MODULE 1

PRODUCE KEY DRAWINGS

 Learning Outcome 1. IDENTIFY ANIMATION REQUIREMENTS

Information Sheet 1 Basic Animation Concepts

Information Sheet 2 Principles and techniques
Information Sheet 3 Process in Animation

 Learning Outcome 2. PRODUCE KEY DRAWINGS

Information Sheet 4 Fundamentals of Figure Drawing

Information Sheet 5 Character Construction
Information Sheet 6 Pose – to – Pose Animation

Description: This module covers the skills, attitude and knowledge required to identify animation
requirements, edit, revise and produce key drawings.

Course Objective: At the end of the course, the student will be able to learn the basic knowledge in
Creating animation

CONTENTS:
Information Sheet 1 BASIC ANIMATION CONCEPTS
1.1 What is animation
1.2 Brief History
1.3 How Animation works
1.4 Animation and frame rates
1.5 Types of Animation
Self-Check 1

Information Sheet 2 PRINCIPLES AND TECHNIQUES

2.1 12 Basic Principles
2.2 Animation Techniques
Self-Check 2

Information Sheet 3 ANIMATION PROCESS

3.1 2D Animation Process Chart
3.2 Equipment
3.3 The Story Board
Self-Check 3
Information Sheet 4 FUNDAMENTALS OF FIGURE DRAWING
4.1 The Gesture
4.2 Structure
4.3 Shape Analyzation
4.4 Values
4.5 Developing Forms
4.6 The Head
4.7 The Interlocking Forms
Self-Check 4

Information Sheet 5 CHARACTER CONSTRUCTION

5.1 Steps
5.2 Drawing with Basic Shapes
Self-Check 5

Information Sheet 6 POSE TO POSE ANIMATION

6.1 What is Pose-Pose Animation Method
6.2 Developing Key Poses Through Working Rough
6.3 Planning Key Poses
6.4 Expressive Poses
 MODULE 1
IDENTIFYING/DETERMINING FUNDAMENTAL CAUSE OF PROBLEMS

LEARNING GUIDE
Learning Steps Resources
1. Read Information Sheet 1 on Basic Information Sheet 1
Animation Concepts
2. Answer Self-Check 1 Self-Check 1
3. Read Information Sheet 2 on Principles Information Sheet 2
and Techniques
4. Answer Self-Check 2 Self-Check 2
5. Read Information Sheet 3 on Process in Information Sheet 3
Animation
6. Answer Self-Check 3 Self-Check 3
7. Read Information Sheet 4 on Information Sheet 4
Fundamentals off Figure Drawing
8. Answer Self-Check 4 Self-Check 4
9. Read Information Sheet 4 on Character Information sheet 5
Construction
10. Answer Self-Check 5 Self-Check 5
 INFORMATION SHEET 1
BASIC ANIMATION CONCEPTS

1.1 What is animation?

“To animate” means “ to give life to”. Animations are created from a sequence of still images. The
images are displayed rapidly in succession so that the eye is fooled into perceiving continuous
motion. This is because of the phenomenon called Persistence of Vision. This is the tendency of the
eye and brain to continue to perceive an image even after it has disappeared. For example, in the
above shown figure, a sequence of images of a character in various positions gives the illusion of
motion when displayed rapidly one after another. Animation generally deals with hand drawn
images in contrast to motion video which deals with actual photographs of real-world objects taken
through a camera, although both uses the concepts of displaying a sequence of images one after
another to depict motion.

Uses of Animation

In multimedia, animation is regarded as an important and useful tool for communicating

information. The main application areas of animation include:

 Marketing and Advertising

 Staff and Program Development Training Presentation
 Educational Multimedia Programs
 Training Programs
 Sports
 Edutainment titles
 Health-Care Programs
 Games
 Process Simulation
 Cyber Art
 Interactive Magazines
 The Internet

1.2 Brief History

Animation is a graphic representation of drawings to show movement within those drawings. A

series of drawings are linked together and usually photographed by a camera. The drawings have
been slightly changed between individualized frames so when they are played back in rapid
succession (24 frames per second) there appears to seamless movement within the drawings

In 1824, Peter Roget published a paper called “Persistent of Vision With Regard to Moving Objects.”
This paper describes the phenomenon that occurs in human vision where an image lingers even
after the light from the source has ceased. This phenomenon makes animation possible. This led to
numerous “Philosophical” toys during the 19 th century. These include the Zoetrope, and the
Flipbook. The first animated cartoon (in the traditional sense, i.e. on film) was “ Fantasmagorie” by
the French director Émile Cohl. Released in 1908.

