Animation genres. Types of animation. Examples of Japanese animation

Every person has a tendency to reflect their movement in work or creativity. This can be achieved using various animation techniques. The term "animation" was translated from Latin as "animation".

Classification

Let's try to figure out what types of animation exist. They are also called animation process technology.

• Animation based on the “freeze frame” principle. It is also called puppet animation. The object is framed, for example, using a camera, then the position of the object in the frame changes, then the fixation occurs again.
• Morphing is the transformation of an object. The existing one is being replaced with another one, according to the principle of quantitative generation of the personnel structure.
• The classic type is a video created from a number of individual frame-by-frame images, with their alternating changes. The main disadvantage is the high degree of labor intensity of the process. This direction is one of the most frequently used. It represents the types of animations that were (and are) typically used in most animated films.
• Color revitalization - characterized by color transformation without changing the overall spatial position.
• 3D animation is a cartoon created using specialized software (3DS MAX, XSI, MAYA), in which key scenes for the future video are created.
• Sprite - the embodiment of this type of animation is produced by using a programming language.
• Motion capture is a type that most accurately conveys all the nuances of natural movement and facial expressions. Special sensors placed on human actors are aligned with the model's control points. When moving, the coordinates are transferred to them. Thanks to such methods, cartoon models come to life.

All main types of animation presented in the list can be created using various technical means or manually. But today, most often, special computer programs are used for these purposes to optimize the process of creating animated objects and works. Computer methods for creating cartoons expand the boundaries of expression. The degree of impact on the viewer is increased by applying various effects that are not available with manual execution.

Computer animation. Principles

Creating a cartoon using computer capabilities requires adherence to certain rules. Their key principles are: raster, fractal, vector. There is also a separation of 2D and 3D animation software. Two-dimensional programs are usually used for Flash animation, while three-dimensional ones allow you to set the degree and type of object lighting, textures, and perform automatic rendering (visualization).

The main types of computer animation have the same principles in operation. All of the above types apply to them as well.

Methods for preparing computer animation

• Key framing method. Allows you to install an object in the required position and correlate them with respect to time intervals. The computer system completes the missing frames in the structure (between the reference frames). The missing stages of movement are recreated.
• Procedural animation. Used when it is not possible to reproduce certain actions using key frames. Characterizes computer types of animation from the point of view of the sequential construction of individual personnel structures.
• Formation of single frames. Most often done using various graphic editors. Separate image frames are created, which will later be arranged in a certain sequence.
• Raster principle of animation construction. The most understandable of all those listed earlier. It is presented as saved in a single file. Typically the GIF format is used. There are a number of programs that allow you to produce such files, such as Gimp.

All of the above types of computer animation allow us to understand how multifaceted the process of creating movement is.

PowerPoint software

Touching on this topic and looking at examples of computer programs that allow you to create, one cannot fail to mention such a program as PowerPoint. It belongs to Microsoft. This package is designed for creating presentations. The demand for presentations is steadily growing, since high-quality and visual presentation of projects and work is one of the key moments in the development of a professional. A presentation created in PowerPoint is a collection of slide materials that are displayed simultaneously on the screen. All necessary data, after being created in the program, is stored in one file. The Harvard Graphics program, for example, also has a similar focus.

Quite wide internal settings of the program help to use various types of animation. In PowerPoint, the use of various ready-made templates allows you to most effectively approach the creation of presentations.

Main features of the program

The software structure allows, first of all, to create presentations by creating slides with their simultaneous video demonstration on the screen. Slides can be created using different templates. The slide show is created using a variety of effects. Various types of animations are used. You can adjust the order in which the slides are shown on the screen.

Color Templates in PowerPoint

A key feature of the program is that standard animation effects can be applied to all files simultaneously. The program also has a set of ready-made color templates. They have a variety of color schemes, allowing you to apply them to any thematic slides. Color templates allow you to increase the efficiency of working on a presentation, save time, and also give it a certain stylistic direction.

Special effects

For the most visual and memorable presentation, the program has a certain set of effects that allow you to adjust the type of transition when showing slides. Thanks to this, the pause between slide changes, filled with special effects, becomes imperceptible.

Features of the program

All presentations created in PowerPoint can be saved in HTML format. This saves all used audio and video data. The program also has tools for creating tables and diagrams by drawing, as well as special markup that allows you to insert ready-made drawings and then save them. Another distinctive feature is the automatic album generation function. It is possible to use musical accompaniment.

Thus, having considered the information in the article about what methods exist for creating animations, we can conclude that with the development of modern software, the approach to this issue has become the most rational. A large number of programs designed to modernize work on animation processes provides enormous scope for creativity and work. And understanding what types of animations exist will help you choose the most suitable program for your specific purposes.

