Archive for category Animation

Animation for Beginners – How To Choose The Best Software

Posted by admin in Animation on April 7, 2013

Animation is surely an exciting world. Considering the heavy influx of workforce in this sector it is amazing to find that career opportunities are still rising in this sector. The world of animation is expanding in an exponential manner and there is always room for animators having that knack for quality animation. But to move into the expert zone one has to start from square one and this is where major contemplation is required to make the right move. Beginners in the world of animation have serious queries regarding the issue of the best animation software for beginners since a good animation program can seriously lift up the morale by providing easy and hassle free techniques for producing good and quality animation right from the very start.

Selecting the best animation software for beginners has certainly become an easier task now considering the heavy inflow of information and reviews that one can obtain from a number of online and offline sources. However, a huge inflow of information regarding the best animation programs does not guarantee that you will automatically be propelled in making the right buying decision. There are some points that one must consider so as to get a better insight in the world of animation software and that will surely help in making the right choice. And of course, one must be willing to spend the desired amount of time in knowing the ground realities so as to make the best decision in the end. There is no dearth of options and unless you are going to start an animation company tomorrow, it is better to devote time and make the right investment!

Compare not only prices but features too

Very often we find beginners ready to latch on to animation software that has the lowest price tag. If quality animation is the goal then one must not hesitate to prevent price tag from becoming the defining factor. This means that getting an idea about how animation works and all the necessary features becomes a must to do task. Even if you are going for animation as a hobby there are certain key features that will be required in the long run. Information about all the tools and techniques required to create quality animation will be instrumental in getting the best animation software for beginners. So how can you access this information? Well, the first step could be hanging around those who are learning animation or joining some sort of online or offline training to get used to the terminologies that will be used when different animation software programs are being marketed.

Another great way to save both time and money is via free versions provided by different animation software providers. Some of the best known companies in the market such ad Toon Boon, Illusion Mage etc, have released their free trial versions that surely provide the right kind of introduction to the world of animation. And if you are pursuing the subject only as a hobby then chances are, you are going to get all that is needed via free version only. Those willing to go deep in the world of animation can easily gauge all the features that are going to be provided in a particular animation program via free versions. This is a great way to know about different animation programs without going through several hassles.

What does animation mean to you?

There is no one explanation that is going to satisfy the quest for best animation software for beginners. Options vary as per the person going to use the software. If you are aiming to move high in the world of animation it is surely a great idea to invest a decent amount in software coming from a reputed company. Since you will be creating value adding animation the expenditure on the software is really a worthwhile investment.

Also there are different facets of animation, the most noted distinctions being 2D and 3D animation. Defining your future animation goals is extremely important in knowing the tools and features that will come handy at a later stage. This means that the best animation software for beginners in your case should satisfy the needs that are coming up in future. Read the rest of this entry »

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Animation Technology

Posted by admin in Animation on February 18, 2013

Animation is an optical illusion. It is a technique of visualization of motion by the rapid sequence of images of 2D or 3-D artwork or model position in order to create an illusion of movement. Each sequence of image contains a little change. It involves the appearance of motion caused by displaying still images one by one. By rapid viewing of the images human eyes fill the gaps and optical illusion movement is complete. The optical illusion is due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision and can be created in a number of ways.

In addition to its use for entertainment, animation is considered as a form of art. Animation picture is often displayed at film festivals throughout the world. Animation has its place in learning and education also. The animated cartoon made first its appearance in the early part of the 20th century.

Most of the animation made for television and film are produced by professional studios because it is not only time consuming but also costly to produce. However there are many resources such as lower cost programs and distribution network that have made the work of the animator much easier.

Frames can be produced by using computers or photographs of images. Frames can also be generated by altering a model unit in small ways and using a special camera to take pictures of the results. Irrespective of method, the animated film or movie fool the eye with the help of continuous movement.

The eyes are fooled by continuity of vision that is not really happens. In fact, brain and eyes together store a mere fraction of a second. The minor interruptions are automatically smoothed out by the inherent power of the brain. Movements are seen uninterrupted as the animation frames are shot in very fast pace.