One of the very first successful animated cartoons was “Gertie the Dinosaur” by Winsor McCay. It is
considered the first example of true character animation.

In the 1930s to 1960s, theatrical cartoons were produced in huge numbers, and usually shown
before a feature film in a movie theater. MGM, Disney and Warner Brothers were the largest studios
producing these 5 to 10-minute “shorts”. Competition from television drew audiences away from
movie theaters in the late 1950s, and the theatrical cartoon began its decline. Today, animated
cartoons are produced mostly for television, however with the advent of personal computers and
the accessibility of the internet and easy animation software such as Flash, it has now become
possible for the average person to create animations allowing many novice animators to feature
their cartoons online.
1.3 How animation Works

In the traditional animations process, animators will begin by drawing sequences of animation on
sheets of paper often using colored pencils, one picture or “frame” at a time.

A key animator or lead animator will draw the key drawings (“key” in the sense of “important”) in a
scene, using the character layouts as a guide. The Key animator draws enough of the frames to get
across the major points of the action; in a sequence of a character jumping across a gap, the key
animator may draw a frame of the character as he is about to leap, two or more frames as the
character is flying through the air, and the frame for the character landing on the other side of the
gap.

Once the key animation is approved, the lead animator forwards the scene on the clean-up
department, made up of the clean-up animators and the inbetweeners. The clean-up animators take
the lead and assistant animators’ drawings and trace them onto a new sheet of paper, taking care in
including all of the details present on the original model sheets, so that it appears that one person
animated the entire film. The inbetweeners will draw in whatever frames are still missing in
between the other animators’ drawings. This procedure is called tweening.

1.4 Animation and Frame Rates

Virtually all visual animation media uses frames – a series of still images shown very rapidly to
simulate motion or change. Anything you see on a computer, television, or movie screen is based on
frames. This goes back to the earliest days of cartoon animation, where the individual pictures were
drawn on sheets of cellophane and became known as cels, and the earliest motion pictures, where a
similar technique was used with multiple photographs.

TV video builds 30 entire frames or pictures every second. Movies are shot at a shutter rate of 24
frames per second, but using projections tricks the flicker is increased to 48. On some projectors
each frame is shown 3 times before the next frame, for a total of 72 flickers per second which helps
eliminate the flicker effect.

1.5 Types of Animation

There are many different types pf animation that are used nowadays. The main types are clay
animation, computer animation, cel-shaped animation and regular animation.

Clay Animation
is not really a new technique as many people might think. Clay animation began shortly after
plasticine (a clay-like substance) was invented in 1897, and one of the first films to use it was made
in 1902. This type of animation was not very popular until Gumby was invented. The invention of
Gumby was a big step in the history of clay animation. Now, clay animation has become more
popular and easier to do. Later on, more clay animation films were made, such as the Wallace and
Gromit series of movies, the advertisements that were made for the California Raisin Advisory Board
and the Celebrity Deathmatch series.

Computer Animation
Has also become common. Computer animation began about 40 years ago when the first
computer drawing system was created by General Motors and IBM. It allowed the user to view a 3D
model of a car and change the angles and rotation. Years later, more people helped make computer
animation better. Movies that used computer animation are: The abyss, Jurassic Park, Forrest Gump,
and more. Also, computer animation was used differently, as in the show ‘South Park’, which used
stop motion cutout animation; recently it uses computer animation. A well-known computer
animation company is Pixar. They are responsible for making Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc.,
Finding Nemo, and more. Also, video games have used computer animations as well.

Cel-Shaded Animation
Is makes computer graphics appear to be hand-drawn. This type of animation is most commonly
turning up in console video games. Most of the time the cel-shading process starts with a typical 3D
model. The difference occurs when a cel-shaded object is drawn on-screen. The rendering engine
only selects a few shades of each color for the object, making it look flat.
 In order to draw black ink lines outlining an object’s contours, the back-face culling is inverted to
draw back-faced triangles with black-colored vertices. The vertices must be drawn many times with
a slight change in translation to make the lines thick. This produces a black-shaded silhouette. The
back-face culling is then set back to normal to draw the shading and optional textures of the object.
The result is that the object is drawn with a black outline.

The first 3