This is the most comprehensive overview of all aspects of the concept Animation with the best examples according to the editors.

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Types of animation

Since the advent of the simplest animation, a wide variety of types and styles have been invented. Let's consider 5 main types :

• Traditional animation;
• 2D vector animation;
• 3D computer animation;
• Motion graphics;
• Puppet animation;

Traditional Animation (2D, Cel, Hand Drawn)

Traditional animation, sometimes called cel animation, is one of the older forms of animation. In it:

• the animator draws each frame to create a sequence of movements;
• sequential drawings, quickly exposed one after another, create the illusion of movement.

The simplest example of such animation is old Disney cartoons.

Cartoon "Mowgli"

How is traditional animation created?

• the animator prepares the working field: a transparent sheet of paper is fixed on a special backlit screen;
• a drawing is drawn on a sheet of paper with a colored pencil;
• the drawing should be rough and approximate. This is done to see how many frames need to be created for the ideal movement of the character;
• Once cleanup and interim drawings are completed, production moves on to filming each individual frame.

Modern animators can move away from drawing characters and frames by hand. Instead, they use computers, tablets, and pens.

Examples of modern traditional animation

Where to start?

You can start in the profession by studying basic

The advantage of lessons is a consistent study of the process of creating animation according to the principle “from simple to complex.”

Also, to take the first steps of creating animation, you need to master such basic programs as:

Photoshop is often overlooked when considering animation software, and its capabilities are perfectly tailored to frame-by-frame drawing of any style. Photoshop's Timeline functionality allows you to animate by drawing frame by frame using bow skinning.

• The average salary of an animator in the West is $4,250/month;
• In our area it varies greatly (in the studio, freelance, remotely - from $400 to $3500 per month).

2D vector animation

2D animation is a term used when referring to traditional hand-drawn animation. It can also refer to computer vector animations using traditional techniques.

Principle 2D animations

To create vector animations, the same methods are used as for traditional ones.

This flexibility allows even a beginner to create his first passable video.

How to learn?

While traditional animation requires you to be a good artist, computer animation does not. 3D animation is more like construction than drawing.

3D animation technologies have a lot in common with stop motion, as they follow a frame-based approach. But in 3D, the implementation of tasks is more manageable, since it is in a digital field.

3D model

Instead of drawing a character or creating one out of clay, in 3D animation the object is created digitally. Later they are equipped with a “skeleton” that allows the models to be moved.

Animation is created by building models on certain key frames, and then the computer calculates and interpolates between these frames to create movement.

Below, see a visual example of the process of creating a 3D model in Blender.

Examples of modern 3D animation

Nike Air Max

Wonder Woman - Prologue | Making of

3D animator profession: where to start

The profession is highly competitive as this animation is mainly for commercial purposes.

Where can a motion designer work:

• In the studios
• Freelancing
• Sell ​​templates
• Create learning products

The average salary of a motion designer in the West reaches $5,000/month; in our country, a specialist’s salary starts from $700/month.

Stop motion (Puppet animation)

Stop motion- this is stopping an object after a captured frame and moving it sequentially to take a new photo and a new movement. When you play back the photos taken one after another, the illusion of movement is created. This is how you get stop motion.

This technique is similar to traditional animation, but instead of drawings, the animator uses real materials.

I love all forms of animation, but there is something unique and special about stop motion: it feels more real. But I think it's also kind of a lonely and dark thing.

Tim Burton

Stop-Motion animation uses objects photographed in sequence to create the illusion of movement.

Example of Stop Motion animation

The process of creating stop motion animation is lengthy because each object must be carefully moved millimeter by millimeter. Each captured frame simply must create a smooth sequence of movements of the object.

Examples of modern puppet animation

The profession of a puppet animator: where to start, how much does one earn?

You need to start moving into the depths of the profession of a stop motion designer by mastering Dragonframe and iStopMotion

The profession of stop-motion designer has gradually revived on the labor market. Stop motion today is an inexpensive method in which it is easy to show good artistic taste and patience skills. That's why designers earn good money:

• average earnings in the West - $3864/month;
• with us - from $1000/month.

Types of Animation

Let's look at what types of animation exist.

GIF animation

GIF (with file extension, .gif) is an image file format that is animated by combining several other images or frames into one.

Example GIF. (converted to mp4 for smaller size)

Unlike the JPEG (.jpg) format, GIFs typically use a compression algorithm called LZW encoding, which does not degrade image quality and allows the file to be easily stored in bytes.

You can read more about what GIF is on Wikipedia.

Examples of GIF animation

Examples for every taste are on the portal giphy.com

How to make a GIF yourself?

• We previously wrote about the fastest.
• Here's another useful one tutorial on creating gifs in adobe after effects.

