Animated series or movies are loved by all, invariable of age. The animation takes from the sci-fi to the fairy world giving us a feel good factor. The cartoons are always with the positive effect on individuals.
Do you know these animations require considerable effort?
Starting from the camera placement till the outcome the hard work is required. The frame count in starting of the shoot helps to create the story.
The different techniques of making the cartoons make them different from each other and special too –
1. Object animation – The objects of all kind is being used to create the story like dolls, toys which are made up of the non malleable material. These objects are designed to look different from the living beings.
· Mostly used objects for the animation are the construction toys like TinkerToy. The Tinkertoy was created in 1914 by Charles H.Pajeau in Evanston, Illinois to manufacture.
· While making the story in this, the objects are to be moved slowly by hands and the recording of the movement has to be done with every step.
· The timing of the recording of the animation takes time and your patience. When the objects are close together the action slows down. The timing plays an important role to capture the correct moments.
2. Claymation – It is also called as the clay animation is the most popular process. It was trademarked in 1978 by Will Vinton. The technique is to give life to the figurines or the objects made with the clay and the wire is placed in between them so the figure doesn’t change.
· The shooting requires the consistency of light, stability of camera and the illusion of the continuity as the frames move, but it appears as the objects are moving. This animation became more popular in 1916, when the two artists named Helena Smith Dayton and Willie Hopkins produced a clay animated film along with a wide range of subjects.
· Not only in the cartoon field, the claymation was used for video games as well. This magic created on screen is done with an extreme potential team and effort.
· The script of the story is the first step to be done.
· The figures are made with the help of sketching made of characters by the artist.
· As per the requirement the selection the material can be from the clay, air dry clay, Kiln fired clay, non hardening clay and many more.
3. Legomation – This is also known as the brickfilming and the easiest technique. It is done with using the LEGO to make mini figures to create the short animation films. This term of brick film was coined by Jason Rowoldt and the founder of Brick films.
· This is considered to be easy because with the LEGOs once fixed or attached to each other they will not move and no changing of the shape of figures. They can be made full 3D live action or even with the computer generated image.
· The Brickfilms and the Legomation has slight difference the legomation is done with the lego or blocks and brick films is done with the computer or the flash animation. The Lego has it’s own history which began in 1932 in Denmark.
· The digital camera captures the images which later on need to be altered for the special effects. With the changes in the technologies many software and apps have been developed to help in the special effects.
4. Puppet Animation – It is an age old technique where the story narrated with the help of the handmade figurines which are tied with the wire controlled by a person above.
· This technique becomes slightly difficult with the wire as they can be tangled to each other.
· The claymation and the puppet animation is different from each other. The material is different; the objects made with clay express less emotions or even no emotions whereas the puppets express more emotions. The puppets are environment friendly, no worry of melting or changing of the shape.
5. Silhouette animation – In this the animated characters are the shadows of the objects or the actors/characters with the light in the background or it can be termed as the shadow play. The wire hinges are used to re-attach the parts.
· For the silhouette the backlight has to be bright fort the display of the actions on the white sheet. It can be symmetrical or abstract in the story. It is important to position the objects in a way that it presents as a scene on the white screen. This technique was invented by Reiniger a subdivision of the cutout animation.
· There are several CGI silhouette films which have been made, which focus on demonstrating the different approaches to the technique as 2D, vector animation, 3D figures rendered as silhouettes mixes 2D characters and 3D backgrounds, both of which are combination of live action CGI.
6. Pixilation animation – It is another form of stop-motion animation, and is comparatively simple to get started with. It requires a camera, and the ability to organize the shots in sequence to create a film.
· The technique is simple as it is repeatedly shooting live actors with a change of poses in each frame. It can be used to make an animated film with real characters and environment, creating some sense of a surreal world which can exaggerate the mood and personality of a character like the Jurassic Park.
· Norman McLaren in 1910s, a Scottish animator, came out with his famous pixilation film, Neighbors. It reflects anti-war themes by showing the two fighting neighbors. The pixilation can be done in various ways with the creativity. The shooting of the pixilation movie is thrilling, with the green screen and the marker dots on the characters face.
7. Cutout animation – The technique which is considered simple. It is produced with the characters, cut outs and the props and a still camera. The movement of the props and the characters are narrated with the story. The technique derived from the cutout animations by applying the back light and not the top.
Lighting and Frames – The light placement and requirement of the light varies from the stop motion techniques and the story path. Like in the silhouette animation the back light need to be bright; else the act will not be visible. The frames will be different on every script, minimum will be go at least 12 frames or even faster.
Audio – The music or sound always enlighten the story and the narration. The selection of the sound is with the plot of the story. The intensity and the volume are more impressive with the variation.