14. What is the process of animation ?
एनिमेशन की विधि क्या है ?
Answers
2D Animation Process
2D animation is a complex process that takes a lot of time and effort. The main steps that it takes to make a 2D animation are as follows: Storyboard, Audio, Animatic, Layout,
The first step of 2D animation is to make a storyboard. Here, the script for the animation is written out. Rough drawings of the scenes are sketched by the animator. The script is timed to each drawing, and they form a complete scene. A completed storyboard looks similar to a comic book, with each drawing being one panel and the dialogue written in the script. Once the storyboard is complete, it is shown to the other people working on the animation. They critique the storyboard, sharing what they like and what they don’t like. This way, ideas that don’t work can be changed or removed from the film before they get animated. This saves lots of time and money in the long run.
A sketch of a landscape, from a storyboard.
The next step is Audio. The people that voice each character in an animation (usually called a voice-actor) take the script and record each line of dialogue. This includes everything that the character says, from words to grunts and even singing (if the animation has a character singing a song). Other parts of the audio (background music and sound effects) aren’t recorded yet.
Once all of the voice-acting is complete, an animatic is created. Here, the voice acting is timed to the storyboard drawings to create a rough version of a scene. This gives the animators an idea on how the dialogue and timing is working with the animation. After this is screened, more changes and cuts can be made to the scenes in the cartoon. Once this step is complete, it is time to move onto the next step.
Next, each character in the film is designed and detailed by the animators by using a model sheet. The animators draw out each character in different poses and angles and make changes to the character. The end result is the final character design that is used in the animation. These designs of the characters are often used as a guide when the actual animation begins. This ensures that everyone who works on the animation will draw that character in the exact same proportions so that the character won’t look off-model or crudely drawn in-between frames.
Once this is completed, it is time for the Layout step. The background artists decide what camera angles, lighting, and shading are going to be used for each scene. Meanwhile, the character artists choose the poses that each character will have during the scene. The artist will then draw the characters in each necessary pose. These drawings are then combined with the storyboards and audio to create a second Animatic. The revised animatic is then reviewed for any needed changes. Once this gets approved, it’s time to move on to the actual animation.
The animation is now ready to begin. The key (or main) animator begins to sketch out the drawings for the characters in the film. The key animator does not draw each and every last frame, but draws all of the major poses and actions that the character will have over the course of a scene. Once this is done, a pencil test of the scene is run. Here, the sketches are photographed and timed to the current audio. This kind of works like an advanced Animatic. The pencil test is done to make sure the animation and the audio are in sync. Once this is complete, a set of other animators (usually referred to as assistant animators) will draw out all of the in-between frames that weren’t drawn by the main animator.
Various pencils and materials used to draw with.
After this is done, the drawings are handed off to a different team of animators. They combine both the main drawings and the in-between drawings. They trace all of these drawings onto new sheets of paper to make all of the drawings consistent with each other. These animators also make sure that there are no errors in the animation, and they draw out any missing frames (if any) in the animation.
Once this is done, the backgrounds are drawn out for each scene. Whether in physical or digital art, this is almost always placed on a separate layer from the other characters and movements in an animation. This allows for the characters to be perfectly aligned with the background, and it also saves the trouble of having to go and re-draw the background for each of the thousands of frames in an animation.
After this, each character drawing is transferred from paper onto a cel, a thin sheet of plastic. The drawing is traced to the cel, and the frame is ready to be colored. This is done for every frame in the animation. The colored cel is placed onto the background and is then photographed. This process is repeated until every frame in the animation is complete. From here, the photographs are placed onto a film reel to complete the animation.
A cel of a man speaking. This is a tween frame.