Cinemagraphy

Also check out the opinion can anime become mainstream?(in English).

Examples of Japanese animation

How is anime created?

The anime creation process consists of several stages:

• searching for animation and character ideas;
• coming up with a concept (characters, the main storyline are thought out, some first sketches are made);
• writing a detailed script;
• drawing characters and backgrounds;
• sample storyboard;
• sketches or sketches are presented in digital form.

12 principles of creating animation

1. Compression and decompression

According to this principle, animation objects can be compressed or stretched to convey the speed, momentum, weight, and mass of the object.

This technique can be used to indicate the bounciness or hardness of an object (for example, to show which ball in an animated video is filled with water and which is just a bowling ball). Also, artists use this principle to convey the facial expressions and emotions of the character.

Important: The size of an object should not change depending on whether it is squashed or stretched.

2. Preparation for action

It is to prepare the viewer for any action of the animation character.

For example, this technique is used to show that a character is preparing to jump. In this case, the preparation will consist in the fact that the character will crouch down, gather his strength and begin to straighten up until he is in the air, which will be a jump.

Important: Without preparation for any action, all subsequent steps of the character will look unrealistic and implausible. The artist cannot miss this moment, since the viewer simply will not understand what the character wants to do in the next seconds, and watching such a video will simply be uninteresting.

Preparing for action- This is a mandatory technique for maintaining attention.

3. Re-enactment

Target This principle is to reveal the author’s creative intent as accurately as possible.

In any animation, it is important to direct the viewer's gaze to some moment or important nuance, the movement of a character or an ongoing event. The staging, as it were, draws attention to the most important things.

Note that in this principle it is necessary to alternate close-ups with a distant background. A close-up usually shows the character's facial expressions, while dynamic or static events in the multimedia video take place in the background.

Important: in each scene and video as a whole, the action should be as clear as possible and be in focus. Otherwise, the viewer simply will not grasp the essence of the author’s idea.

4. Spontaneous action and From pose to pose

Principle spontaneous action consists in the fact that several drawings are created one by one without a specific plan of action and ending.

Principle from pose to pose consists in the fact that the artist draws each final point of movement and only after that draws intermediate poses and movements.

Important: the principle from pose to pose saves the artist’s energy and time, because by using it, he knows exactly what will happen on the screen and how it will all end. There is no such bonus in spontaneous action - if the artist drew something incorrectly, he will have to redraw everything.

Spontaneous action is good for displaying fire, drops, clouds, smoke and dust, and it also perfectly conveys the aesthetics and unpredictability of natural phenomena.

5. Inertia and overlap

This principle is applied so that after the character stops, parts of his clothes, hair, arms or even legs continue to move by inertia. This way the stop seems more natural and does not cause the viewer to complain about the unnaturalness of the picture.

Inertia and overlap make the animation's movements, body, and character appear more alive.

This group also includes the following principle: guy Thanks to the pull, when the character’s head turns, his hair or cheeks (like a bulldog’s) will slowly and springily move behind it.

6. Slow down at the beginning and end

The principle is that all movements are performed slowly at the beginning, then they speed up and at the end, the actions slow down again. This is done in order to maximize the naturalness of the video and bring the drawn character closer to the real one.

Only robots move at the same speed, so the artist tries to draw all the movements of his characters in different amplitudes and at different speeds.

Important: Slowdown is not used in all cases. For example, in order to show the movement of a bullet, deceleration is not necessary, but to show the movement of a pistol during a shot, yes.

7. Arcs

Without taking into account the character's arc movement, obvious errors occur and they become too mechanical.

Absolutely all character movements are performed according to the arc principle, and not because they all have to be smooth, but because an arc can outline a much larger trajectory and give the character the ability to move as naturally as possible.

8. Expressive touches

This principle is often confused with overlap, but this is wrong. Expressive strokes are features of a character's movements that give it flavor.

Expressive touches give the character's movements the character of the moment and mood. If the character is evil, then when knocking on the door his second hand will be clenched into a fist. This touch may not be so striking, but it perfectly conveys the real, real emotions of a person.

An artist who gives importance to such small details gives life to the animation.

9. Frame rate

The overall nature of the animation depends on how many frames the artist draws between the main actions.

By changing the frame rate, an animator can tell as many as 10 stories. If there are many poses between the main frames and they are located close to each other, then the movements will be very slow, and if there are few frames and they are located at a great distance from each other, the movements will be very fast.

The standard frame rate for cinema is 24. Animation is also drawn in one, two or three frames.

Important: The more often the frames change, they will need more careful drawing.

10. Hyperbolization

The principle is that almost every facial expression, facial expression and emotion needs to be made unique.

