Animation Faqs

Now that I’ve written about the steps involved in making a 2D animation film lets look at what processes are involved in making a 3D animation film.

Well the initial steps are same as that of a 2D film namely – Story/Concept, Scripting, Character and Environment Design, Storyboarding, Voice Recording and Animatics.

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Well the animatics could itself be done in 3D using dummies (read: low polygon models). So lets take it from there.

7) Digital Storyboard or 3D Animatics – using a 3D software like 3D Studio Max, Maya, Houdini, SoftImage etc. a low polygon model of each character and the set/environment is made. Now with the digital sets erected the low polygon characters are placed in the shot and the digital camera is added asper the camera angle in the storyboard. Once this procedure is done for all the shots a rough render is made and the entire film is seen through this Animatics just to check if there are any timing issues and other glitches.

8 ) Modeling – Once the Animatics are approved the 3D modelers take the character, prop and environment designs from the Design department and begin digitally modeling them.

CG Model with Texture

9) Texturing – When the modeling is completed its time for the texture artists to paint the relevant textures on to the models.

10) Rigging – Simultaneously the models are given to the Riggers who add the bones and various controls on to the models and it is these controls that enable the animators to animate the models accordingly. Most of the times its the riggers job to help simplify life for an animator.

11) Layout – The Characters are now placed within the environments along with the cameras. This laid out scene is given to Animators and also Lighting artists.

12) Animation – It can be further subdivided into Character Animation and Technical Animation. The Character animators get the Rigs to animate and they animate the gestures and also lip-sync the prerecorded dialogues. Now the job of technical animators is to animate through programing or use existing scripts and tools to modify attributes of objects to get the desired motion. Technical animation includes the secondary motion of the character hair, the motion of clothes on the character, just in case the clothes are not bodyfit; it also includes Particle effects – like dust, fireworks etc., Fluid effects like water simulation and explosions etc. etc.

Water simulation and underwater lighting used in Finding Nemo

13) Lighting and Shading – The lighting artists get the scene setup with the character and the background. They play with the various lights and settings so that each scene is lit according to the specified mood. Lighting artists at times also make Shaders for various objects and how each object behaves with respect to light, so that metal looks like metal, plastic looks like plastic and so on.

14) Rendering – Once the shots are lit they are sent to be rendered. Rendering is basically converting the 3D data to 2D flat images which is what will be visible to the audience on the screen. The rendering is done in passes (similar to the idea of having different characters on different Cels during Traditional Animation), and later all the ‘layers’ thus obtained are digitally composited together, and color corrected if necessary to give the final output.

15) Background Score – The film is now sent for background score.

Now, there you have a 3D animation film !!! Have Fun !!!

Lets look at the steps involved in making a 2D animation film

1. The Concept / Story – The basic idea of the film and the whole story. The strength of the film is its foundation and in this case its the story. If the story is weak then no amount of jazz is going to work for the film. You got to have a strong story to tell, something worth the effort of animating, cuz animation needs a lot of patience and if you simply love the story then it will always keep you motivated to animate.
2. Scripting – Once the story is locked on its time for the script i.e. the dialogs and interaction of the characters. The cuts and the various scenes in the film. Its the second most important part of the film. If the film has a great story, a sagging script can kill the whole film so its very important to script the story well.
3. Basic Character and Environment Designing – Based on the script and the description of the characters and the environments, designers come up with rough sketches of them and once approved they move on to finalize the designs.
4. Storyboarding – Now that the characters and environments are designed the film is put into a rough pictorial form; it’s like the entire film in the form of a comic strip. This process is called Storyboarding. Storyboards decide the camera angles, the cuts and the general flow of the film. It is the first look at the film in the visual form and it is here that all the plot and script restructuring happens, cuz its here that you realize whether a plot or a joke is working or not. It is a very rigorous process and should be actually called Sto-Reboarding because only when the storyboard is locked on can other processes start. Trust me you wouldn’t want to figure out at the animation stage that a given scene is working or not.



