Techniques and Developments of 2D Animation

Techniques
Traditional 2D Animation
Flick Book
A flick book is a series of pictures laid out into
book form where each picture is changes
slightly to form the next picture. The pages are
laid out in this format so that when the pages
are flicked through fast enough it makes the
book into a moving picture of sorts, an
animated picture. The first appearance of the
flipbook was in September 1868 when
John Barnes Linnett patented it under
the name of Kineograph (moving
picture). The flick book was
considered a great novelty toy for
children to play with, so they can still
be seen being produced to this date
being found as a gift in children's
cereal boxes of Christmas crackers. Flick books can consist of thousands and
thousands of pages to make the animation of it even smoother and in more detail.

Rotoscoping
Rotoscoping is an animation technique used by animators to trace
over motion picture footage, frame by frame, when realistic action is
required. Originally, photographed live-
action movie images were projected
onto a glass panel and re-drawn by an
animator. This projection equipment is
referred to as a Rotoscope. Although computers
eventually replaced this device, the process is still referred to as
Rotoscoping. In the visual effects industry, the term Rotoscoping refers to the
technique of manually creating a matte for an element on a live-action plate
so it may be composited over another background.
Hand Drawn/Cel Animation
Cel is an abbreviation of the word celluloid.
Celluloid is a transparent sheet that animators
used to use to make their animations. The
animator would draw or paint one frame of their
animation
onto a piece
of cel. In the
production of the hand, drawn animation there
would be one piece of celluloid that would
usually have a static background on it as
retracing the background onto each cel would
take up too much
time so they
would lay whatever they wanted to draw on top of the
background cel and carry on through their animation.
Earl Hurd first created cel animation in 1910. Cel
animation was used to create cartoons like Felix the
Cat, Felixs first appearance was in 1919 in the
episode Feline Follies and as technology has evolved
Felix, the Cat was revamped in the early 2000s with newer animation techniques.

Digital Techniques for 2D Animation

2D Bitmap Graphics
 Bitmap images are also known as raster
images, they are made up of pixels in a
grid, and these are small dots of
colours, which together form what is
seen on the computer screen. Bitmap
graphics are dependent on resolution,
resolution is the amount of pixels that
are in an image, and this is usually seen
as dots per inch (dpi) or pixels per inch
(ppi). Since bitmaps are dependent on
resolution this means it is hard to re size an image. If the
image is increased in size through the use of the
software's re sample or re size command then it has to
create new pixels, this leads to a great deal of quality loss.
When an image is decreased in size with the softwares re
sample or re size command then pixels are lost, this also leads to a loss in quality.
Scaling is different to using the soft wares re sample or re size command, scaling is
when an image is re sized by using the edges of an image to re size it, when a
bitmap image is stretched to be larger then it gives the image less quality and a
jagged appearance since it is decreasing the ppi, when a bitmap image is shrunk
then it gives the image a higher quality since it is increasing the ppi.

2D Vector Graphics
Vector graphics is the use of polygons to represent images in computer graphics.
Vector graphics are made up of many mathematical equations rather than pixels,
this means that the vector graphics are always at the highest quality. Vector
graphics is the use of points, lines, curves and shapes (also known as geometrical
primitives) to represent images in
computer graphics. A vector image is
made up of paths and nodes so it
doesn't matter how much the image is
stretched or shrunk it will maintain
100% quality. Since vector graphics
are scalable, this means that unlike
bitmap graphics, vector graphics are
resolution in-dependent, this means that a vector image can be increased and
decreased in size and the image will be crisp and sharp, fonts are a type of vector
graphic. Vector graphics are also not restricted to a rectangular shape as bitmaps
are, a vector graphic can be placed over another image an the image underneath it
will show through.

Application Software
Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia software platform used for
production of animations, rich Internet applications, desktop
applications, mobile applications and mobile games. Flash
displays text, vector graphics and raster graphics to provide
animations, video games and applications. It allows streaming
of audio and video, and can capture mouse, keyboard,
microphone and camera input. Artists may produce Flash
graphics and animations using Adobe Flash. Software
developers may produce applications and video games using Adobe Flash Builder,
Flash Develop, Flash Catalyst, or any text editor when used with the Apache Flex
SDK. I will be using Adobe Flash during this unit to create my 2D healthy eating
animation.

Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe
Systems for macOS and Windows. Thomas and John Knoll created Photoshop in
1988. It can edit and compose raster images in multiple layers and supports masks,
alpha compositing and several color models including RGB, CMYK, CIELAB, spot
color and duotone. Photoshop has vast support for graphic file formats but also uses
its own PSD and PSB file formats that support all the aforementioned features. In
 addition to raster graphics, it has limited abilities to edit or render
text, vector graphics (especially through clipping path), 3D
graphics and video. Photoshop's featureset can be expanded by
Photoshop plug-ins, programs developed and distributed
independently of Photoshop that can run inside it and offer new or
enhanced features. I will use Photoshop to create the graphics that
I will use within Flash to create my animation.