Using this principle, a sad emotion can be made even sadder, and a cheerful emotion even more cheerful. Hyperbolization is not based on distortion of emotions and facial expressions, but on making movements and facial expressions even more convincing.

The principle of hyperbolization is always appropriate, since it makes each video more interesting, rich and complete.

The optimal degree of exaggeration is difficult to determine. Therefore, first you need to exaggerate the idea to the maximum, and then adapt it to the video.

11. Drawing

You need to draw according to this principle in such a way as to present the drawing within the framework of three-dimensional space. Conveying the mass, volume and balance of the character.

If you draw a figure from all sides, the animation process will be greatly simplified.

Important: When you sketch a character, it's best to use standard geometric shapes such as spheres, cubes and cylinders rather than squares and rectangles. And also, be careful to ensure that the drawn character does not turn out flat.

12. Charismatic

The principle is that the drawn hero must be interesting and unusual, which means it must evoke emotions in the viewer, be captivating and have a twist.

The beauty of a character is not necessarily charismatic. This trait can be expressed in any detail, be contained in one character or in all the characters in the video.

Important: You can achieve the charisma of a character by diversifying the shape of the object, proportions, and also emphasizing a characteristic detail. It must be unusual and stand out from the general picture of the character’s character.

Trends (trends) in animation

Today, animation is evolving into a variety of different and exciting ways to tell stories and ideas. Thanks to the emergence of new advances in technology and telecommunications technologies, new trends in animation.

• See.

Here are the most popular ones:

3D in retro and vintage style

A style of 3D animation that is becoming popular again is retrofuturism. This allows for a fantasy aesthetic that people in the late 70s and early 80s thought the future could look like.

Technique: The use of lush lighting effects and pixelated digital elements serves to create the terrain and characters in a retro world.

High Contrast Cel Animation

This is an animation trend that has been on the rise for several years now and has been used by some of the top companies in the world, including Nike, Nickelodeon, Disney, Cartoon Network, and even for the Winter X games.

Bright, contrasting colors combined with angular designs are used to give the animation a simplistic, almost cel-like style.

Result- a funny sequence that's hard to look away from.

Some of the best examples come from Golden Wolf, an animation production company based in London.

Mix 2D and 3D

A trend that began in recent years and continues to grow is creating animations that look like a combination of 2D and 3D.

You don't have to look far to find a tutorial that shows you how to end up with a flat 2D look using cel shader to render 3D.

By giving 3D objects a 2D look, animators can create expressive, illustrative elements that immediately grab the viewer's attention, providing clear and colorful information.

Super surrealism

If there's one great animation trend that takes full advantage of the power of CGI imagery, it's the surrealist style.

The hyper-surreal animation effect is based on combining photorealistic elements with fantastical images to create dreamlike worlds and actions.

There's an example of animation like Roof Studio's "The Dreamer" for Honda, which takes viewers on a whimsical journey as a realistic vehicle navigates through the wilderness.

Dynamic animation of functions in applications

Instead of using static images or all text, many apps in 2018 use functional animations that keep the user's attention with a vibrant, interesting user interface.

This includes using animation to enhance navigation elements, confirm user input, zoom in and out of content, etc.

The Revival of 2D Animation in Marketing

In the entertainment industry, such as movies and video games, 2D animation almost disappeared when 3D arrived. Since then, companies have felt that there is no better way to captivate audiences, players, and potential customers than through 3D animation, even if it requires more time and effort.

Animation is the creation of a moving image on the screen. Or rather, the illusion of continuous movement. In fact, this is a sequence of static frames. It is also a technically complex and constantly evolving art. So if someone tells you that cartoons are not serious, protest vigorously and give reasons. Here is a brief educational program on the main types of moving pictures, from which it will become clear why animation is not inferior to feature films, and in some ways even surpasses it.

Classic hand-drawn cartoon

Many in childhood drew figures in the margins of notebook sheets, changing poses with each page. If you quickly flip through such a notebook, it will seem that the character is running and the flower is blooming. Classic frame-by-frame animation works in a similar way.

The standard format for the frequency at which pictures change is 24 frames per second. And all these frames need to be drawn! Previously, this was done manually. Over time, special editing programs came to the rescue, so now only reference frames are drawn by hand. However, creating a stop-motion animated film is still a painstaking and difficult job.

The first variation of stop-motion animation is sometimes called the thaumatrope, a vintage disc-shaped toy with designs on both sides. By quickly rotating the circle on the thread, it was possible to achieve the effect of combining pictures. For example, a bird and a cage turned into an image of a bird in a cage, and flowers and a vase - into a full-fledged still life. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the first animated films began to appear. Steward Blackton directed a short film "Funny expressions on happy faces", and Emil Kohl - "Phantasmagoria". In both films, the authors draw characters on a board, and then they come to life. Kohl found out that each phase of movement needed its own pattern and used a vertically mounted camera.

