PWSTekenen2016HeleenRobin (2)

PWS Tekenen 2016
An Amazing Animation
How does the drawing process, the actual
animating, of a digital 2D animation work?
Robin Boonacker (6Ve)
Heleen Portheine (6Ve)
22 december 2016

Table of contents
Introduction
Main question
Subquestions
Method
Questions
Final Product
Background information
What exactly is an animation?
History
Aaron Blaise and his techniques
Tom Bancroft
Meeting a professional
Preparation
The day itself
Forms of animation
The 12 laws of animation
Animating
Storyboard
Bouncing ball
Animation Programs
Animation
Conclusion
Main question
Subquestions
Discussion
Bibliography
Table of contents 1

Introduction
With our project we are going to research the making of an
animation, focusing on 2D animation. An animation is a simulation of
movement in the form of displaying a series of frames or images. [3] Not
only to us are animations important, but animations are important to
everyone because animation is a way of showing stories, expressing
emotions and teaching morals. [16][17] Because animation is so much
more than real life, you can exaggerate emotions therefore also the facial
expressions of characters. The stories that are told are often not realistic,
but because of the emotions used it still feels ‘familiar’. People can still
relate to those emotions, and accordingly relate to the characters. Some
of these ideas would fall short if presented in other mediums than
animation, such as trying to convey a kids’ story without bright,
unrealistic colours, or funny crazy characters that aren’t creepy. [9]
Which is why the freedom, to create any story no matter how weird,
granted by animation is so important. [9] Without it a large portion of
stories would have never been told or not in the way they should have,
such as the recent Inside Out made by Disney Pixar, which shows in a
simplified way how the mind works. But why not put it in a book?
Animation makes the whole story come to life. This is because the
characters are alive and moving around. They each have their own voice
and own personality.
Inside Out (2015) [18]
Since animation is such a vast and grand subject, it is impossible to
pin down in only 160 collective hours of work. That is why we are going to
focus on a smaller branch of an entire animation process, the actual
animating process. We are going to answer the question of how the
drawing process, the actual animating, of a digital 2D animation works. At
the end of our research we want to understand the twelve principles of
animation and we want to apply these principles. These principles or laws
will be explained later on in our research as well.
We chose this subject because we are both very interested in the
making of animations. In the future we are both looking at taking a job in
this direction. We would like to know more about animations, so this
project is the perfect opportunity to get acquainted with animation.
Table of contents 2

At the end of our research we will know a lot about the animating
process and be able to apply some of the information we have gathered.
Our goal will be making an animation that shows the process of making
an animation, hereby showing and applying the research that we have
done. The 12 principles of animation will be used in the animation, and
can clearly be seen. This will hopefully give our audience a sense of how
much work animating can be, how it works and why it is so important.
Main question
How does the drawing process, the actual animating, of a digital 2D
animation work? (using the twelve laws of animation)
Subquestions
(that will answer the main question)
What is the drawing process?
Why is the drawing process important for an animation?
How does the drawing process come into existence?
Where, in all the different stages, is the drawing process relevant?
When is the drawing process implemented?
Will our research pay off in us being able to create our own animations?
How much work is the animating process?
These questions, and the main question, will be answered through our
research.
Table of contents 3

Method
Questions
What are we working on?
Our end product is an animation. In which the actual process of drawing,
our research, will be shown.
Why are we working on this?
Because we are very interested in this subject and we always want to
know more about it and in the end be able to make an actual animation.
How are we working on this?
The actual animation we’re going to make on our computer with our
drawing tablets. Through the use of programs such as Photoshop and
movie editing programs like After Effects.
Where are we working on this?
At home, and at school in the hours that are given, and whenever we
have free time.
When are we working on this?
The plan is on the next page, it will roughly show what we want done and
at which week.
There is no better way to get information than to go to the source. Asking
actual animators how they animate is the best way to find out how
animations are made. We are going to mail a couple of animators, for
example Aaron Blaise, Tom Bancroft and Ralph Palmer. We will ask them
questions about how they animate and what sort of things they find really
important before and during animating. We want to gather as much
information as we can. We’re going to use the information they give to
make the actual animation itself. Because those animators don’t live
anywhere near us the only possible way to reach them is to mail them. If
we can find any animators that live near us and if they are willing to
receive us, we will do an interview in real life.
We eventually went to an open day of the NTHV and here we talked to a
former Disney animator. This school has a lot of great teachers for visual
arts and also animation. [See Meeting a professional] So we were able
to get information directly from ‘the source’ after all.
Final Product
Research & the animation, showing said research in an understandable
and simplified way.
Table of contents 4

