Pencil animation

[Yodimus]

Actually, having low tech drawing experience is infinitely helpful for computer animation. One of the biggest follies people make is assuming that you don't have to be good at drawing in order to do 3d. While the opposite may be true, it doesn't work both ways i'm afraid.

[resurepus]

Actually, having low tech drawing experience is infinitely helpful for computer animation. One of the biggest follies people make is assuming that you don't have to be good at drawing in order to do 3d. While the opposite may be true, it doesn't work both ways i'm afraid.
I understand that, but I am looking specificly for the info on the low-tech drawing. Thank you.

[SkullboX]

To get started, you also need a scanner, a 2D program such as photoshop, an editing program and something to keep the sheets of paper exactly aligned (a peg-bar is usually used). Just make a sequence of images, scan them in, edit them if you want (digitally inking and colouring) then import them as sequence into the editing program. When starting out though, I suggest you stick to pencil animation and just import the scanned images directly into the editing program, to get the grasp of 2D animation. Work on 12 or 8 images per second, when using 24 fps for display.

The best way to learn 2D animation is experimenting with the medium yourself. Watching animated films is of course always a good thing, and if you're serious about animation I recommend buying the book 'The Animator's Survival Kit', which is a great book on animation techniques, mainly oriented at traditional 2D animation.

I'm personally a 3D animator, but I've done some 2D in the past with those means and it's been an incredibly fun and helpful experience, though I probably won't ever do 2D animation again.

[resurepus]

Skullbox, thank you for the information. It is very helpful. I tried drawing without anything too keep my sheets aligned. Actually I used the same sheet for several drawings and it was pretty hard to make my character move smoothly as you can imagine :)

I made a quick search on amazon.com and only found this book: The Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles, and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion, and Internet Animators (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0571202284/qid=1100783062/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/103-7247969-5593462?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by Richard Williams
Is it what you were talking about?

And one other thing. English is not my native language an I am not familiar with the term peg-bar. Could you tell me more about this device or even better give a link to the website where I can buy it. Thank you.

[SkullboX]

That's indeed the book I was talking about.

A peg bar is basically a (usually plastic) strip with three extensions to keep the paper in place. You'd need something to punch holes in your paper though, and I think those devices are pretty expensive, and much harder to get by.

http://www.prorattafactor.com/lessons/pegbar.jpg

[resurepus]

sorry for my ignorance and thank you for the hink. I have come across http://www.cartoonsupplies.com and now I think I have an idea what kind of tools are used in the process.

[westmeadow]

Hiya resurepus,
I've recently decided to look into pencil drawn animation to help me better understand the principles! I myself have the excellent book skullbox recommended (I also recommend it myself) and a book called Character Animation in 3D (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0240516656/qid=1101068245/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/002-7649870-1314424) by Steve Roberts. I know it says "In 3D" but it teaches you about traditional animation before applying it into 3D. I haven't got very far into it, but what i have read so far is promising!

Can I also recommend you visit:http://characteranimationin3d.com/
Especially: http://characteranimationin3d.com/2D%20animation%20info.htm

I don't mean to hijack the thread, I hope this will help resurepus aswell, but i think this is a good time to show off what i made!! http://cgtalk.com/images/smilies/smile.gif
I made this light box to help me learn 2d animation, wasn't too difficult!


I have the light box (with student peg bar for normal hole punched paper), the blue col-erase pencils and itchy fingers!! All i need to know now, how am i'm going to get my doodles into my pc?? I could set up my digi cam on a tripod, take a photo of all the frames, but what software would you use to make them move? http://cgtalk.com/images/smilies/shrug.gif

good luck with the animating buddy!!