Development
Pioneers
Jospeh Plateau
Joseph Plateau was born on the 14 October 1801 in Brussels.
He was a Belgian physicist. He was one of the first person to
demonstrate the illusion of a moving image. To do this he
used counter rotating disks with repeating drawn images in
small increments of motion on one and regularly spaced slits
in the other. He called this device of 1832 the
Phenakistoscope. The Phnakisticope
(better known by the later
misspelling Phenakistoscope")
was the first widespread animation
device that created a fluent illusion
of motion. The Phenakistoscope is regarded as one of the
first forms of moving media entertainment that paved the
way for the future motion picture and film industry. It can
be compared to a GIF animation as it has a short
duration and plays as a loop until the viewer stops it.

William Horner
William Horner was born in Bristol on the 9th of June 1786. William
George Horner thought up a cylindrical variation and
published details about its mathematical
principles in January 1834. He called his
device the "ddaleum" (the wheel of the
devil) as a reference to the Greek myth of
Daedalus. Horner's revolving drum had
viewing slits between the pictures instead of
above them as most later zoetrope variations
would have. Horner planned to publish the ddaleum with
optician King, Jr in Bristol but it "met with some impediment probably in the
sketching of the figures".
Emile Reynaud
Charles- mile Reynaud (8 December 1844 9 January 1918) was a French
inventor, responsible for the first projected animated
cartoons. Reynaud created the Praxinoscope in 1877. The
praxinoscope was an animation device, the successor to the
zoetrope. Charles-mile Reynaud invented it in France in
1877. Like the zoetrope, it used a strip of pictures placed
around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder. The
praxinoscope improved on the zoetrope by
replacing its narrow viewing slits with
an inner circle of mirrors, placed so
that the reflections of the pictures
appeared stationary in position as
the wheel turned. Someone looking in the mirrors would
therefore see a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of
motion, with a brighter and less distorted picture than the
zoetrope offered.

Edward Muybridge
Eadweard Muybridge 1830 1904, born
Edward James Muggeridge) was an English
photographer important for his
pioneering work in photographic studies
of motion, and early work in motion-
picture projection. The zoopraxiscope is
an early device for displaying motion
pictures. Created by photographic pioneer in
Eadweard Muybridge 1879. The
Zoopraxiscope (earlier known as the
Zoogyroscope) was essentially a projecting version of the old Phenakisticsope or
'spinning picture disk'. The device projected sequences of images from glass discs
and was devised in order to prove the authenticity of Muybridge's galloping horse
pictures. The earlier Zoogyroscope took the 16-inch discs while the latter
Zoopraxiscope took the 12-inch discs.
Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (1847 1931) was an American inventor and
businessperson, who has been described as
Americas greatest inventor. In 1891, Thomas
Edison created the Kinetoscope. The Kinetoscope
is an early motion picture exhibition device. The
Kinetoscope was designed for films to be viewed
by one individual at a time through a peephole
viewer window at the top of the device. The
Kinetoscope was not a movie projector, but
introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic
projection before the advent of video, by creating the illusion of movement by
conveying a strip of perforated film bearing sequential images over a light source
with a high-speed shutter.

Lumire Brothers
The Lumire brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas (19
October 1862, 10 April 1954) and Louis Jean (5
October 1864 6 June 1948), were among the first
filmmakers in history. They patented an improved
cinematograph, which in contrast to Thomas
Edison's "peepshow" kinetoscope allowed
simultaneous viewing by multiple parties. A
cinematograph is a motion picture film camera,
which also serves as a film projector and printer.
The Cinmatographe produced a sharper projected image than
had been seen before due to its design, in which a kind of fork
held frame behind the lens in place using the perforations in the
sides of the filmstrip.

Developers
Walt Disney
 Walter Elias "Walt" Disney
(December 5,
1901 December 15, 1966)
was an American
entrepreneur, animator,
voice actor and film
producer. A pioneer of the
American animation
industry, he introduced
several developments in the
production of cartoons. As a film producer, Disney holds the
record for most Academy Awards earned by an individual,
having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations. He was
presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement
Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors. Several of his films are included
in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Disney developed an early
interest in drawing. He took art classes as a boy and got a job as a commercial
illustrator at the age of 18. He moved to California in the early 1920s and set up the
Disney Brothers Studio with his brother Roy. Walt developed the character Mickey
Mouse in 1928, his first highly popular success; he also provided the voice for his
creation in the early years. As the studio grew, Disney became more adventurous,
introducing synchronized sound, full-color three-strip Technicolor, feature-length
cartoons and technical developments in cameras. The results, seen in features such
as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Fantasia, Pinocchio (both 1940),
Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942), furthered the development of animated film.