Background information
What exactly is an animation?
As said in the introduction, an animation is a simulation of
movement in the form of displaying a series of frames or images.[3] The
frames used in animations are drawn, painted or made by other methods
which change through the ages, most frames are drawn digitally
nowadays.[3] Since so many pictures (25 pictures per second for
animations) will be placed one after the other, the illusion of movement is
created. [3]
Frames in sequence to convey motion [35]
2D animation is flat, it is created through the use of many different
images or frames. If these frames are placed in a consecutive order they
will display a motion or a movement. Since the eye can only register a
frame every thirteen milliseconds. [32][1] Which means that when these
frames are put into a consecutive order of about 17 frames per second,
the brain will make you believe the motion is smooth, without any gaps or
hitches. [32][1] However to create a far smoother motion 25 frames per
second are used in animations, and 30 in traditional films, the newest
films even use 60 frames per second. [32][1]
History
The animation industry has grown to be one of the biggest things in
the world of cinema. A survey from 2008 reported that the animation
industry was worth about $68.4 billion, and it is still growing. [1]
Animation is the creation of images that together portray the illusion of
movement. If the drawings of the stages of an action are shown in fast
succession, the human eye perceives them as a continuous movement.
Animation existed far before the first movies were made. The first ever
recorded animator is Pygmalion, a sculptor of Greek and Roman
mythology. [19]
Ever since we have been able to draw things we have been trying to put
things in motion. Early examples of animation are from about 5000 years
ago when people painted sequences of images on pottery or walls, and
thus depicting movement. [16] The theory of the animated cartoon came
about half a century before the actual invention of the cinema. People
started experimenting with devices with which movement could be
Table of contents 5

depicted. In the 18th and the 19th century came the first
experimentations with machines that could make images appear to move.
[17][32] One of the first successful devices was the phenakistoscope, a
spinning cardboard disk, made by Joseph Plateau in 1832. Two years later
came the zoetrope, a rotating drum lined by a band of pictures that could
be changed, made by William George Horner. [19][17][32] Which when
spun around fast would create a looped animation. It functions on the
principle that the eye is only able to register a few images at a time.
[1][3][17][32]
A zoetrope [37]
These devices were used to entertain and amaze people. The only
disadvantage to these devices is that they didn’t project their images and
because of this only one person could view it at one time. Therefore these
devices were considered toys rather than devices for the actual animation
industry. [16] Emile Reynaud adapted the principle in 1876 into a form
that could be projected before a theatrical audience. The beginning of the
20th century marks the dawn of animation. [17][32] The first entirely
animated film was Humorous Phases of Funny Faces in 1906 by J. Stuart
Blackton. [19] The first feature-length animation using traditional
methods and had 14 frames per second was Gertie the Dinosaur, made
by Winsor McCay in 1914. [36] Because of the fluid movements it gave
the viewers the feeling that the character had a personality and a life of
its own. So the first cartoon star had been born. [3] In 1923 the
Laugh-O-Grams studio went bankrupt and its owner, Walt Disney, started
a new studio in Los Angeles. His first big breakthrough was Steamboat
Willie in 1928. It was the first cartoon that included sound, like featuring
voices and sound effects. The sound made the animation much more
magical and the illusion of life much more complete. [16][17] After this
came color. The first animation using the three-color Technicolor method
was Flowers and Trees in 1932. Soon color animation became the
standard for the industry. [16]
Table of contents 6