Then a great event happened - Walt Disney came to animation. He came up with, in particular, a way to create volume by combining different plans, as well as a layer-by-layer technique in which transparent celluloid films with images were superimposed on each other, so that the frame no longer had to be drawn from scratch. Using the three-color Technicolor system (combining monochrome images shot through red, blue and green filters), Disney created the first color cartoon, Flowers and Trees. He also directed the first sound cartoon in history (“Steamboat Willie” starring whistling Mickey Mouse) and the first full-length animated film, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” which created a real sensation.

It turned out that animation is interesting to people of different ages. Moreover, it allows you to achieve a special emotional effect using unique means.

An actor, even with the mimicry skills of Jim Carrey and the dedication of Christian Bale, who lost up to 30 kilograms for roles, still cannot go beyond the limits of human capabilities. But drawn heroes are not obliged to strictly obey the laws of nature and physics. Therefore, the artist can reward them with any proportions, external features and plasticity - as long as all this works to reveal the image.

For this, we also need to thank Disney, who created a whole pantheon of iconic characters, whose character is reflected in their appearance. His methods were adopted by other animation directors. Thanks to them, there are hundreds of memorable animated heroes and villains today.

The style of classical animation can be different. Disney or Soviet cartoons, European original or even abstract animation, anime - different styles that you will never confuse. However, technically this is all stop-motion animation.

Puppet animation

Stop-motion technology uses a mock-up stage, which serves as a stage set, like in a theater, and puppet “actors.” To create the illusion of movement, the poses of the figures are slightly changed, photographed frame by frame, and then the whole thing is turned into a film. Such animation appeared along with classical cinema. For example, the famous scene from the film “A Trip to the Moon”, where a spaceship hits the Earth’s satellite right in the eye - this is also stop-motion.

Puppet cartoons are always a special story in the world of animation. They are not turned into huge franchises (they won’t because of the complexity of production), and they are not the most successful commercially. However, there is a special magic in this method of reviving the static.

Such cartoons make it possible to create volume that classic hand-drawn animation is not capable of, and also provide detail without the need to draw anything - just place objects in the frame. However, this is not at all simple. The scenery for puppet cartoons is created by hand, and this is truly hellish work.

Popcorn dyed pink was used to represent sakura in the movie Coraline.

Each flower on the toy trees is created by the hands of cartoonists and placed as required for the scene. In Kubo. Legend of the Samurai" monkey hair is made from tiny pieces of silicone, each of which was glued onto the figurine. All these things need to be thought out in advance, because when the item has already been created in the material, pressing undo will not work. When dubbing puppet animation, each movement of the lips of the puppet-actor is created separately, synchronizing facial expressions with the sound track. Today, many parts are printed on a 3D printer, and yet it is still a piece of work.

In the 60-80s, puppet animation was very popular in the USSR - for its textured materials and cozy intimacy. “Mitten” by Roman Kachanov, where a lump of red wool evokes a storm of emotions, and “Plasticine Crow” by Alexander Tatarsky, with its virtuoso play of forms (plasticine animation is also a subtype of stop-motion) and cheerful songs, earned special popular sympathy.

At some point, puppet animation left behind computer animation in terms of complexity and naturalness of character movements. However, today CG technologies have stepped forward, and computer heroes are not inferior to their puppet counterparts, but in many ways surpass them.

Over time, difficult to produce and time-consuming stop-motion animation began to lose popularity. Oddly enough, this does her good. Only ideological directors who know exactly what they want to talk about and have an original style decide to work in this genre. For example, Tim Burton with his famous films about singing skeletons and dead pets, or Wes Anderson, who directed the film Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Computer animation

In this case, moving images are produced using computer-generated 3D animation. 3D object models move and interact the way the directors want them to.

George Lucas was one of the first to use computer animation in cinema. The special effects of the early Star Wars episodes are still valued more highly by many fans than the graphics in modern films. Lucas's studio ILM also worked on many famous epics with outstanding effects (Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Star Trek), as well as on the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, combining actors and drawn characters.

Then it turned out that animation can not only serve films with actors, but also create its own world. The pioneers in the field of computer animation, who did no less for it than Disney did for traditional animation, were the Pixar studio. Today it is the most successful animation studio in the history of cinema.

The 1986 animated short Luxo Jr. features a small table lamp, watched over by a parent lamp, playing with a ball. The lamps were given the honor of becoming cartoon characters because they allowed us to work with light and demonstrate how different surfaces reflect it. This short cartoon has what Pixar's work is still praised for - innovative technology and emotional liveliness of the characters. In 1995, the studio released its first entirely computer-generated feature film, Toy Story.