Hanna Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions Inc. (simply known
as Hanna-Barbera and also referred to as H-B
Enterprises, H-B Production Company and
Hanna-Barbera Cartoons). Hanna Barbera was an American animation studio that
dominated American television animation for three decades in the mid-to-late 20th
century. founded in 1957 by former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation directors
William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (creators of Tom and Jerry) and live-action
director George Sidney in partnership with Screen Gems, television arm of Columbia
Pictures. Sold to Taft Broadcasting in late 1966, it spent the next two decades as its
subsidiary. It is considered the very first animation studio to successfully produce
cartoons made exclusively for television. Hanna-Barbera is known for creating a
wide variety of popular animated characters and for over 30 years, the studio
produced smash hit cartoon shows, including Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, The
Jetsons, Wacky Races, Scooby-Doo and The Smurfs. For their achievements, Hanna
and Barbera together won seven Academy Awards, 8 Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe
Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The pair was also inducted into
the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1993.
Warner Bros
Warner Bros.
Entertainment Inc.
(known professionally

as
Warner Bros. Pictures, often referred to as
Warner Bros. or Warner Brothers and
abbreviated as WB) is an American
entertainment company, film studio and
film distributor that is a division of Time Warner and is headquartered in Burbank,
California. It is one of the "Big Six" major American film studios. Warner Bros.
Animation (currently known alternatively as Warner Animation Group for theatrically
released films) is the animation division of Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Time
Warner. The studio is closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies
characters, among others. The studio is the successor to Warner Bros. Cartoons
(formerly Leon Schlesinger Productions), the studio, which produced Looney Tunes
and Merrie Melodies cartoon, shorts from 1933 to 1963, and from 1967 to 1969.
Warner reestablished its own animation division in 1980 to produce Looney Tunes
related works.

Norman McLaren
Norman McLaren (11 April 1914 27 January 1987) was a
Scottish/Canadian animator, director and producer known
for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).
He was a pioneer in a number of areas of animation and
filmmaking, including hand-drawn animation, drawn-on-
film animation, visual music, abstract film, pixilation and
graphical sound.

His awards included an Oscar for the Best Documentary

in 1952 for Neighbours, a Silver Bear for best short
documentary at the 1956 Berlin International Film
Festival Rythmetic and a 1969 BAFTA Award for Best
Animated Film for Pas de deux.

Len Lye
Leonard Charles Huia "Len" Lye (5 July 1901 15 May 1980), was a Christchurch,
New Zealand-born artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic
sculpture. His films are held in archives
including the New Zealand Film Archive,
British Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art in
New York City, and the Pacific Film Archive at
University of California, Berkeley. Lye's
sculptures are found in the collections of the
Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art
Institute of Chicago, the Albright-Knox Art
Gallery and the Berkeley Art Museum.
Although he became a naturalized citizen of
the United States in 1950, much of his work
went to New Zealand after his death, where it is housed at the Govett-Brewster Art
Gallery in New Plymouth.

Contemporary Work
Monty Python
Monty Pythons Flying Circus (known during the final
series as just Monty Python) is a British sketch comedy
series created by the comedy group Monty Python and
broadcast by the BBC from 1969 to 1974. The shows
were composed of surreality, risqu or innuendo-laden
humour, sight gags and observational sketches without
punchlines. It also featured animations by group
member Terry Gilliam, often sequenced or merged with
live action. The first episode was recorded on 7
September and premiered on 5 October 1969 on BBC One, with 45 episodes airing
over four series from 1969 to 1974, plus two episodes for German TV.

Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine is a 1968 British
animated musical, fantasy, comedy film
inspired by the music of the Beatles,
directed by animation producer George
Dunning, and produced by United Artists
and King Features Syndicate. Initial press
reports stated that the Beatles
themselves would provide their own
character voices; however, aside from
composing and performing the songs,
the real Beatles participated only in the closing scene of the film, while their cartoon
counterparts were voiced by other actors. The Beatles' animated personas were
based on their appearance in the promotional film for the song "Strawberry Fields
Forever", with the exception of Paul being without his moustache.

A Scanner Darkly
A Scanner Darkly is a 2006 American animated science-fiction,
thriller film directed by Richard Linklater, based on the novel of
the same name by Philip K. Dick. The film tells the story of
identity and deception in a near-future dystopia constantly under
intrusive high-tech police surveillance in the midst of a drug
addiction epidemic. The film was shot digitally and then animated
using interpolated rotoscope, an animation technique in which
animators trace over the original footage frame by frame, for use
in live-action and animated films, giving the finished result a
distinctive animated look.