Aaron Blaise and his techniques
About Aaron Blaise
Aaron Blaise has been working in the animation industry for over 27
years. 21 of those years were spent at the Walt Disney feature animation
company. He helped creating some of Disney’s popular characters, from
the Lion King to Beauty and the Beast. He also co-directed the movie
Brother Bear.
Aaron uses a 24” Cintiq from Wacom. He likes this the most because you
are able to draw right on the screen, this is the closest to working with
paper and pencils. [25] So it makes the transition from traditional to
digital drawing and animation a lot easier. Aaron uses Photoshop
exclusively. He tells that he has tried other software but that he always
finds himself coming back to Photoshop. He does all of his animating in
TVPaint. Aaron says: “My background in animation is with paper and
pencil. TVPaint has been the closest thing I can find that feels like I’m still
working in a traditional way.” [25]
His techniques
Aaron’s best time-saving shortcut in his work is his process. He
approaches all of his work the same way. He spends a certain amount of
time on gathering information and research. Research is one of his
favorite things. [7] When it comes to drawing, and starting with creating
images, he does things the same way every time. Because of the
repetition in this process he is able to make a lot of images very fast, but
still keep them unique and fresh. [7] However, when he is writing and
thinking about a story, there is no shortcut. He locks himself away in a
quiet room and let the story take hold of him. He always keeps the theme
and structure of his storytelling in mind. This results in things developing
quickly and keeping things moving. He states that otherwise the story will
wander and it ends up as a lot of unusable stuff that doesn’t really make
sense. [25]
Aaron’s tutorials
Aaron now creates tutorials and videos online about art and animation
education. His mission is to make art and art education affordable and
available for everyone. He wants to bring this education to for example an
audience that can’t always afford the expenses of an art school. No
matter in what medium he is teaching, he always tries to take the
mystery out of things first. He wants to get across that there’s a simple
process involved. Once someone learns this “process”, animation or
illustration, it teaches someone how to “see”. It’s about seeing when it’s
done wrong, not about seeing how it’s done right. He also believes that
everybody can learn to draw, paint or animate. But that it’s about
learning how to let go of preconceived notions and learning how to see
them differently. You take the information and let it come out of your
hand. It usually takes about 4-6 steps before a finished work. Finally
Aaron says that he hates explaining and rather likes to show. [28]
Table of contents 7

An important question: how has the industry’s evolution from 2D to 3D
CG changed your own evolution as an artist and animator and how has
that changed the way animation principles are taught?
Aaron answer this by saying that everything has changed, but on the
other hand, nothing has changed. Everything has changed in the way that
everything moved from the 2D world to the 3D one. For example,
Photoshop, it’s amazing what all you can do with it. The only restriction is
your own mind. The things that haven’t changed are the principles of art
and drawing. The tools might have changed, but not the mindset. You still
draw with your hands, and the ideas start in someone’s mind. For
example, a CG film doesn’t start on a computer. It starts with an idea,
working with a pencil or something else to create a design. [28]
Aaron tells how his process hasn’t changed before he did his drawings and
animation digitally. People sometimes have the perception that when a
computer is involved that is does all the work, which is of course not true.
[28]
Among other things Aaron takes animation enthusiasts through the 12
fundamentals of animations.
These are the fundamentals that the original 9 old men at Disney
discovered and distributed. 9 old men was the nickname given to the
group of men who made up the core of animators and directors. They
produced the early work of Walt Disney studios, for example Snow White
and the Seven Dwarves. [11] Aaron takes those fundamentals and shows
how he applies them to approaching a scene and animating it. Those 12
fundamentals or principles were also mentioned in the book: the illusion
of life by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in 1981, also called the bible of
animation. The main purpose of these fundamentals was to produce an
illusion of characters sticking to the basic laws of physics. Another
purpose was the emotional timing and the character appeal.
Tom Bancroft
Tom Bancroft, just like Aaron Blaise and Ralph Palmer, is a former Disney
animator. He has over 25 years of experience in the animation industry.
[6] A few examples of animation movies he has worked on are Beauty
and the Beast, The Lion King, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Mulan and Brother
Bear. [6] He also has illustrated children’s books and made character
design instruction books. [6]
Tom Bancroft says that there are no ‘pointers’ to art, like there aren’t any
in life. It’s just practice. [6] This also applies to animation. If something is
brand new to you, you have to do it and practice, practice, practice. Only
that way you will get better at it. It also doesn’t have anything to do with
the tools you use. [6] For example you can have a very good drawing
tablet for digital drawings and animation. This can help in some
situations, if you are going for a certain ‘style’ for example. But it doesn’t
make you a better artist, or in this case animator. Just like Ralph Palmer
told us [See Meeting a professional] draw, draw, draw. Practice is key.
Table of contents 8