The incorporation of animation into your own application depends largely on the type of interface your application provides. The applications that create their own user interface, such as educational software, have much freedom in determining how much animation is necessary for their users. When used rightly in your application’s user interface animation can enhance the viewers’ experience by providing a dynamic look and feel. With the combination of creating new custom controls with special visual effects can produce a cinematic computing experience for the viewers.

Each animation has its target object or a visual element. This target object is displayed to the users. This target object starts and stops the animation. Duration, pacing, and the repeating behavior determine the overall timing of it.

When adding animation to your application you should follow some important things to choose the appropriate technology. Use Cocoa views for the portion of your user interface which only require static, non-rotated, Aqua controls. Use animator proxy support provided by Cocoa views and windows for the portion of your users that require simple animation. Consider using layer baked Cocoa for the portion of user interface. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Photography Of Stop Motion Animation

Posted by admin in Animation on January 21, 2012

Stop Motion animation has been used as far back as the original King Kong Film. King Kong was simply a stiff metal skeleton frame that was then covered in a mouldable material and sculpted to look like a gorilla. Because the skeleton of the sculpture was stiff, this allowed the artist to make small and deliberate changes to the sculpture that could be photographed frame by frame. Each small change would be photographed so that when played through a projector at 25 frames (photographs) per second would make King Kong appear to move. These effects were produced by Willis Obrian, a former news paper cartoonist who in 1914 moved into film special effects.

One day Willis Obrian got a phone call from a young man called Ray Harryhausen, who asked if he could meet him and show him some of his work. Willis was impressed with Ray’s work and inspired him to go to art school, where he met Ray Bradbury. Ray Bradbury was a frustrated writer who was struggling to get his stories published. They formed a bond that would see them work on a huge number of films that involved stories from the past.

Ray began to work on his ambitious project called Evolution. This was a film about the entire beginnings of life on Earth. The film that was shot on 16mm film was never completed. Ray Harryhausen worked on a number of small projects until world war two started. How ever this did not interrupt his development as he was employed to make sequences for army training films.

After the war Ray then began to make fairy tales such as little red riding hood. Ray’s father then began to help him by making his armitures (wooden or metal bones connected by metal bolts). His mother also got involved by making all the little costumes for the puppets.

Ray then got a call from Willis Obrian asking him to help him on his new film Mighty Joe Young. On this film Ray animated 65 percent of the effects. Ray then went onto make The Beast From Twenty Thousand Fathoms. For this Ray hired his old friend Ray Bradbury to write it.

This film was a success and led to the film The Beast That Came From Beneath The sea in which Ray animated a giant beast huge tentacles pulling down the golden gate bridge.

In his next film he animated flying sorcers in the film Earth Verses Flying Sorces.

Eventually Ray went onto do much bigger films in which they were much wider variety of stop animation effects from pegassus to the cracken in Clash Of The Titens to the skeleton fighters and the Tundra in Jason And The Argaunauts.

Other film makers were inspired by Ray’s work producing effects like the tauntons in The Empire Strikes Back

At the time these effects were state of the art but as the development of computer graphics continued, stop animation has become virtually obsolete. But why have these effects become obsolete if they were once considered to be so good.

1. Stop animation produces quite a jerky motion, because when you photograph some thing moving in real life there is a motion blur effect as the subject actually moves while the film is exposed. In stop animation this does not take place because you are photographing the subject in a series of still posses. How ever it could be argued that in some films for example fantasy this could be an advantage. Ray Harryhausen himself once said that he preferred the look of stop animation because “it creates a dream like effect, almost as you would imagine it in your mind or while you were dreaming.”

2. If you make a mistake in stop animation you do know until you get to the end and you can’t fix it with out going back to the start. With computer animation you can alter or manipulate any aspect individually and then instantly play it back to check it.

3. The labour intensive style takes a lot of time, where as a computer animation can be pre programed.

As a film maker myself, I still use stop animation for some effects because in order to produce computer models that look photo real you need a lot of man power hours and huge rendering farms in order to render it all out. If I build a model that looks real to my eyes, then it will look real on camera. The only issue I will have is in the movement.
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