A Journey Through Traditional Animation

What happens when a drawing or a static image starts moving and talking and interacting? Does it happen on its own or is there a process behind this trick? Yes, you’ve guessed it right! It definitely doesn’t start moving with a blow of wind, but the power of animation brings characters and images to life. 2D animation studios and professionals put in meticulous efforts using various techniques to bestow life on inanimate objects.

As mentioned, animation can be done using a number of techniques but today the animation form we are going to focus on is 2D animation also known as traditional animation.

The services of this technique are globally used in a great extent for purposes diverse in nature. One of it being in the creation of character animation videos for promotion of businesses on the social media which automatically increases the worth of a business. The characters not only give a new dimension but also act as enhancers of brand images

So What Is Traditional Animation?:

It’s also called cel animation or hand-drawn animation where the whole animation is done by hand. Even, with the advent and increase of digital technologies this remains a highly preferred form by experts.

Storyboard:

Like all other forms it starts with the basic of processing or in other words, with a story. The story gets conceptualized in a storyboard. The storyboard somewhat similar to a comic book contains sequence of shots, to connote framing, transitions and camera angles. It gives a crystal clear idea of how shots link and work together for the animation team to take it further from there.

Background Score:

Traditionally, an initial soundtrack is recorded for the animation to blend perfectly with the soundtrack. In traditional animation, to maintain the flow of the process of animating the visuals is always synchronized with a pre-recorded music score. Music, sound effects and dialogues performed by voice artists completes the whole package. Later, vocal songs which the characters sing and musical soundtracks are added as sound effects in the post production stage.

Animatic Incorporated:

Animatics technique is employed today by many advertising agencies these days to give feelers of their commercials before going full blown public. Drawn pieces of art are used by animatics like a hand that reaches a product or a head that turns etc. Photometrics, another technique where hundreds of photographs are taken to test a commercial. It’s a much easier way as opposed to animatics as images are chosen from a wide range of photographs instead of drawing art that requires time and money.

Timing And Designing:

In the next step, the storyboard goes through designing. In major productions, all major characters go through character designing. A model sheet indicates how a character will look, pose, express etc. Sometimes, small character models are designed known as maquettes to know how a character looks in 2 dimensions.

Similarly, a timing director, analyses what poses, drawings or lip movement will be required on what frames.

So the entire process of animation no doubt intricate but highly interesting. Stay with us on the rest of the stages that goes in creation of fun animation videos and films we come across in our lives.

About the Author:Dharmendra Ahuja is the author of “A journey through Traditional Animation?”, PitchWorx – 2D Animation Studio in India, providing custom corporate presentation design, explainer videos for startups and infographic design for digital marketing campaign and for your next big business presentation.

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