2D Digital animation for Computer
games
Animation is the projection of
several images that changes quickly over a certain amount of time to convey the
illusion of motion. There are many types of 2D and 3D animation, from the
traditional to digital, and many pioneers who invented these types. The
traditional ways range from paper animation, cut-out animation, rotoscoping,
the use of a zoetrope, a phenakitoscope, a praxionoscope and a kinetoscope.
Through these traditional methods many stars have risen to become well known
developers within the animation complex. Such developers include Walt Disney,
Hannah Barbera, Warner Bros, Norman McLaren and Len Lye.
Whereas the Digital side of
animation, use application software such as Flash, After effects, Toon Boom
Studio, to make their animations come to life. The types of digital graphics
used in these animations does vary across a variety of digital graphics
including raster Imaging through to vector imaging.
One of the first animations is paper
animation, a typical use of paper animation is the flip-book. Flip-book
animation consists of many pictures placed in chronological order which are
meant to be flipped over to give an illusion of movement and create an animated
succession.
The phenakitoscope, is an early
device used for animation, invented by Joseph Plateau in 1832. Joseph Plateau
was born in 1801 and was the first person to authenticate the idolism of a
moving image. The phenakitoscope, uses disks with drawn images on, which are in
accession with each other. The device’s disks would have slits within the wheel
and was generally mounted facing a mirror, so that, when the viewer’s peer
through the slits they would see the fast sequence of these images and create
the illusion of motion.
William Horner had invented what he
called the daedalum, which possibly from the Greek myth Daedalus. The daedalum
is a type of zoetrope, which had first been created in AD180 in China by Ting
Huan. It however failed to become popular until the 1860 when it was patented
by American and English makers. An American inventor then named the daedalem
the zoetrope. The zoetrope is a device that creates the illusion of motion from
a fast succession of static pictures.
What followed on from the zoetrope,
in 1877, was the praxinoscope, like the zoetrope is a device that creates an
illusion of motion from a rapid succession of static pictures. It uses a strip
of pictures placed around a cylinder which spins. However unlike the zoetrope,
the praxinoscope uses an inner circle of mirrors that were placed to reflect
the pictures to make them appear more of less stationary in position as the
wheel span around. The view would then see the succession of images producing
an illusion of motion. It was invented by Emile Reynaud who was responsible for
the first animated cartoon films which were projected.
The Kinetoscope was invented by
Thomas Edison in 1888, it was an early motion picture display device. It was
designed for films to be watched individually through the window of a cabinet
placed within the kinetoscope. It was the invention that gave the basic
approach to the invention of future film projectors.
Edward Muybridge was the inventor of
the zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dates the
flexible perforated film strip which was used in cinematography. The
zoopraxiscope projected images from a rotating glass disk in fast succession
that gave the impression of motion. The stop-motion images were first painted
onto the glass, as silhouettes. A second disk, made in 1892–94, used outline
drawings painted onto the discs photographically, then was coloured by hand.
Some of these animated images are very intricate, featuring many combinations
of sequences of animal and human movement.
In the late 1800s, the Lumière
brothers, Auguste and Louis, were the first film makers to come about. They
developed a new “dry Plate” that was called the Etiquette Bleue, this was used
to demonstrate the use of Edison’s Kinetoscope.
Another process is called
Cel-animation, this form of animation is a process that was thought up by
Winsor McCay in 1915. The process was made to save money and time. Instead of
drawing each frame one by one, McCay came up with the idea to draw the
animation in parts on celluloid acetate then place the layers on top of each
other, an example of this is the background is drawn on the first layer, the
body of the character on the next, the head on the next and the expression on
the next. This would save time drawing
each part out again and again.
Rotoscoping is an animation process
that was originally accomplished in the early 1900s, by projecting a live
action movie frame onto a frosted glass easel, from which an illustrator would
trace and redraw the image. The rotoscoping process can be used to make actual
cartoons or to make cartoon like movies in which the actors within the movies
are recognisable and all the scenery looks realistic, but the entire movie
gives off a cartoon like quality.
There has also been many famous
developers over the years, the most famous of these being Walt Disney, who is
the founder of world famous Walt Disney Company, Warner Brothers, four brothers
who founded the Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. who brought fame to the Looney
Tunes and Tom & Jerry, and Hanna-Barbera productions, who brought fame to
Scooby-doo and the Flintstones.
The Walt Disney Company was founded
in 1932 By Walt Disney and Roland Disney. They were founded as the Disney
Brothers Cartoon Studios, and were the leading animation industry in America at
the time, before it moved onto television, film and travel. The Walt Disney
Company, are famous for bringing about such ideas of Mickey Mouse and making
animations of famous Grimm Brothers novels and Hans Christian Andersens novels,
such as Snow White and The Little Mermaid.
The Warner Bros. Company was founded
in 1918 by the brothers Jack, Harry, Albert and Sam Warner. There first major
animation was the Looney Tunes, which is still shown on TV to this day. They
are mainly an industry that deals in motion pictures and Television programs.
The Hanna-Barbera Productions Inc.
was a leading American animation company that dominated animation in the second
half of the 20th century. They were founded in 1957 by William Hanna, Joseph
Barbera and George Sidney. They brought “Scooby-doo where are you?”, “The
Flintstones” and “Top-cat” to fame.
Two other respective animators were
Lin Lye, and Norman McLaren, who came up with several animations films between
them. Len made around 25 shorts, and McLaren being awarded for several Oscars
are amongst some of their achievements.
There are two main digital techniques
for 2D animation, these are 2D bitmap graphics and 2D vector graphics. 2D
bitmap and vector graphic animation are virtually both the same, however vector
images do not pixelate when they are edited or scaled. 2D animations are made
using computer software that use 2D bitmap graphics or 2D vector graphics, such
examples of this software that is used are, Flash and PowerPoint.
Adobe After Effects is a motion
graphics and composting software. It’s used in the post-production process of
making films and television production.
Toon Boom Studio is a storyboard and
2D animation software. It develops the storyboards and animation for film,
television, games, web animation, and mobile devices. Famous companies such as
Disney and Warnerbros use Toon Boom Studio, and motion pictures such as The
Lion King 2 and The Simpsons Movie and has also developed well known Television
programs such as American Dad, Family Guy and the Simpsons.
