Introduction to Animation

Delia C. Roque Chap. 1- pages 1 to 8 Art Class

You should know

In order for animation to be believable the action must demonstrate qualities that we are familiar with in our day-today lives. The fantastic will be credible if it appears to respect the same laws of nature that are subject to. Beyond that we ask animators to take us on a fantastic journey where the everyday becomes magical and the impossible becomes plausible.

Cont

It has never been easy or cheap to make an animation but the choices you must make in terms of equipment and materials have become far more complex. In order to film your animation you need some kind of recording and playback device or if youre doing a computer animation you may have all this in one package and there are many available.

2D Animation

Youll probably need a light-box to work on, a camera with a rostrum stand to film and a frame recording/storage device. This is basically a traditional film-based system. Now, the majority uses a video set-up or a digital computer-base system. When you use computer-base system youll need some kind of registration system while scanning drawing; if you dont the drawing and animation will be all over the place (0 copy rights)

Frames Per Second

All animators, irrespective of what discipline they work in and despite what work they undertake, all use the same basic raw material to create their work: time. The basic unit of time we deal with as animators and film-makers is determined by the recording and projection rate of the individual film frame or video image. This rate is commonly known as frames per second (fps)

Standard recording and playback are usually:

Film 24 frames = 1 second Video 25 frames = 1 second (PAL) Video 30 frames = 1 second (NTSC) These figures become critical in achieving the illusion of motion. If the projection rate was below that, the sequence of image would appear as individual images and the illusion of movement would be lost.