The studio is constantly improving technology and looking for new opportunities. Curly hair in the wind, objects sinking in water, cloud movements, millions of grains of sand on the beach...

In the case of CG films, making it all convincing requires taking into account textures, weight, trajectories and many other factors. The fact that objects are virtual makes their “material characteristics” only more important. After all, artists and developers want the rubber ball to spring back and the fabric to flutter in the wind, just like the real thing.

Other studios have adopted these methods, for example, Blue Sky Studios, which released Ice Age, and Dreamworks (the Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon franchises).

Computer animation gave the viewer the depth of the picture, as well as the opportunity to run with the characters and make dizzying flights. Such dashing turns of the camera were not possible in classical animation, or even in regular cinema. This is why there are so many races and adventures in 3D cartoons, and scripts are written with visual components and dynamics in mind.

Of course, good cartoons are attractive not only due to technology. However, it is precisely the wide possibilities of animation that allow directors not only to convey experiences, but also to touch on complex topics. Hayao Miyazaki talks about harmony with nature, Tim Burton makes even talking about death fun, and Pixar films teach you to accept yourself and understand your own feelings.

Lesson from the series: “Working in the Flash editor”

Animation(from lat. Animare– animate) – imitation of movement or change in shape of static objects.

In addition to the term “animation”, the term “animation” (from Lat. multiplicatio- multiplication, reproduction).

Personnel- These are drawn or photographed images of successive phases of movement of objects or their parts. When viewing a sequence of frames, the illusion of the static characters depicted in them comes to life.

To create the effect of a smooth change in the shape and position of objects, the frame rate, based on the characteristics of human perception, should be at least 12-16 frames per second.

Film uses 24 frames per second, television uses 25 or 30 frames per second.

Drawing all phases of movement (frames) in the first cartoons required enormous labor costs. So, for a cartoon lasting 5 minutes at a frequency of 24 frames per second, 7200 drawings are needed. At the same time, many frames contain repeating fragments that had to be redrawn many times.

Therefore, since the 20s. XX century began to use simplified animation technology: transparent films with changing moving elements began to be applied to a static, unchanging drawing. This was the first step in the mechanization of the work of an animator, which was developed in computer technology.

In computer animation, only a few reference frames are drawn (they are called key), and intermediate ones are generated (calculated) by computer programs. Independent animation of individual image elements is achieved by creating graphic objects for each character and placing them on different layers (similar to transparencies in classical animation).

The main types of computer animation: frame-by-frame animation and automatic (movements and shapes).

Frame-by-frame animation (animation) consists of drawing all phases of movement. All frames are key frames.

Automatic animation consists of drawing keyframes corresponding to the main phases or stages of movement, and then automatically filling in the intermediate frames.

The basis of any animation is the recording of the phases of movement of objects - the determination at each moment of time of their position, shape, size and other properties, such as color. This operation is called phasing or timing.

To reduce labor costs and avoid mistakes when working on a computer, it is useful to first outline the phases on paper.

When animating the movement of inanimate objects, you can limit yourself to indicating the trajectory of movement and fixing objects in the most important positions.
Example 1. A ball thrown horizontally hits the floor three times. Draw several phases of movement.

Let's draw the trajectory of the ball's center. Let us depict the position of the ball at the moments of impact on the floor (1, 2, 3) and the greatest rise (2, 4). Let's add a few intermediate provisions.

Example 2. Draw the phases of movement of a walking and running man.

Let us depict the phases of movement as shown in the figure.

Story

The first steps in animation were taken long before the invention of cinema by the Lumiere brothers. Attempts to capture movement in drawing began in the primitive era, continued in ancient times and led to the emergence of primitive animation in the first half of the 19th century. Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau, Austrian geometrician professor Simon von Stampfer and other scientists and inventors used a rotating disk or tape with drawings, a system of mirrors and a light source (flashlight) - (phenakistiscope, strobe) to reproduce moving images on the screen. Further development of this technology, combined with photography, led to the invention of the motion picture camera.

Subsequently, animation became a part of cinema, taking a strong place in it as one of the genres. To produce cartoons, film cameras were used that were suitable for time-lapse shooting on one of the standard film formats. To create hand-drawn animation, there were cartoon machines, which were a complex reproduction installation with a special film camera, usually having a design similar to devices for combined filming and allowing you to adjust the opening angle of the shutter and perform darkening and fades. Such devices were produced in a special version for animation, distinguished by vertical installation and a special magnifying glass for ease of sighting from this position. The design of professional cartoon machines made it possible to create multi-layered images on separate media and included lighting equipment. Currently, hand-drawn animation uses a computer or an animation machine with a digital camera.