Meeting a professional
Preparation
On saturday, 12th of november there is an open day at the NHTV. The
NHTV, University of Applied Sciences, is located in Breda. It has
approximately 7000 Dutch and foreign students. [24] It has bachelor’s
degree programs, among other things: Games and Media.
We plan on going to this event and look around at the gaming department
(Creative Media and Game Technologies), which will have teachers of
animations, for example Ralph Palmer, a former Disney animator. We
hope to be able to speak to a professional and be able to ask some
questions. In preparation of this day we have created a sort of enquiry to
know what we want to ask in case we actually find someone to talk to.
The NHTV is a school which specializes in media and the hotel and
catering industry. [24] We will look at the media department, specifically
the one on gaming. This gaming department also has professional
animators as employees so finding an animator there, is a good way to
start.
Questions we’re going to ask:
- Could you explain what the 12 principles of animation are, and if
they are important and so yes, why?
- Would you mind telling us a bit about the bouncing ball?
- Do you also teach/ have been taught this method?
- Why is it important?
The day itself
We were able to find Ralph Palmer, a former Disney animator. We told
him about our project for school and about our animation plan. He
thought is was a great plan since most schools that teach animation start
off with the bouncing ball. [26] He told us that this was the main thing to
start off with because it meant really looking at an object, to know how it
moves. [26] Most objects have a gravitational point like the bouncing ball,
so the principal of a bouncing ball returns in every motion. [26]
We asked him if he got any tips for the animating itself. He told us to
study, study, study, do your research! [26] For example, the bouncing
ball, he told us to get an actual bouncing ball, and time it’s movements.
He told us to really look at it closely and study every movement.
Furthermore he stressed how important note taking is. [26] He used
Leonardo da Vinci as an example, how he always had pages of notes with
every sketch. Also how he took hundreds of drawings, sketches and
try-out to perfect his technique. [26] Research everything around the
topic you want to make an animation about, makes notes before you
make the actual animation. [26] So that if you’re finally ready for the
actual animating itself, you are prepared and you know how it works. [26]
Table of contents 9

Then we asked him about the 12 principles of animation. He told us not to
get stuck on those since he knew a lot of animators that don’t use the 12
principles, yet still animate on high level. [26] For us however we still
want to understand the 12 principles, but focus mainly on the bouncing
ball itself since it actually already illustrates the 12 principles. [see
Storyboard]
Forms of animation
Since we want to make a 2D animation we need to look at the different
types of 2D animation. We eventually settled on a frame by frame 2D
graphic animation. A classic 2D frame by frame animation would consist
of drawing separate frames by hand on paper by use of a light box. This
type of animation is also known as traditional animation. Animating by
means of traditional animation works along the following steps: sketching,
cleanup, colouring and then putting these frames in a consecutive order.
The sketchup originally would be done by use of pencil, the cleanup by
pen. [33] The colouring differs from animation to animation. For example
old cartoons such as He-man and Danger would often illustrate one
character on a sheet of cell. When inked, the characters would be
coloured with acrylic paint. [33][5]
Drawing a frame [12] Colouring an inked cell with acrylic paint [33]
For the time we are given and able to use, we would not be able to make
an animation and do research on animation therefore we discarded the
idea of making an animation through the methods of traditional
animation.
Table of contents 10

