI as a benchmark then there is also a top end for this method, which I would consider the extensive use of green-screens and similar technology. It's amazing to think of what can be done through computers and how quickly the techniques are advancing. If you consider the differences between films that prided themselves on their use of computer generated imagery just 15 years ago to their current day counterparts the difference is incredible. With all these pros there are also a few cons. Mainly being that to remain at the cutting edge of technology and produce the most spectacular looking films you have to be willing to invest a huge amount of money. Examples of this required cost include Spiderman 3 at $258million and Avatar at a similar $250million

Above - Antz(1998)
Right - Monsters University(2013)