elliotsnoore

[elliotsnoore]

The Medium is the Massage

Rules:

1. Talk about older, 2d animation techniques in an interesting way.

2. Include images that use these techniques along with an interesting caption

3. At least 3 mini essays talking about the animation techniques used

4. Focus on both the animation and work process of the technique

5. At least 1 paragraph talking about what replaced traditional animation, and why

The Moving Image.

Extraordinary! Outstanding! Inconceivable! Weird!

But how does an Image move? What forces act upon it? What forces compel it to move so? Why aren’t we afraid of it?

These animated images can move because they’re not one image, they’re several images layered on top of one another, usually with a bigger matte painting serving as the background. These are usually referred to as “Cells” and are the older, analogue, way of animation that was and still is used in the past. These cells are moved by having animators meet and plan out the scene first, then the outline of a moving object, or an object to be moved is drawn on a top cell while the color is filled in on a bottom cell. These cells are then photographed in order to give the illusion of movement.

A “Cell,” Struggling to be brought to life via paint.

Photo by J-E Nyström, Helsinki, Finland

The moving images have been tricking us all this time…

But in order for this to work, a large team consisting of a storyboard artist, a lead animator and his animators, artists and colorists. The timing of the movement is locked down on a “dope sheet” by the lead animator that dictates the timing of each frame and the movements too. Animators then draw the “in between” frames to smooth out animation. This all happens before the actual animation, on papers and when it is approved it will be passed to the artists to draw the cells out. When that is done and dried the colorists finally comes in to color in the cell’s lineart to give the monochrome image color. After these are all done, a photography team takes the images and photographs with a special animation camera according to the dope sheet. These are then moved onto film.

So why did people make pictures move? It's all connected to art, just as the artists of yesteryear would dedicate their lives to paint a single painting for years, artists of today will dedicate their life, months at a time to see these pictures on the screen and move. At least for a paycheck.

The special animation stand, a contraption made to “move” these images

But this is ancient and arcane knowledge, nowadays everything is done on machines.

Yet these machines' techniques are also old, with the first recorded instance of new fangled “Digital animation” being made in 1989 for Disney’s “The Little Mermaid”. While digital graphics have been used since 1981, notably in Tron, “The Little Mermaid”, marks the first use of digital graphics for 2D animation for Disney. This was done with a new for the eighties program called “Computer Animation Production System,” This wholly uniquely named program could be shortened down to “CAPS”. This was a joint venture between Disney and Pixar to speed up the process of cell animation without sacrificing quality, as a printer or a fax machine could be used to upload the animator's linework cells and have them be digitally inked and colored and even animated. This technology hasn’t been used in a while as more popular programs such as Adobe, Krita, OpenToonz and ToonBoom 2 are used to animate most new 2d animated shows.

Works cited

Lewell, John. “Behind the screens at Hanna-Barbera.” Web.archive.org, 3 July 2017, web.archive.org/web/20170703033828/excelsior.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~carlson/history/PDFs/hanna-barbera.pdf.

 Nystrom, J-E. “Wikimedia Commons Ink and Paint.” Wikimedia, 2021, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:File-Inkandpaint.jpg.

“Oxberry Animation Stand (351 BCSB / 353 BCSB) | CLAS Production Unit.” Clas.uiowa.edu, 2024, clas.uiowa.edu/produnit/equipment/oxberry-animation-stand. 

 Seymour, Mike. “Alvy Ray Smith: RGBA, the Birth of Compositing & the Founding of Pixar.” Fxguide, 5 July 2012, https://www.fxguide.com/fxfeatured/alvy-ray-smith-rgba-the-birth-of-compositing-the-founding-of-pixar/

Stefyn, Nadia. “What Is the Best 2D Animation Software? Experts Choice | CG Spectrum.” Www.cgspectrum.com, 26 May 2020, www.cgspectrum.com/blog/what-is-the-best-2d-animation-software.

Robertson, Barbara. “Part 7: Movie Retrospective | Computer Graphics World.” Www.cgw.com, July 2002, https://www.cgw.com/Publications/CGW/2002/Volume-25-Issue-7-July-2002-/Part-7-Movie-Retrospective.aspx

---. “The Tradition Lives on | Computer Graphics World.” Www.cgw.com, Jan. 2010, https://www.cgw.com/Publications/CGW/2010/Volume-33-Issue-1-Jan-2010-/The-Tradition-Lives-On.aspx