How to Make Animated Films phần 9 pdf

How to Make Animated Films 380 Interiors are often dominated by a major light source, especially if a single light is on to illumine the scene. However, depending on surfaces and secondary light sources that are there too, there could be a great deal of bounced light and shade that will modify this initial scenario. Starkly sketched shadows suggest moonlight  ooding into a darkened room through a window. (Source: DigiPen student art by Brian Kent.) The same shot, but this time light by a softer, interior illumination. (Source: DigiPen student art by Brian Kent.) Backgrounds and Environments 381 Perspective and Lines of Focus Pretty much all backgrounds will involve some kind of perspective. This is true both for exteriors and interiors. A starkly lit, bleached scene invoking a strong, unforgiving, sunlit e ect. Note how the acute perspective draws us into the center of the shot where the character is. (Source: DigiPen student art by Nick Wiley.) Panning background layout illustrating interior perspective. (Source: Endangered Species . ) The most powerful compositions of all, however, are where the lines of perspective or any other directional lines within the background layout converge to a speci c location in the shot. This location is ideally the point where the animated action is going on, fully exploiting these graphic dynamics. How to Make Animated Films 382 See how the perspective on the feet draws us toward the distant desk. (Source: Early animatic color sketch, Endangered Species . ) Verticals in Panning Shots If you need to create a long, horizontal background for a panning shot, avoid too many verticals, especially closely spaced verticals! This is because there will be the risk of a signi cant amount of strobing (jittery  ickering). This is especially likely if the distance the vertical lines are apart corresponds very closely to the panning distance the artwork is moved frame by frame. Excellent environment work but could cause strobing problems with poor camerawork decisions due to so many vertical elements (including shadows) in the location. (Source: DigiPen student art by John Hall.) Backgrounds and Environments 383 Strobing can be avoided, however, if: 1. The vertical lines are set further far apart and are randomly spaced. If the trees were predictably vertical (as they usually are with most background art), then there might be problems with panning in this scene. However, based on observations from real life, this scene is much more photographically acceptable. (Source: DigiPen student art by Je Weber.) 2. The lines of the artwork are not perfectly vertical but angled, in varying directions if possible. Beautiful illustrative design, and additionally attractive from a camera pan point of view with all the angled verticals. (Source: 2008 2D Or Not 2D Animation Festival poster art by Peter Moehrle.) How to Make Animated Films 384 Light Against Dark, Dark Against Light Often poor backgrounds are painted so that the color values behind the character(s) are very similar to the color values selected for the character(s). This makes it very di cult for the audience to di erentiate one from the other. A deliberately underlit scene, illustrating the di culty of seeing a character with similar color values to that of the background. (Source: DigiPen student art by Greg Attick.) Therefore, when painting your background always keep in mind this golden rule in terms of clarity: Light objects show up against darker backgrounds, and dark objects show up against lighter backgrounds. Always bear this in mind when selecting background colors and textures that are to go behind the foreground characters. Similar to the previous  gure, but these color/lighting tests show how a well-lit character can stand out well against a low-lit background. (Source: DigiPen student art by Greg Attick.) Backgrounds and Environments 385 Early color sketches illustrate how the use of a strategically positioned light beam can draw the audiences ’ eyes to the center of the action. (Note, incidentally, that the frame to the left uses dark gray values instead of pure black to suggest darkness. The frame to the right uses pure black, which is not nearly as elegant or natural to look at.) (Source: First-pass animatic frames, Endangered Species . ) Area of Greatest Contrast When coloring your background, remember the eyes are instinctively drawn to the area of the greater contrast in the scene. Therefore, it might be necessary to implement this fact with your background color work, depending on the particular requirements of the scene in question, of course. Haunting 3D environment that illustrates how the eyes are indeed drawn to the most intensely lit area. (Source: DigiPen student art by Ryan Miller.) How to Make Animated Films 386 Use Your Eyes There are many other rules of painting and/or design that can be found in other books or online tutorials. However, the best teacher of all is through the images you capture with your own eyes! Train yourself to really see what happens to light and color values in the world around you, whether that world is indoors or out. Deep and moody, but note that the eyes are again drawn to the point of greatest illumination. (Source: DigiPen student art by John Hall.) Also, note how light and shade de ne form and shape. See, too, how various color values and textures play o one another to de ne space and dimension. The secrets are constantly all around you, waiting for discovery. You just need to train your eyes, and your consciousness, to see and appreciate them. Contrasting signi cantly from the previous illustration, here the eyes are drawn to the darkest shadow area. (Source: DigiPen student art by Eric Wiley.) Backgrounds and Environments 387 Re ective and di ering surfaces de ne shapes skillfully here. (Source: DigiPen student art by David Vandevord.) Assignment Paint all the backgrounds