Art: some 2D animation for inspiration

Asuka Langley Soryu, sampaikini

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There are so many ways to approach animation (a discipline/art form I'm trying to learn), that I find myself turning to works that I like for inspiration. In animation there's not only the artwork, but also storyline, voice, music, camera angles, and--maybe most important--motion and timing.

This one's my odds-on favorite. I love the sketchy, yet fluid style, transitions, now-you-see-it-now-you-don't effects and the song is lovely, too.

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This one has a similar story, but very different style. Again I'm attracted to the wispy effects.

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The backgrounds are really, really good in this film. And the story is fun--it reminds me of questing in an MMORPG.

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This last film is a collection of scenes from a Japanese animated television series called "Neon Genesis Evangelion." In most of the animé/manga films I've seen the artwork is outstanding. If you'd like to get an idea of how dedicated its fans can be, here's a page listing the author's top ten favorite characters. The page will also give you an idea of the wide range in artistic styles. Keep in mind that some animé can be pretty riské by America's prudish standards.

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To play these videos in sequence the playlist is available on YouTube.

-- Marge

Animation: 2D, 3D or both

Since I'm working on learning animation, I go looking for good information on techniques, styles, and effects from time to time.  There is so much good work to see, especially on YouTube.  One thing I learned yesterday is to do the animated parts in 2D and the background in 3D.  Good to know.

Here Jazza of Draw with Jazza shows how he develops a character.

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This delightful 3D animation, A Fox Tale, reminds me of Samurai Jack.

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Below is a trailer for the CGI 2D/3D animation titled Colombiana; it's by Planet Jump Productions and published on YouTube by The CG Bros.  You may recall the movie Colombiana was a 2011 French-American action film co-written and produced by Luc Besson and directed by Olivier Megaton.

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This last sample--Telescope--is a film with CGI elements.  It's included because it is arresting and just plain beautiful.

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-- Marge

DIY: animate

According to the dictionary animate means bringing to life; animation brings artwork to life.  It can be 2D, 3D, Gif, or any combination -- the possibilities are many.  According to the LA Times, Fred Seibert, producer of YouTube's Cartoon Hangover, foresees 'next golden age of animation' on Internet.  Here's a short piece from Seibert's channel:

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DIY.org has a page on animation that introduces different methods and offers some challenges for developing skills.  It could be a good way to get started. There's a free online app at PowToon for creating simple animations with a nice library of text effects, images, characters, and such.  You have to sign up to use it.  It's a lot like putting a video together in a video editor.  Here's my test video:

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To do animated motion, such as what you see in animated films (mostly 2D), you need a good animation application. Most of them are fairly expensive.  Toon Boom is a leader in the market. Below is a rather long tutorial that gives you a good idea of how to handle such an application when creating a character walking.  Note that the ability to observe and apply your observations to your craft is important as well.

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This list at about.com gives links to sources of free animation software.  Some are 30-day trials, some are 3D.  Pencil is an open source, free application well worth a try.

-- Marge

This trek began with ragdoll physics

Lately I've been working on learning animation with the intent of creating characters and a story -- there's a lot to learn.  And since storyboarding can help a lot with story development, I'm looking at that too.  Let me tell you, storyboard artists have a lot to consider when producing storyboards; just one area is camera techniques.

There are many types of animation. Check Wikipedia's animation article for some good information on 3D, 2D, computer, stop motion, and such.  While looking at the "types of animation" results, I came across the term 'ragdoll physics' -- who can pass up checking out a term like that? But that's just one step in my trek.

From there I moved on to cartoon physics and hammerspace.

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Not sure who this Greg Williams guy is, I did a little searching.  He used to work for the Tampa Tribune as a cartoonist. There's a Q&A featuring him at Mac Slocum's site. Among his latest projects is Twips.  One of them is below.

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Greg Williams, @owlcity, Twipcomics 

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An archive of Greg's work is here.

-- Marge

Lights, camera...animate

Having just started on producing an animated series (after I learn the software and do the artwork), I've been looking at examples for insight into the process works.  There are some truly great samples on YouTube.  I'm particularly interested in combining 2D and 3D.

iAnimate.net offers workshops (pretty spendy, but it looks like most things related to animation are) that produce some amazing output.   Here's their Members Showcase - Winter 2013 -- it's long but worth the time.

Here's another, shorter one from iAnimate -- Games - Fall 2012 Showreel.  (Note the excellent physics.)

In this next clip the concept of adding 2D drawings to a 3D animation is discussed, using the film short "Paperman" as an example.  Intriguing.  To quote from Snouty Pig's post:

"Paperman" director John Kahrs has described the process: "It's not like a texture map. It's just like painting on the surface of the CG. It acutally moves on a 2D layer that's driven by the CG."

My last sample is a presentation posted by DigInfo News, showing a new interactive technology using 2D to 3D animation:

If you're interested in doing animation, take a look at SplineBomb, which offers animation news, tutorials and works in progress.

If you want to try 2D and/or 3D animation without spending a small fortune for it, try Unity3d, a game creation software that can be downloaded free.  To sell your output you'll need to buy a license.  This Wikipedia article about independent video game development, which seems dated because it doesn't include iOS, Android, and other newer platforms, gives an idea of how licenses work.

It's beginning to look like adding 2D to 3D is twice the work.  Hmmm.

-- Marge

Animated short films

It being Friday, I went looking for some humor.  I didn't find anything I wanted to use but these animated short films are well worth watching.  Some of them aren't that short, or even funny, but all of them are beautifully done.

Sintel (2010) - full cartoon by the Blender Foundation (HD 1080p) (14:48 mins) -- This looks like a trailer for a game to me.  Lovely artwork.

Love Recipe (5:12 mins) -- Amazing amount of detail

Alarm (8:50 mins) -- This animation by Mesai, a South Korean animation team, feels too long for the subject matter, but the animation techniques are done perfectly.  Just look at the dynamic cloth of the curtains.

Alma (5:25 mins) -- This is a little dark, but again, beautiful work.

Little Tombstone (5:12 mins) -- A robustly French animation, this is reminiscent of one of Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns. It's posted by the ESMA Movies channel.

T-t-that's all, Folks.

-- Marge

How about a laugh or two for your blog?

You can offer cartoons on your blog.

At Andertoons you can select a topic and get the HTML to paste into your blog's code.  Where you paste it will determine whether the cartoon is only in that post or a fixture on your blog.  In Blogger use Layout/Add a Gadget/Basics/<HTML/JavaScript> to show a cartoon daily.

Randy Glasbergen requires that you purchase a license to use his cartoons, but a reader can always just visit his site via a link.

Dave Walker offers links to individual cartoons.  Here's one on blogging:

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

In closing, here's a page from Cartoon Brew with animations and information about animation entertainment.  There's likely something there you'll like and want to see more of.

Have a great day ... and remember to laugh.

--Marge