Production
Production consists
of the making of backgrounds, sketching, inking, and painting
of animation,
and photographing the backgrounds and cels onto film.
Backgrounds
Backgrounds are painted before the characters
are animated so that the characters can react naturally to
their surrounding. Background artists take directions from
the layout artists and create the environments the characters
are going to be placed in. Backgrounds are often painted in
tempera or gouache so that their style is slightly different
than the characters and characters do not disappear into the
background. Backgrounds are also often painted in various
layers so that in a street scene a hydrant and lamp post may
be painted on a cel (clear sheet of cellophane) so that characters
can walk or move “behind” them and the viewer
perceives a more realistic feeling of depth. (Brigman 21)
Drawing the Animation
Finally animation begins! There are two kinds
of animators, key animators and “in-betweeners.”
Key animators do not draw all the pictures in the final animation.
They create only the most important (key) and most exaggerated,
major moves creating the basic personality and expression
of the characters. They sketch out the basic sequence on special
paper (similar to tracing paper). The paper has holes that
anchor them onto of an animation light table which back lights
the pages so an animator can see the pages in relation to
each other which helps with smooth action. The paper can also
be flipped to get an idea about how the animation will look.
The in-betweener, or assistant animator works with the drawings
of the key animator and fills in the missing drawings. So
for 10 frames the key animator may draw frame 1,3,6, and 10,
while the in-betweener would draw 2,4,5,7,8, and 9. When the
animation is completed the sketches are traced and cleaned
so that they are clean line drawings. (Brigman 23-24)
Animators can draw between 20 and 70 drawings
per day. A 30 minute animation has approximately 43,200 frames.
If one animator was drawing a single-cel per frame, 30 minute
animation, it would take him approximately 960 days to finish.
Checking the Animation and Inking
After the checker has made sure the animation
is smooth and up to standard, the drawings are sent to be
photocopied onto sheets of celluloid plastic. This produces
clean black outlines of the animated sketches. Before copy
machines, inkers traced the animators’ sketches onto
celluloid with a pen or fine brush. This process was called
“inking”. Technology has eliminated the job of
the inker. (Brigman 25)
Painting
Next, the black line drawings on cels go to
the painters, who add color in a paint by numbers fashion.
Painters refer to the model sheets to figure out what color
to paint characters and objects. The backs of the cels have
acrylic paint applied in a way that brush strokes are minimized.
Painting is an exact process that costs more than the animation
process. It could take hours to paint a complex cel that will
only be on screen a 24th of a second. (Brigman 27)
Photographing
Photographing of the cels is more painstaking
than painting them. Care needs to be taken so that dust, hair,
and lint are not photographed. Backgrounds and cels are layered
in order for each frame. Then, the camera is positioned and
the picture is taken. If any one of the cels is not placed
in exactly the right way, or if the camera is not positioned
correctly, then a whole sequence can be ruined. The camera
is attached to an animation stand, which allows the camera
to be moved up, down, and tilted. Many animation stands are
now computerized and can be programmed to make the small exact
movements that a camera operator was previously responsible
for. Computerized stands save time and eliminate lots of errors.
(Brigman 27-29)
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The Process of Making Animation:
Preproduction
Production
Postproduction |