Assie

[resurepus]

assie, I'll allow myself to quote Kaiskai who made some nice reviews of animation programs in another thread on this website:


www.animo.com (http://www.animo.com/) Cambridge Animation Systems package, one of the top in the industry very widely used. Module based this one has the abilities to work with 3D packages like maya and also output swf files. Its fully capable of feature quality production.

www.toonboom.com (http://www.toonboom.com/) This is the package I am most familiar with, being a moderator for their websoftware toonboom studio, and using USanimation for my film and such. This ones a little different than most other packages since the anmation is Purely vector, meaning everything you scan in will be converted to vector, but it also supports bringing in raster images for backgrounds andoverlays, that scanning will have to be done in a program like photoshop. Module based as well, with the best out of swf out of the highend packages because of its vector drawings, the sizes are much smaller and equal to the highqualityoutput except for things like tone a blur which cannot be done in flash. This is definitely one of the top and has been used on a few features as well.

www.mediapegs.com (http://www.mediapegs.com/) THey now have a lighter version I would checkout called ipegs, seems to do a lot for a lot less, though only outputting to flash. the highend package is widely used in Europe excluding the UK. This one is more pixelbased like CAS, but both have the ability to work in vector aswel though not as wel refined in that area as USanimation and requires a seperate module for that ability. as mentioned this one is also module based.

www.softimage.com (http://www.softimage.com/) Thats right Avid's softimage is even in the market, not talking about XSI, but rather Toonz which I might add is actually liscnced by softimage not directly developed by them but rather a company called Digital Video. Toonz is there classical animatin package, very flexible and module based like the other highend packages, one advantage is the amazing support with softimage 3D packages for 3D integration. If you want to do things like treasure planet this and XSI would make a lethal combo. Another special feature is the availability of a 2D particle generator module, this one seems to be a great one to checkout.

www.retas.com (http://www.retas.com/) If your going to work in anime whether in Japan or Korea, or almost any carton on Fox's Kids WB, then this is the package, very widely used over seas in japan, this one has quickly become known as the anime painter. Module based as well, this is capable of feature quality as can be seen in Princess mononoke which used this as its main package, Studio Ghible has since changed to Toonz and XSI because of their increasing 3D integration, but Retas also has some nice 3D compatibility with Studio max, using camera information and such. This one is 100% pixel, no vectors whatsoever, meaning you must work at the highest resolutions you know you will need.

www.animationstand.com (http://www.animationstand.com/) This ones well over 13 years old now and comes in two version basically for the tenth of the price of their best package, you lose the feature resolutions, but still capable of TV resolutions. This is one of the more midend packages, used a bit in TV and one of the few thats all in one rather than seperate modules. I don't know a lot of the overall features for this one like whether its vector or pixel.

www.cratersoftware.com (http://www.cratersoftware.com/) CTP is growing popular nowadays, only capable of HDTV output this midend package is still module based a plus in my books this one supports the most formats that I know of, and can output flash and is pixelbased.

www.digicel.com (http://www.digicel.com/) This one has many different level packages available, capaple of telivision output and on the higher packages flash output as well. Only the top package include painting and colour capabilities, but it isn't widely used for that. The main strength of this one is simple clean and easy to edit, which is why this one is probably the most used linetesting package out there, the line test version are all quite cheap and basically change in how many layers they support. Pixel based and capable of using either scanner or camera to capture all in one app, you can line test in mere second and control your lipsyncing right in the app. Also this one has a storyboard feature optimised for better handling of filming animatics of your storyboard. While many of the higend have some type of linetesting module, this one is flast clean and simple, the last two releases have ben quite stable as well, definitely a small cheapone to get for linetesting you won't be sorry. Its production features are somewhat of a joke though.