So instead we required a way of animating which would not be as time
consuming, yet would still look nice.
The thing that came to our minds is animating by the use of a motion
tween. This tool was introduced with the program Adobe Flash.
[22][21][14] The tool allows a certain object to be moved from one place
to the other without having to draw every single frame once again. It is
like moving an object in real life, without changing the shapes of said
object. This would make our animating a lot less time consuming.
Eventually we chose to not use this method since we liked to animate
through drawing each frame, and we did not like the smoothness that this
method achieves. Since we are going to draw something organic, which to
us is always moving around even when moving in one direction. We
believe the only way to achieve this is to draw every frame by hand
rather than moving one object around.
So we found a method that requires you to draw each frame while being
done digitally. This means that we will use the digital 2D animation. [See
Introduction]

The 12 laws of animation
Most animations apply the 12 fundamentals of animation, these
techniques are used to create a convincing humorous or lively animation.
These 12 techniques are known well throughout the animation world and
every animation applies these rules. The twelve fundamentals of
animation are listed below. [2]
Squash and Stretch
Giving a sense of weight and flexibility to objects. This can be with simple
objects, like a ball but also human faces. This fundamental basically says
that the volume of the object does not change.
Anticipation
To prepare the audience for an action, and to make this action appear more
realistic. For example, a person jumping needs to bend his knees first.
Staging
Direct the audience’s attention, and to make clear what is most important in
a certain scene. This can be done by using various things like, an
expression, shadows and lighting and angle. Focusing on what is relevant
and not adding unnecessary details.
Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
Straight ahead action is drawing a scene frame by frame from the beginning
to the end. This is used for realistic action and creates more fluid
movements. But it is hard to maintain the proportions. Pose to pose is
beginning with a few key frames and filling in the other frames later. Used
for dramatic scenes where composition is more important.
Follow Through and Overlapping Action
Follow through means that the loosely tied parts of a body should continue
moving after the character has stopped. Overlapping action is that the
different parts of the body move at different rates. Both help to render
movement more realistically and help that the characters follow the laws
of physics.
Slow In and Slow Out
Objects need time to accelerate and slow down. It looks more realistic if
more frames or drawings are just at the end and the beginning of an
action. This can be for a human sitting down and standing up, or even a
bouncing ball.
Arc
Most natural action follows an arched path. As the speed increases, arcs tend
to flatten out in moving ahead and also enlarge the turns. An object that
moves out of its natural arc will not be fluid.
Secondary Action
By adding secondary action to the main action the scene will get more life.
For example a person walking and swinging his arms. It’s important that
it doesn’t take the attention away from the first action, otherwise the
secondary action can better be left out or put at the beginning or end of
the action.

Timing
This is the number of drawings or frames used for a certain action, which
determines the speed of the action. Correct timing makes objects seem to
obey the laws of physics. This is important for the character’s emotions
and reaction.
Exaggeration
Exact imitation can look static in cartoons. The amount of exaggeration
depends on the type of style. The classical definition of exaggeration, that
was used by Disney, was to remain true to reality but presenting it in a
wilder and a more extreme form.
Solid Drawing
Taking the three-dimensional space into account, and giving object's volume
and weight. The animator needs to understand the anatomy, weight,
balance and light and shadow to create a life-like image.
Appeal
It is important that the audience feels that the character is real and
interesting. For likeable characters often a symmetrical face tends to be
effective.
Animating
Drive for our PWS
Here we are, the answer to our main research question: how to create an
actual animation. After doing all of our research we have found a way to
apply said research to creating an animation.
First off we decided to create a storyboard. This can be seen on the next
page.

Storyboard
A storyboard is an outline of our ideas for the actual animation we want to
create. [31] Ours shows the important shots of our animation. The
storyboard will then aid us to keep to our first story idea. Storyboards are
used in not only animations but other movies as well. [30][31] They will
give actors and animators an idea of how a scene is supposed to look and
play out. [30][31] It depends on the movie whether the storyboard
depicts the scene in detail or if it is a loose idea of how it is supposed to
look. [30] Sometimes the storyboards do not only consist of pictures, but
something is written alongside of them as well, to indicate sounds or
other actions in the shot. [30]
The idea of a storyboard originally came from animations. [30] Since
animators need to know exactly how a scene plays out to draw the
characters, so there wouldn’t be any unnecessary labour. [30]
Our Storyboard
After the storyboard we have decided to start our work using certain
computer programs. We researched many different programs to
eventually find one program that is perfect for our needs.