Persepolis
Persepolis is a 2007 French animated, biographical film based on Marjane Satrapi's
autobiographical graphic novel of the same name. The film was written and directed
by Satrapi with Vincent Paronnaud. The story follows a young girl as she comes of
age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. Directed by Christian Desmares,
the film was produced by a total of twenty animators. Initially opposed to producing
an animated movie due to the high level of difficulty, producers Marc-Antoine Robert
and Xavier Regault gave protagonist, Marjane Satrapi, alternative options of film
production to avoid animation. As admitted by producer Robert, "I know the new
generation of French comic book artists quite well, and I'm
afraid of Marjane's. I offered to write an original script for her,
because I didn't want to work on an animated movie at all...I
knew how complicated it was"

Genre and Forms

Cinema
Computer animation combines
the arts of computer graphics and hand-drawn,
two-dimensional (2D) animation to create computer-
generated characters, settings and surroundings.
The two common uses of computer animation
in films are fully computer- animated projects
(such as the Pixar films) and the use of computer-
generated imagery in live-action films (such as the
cyborgs in the Terminator films). Animated subjects
appear to move because images appear on screen
and are quickly replaced with a series of similar, slightly altered images in a
sequence that suggests walking, waving, jousting or any action the viewers eyes
perceive to be occurring. Computer
animation is favored precisely because it
speeds up the process of creating the
many images needed for such a sequence.
CGI effects in live action are created the
same way as in completely computer-
animated projects. The live-action
segments are filmed near a blue or green
screen backdrop that is then removed in
the editing process and replaced with the
created CGI in a process commonly known as chroma keying. Sometimes live-action
actors and crews are working entirely with a CG backdrop, such as in "Sin City" and
the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

Advertising
Using animation within advertisements is very common is it is sometimes easier to
get the image you want for your advert by creating it rather than trying to create it
without using animation. Adverts can be fully animated, partially animated, or
include CGI. Examples of these type of adverts are the Lloyds TSB adverts and the
Frosties advert as the Lloyds adverts are designed to look like a drawing whereas
 the Frosties adverts include real life actors with a CGI
tiger throughout it.

Childrens Television

There have been hunderds of

animated childrens
television over the years
some of the most popular
ones like Looney Tunes and
Tom & Jerry are still going
today. Animated subjects appear to move because
images appear on screen and are quickly replaced with a
series of similar, slightly altered images in a sequence
that suggests walking, waving, jousting or any action the
viewers eyes perceive to be occurring. Computer
animation is favored precisely because it speeds up the
process of creating the many images needed for such a
sequence. Computer animation can originate from 2D drawings or be drawn in
computer programs. A character will be scanned in to a computer animation
program or a virtual skeleton of the character represents them. Once the virtual
skeleton is in the program, the animator moves key features, such as limbs and
mouth, to key frames, the next major movement of the character.

Music Videos
The idea of a music video is to gain extra promotion; give it extra air time to a
chosen demographic to increase the sales and generally increase awareness of an
artist.

Throughout the 'MTV Generation', there were numerous

animated videos being created but as technology became
more accessible and the platform for showing media
stretched from across numerous TV channels dedicated to
music, then to internet, there has been an increased
number of animated videos being created. Daft Punks music video for their song
One More Time had an Anime style to it which sort of contrasted with their image
so that it stood out more.
Computer Games
The venerable art of animating still images
has existed in some form or another since
the 1800s. Today, however, new evolutionary
offshoots of the art form make the industry
more diverse than ever. Video Games in
particular, offer a variety of opportunities
and restrictions not found in previous forms
of animation.

Regardless of the platform, video games offer a cornucopia of rich animation, be it

in the Full Motion Video cut-scenes or the abundant in-game engine animations.
FMV can be either hand drawn or CG, and
is generated in much the same way one
would produce content for film or video.
With limited or non-existent user input,
FMV sequences are mostly employed for
narrative purposes. The in-game engine
animations are the real source of the
mediums' potential. It is here that a
talented artist is able to tell a story using
body language and limited graphics. "How a character walks (e.g. slouching sadly or
bouncing happily) is telling the character's story.

Mobile Phones
Mobile phones work completely
through animation as to be able
to view things on mobile phones
and animation usually takes place
like when swiping across your
phone to the next page on an
iPhone it will have a transition
animation. You can also purchase
and play games on most
smartphones these days and all of these games with have
animations within them as that how you make a game. An
example of one of the most popular mobile games is Clash of
Clans. This game has lots of animation within it, like how the
characters move.

Websites
Animation on a web page is any form of movement of objects or images.
Animations are usually done in Adobe Flash, although Java and GIF
animations are also used in many websites. Streaming video in Flash is
coming increasingly popular.

Reasons to have motion on a web page are to

draw attention to something, to provide a
demonstration or to entertain.
The need for movement on a page depends on the
purpose and content of the page. A financial institute would not really
need animations on their pages, while an entertainment site obviously would
have such movement.