Animation For Beginners - 10 Rules You Need
Do you love to draw? Then this blog is for you! For those who draw, the animation is very interesting. But by animation, we mean Walt Disney hand-drawing page after page of images to create a fraction of a scene. Is animation really such a difficult task?
Table Of Contents :
What is Animation:
Many of us only understand cartoons as animation. Animation and cartoons are the same thing, but different! Animation is the process of creating cartoons and cartoons are products made with animation! Cartoons are usually doodles and hand-drawn, often using still images or caricatures. Eg: Meena Cartoon, Grandma Jhuli, Tom and Jerry, Batman, etc. And animation work is usually done digitally and the process is a bit complicated. From Toy Story to Frozen, Spirited Away, Kung Fu Panda to Hal's minions; People who look for the world of animation even a little, but do not know them, it seems that such people will not be found.
Types of Animation:
1. 3-D Animation:
3D, also referred to as CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), has become the most popular form of animation for feature films, live-action films, and video games. In this way, from character movement to composition, technical skills are presented in a very beautiful and perfect manner. You can easily move the animation character and any part of it in any direction.
2. 2D Hand-Drawn Animation:
The first type of today animation is called hand-drawn animation. This is the classic hand-drawn animation you're probably most familiar with. Here the animator has to draw each frame by hand and 12 frames per second are used.
3. 2D Vector Animation:
This cartoon animation is very popular among kids. For this, every physical part of the character can be moved easily through the software. With basic concepts, you can create beautiful vector animations.
4. Motion Graphics Animation:
This type of animation is usually used for commercial and promotional purposes. Animated logos, commercial applications, TV promos, motion opening titles - these are all motion animation works.
5. Stop Motion Animation:
All characters and objects in this animation are real. This animation starts with taking a picture of the model. After that, the model is moved to different places and the video is made by repeatedly taking pictures and arranging them. This is how stop-motion animation is created.
Animation Software:
Software is required to create animations. It can be both paid and non-paid. Let's know the names of some user-friendly software!
1. CelAction2D:
This Windows-supported software is very useful for 2D drawing But for this, you have to count 71 dollars per month
2. Cartoon Animator 4:
It works great on 3D to 4K today drawings. You can work with PSD tools and Wacom on Windows or Mac.
3. Clip Studio Paint:
This software works on all types of devices. This frame-by-frame animation software costs $2.29 per month.
4. Adobe Animate:
Windows and Mac supported this software is basically used by everyone. Because it is quite user-friendly.
5. Adobe Character Animator:
From auto lipsyncing features to automatic facial expression features, processes such as walking, feeling, breathing, etc. can be easily drawn here.
Creating animations:
Now that we understand the basic concepts of animation, let's get to know the process of creating animation or cartoons.
1. Story:
Have you seen Antik Mahmud's videos on YouTube? His video starts with a story. And the first step in creating animation is deciding the story. A story that you can tell well and the audience will love to watch.
If you don't get a story right in the beginning, no one will enjoy your video, no matter how beautifully you do the next steps. The more time you spend on the story, the less time you have to spend on production.
2. Script:
"Dolphins are like jungles underwater, hey grandpa is like jungles." Have you heard the line somewhere? Shamima Shrabani has made YouTube crazy in a few days with her little co-star Yamin. The main reason for this is its witty script.
Once the story idea is ready to put into words, the next step is to write the script. It's important to get the story concept into words as early as possible, so you can spot story problems before you go into production.
3. Concept Art:
After preparing the script, establishing the visual style begins with the concept art of the animation, i.e. creating style and image patterns. Each scene is hand drawn according to the script. It is then decided where and how characters will be seen in any scene. Also, what is needed for the background, whether any other things can be seen with the characters etc. are drawn.
4. Storyboard
One of the most important steps in creating an animation is the storyboard. Storyboarding helps you see the full spot story and pacing issues of your animation. How many other characters are related to a character and what relationship with whom - all should be written down? A character may have a special quality, but it must be kept in pieces. Most people are more interested in presenting their ideas through a storyboard than a script.
5. Animatic:
The characters have been set, now it's time to draw the characters and their surroundings in different poses. This process is called an animatic. Basically, the mobile version of your storyboard is the animatics. Because here along with drawing, pictures, music, and dubbing have to be drafted. Then combine the three to create a basic look of the animation. Through this, you can understand how the animation is going to be.
6. Previs:
Another important step before starting animation work is previs or pre-visualization. Previs is the next step in the animatic, on which 3D models are used.
Very basic animation effects should be applied to each character to give an idea of how it will look when finished. Because animation is a very long process. Any mistakes found in the later stages of this phase will take a long time to fix and this is the last chance to make serious changes to our story.
7. Animation:
Finally, we are ready for animation!
This is where we bring life to the film. Here the animator's job is to draw the keyframes, i.e. the main picture of each action of the characters. This should be done very carefully. Let's say a character is eating something. It will take pictures of many hand positions to show that. Hands-on legs, raised up, reached for the plate, grabbed food, pulled hands to mouth. Every facial expression and gesture should be carefully drawn. Then adding them one after the other, it seems that the character put some food in his mouth
While drawing the character's basic appearance, four more images are drawn based on how they would look from all around, which is called a 'turnaround'. Then in the 'expression sheet' all the facial expressions of the character such as smile, smile, giggle, cry, cry a little, cry a lot, joy, fear, anger, frustration, annoyance, etc. And people have to make the style or 'lip' of moving their lips continuously while talking. It mainly depends on the vowel sounds of the word. As the lips move in one way to say 'A', the lips move in different ways for 'A', 'E', 'U', 'A', and 'O'.
Next, draw the surrounding props and background to make the animation look realistic. Have you ever noticed Disney animations? Animators draw frame after frame to even move a character's hair.
8. Lighting:
Making animation is a mixture of drawing and making movies. Just as the light and shadow issue has to be kept in mind while painting, while making a movie, it is seen where the light falls more or less, in animation, this matter is also taken care of.
9. Color grading and correction:
The animation is almost done, now it's time to apply some color. How the color tone will look in a scene depends on many things. Color correction is the process of matching the colors of each shot. So that we get a consistent and accurate color throughout the video. Special attention should be paid so that not too much white or black color is seen anywhere.
Color grading is then applied to the animation, which attempts to create a visual style for the video and give it a distinct look. Because the color balance is never correct in video footage. You will need to work with white balance and tone settings to transform this video into the final video footage. These settings control the overall color of your video footage and how the video will look. The texture is used as well. The real beauty of animation emerges in its proper use.
10. Sound Design:
Use a sound or music track that fits your video as sound. You can make those sounds yourself through voice-over if you want. It can be the sound of walking, slapping, or any dialogue.
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