FLASH PRODUCTION

Well flash is growing ever popular, and now we are even seeing cartoons animated for telivision in macromedias flash software. Here are a few programs aimed more for web, though a few like Flash itself, can actually be used for telivision quality production, but while being vector makes the resolution independent, I wopuld never try these on feature films YET.

www.macromedia.com (http://www.macromedia.com/) Flash is very well known as are its featurs so no in depth here, probably the most flexible all round, thuogh as an animator, its the most disorganised as its designed for interactive content with scripting, its acutally not designed for classical animation, thats just a bonus ability.

www.toonboom.com (http://www.toonboom.com/) toonboom studio V2 is toonbooms lowend web software. not to be confused with USanimation they share very litle in comon outside of the 3D camera which is definitely toonboom studio's advantage in the market, having a rewal 3D camera built in, multiplane compex camera shots are easily done for web animations. Its drawing tools are quite nice, and the ap was definitely developed along with some classical animators, having lighttable options, an actualy animation disc you can rotate in the application so your not trying to turn that large tablet around. This has no support for scripting and use of symbols is very different and somewhat clunky, most toonboom studio users do not use this alone but along with Flash.

www.lostmarble.com (http://www.lostmarble.com/) MOHO is gaining fast popularity, having some really uniques features such a a particle generator and get this, IK bone animation system for 2D vector images. Now thats original. THis is not aimed at classical animators but more for those 3D guys wanting to do 2D flash IMO. This one isn't really my cup of tea, but I'm keeping an eye on it.

http://www.creaturehouse.com/lcels.htm Creature house has one of the simplest and coolest vector illustration programs, I like it more than Illustrator myself, though its not designed for also doing page layouts and such. NOw they are working on Living Cels, not available yet, but taking advantage of their awesome vector tools and stroke effcts and such, this is one tool to keep an eye one. Already Expresssion 3 has swf output and some basic scripting abilities for buttons and such. Hopefully they release their own output format for animation as well that takes advantage of their strokes and realtime reflection map embossing. Both packages I recommend you keep an eye out for. Its still tryingto get the word out there, but IMO these guys are making something big and revolutionary.


DRAWING ANIMATION

Well in some apps you can actualy draw, though a serious animtor still uses his paper and pencils then scans in,now it seems one company is trying to change that. http://plasticanimationpaper.dk/ has designed a software, NOT for painting, it has no paint features whatsoever, this is strictly designed for DRAWING animatin and CLEANING it up. not vector, the program is failry simple to use, works strictly with a tablet unless you get there freeware which comes with both a tablet version and a mouse version, you cannot use both mouse and tablet in one version though. must be in one or the other. it has some cool features, I'l watch its progress, but for now, I"m sticking to pencil and paper

[westmeadow]

thanks for that resurepus.... guess if i had searched harder i would of found that thread!! the book i mentioned has a demo copy of digicel, but with a huge watermark over your work. just weighing up the options!! cheers again http://cgtalk.com/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif

Assie

[peppy]

That's indeed the book I was talking about.

A peg bar is basically a (usually plastic) strip with three extensions to keep the paper in place. You'd need something to punch holes in your paper though, and I think those devices are pretty expensive, and much harder to get by.
Yes peg-bars can be hard to find but if you are talented at crafting then you can easily make your own, I am about to start animation soon because a freind a of mine wants to make his own little series useing 3 characters wichi i havent had time to finish yet:


http://server3.uploadit.org/files/octheworld-group.jpg

And for the lamp thing you can make that to, i suggest that the window you use for the light to go though is made out of either polycarbonate plastic or plexiglass dont use actually glass becasue it breaks easy and heats fast.

if you need dimentions etc... i can probably take the time and give you exact statistics for it and what you will need and were you can get those parts. sometimes it comes out cheaper or has a better quality.

best luck with the animation! if you learn any new tricks or somthing please gimmy some pointers I would appreciate it! :D

Edit:

Oh and i suggest a scanner for getting the drawings onto computer not a webcam, the scanner is more accurate, mine goes up to 1200 dpi and the image quality is GREAT! just a suggestion, at that size you can work on 1 frame for weeks :P

and if you are useing a wacom tablet an interesting way of doing amination is makeing layers in photoshop, do 1 layer then change the cool to light gray or any other color then make a layer over it... once you are done with the pervious layer just save it and when there all done put them all together.

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