First attempts

• August 30, 1877 is considered the birthday of hand-drawn animation - Emile Renault's invention was patented.
• October 28, 1892 - Emile Renault demonstrates the first graphic film at the Musée Grévin in Paris using "optical theatre" devices, operating differently from a film projector - before the invention of cinema.
• 1898 - George Stewart Blackton and Albert E. Smith made the first puppet film, The Humptu Dumptu Circus. Wooden toys were used in the film.
• 1899 - The first surviving animated commercial, Matches: An Appeal, was filmed (voluminous, by Arthur Melbourne-Cooper).
• 1900 - George Stuart Blackton creates the film “The Enchanted Drawing”, in which there were no intermediate phases. During this period, he discovers the secret of animation, frame-by-frame animation shooting - image by image, which in the USA was called “One turn, one picture”.
• 1906 - The American company Vitagraph Company of America releases one of the first animated films by George Stuart Blackton, shot on film - “Humorous Phases of Funny Faces”, which was a series of simple drawings depicting funny faces.
• 1908 - French cartoonist Emile Col begins to actively engage in graphic animation. He created the animated film “Fantasmagorie” (“Fantasmagorie”). This film became a landmark for the development of animation not only because it was the first European animated film, but also because it was the first to have a structured, self-contained plot, and the main character Fantosh was endowed with a certain character.
• - Vladislav Aleksandrovich Starevich directed the world’s first three-dimensional animated film “Beautiful Lyukanida, or the war of stags with barbels.”
• - 1922 - in the USA, cartoonist Winsor McCay raises hand-drawn animation to a new level of quality, in 1914 he creates the prototype of an animated series with a common cartoon character (Gertie the Dinosaur), and in 1918 he shoots a documentary cartoon “The Sinking of the Lusitania” (“ The Death of the Lusitania".
• - Winsor McCay created the film “Little Nemo” based on a newspaper comic strip.
• - Starevich creates the film “The Dragonfly and the Ant”. Created on the basis of Krylov's fable, the film was a huge success and worldwide popularity.

Further development

The further rapid development of animation was facilitated not only by films made earlier, but also by the development of technical progress. The most important achievement in this area was the discovery of Raoul Barra - perforated celluloid, which made it possible to fix a sheet with a pattern using pins.

• 1918 - The premiere of the first full-length feature film “The Apostle” (“El Apostol”) by Argentine director Quirini Cristiani took place.
• 1928 - Walt Disney creates the most popular cartoon character in the history of animation - Mickey Mouse. In the same year, his first sound animated film “Steamboat Willie” was released.
• 1929 - Walt Disney films Skeleton Dance, the first of his Merry Symphonies series. In general, Walt Disney's arrival in animation was marked by the creation of certain canons, the so-called “Disney animation.”
• 1931 - Quirini Cristiani directs the first full-length sound film, Reludopolis.
• 1932 - Walt Disney's first color animated film, Flowers and Trees.
• 1936 - the film studio “Soyuzmultfilm” (originally “Soyuzdetmultfilm”) was founded in the USSR.
• 1937 - Walt Disney first used a camera that allowed deep perspective in the film “The Old Mill”. In the same year, Disney released its first full-length animated film - “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” based on the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. Snow White brought Disney enormous success: worldwide popularity, over $8 million in revenue and rave reviews in the professional press.
• 1940 - William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, later to create the Hanna-Barbera Studio, begin work on the Tom and Jerry cartoon series.
• 1943 - Premiere of Paul Grimaud's animated color film “The Scarecrow” (“L’Epouvantail”).
• 1947 - The first animated television series “Crusader Rabbit” by Alex Anderson and Jay Bard. Animation is beginning to be used frequently in television advertising.
• 1956 - An animation film studio is created in Zagreb (Dusan Vukotic, A. Marks, B. Kolar, Z. Bourek, Vatroslav Mimica). The first film of the Zagreb School was the short film Nestasni Robot, directed by Dusan Vukotic.
• 1958 - through the efforts of Osama Tezuka, a unique style of hand-drawn animation is created in Japan - anime.
• 1960 - the start of production of the series "The Flinstones", which was shown on American television. It was the first animated series for adults.
• -1971 - the first Soviet animated series (before that there were almanacs under common names) “Mowgli”, director: Roman Davydov.
• 1969 - in Roman Kachanov’s film “Crocodile Gena” the visual image of Cheburashka appears for the first time.
• 1983 - the film “Tango” by the Pole Zbigniew Rybczynski received an Oscar in the category of short animated films.
• 1988 - the first non-state animation studio in the USSR “Pilot” was founded.
• 1990 - The Simpsons series begins production.
• 1993 - Kodak introduces the Cineon system - the first complete set of equipment for creating special effects.
• 1995 - the first full-length computer animated film - “Toy Story” (Pixar studio).
• In 1999, the cartoon “The Old Man and the Sea” directed by Alexander Petrov became the first cartoon in the history of cinema for large format IMAX cinemas. In 2000, the same cartoon was awarded the Academy Award "Oscar".