Bouncing ball
The bouncing ball is one of the most basic fundamentals of animation.
[26][10][20][23] It covers most of the twelve fundamentals of animation
and that is why it is such an obvious subject for our animation. The
bouncing ball is one of the main things taught at animation classes,
because it returns in every motion. [10][20] For example a person
running can be linked back to the bouncing ball. Imagine the feet, hip,
shoulders and head all being separate bouncing balls, all bouncing in their
own arc. [5]
Our bouncing ball, however, will apply to all of the 12 fundamentals of
animation.
Squash & stretch
The ball will be stretched vertically when it is rising or falling. It will
squash in when the ball hits the ground.
Anticipation will be built up since we are going to extend the air time of
the ball, this will create anticipation up to the moment the ball will fall
again.
Staging
The scenery will be created before the ball, the main object is introduced.
Once the ball is on screen it will be the only moving thing, this will be a
contrast to the background. This will stage the ball as the most important
thing in the animation.
Straight ahead action
For our animation we have decided to do the pose to pose animation.
Meaning that we will start drawing the key frames, and then draw the
frames between them so we have a smoothly moving ball.
Follow through & overlapping
The ball is one solid object, around the ball we will tie a ribbon to create a
second movement. The ribbon is a lot lighter so it will be influenced more
by the air force and velocity and less by the gravity in comparison to the
ball.
Slow in & slow out
Since the air time at the top is a lot longer than the air time when the ball
is falling or rising, the top requires more frames than the falling and rising
of the ball. Causing the motion to slow in and out at the top and speed up
when falling and rising.
Arc
Since the ball will follow an arc this seems rather obvious.
The arc of a bouncing ball [5]

Secondary action
This will be the ribbon, which will follow the ball, since it is so much
lighter and less influenced by gravity and more so by the force of the ball.
Timing
The ball has more air time at the top than when falling or rising or
actually bouncing. We will make one bounce about 2 or 3 seconds to show
in detail how the ball moves.
Exaggeration
We will make the air time, mostly at the top, longer than actually
possible. This is because we want to exaggerate the bouncing and show
the principles of animation better. For the first couple of bounces the ball
will bounce from left to right without losing altitude. In real life the ball
wouldn’t bounce from left to right (unless it bounced between two walls)
and wouldn’t lose altitude.
Solid drawing
Because the ball bounces around with slow in and slow out, the ball will
seemingly have weight just like the ribbon which acts differently because
of its different weight.
Appeal
The ball has a round shape. Generally round shapes are nice shapes to
look at and are appealing as they are linked to safety and are easier to
look at. [15][4]
Before the actual animating of the bouncing ball, we decided to follow the
advice Ralph Palmer gave us at the open day, namely bouncing an actual
ball. So we decided to look at two different balls, a tennis ball and a
bouncing ball. We bounced them both vertically and horizontally, timed
how long they took from their first to their last bounce, and counted how
many times they bounced. The tennis ball was much bigger and is
covered with a fibrous felt. This is a textile that is produced by matting,
condensing and pressing fibres together.[13] The tennis ball therefore
bounced fewer times both vertically and horizontally than the smaller
rubber bouncing ball. As well as bouncing fewer times, the tennis ball
didn’t bounce as high as the rubber ball did. It came about halfway in
comparison to the rubber ball when bounced vertically. Also when
bounced horizontally, the tennis ball lost more height faster with every
bounce. The rubber ball took more time to complete its ‘run’, and to stop
bouncing. Another thing that we noticed, is that if you look very closely,
you can see that the ball slows down at the top of its bounce, and loses
its speed for a second.
The videos that we took of bouncing those two balls can be found in our
drive: Drive for our PWS
You might not think there’s a lot of physics going on in simply bouncing a
ball, but there is. We bounced our balls outside: there is air resistance,
slowing our ball down. This air resistance causes bricks to fall faster than
feathers, this would also cause a lighter ball to bounce higher than a
heavier one. However material also plays a part in the bounce height, a

