Animation titles/process?!
Question: Can some one please explain to me as many titles they can think of having to do with the process and creation of animation and explain what each job title specifically does? And/or explain how animators actually start with lines, and finish with moving talking people and things? I have been wondering this for ages!
thank you!
Answers: Can some one please explain to me as many titles they can think of having to do with the process and creation of animation and explain what each job title specifically does? And/or explain how animators actually start with lines, and finish with moving talking people and things? I have been wondering this for ages!
thank you!
Hokay, for commercial animation there are two processes. Both generally start the same way: you plot the thing out. Usually this means you go into conferences where you design characters, important props and backgrounds, and where important shots and sequences are drawn out. These usually evolve into full-fledged storyboards. I'm assuming that the script either exists or is being finished as these pre-production or design meetings occur. The next thing that happens is the sound track is recorded. Someone then goes through it -- I forget the traditional job title -- and works out how long each sound, each syllable uttered and each transition lasts. He or she uses this information to provide a guide for the animators.
In traditional animation, which still happens, the work is sent to the animators and background artists once the layout and design artists are finished. Background artists of course paint the background, either using some quick medium like gouache or often these days on computer. Key animators get the characters first. These people work out what the actions of each character are, and draw the characters in these key positions. In-betweeners then draw the characters in positions between these key positions. Both animators have and use those guides to the soundtrack because since there is a fixed number of drawings projected per second they have to know how many drawings to do to depict each action.
This work is usually done in pencil. It is then filmed for tests. These are called pencil tests. They are reviewed for continuity, that is for consistency in the rendering of the character, and for smoothness of motion. Once approved they are copied. They may well have been scanned into a computer prior to this. In that case it isn't difficult. When the industry got its start there were inkers, like inkers in comic books, who traced the individual drawings onto acetate or some other clear film, and painters, who colored the pictures by painting -- the backs of the acetates according to model sheets which came out of the design meetings. The reason for that is by painting the back the camera is most likely to see the lowest level of paint where there is less likely to be brushstrokes and artifacts which you will see on top and which they do not want. Xerography pretty much finished the inkers' jobs. Now it's all done by computer.
These clear plastic animation cels, or sprites if the studio is heavily computerized, are then shot on top of the backgrounds. And that is traditional animation.
In Computer-generated animation, the design process starts the same way. In meetings. The pictures are then translated into computer models. Now the nature of computers is such that require memory to process information. If you were to use Gentoo Linux which recompiles programs it installs you would understand you spend a lot of time with reduced functionality on your machine, especially when something like GCC -- the C++ compiler whose libraries are used by many elements of the OS -- is being updated. This is relevant to animation on computers because you have two types of motion which are split up because if you just do them together you either have to simplify the textures drastically or you will run out of memory. There is the basic model for large and some smaller motions which is depending on the process used called a wireframe or avar, then there is the texture model, which has to be animated separately on top of the wireframe model, and often incorporates some tiny motions. These are usually handled by separate people. And the film is, in essence, compiled and recompiled until the characters interact with each other and the background.
Motion is given the wireframe models by a number of techniques. Keyframing is like the technique described above except the computer generates the in-between images. Motion capture is another method. Since commercial animations tend to be large projects, and animation is an art, any given studio will use both methods and any other they find which is useful. The same people will usually do them though.
I understand you want job titles, but this should be helpful, and I have included a few references.