Animation in the USSR

Soyuzmultfilm

"Soyuzmultfilm"- the largest animated film studio in the Soviet Union, founded in Moscow on June 10, 1936. Located at: Moscow, st. Dolgorukovskaya, 25.

Kievnauchfilm

"Kievnauchfilm"- a studio organized on the basis of the technical film department of the Kyiv Film Factory on January 1, 1941. Among the cartoons created at the Kievnauchfilm studio, there is also a full-length one - “Treasure Island” - a Soviet animated feature film based on the novel of the same name by Robert Louis Stevenson, in two parts: “Captain Flint’s Map” and “Captain Flint’s Treasures”.

Creative association "Ekran"- the first creative association in the Soviet Union (among other things, it included the Multitelefilm studio) for the production of television films, organized in 1968 within the structure of the USSR State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. In 1989, it was renamed TPO Soyuztelefilm, and in 1994 it ceased operations due to the dissolution of the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Ostankino.

Animation pedagogy

With its democracy and diversity, the art of animation aroused natural interest among teachers. Numerous children's animation studios emerged in the USSR, and children's film and animation festivals began to be held.

One of the brightest schools of animation pedagogy developed in Dnepropetrovsk (see Yu. Krasny, L. Kurdyukova).

Basic techniques

In graphic animation, one film frame (photo image) is a photograph of hand-drawn objects (graphic, pictorial, shadow (silhouette), powder), based on flat puppets and transfers, including photo cutouts). The phases of movement of individual objects or characters are drawn on sheets of transparent film (celluloid and other similar sheet materials), and then superimposed on glass located above the image of the background or habitat of the characters.

In volumetric animation, the frame is a photograph of volumetric, semi-volume, bas-relief and flat doll-actors.

Recently, Flash animation has gained significant popularity and distribution (especially on the Internet).

Based on the psychophysiological characteristics of human visual perception, to create the effect of smooth movement when viewing, the frame rate must be at least 18 frames per second.

hand-drawn cartoon

Scheme for creating traditional animation

The technology of traditional hand-drawn animation includes overlaying and combining into one frame transparent sheets with characters drawn on them; if it is necessary to depict the movement of one character, he is drawn himself and the frame is assembled with a replaced part, instead of drawing the entire picture with the change as a whole.

Puppet animation

Puppet animation is a method of volumetric animation. When creating, a mock-up stage and actor dolls are used. The scene is photographed frame by frame, after each frame minimal changes are made to the scene (for example, the pose of the doll changes). When playing back the resulting sequence of frames, the illusion of objects moving appears. This type of animation first appeared in Russia in 1906.

The first Russian animator (1906) was Alexander Shiryaev, choreographer of the Mariinsky Theater, who created the world's first Russian puppet cartoon, which depicts 12 dancing figures against a background of stationary scenery depicting a stage. The film was shot on 17.5 mm film. It took three months to create it. During creation, Shiryaev rubbed a hole in the parquet floor with his feet, as he constantly walked from the film camera to the set and back.

These films were discovered in Shiryaev’s archive by film expert Viktor Bocharov in 2009. Several more puppet cartoons were also found there: “Clowns Playing Ball”, “Pierrot’s Artists” and a love drama with a happy ending “Harlequin’s Joke”. Modern animators cannot yet unravel the secrets of the animator, since Shiryaev’s dolls not only walk on the ground, but also jump and spin in the air.

Computer animation

Raster 2D animation

3D animation

Computer animation is a type of animation created using a computer. Today it is widely used both in the field of entertainment and in the industrial, scientific and business fields. A derivative of computer graphics, animation inherits the same methods of creating images: vector graphics, raster graphics, fractal graphics and three-dimensional graphics (3D).

Squigglevision

Squigglevision is a proprietary computer animation technique in which the outlines of objects continuously oscillate.

Flash animation

Awards

Like any other art form, animation too has awards for excellence. The original Animation Awards were given out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for animated short films since 1932, during the 5th Academy Awards. The first Academy Award winner was the short film "Flowers and Trees" produced by Walt Disney Productions and United Artists. However, the Academy Award for Animated Feature Film was established only in 2001, and was won during the 74th Academy Awards (2002) by the film Shrek, produced by DreamWorks and Pacific Data Images. Since then, Disney/Pixar has produced the largest number of films, both winning and nominated for the award.

See also

• Pivot

Notes

Literature