rubber ball would bounce higher than a ball with the same weight made
out of stone. Since the material would then not give any elasticity so it
won’t allow for the ball to bounce. Shape also plays a roll, a flat surface
would not bounce like a ball would be able to. In the case of our bouncing
balls, the ball’s arc is the shape of a parabola. This shape is the same for
every sort of bal. When the ball is moving, or bouncing it has kinetic
energy. When the ball seemingly stops for a second, this is at the top of
its arc, the kinetic energy decreases and it converts into potential energy.
[8] Because of gravity the ball falls down again and the potential energy
is transformed back into kinetic energy until the ball hits the ground
again. Because of this the ball is slower in its higher point than at its
lowest, a higher kinetic energy will give the object a greater velocity.
Therefore there are less frames at the bottom, when animating a
bouncing ball, and more frames used at the top of the ball’s arc, to show
this difference in speed.
Animation Programs
TV Paint
Besides animating on paper, Aaron Blaise also animates digitally. He uses
TV Paint to do this. He explains what it is, how it works and what he likes
about it compared to animating on paper. TvPaint is a 2D animation
software. It contains all the tools that you need to animate without paper.
Just like a lot of different other animation softwares, TV Paint is very
robust. [34] Meaning that there’s a lot of different ways that you can do
one thing, so it’s very adaptable. Just like traditional animating, you can
rough out a scene, lower the opacity and put a new layer above it to
refine it. You can add sound, like dialogue. There is also the ability to
write out the dialogue above the sound panel, this can be handy while
animating a dialogue. [34] With traditional animating you have to flip
back and forward between the papers to see what you’re animating. With
this program with the light table feature you are able to see multiple
drawings ahead and back. You can add ‘keyframes’ and add ‘inbetween’
frames later on, this can help to smoothen out your animation. Keyframes
will also help to ease the navigation in the images in the timeline. [34]
Adobe Photoshop
The animating part in photoshop is very similar to TV Paint. Although it
misses some features that TV Paint has. This is because Photoshop, unlike
TV Paint, wasn’t originally made to be an animating program. Although
over the years Photoshop has improved this feature. [27] A timeline panel
and video layers have been added, there’s also the ability to create
keyframe animation. We have chosen to use Photoshop as our animation
program. Since we have been using Photoshop for a while now, mainly to
draw or edit things, so we already know the program a little bit. This is
useful because we don’t have to learn how to use it. [27]

Adobe After Effects
The good thing about After Effects is that when drawing in Photoshop, the
drawings can be easily imported into After Effects and then edited. This is
because in Photoshop one would draw on layers, these layers will then be
maintained in After Effects. [29] Therefore if one were to draw each frame
on a different layer in Photoshop, these frames would remain as different
parts in After Effects. After Effects is a program used for editing movies
and such, the program has many features such as messing with the time
of footage or adding in video effects. [29] This will give us the capability
to mess around with our animation and see what edits work best.
Programs we are going to use
Eventually we chose to use Adobe photoshop and Adobe After Effects
because when using layers in Photoshop these layers would be
maintained in After Effects, and thus can be easily edited in After Effects.
We chose for After Effects as well because this program has more editing
capabilities than the Photoshop timeline.
Animation
Drive for our PWS
The final animation is called Final.mov
Along with the final animation are a couple of test animations. We could
not have finished our animation at this level had we not tested out
previous bounces, or researched the path of an actual bouncing ball.
The finished animation shows both the process of animating and the
principles. Showing all the stages of our bouncing ball, first as a sketched
bouncing ball, eventually evolving into a ball with a face, bow and colour.
We messed about with timing and other things. The final bounce in the
animation is the true end result, we agreed the timing was perfect and
the ball looked nice enough.

