2d Animation
One of the first takes for the production is
the scene or shot of the main character Liam (the boy) watching his favourite
action hero on television. This hero is your typical macho alpha male, the kind
of guy who was the captain of the football team. A jock type character who grew
up to be a successful space captain.
Liam idolises this hero and the production
requires a short animation of this hero in his prime and glory. The group
decided to go with a 2d animation to create a contrast between the 3d world art
style and the 2d art style. Also, the intent is to give it an old 80s or 90s
cartoon look. Using flash symbol based animation, the 2d animation has reached
the completed stage. If I feel that I have enough time, I may refine the
animation more before the rendering stage but moving on with the project at
this point is a more pressing matter.
The reason for choosing a symbol based
animation is because of the time constraints and the design of the character.
When it comes to 2d animation, this character is quite complex for one
individual and would be far more time consuming if done frame by frame, which I
actually love. However, time is a major cost in this production, especially a 4
min production, so symbol based animation may not have as much appeal as hand
drawing animation. Besides, it does give time for other more pressing matters
like the vast amount of modelling and 3d animation required in the production.
When it comes to self-analysis, I would say
there are some positions which make him look off balance and quite like a
chicken pose. I was a student of Ian Lacy, former animator of The Lion King and
other Disney films, and it really pains me to say the character has shots where
he is off balance. This is one of the flaws that Ian would be determined to
remove from a student’s. However, the horizon line of the background which is
dropped is something I am hoping people take into consideration. The fact that
the horizon line is dropped off camera gives the audience the sense that we are
looking up at him and that the crouching awkward pose is actually the up angel
shot of the mountain he is climbing.
Also the animation is on 2’s ( 2’s is when
animation is done on every 2nd
frame )
Animation on 2’s can make an animation not
looks as clean with its interpolation (inbetweening). However, it is one of
those things that was popular in the 80s and 90s cartoons to save time back
then so hoping it creates an old low budget aesthetic.
I also wish I had the time to get up to production
quality knowledge with Toonboom. Flash is regarded as an application which is
on its way out and a number of 2d feature films and television shows are now produced
using the Toonboom application. During the creation of the scene I am reminded
of Flash’s limitations and difficult vector calculating for brushes. 2d
animation will always be a passion, love and practice of mine but I think it’s
time I migrated from Flash to Toonboom.
Also, big thanks to Edd for creating the
ground for me as his skills in illustration are amazing which gave the
environment a more readable understanding. To keep the style consistent, I had
to vectorise the ground because Flash works with vectors not pixels and more
Flash’s options are available with vectors.
Link to 2d shot.
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