Types of Animation
Animation is unique
in the way it evolves. It get’s simpler and easier to use with every stride.
From pencil on paper to technological programmes, animation has changed how we
live today, creating films, presentations and even just little hobbies for
various people all over the world. Animation has made the game industry, no
animation means no visuals. We’d still be playing text-based games without
animation or at the most point and click games.
There are many ways
to animate because of the way it works. When your brain sees an image, then
that image is suddenly replaced, your brain is confused. It tries to make a
link between the two pictures and so, tries to fill in the gap between when it
was there and when it wasn’t. This gives the illusion of movement and many
frames together is that same technique but many times is succession.
So yes, animation is
just confusing your brain in a good way. Animation runs by playing several frames
every second, otherwise known as frame rate or fps. The more frames per second,
the smoother the animation looks, meaning it’s a better quality. This tends to
be a theme only in computer animation as flipbook animation and etcetera is
controlled manually. The fps is how fast you can flip the pages or turn the
wheel.
Despite animation
confusing the brain it can still pick up on little changes in the motion. So
for a single frame there might be a black spot somewhere on the screen, which
means it would flash on the screen for less than a second. But our brains being
all amazing, detect it, it sees a difference and notices, meaning technically,
we are seeing and processing every single frame and then our brains add in
frames in between to give the illusion of motion.
Now there are many
techniques to getting this illusion right, and I’m going to be listing a few,
so sit back, relax and read it all!
Flip Book Animation
First thing you need to know is: what is flip book
animation? It’s basically where a series of images are drawn into a book or a
flip pad in such a way that when moving between many images, it appears to move
This is one of the longest forms of animation due to the
need to draw out every single background again and again and every single
character and moving thing again and again.
Flip book animation has been used by budding animators for
ages, creating unique animations using just a pencil and paper. It’s one of the
most famous kinds of animation and due to having to draw the character over and
over, a wobbly effect has been implemented into other animations to give it
that flip book feel.
The first ever flipbook was shown in September in 1868 and
was created by John Barnes Linnett. He origionally named it a Kineograph which
means moving picture. It was actually the first kind of animation to feature a
linear sequence of pictures instead of a repeating animation.
Today, flipnotes are considered as simply a novelty toy.
They are still used in advertising and people still buy them today as
collections. They have been known to go for thousands of pounds in sales and
auctions.
Stop Motion
Stop Motion is essentially taking a real life object and taking pictures of said object in slightly different poses from the last. When these pictures are put together it gives the illusion of movement. This kind of animation is usually used to make real life objects move that would usually be static. E.G one of the many Lego home made films you can find.
Stop Motion can be used in so many ways, it can make objects move, it can make pictures on the wall out of nothing as you can see in the video above, it can even morph rooms and make clay into man-eating monsters (My personal favourite use).
This is an example of what stop motion can create with just a little creativity.
Kinetoscope
A Kinetoscope is simply a machine with a peephole in the top where pictures are slotted through very fast. This actually gives the illusion of movement. Kinetoscopes were one of the very first kinds of animation to be invented, so I bring you this thrilling rollercoaster of an animation:
It may seem like a simple man sneezing, but really it's a series of images placed in the right order to give the illusion of sneezing movement.
My Running Cycle
Now after spending weeks of colouring in and drawing and backgrounding, I have finally finished my own running cycle. It may just be a strange yellowish goblin thing running through a bit of an odd looking forest. But it's my yellowish goblin thing in my odd looking wood!
Evaluation: In the above video, I have created a basic running cycle, simulating the motion of real life running, but using a character called Yallery Brown, based on a story. I have added a background which moves behind the character, and sound effects which I have collected myself. These consist of footsteps. I'd say the strengths of this project are the following:
- Smooth running animation
- The sound is synced up with the animation
- The character is fitted to my own art style
The weakness' however are as I find:
- The background seems a little jerky.
- Not much in the way of asthetics, shading and generally making things look pretty.
- The character may be a little small so not the easiest to see.
Feedback:
Someone commented that the sound was synced up with the running and the background may have been roughly drawn and seemed to speed up as the animation, but the character design was good and appeared to move reasonably smoothly.
Yallery Brown Storyboard
This was a storyboard I made to dictate exactly how the end result would play out.
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