Conclusion
Main question
How does the drawing process, the actual animating, of a digital 2D
animation work? (using the twelve laws of animation)
It starts off with brainstorming, thinking about an idea. After this comes
storyboarding, putting down the idea in drawings or pictures. And finally
of course the actual animating itself. This is drawing every frame
separately.
In our experience we first discussed on what we wanted to show. Since
we want to explain animating through the use of the twelve laws of
animating, we came to the conclusion we would animate the bouncing
ball. Preceding this project we had already heard of the importance of the
bouncing ball, and we knew this would be the perfect subject for our
animation. So we went ahead and created our storyboard. Keeping in
mind we would apply the twelve principles. After the storyboard we went
ahead and started animating. This would work alongside our storyboard
so we knew what we wanted the end result to look like.
The animating was a lot of work and took a long time, it meant drawing
every frame individually. However once the frames were drawn, these
could be repeated so the same motion would not have to be redrawn. We
used two programs: Photoshop to draw the frames and add colours. And
then After Effects to edit these frames, add a background mess around
with the timing and the entirety.
In conclusion the drawing process, or at least our drawing process, is
creating a storyboard then drawing frames of a certain motion, including
colour. And finally editing it into one film.
The subquestions will answer the main question further.
Subquestions
What is the drawing process?
The drawing process is the drawing of individual frames to create a
motion.
Why is the drawing process important for an animation?
This is the process where an idea gets turned into a film and creates the
motion of the subject or object portrayed in this film.
How does the drawing process come into existence?
First there’s an idea. After that people need to start visualising that idea,
and drawing it. It usually starts off with drawing a storyboard that shows
the idea in little drawings or pictures, and notes about the visuals or
audio. After the storyboard the animating will begin.
Where, in all the different stages, is the drawing process relevant?
The drawing process comes back in all different forms of stages, in the
idea, the storyboarding and in the actual animating itself.

When is the drawing process implemented?
It’s already implemented when brainstorming, when making sketch ideas
on how the movie and characters are going to look. And when
storyboarding. But the process is most prominent in the animating stage,
when every frame becomes an individual drawing.
Will our research pay off in us being able to create our own
animations?
Having done all this research definitely gave us a better understanding of
how animations work, and everything around it. The quality of the
animation, in terms of drawing skills, however, does not come from doing
a lot of research, but from experience and skill. In the end our research
did give us the ability to make a simplistic motion, ending in our final
animation.
How much work is the animating process?
In the end we’ve put in 80 hours of work, if not more, on our research
and animation. About halve of our those hours went into the research, the
other in our final animation. Our final product is a simple animation of a
bouncing ball. More complex animations will therefore take a lot more
time and skills than our animation. Also a person with a lot more
experience will get more work done in a shorter amount of time, and of
course, get work of a better quality.
In conclusion we have made an animation and done research showing
what the drawing process is as well as what the twelve laws of animation
are.

Discussion
We have always found animation a very intriguing subject, which is why
we had fun in working on this project. However it was a lot of work, and
not everything worked out the way we had wanted it to. For example we
had planned on gaining our information from actual animators. However
when we mailed them we did not get a response or help. So in the end we
were only able to ask one animator when we talked to him ourselves, this
did help out. Our cooperation went great, and we discussed where we
wanted to be at what time.
With regards to our actual animation, if we spend even more time
on it we could have possibly made it better, for example by adding sound.
As sound would have made the animation more lively. Another thing that
we could have done is adding more things to the animation. Hereby
making it longer. Our animation ends at 29 seconds, which is, considering
the time spent on it, not long. By making our animation longer, a lot more
things could have been added to it. We could have maybe even animated
an actual character and make a little story, and also put some research in
characters. We could have added another ball with a different secondary
action. Or we could have given the ball another shape, and would this
have changed the way it bounced or even its arc? Scenery is another
thing we could have expanded on. Making a more realistic background,
that followed the ball as it bounced. Sadly we didn’t have the time to add
all of these things.
At the end we got an animation that we think will explain the twelve
principles fairly well and that we have reached a goal with which we can
be happy.

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