5. Voice Recording – Once the storyboard is finalized all the voice-over artists record the dialogues for the various characters in the film.
6. Animatics – Now the storyboard is put on a timeline with the recorded voice overs and timings and cuts of the animations are further tweaked.
7. Designing – Once the animatic is approved the character designs from step 3 are taken and final character sheets are developed for each character, with various gestures, facial expressions and lip sync phonemes. The final design of the environments is also done and the mood and the color of the scene is also decided.
8. Layout – When the designs get approved by the director the next step is layouting which is similar to the blocking of shots done for live-action films. It is here that the background layout artists determine the camera angles, camera paths, lighting, and shading of the scene. Now its the job of the Character layout artist to make the basic key poses of the characters in each shot.
9. Animation - Once the layout is done it is time for the animators to work their magic. There are basically 2-3 tiers of animators as far as 2D animation is concerned; we have the lead animators, the in-between animators and the clean-up artists. (In smaller productions the in-between and the clean-up artists are the same) Now, what the lead animators do is, based on the layout given they make the final key poses of the characters keeping the timing in mind. Key poses and their Timings are very important because they have to follow the basic principles of animation which we shall see at a later stage. Once the key poses are done its time for the 2nd tier animators to draw the in-between frames and then its the job of clean-up artists to do… you guessed it.. Clean-up
10. Background – While the animation is being done the background artists paint the background scenes over which the animation is going to take place.
11. Ink and Paint – Once the animation is complete and the backgrounds have been painted the next process is to transfer the drawings on to film. But before that the drawings have to be transferred or inked onto thin clear plastic cellulose nitrate sheets called Cels. Once the outlines are inked onto the cels special paints are used to add richness and color. Each character is inked onto a different cell. Now all these cells are adjusted one on top of the other in a proper order so that everything is properly visible its time for the camera to take the photograph and thus transfer the frame to film. Well traditionally special Animation Cameras were used also called as Rostrum cameras, but with the advent of computers the drawings began to get scanned and the colors were put in digitally, thus replacing the traditional Cels with Digital Ink and Paint. Disney was the first to use the Digital ink and paint technique with the CAPS (Computer Animation Production System) technology (primarily developed by Pixar).
12. Background Score – The film is now ready except for one very important thing…. sound. Now the mute film is sent to the Sound Department for adding the background music and other ambient sounds and also the prerecorded voice-overs.

Animation Camera. Photo by J-E Nyström. 1999.

There you go, your 2D animation film is ready !!!

There are different types of Stop-motion animation

1. Clay animation – Clay models are used as objects to be animated. A light aluminum wire and thermocole armature/skeleton is first made upon which the colored clay is coated. Some models also have miniature clothes stitched for them while others mite have the clothes itself made of clay. A very famous example of Clay animation is the film Wallace and Gromit by Aardman Animations. Another style of clay animation is the Embossed effect animation in which the clay models are almost flat such that they can be placed on a horizontal surface with a camera vertically above it and then be animated. This technique is used when you want to show motion of fishes underwater or of flying birds; and it works because you don’t have to bother animating against gravity.
2. Puppets – Another form of stop-motion animation can be used by animating puppets made out of wood or plastic or any other material.
3. Sand – This is another very beautiful medium for animation. Here’s how to animate with sand. Take a flat surface and put thin layer of sand on it. Now place a camera vertically above the surface. Now with your finger make some shape in the sand, now click the image, now modify the shape slightly and click an image again. Keep on gradually modifying the sand surface and keep on clicking images. And when you will play it you’ll get a beautiful animation.
4. Beads – A similar style can be tried with colored beads, wherein you make designs with beads and you photograph them.
5. Cut out – In this style you use images cut out from magazines to animate. The images are placed on a horizontal surface and then moved frame by frame.
6. Pixilation – In this method live humans are used as stop-motion animation props. A very good example of this is the old sci-fi movies in which actors acting on screen used to just vanish in a split second; one frame they are there and the other they are gone. An awesome example is Norman McLaren’s Neighbors and A Chairy Tale. A must watch.