Although the majority of this lecture was focused on the differences between western and eastern animation, and how stories are driven differently, I preferred the brief look at various ideas of animation that make the environment seem much more believable, which until this lecture, I assumed they were common sense, and kind of always used, but apparently not. The first animation we saw was the Pixar short, 'The Adventures of André and Wally B.'.
This was the first 3D animated film to incorporate various concepts of animation. One of these was the way the characters were created. Before this, all characters had been rigid and solid, yet these were able to be squashed and stretched which is one of the key principles of animation. The trees in the background were created using a particle effects system, where one tree was modelled, and the particle system would repeat the geometry a certain number of times randomly within a set area. It was also the first film to use motion blur, which made the character movements seem much more fluid and realistic.
Sunday 12 December 2010
Friday 3 December 2010
Forms of Animation!
This lecture touched on the various methods of animation that are still popular in the industry today. The main three forms of animation are traditional, stop motion, and 3D computer animation.
Traditional animation is created by hand-drawing each frame of the animation. Pieces of equipment such as lightboxes make this method a lot easier. You are also able to trace over frames of live action footage which is called rotoscoping. Although these methods help, many animators simply use the principles of animation that they know to work without these.
Although I'm studying a 3D Animation based course which involves little traditional animation, I have to admit that I find a lot of traditional animation much more impressive simply by knowing. For instance, one of my favourite Disney films, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, uses some elements of computer animation, but still relies heavily on traditional hand-drawn methods.
The main thing I find amazing in this animation is the effects such as the fire and smoke, which also reminded me of all the effects used in 'Colours of the Wind' from Pocahontas.
Traditional animation is created by hand-drawing each frame of the animation. Pieces of equipment such as lightboxes make this method a lot easier. You are also able to trace over frames of live action footage which is called rotoscoping. Although these methods help, many animators simply use the principles of animation that they know to work without these.
Although I'm studying a 3D Animation based course which involves little traditional animation, I have to admit that I find a lot of traditional animation much more impressive simply by knowing. For instance, one of my favourite Disney films, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, uses some elements of computer animation, but still relies heavily on traditional hand-drawn methods.
The main thing I find amazing in this animation is the effects such as the fire and smoke, which also reminded me of all the effects used in 'Colours of the Wind' from Pocahontas.
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