for your  lm. But as you do so, work with a  nal colored version of the character(s) required in each scene, so you know exactly what will work and what is not in the  nal analysis. This page intentionally left blank 389 C oloring animation once it has been scanned is a relatively easy operation. Of course, a lot depends on the approach and software selected, but by and large, digital coloring is more of a process of tedium than technique. In the old “ cell ” days, animation drawings used to be hand traced or (later) Xeroxed onto clear acetate sheets called cells . These were then painted on the back with opaque paints so that the paint didn’t go over the trace lines. The sheets were then turned over again for frame-by-frame shooting over a colored background. Film Production 19 Coloring In predigital times, animated images were combined entirely on  lm using several passes in exposure. In a case where this clown is to be seen on a separately shot background, there would need to be a “ male ” matte in the shape of the clown’s silhouette and a “ female ” matte in the shape of the background minus the clown’s matte. Each one of these, for every frame of  lm, would need to be hand traced and colored! (Source: Endangered Species . ) [...]... the bottom layer, and a title or even animated effects on a top layer, it is now comparatively easy to render the whole thing out into a movie format without realizing that you are indeed compositing the scene The opening title sequence for Fire Gods, where various animation and special effects layers were created in Adobe Photoshop and then rendered out in Adobe Premiere 399 How to Make Animated Films. .. Animation’s Animo, or ToonBoom Technology’s ToonBoom Studio will give you a similar capability ToonBoom Studio, an answer to every vector animator’s prayers! For ease of operation, I tend to use ToonBoom Studio, but often work with Adobe Photoshop (combined with Adobe Premiere and sometimes Adobe After Effects) to get a more sophisticated illustrative look Adobe Photoshop, also an answer to every artist’s... white Most films have colored backgrounds, however, and so the two choices are flat-colored artwork from within the program or importing artwork into the program It’s rare that animation is seen on blank white screens these days, as clients and investors insist on getting every cent’s worth of color in every shot! However, it can happen, and it can be quite refreshing 395 How to Make Animated Films Flat-Colored... on most monitors or screens, we are looking at a full-screen image measurement of 720 ϫ 480 pixels (or 720 ϫ 576 pixels for TV in the United Kingdom and other PAL-based regions) 4 09 How to Make Animated Films High-definition screens, however, require a larger screen dimension One of the most standard is 192 0 ϫ 1080 pixels Others can be used also, as long as they conform to a basic 16 ϫ 9 screen ratio... Indeed, 99 percent of the time that is probably all you’ll ever need to finish your film However, there are occasions when you’ll want to go further than this, and so I would like to just mention a few key compositing approaches you might want to consider Layers Often it is necessary to combine layers of action to create a specific effect For example, for a recent Fire Gods project, I needed to create... demonstrated how you could do this using Adobe Photoshop Although looking complex and hand-crafted, this entire scene (showing the character walking from the far right of the screen to the far left) was actually used creating a simple walk cycle, a background, and a tree overlay! (Source: Fire Gods, by Saille Schumacher.) 403 How to Make Animated Films As scenes are created in layers, it is possible to place... scene Unlike the predigital days when cells needed to be colored with paint and brushes, and then left in racks to slowly dry, modern coloring can be done in seconds (Source: Student art by Saille Schumacher.) 393 How to Make Animated Films Whether it is 6 drawings or 600, digital coloring makes the big studio opportunities happen on your own desktop (Source: Student art by Saille Schumacher.) The... effects that you will have to bring to the party too 411 How to Make Animated Films I find that my old faithful standby, Adobe Premiere, does almost everything I need in postproduction Here, the highlighted audio track timeline allows me to do a rough mix of the final sound elements (Source: Fire Gods.) Scene Edit I currently use a PC running a Windows operating system, so I tend to use Adobe Premiere for... Saille Schumacher.) 397 How to Make Animated Films Ultimately, whatever kind of visual effect and style of software you choose, the coloring of animation artwork is a vastly less-challenging process than it was in the good-old cell coloring days, where drying of wet paint, the problems of color opacity, and going over line edges were always a challenge Consequently, animated filmmakers today should be extremely... Award-winning short film, Hokusai, An Animated Sketchbook.) 407 How to Make Animated Films Rendered movie files can be outputted in a number of different shapes, sizes, resolutions, and playing speeds This means that before you even start animating you really need to consider the size of the screen format you want to use, the quality of image (i.e., resolution) you need to render, and the speed of frames . the point where the animated action is going on, fully exploiting these graphic dynamics. How to Make Animated Films 382 See how the perspective on the feet draws us toward the distant desk to be colored with paint and brushes, and then left in racks to slowly dry, modern coloring can be done in seconds. (Source: Student art by Saille Schumacher.) How to Make Animated Films 394 . clients and investors insist on getting every cent’s worth of color in every shot! However, it can happen, and it can be quite refreshing. How to Make Animated Films 396 Flat-Colored Backgrounds