The animation is the art of bringing to life an inanimate object or an illustrated or 3D generated character. It is created by rapidly projecting sequenced images, one after another, to create the illusion of life. But that’s not the first thing you think of when you hear the word Animation, is it? The most important part of all that is the word life. Giving life is the true essence of the animator’s work. And there are many ways to do it. It could be drawing. It could be moving the rigs of the characters in 3D software. It could be with puppets, characters, or figures cut out.
Effective animation cartoon making tips for beginners
Now that we’ve covered Animation’s essential idea, it’s important to understand the vocabulary and specialized terms used in the Animation and film-making industry.
Timeline
It is the part of the animation tool that represents the progress of the Animation over time. Depending on the software, we could use the timeline to make changes to the timing of the Animation and the position of the elements.
Frame rate
An animation’s frame rate is the number of individual images (or frames) displayed in one second. It is a setting that can be adjusted in the animation software. The animation is typically done at 24 frames per second (FPS).
Work on ones and two
Working on one or two is a term used in hand animation. Working on some would mean making a new drawing on each frame of the Animation. Working in pairs means holding each drawing for two keyframes, so one second of Animation at 24 keyframes per second would be only 12 drawings, not 24.
In 2D Animation, working with two looks good in most cases, and there are even cases where drawings can be kept longer. In 3D, however, working in one is the standard.
Photos and scenes
Typically in live-action movie-making, the term “shot” refers to the images between camera edits. In contrast, a scene is all the shots and dialogue in a given location during a continuous block of time.
In Animation, we often use the terms “scene” and “shot” interchangeably. When we talk about a shot, we are often referring to a specific continuous piece of Animation between camera cuts.
Key tables, faults, and entertainment
Keyframes, breakdowns, and in-between are important terms, but they mean slightly different things depending on the animation type.
In hand-drawn animation, keyframes (or simply keys) are the main poses defining the scene. The failures occur between keys and define the movement of one key to another. The intermediates are all pictures that stand to smooth the movement.
3D, a dialog key is any position in the timeline where the animator has defined the character’s position. In the middle are all the frames that the computer interprets or automatically generates to move the character from one key to another.
Time, space, and ease
Time, spacing, and relaxation are closely related terms. Time means the total number of keyframes to be used for movement. The spacing is the amount of change that occurs between each frame. In computer animation, the relaxation is how the spacing is controlled, usually through a motion graph timeline.
Onion peeling
When animating, it is very useful to view more than one frame at a time. In Animation on paper, this is done by having multiple drawings in a table of light, but in modern animation programs, there is often a feature called “onion peeling.” View semi-transparent representations of frames behind or in front of the current frame you are working on.
Composition
The composition is putting all the individual pieces of a scene together to create the final visual result. You may have a background, several characters, and a scenario that develops separately. The composition is the way that all those pieces come together in a single scene.
Principles of Animation
Although 2D animators developed them, they still apply to 3D and any other animation type.
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Crushed and Stretched
Squashing and stretching describe how an object changes shape in response to forces acting on it. The crushing is when the impact of an opposing force compresses the object. Stretching is when an object is distended by something pulling on it or by moving quickly.
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Anticipation
Anticipation is a smaller move that precedes a larger one, signaling that the larger move will occur.
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Staging
Staging is the presentation of a shot so that its content is as clear as possible, and the narrative function of the shot is as strong as possible.
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Straight vs. Pose-to-pose
Straight Animation and posture are different approaches to Animation. The line means creating each new frame in sequence from the beginning to the end.
