How This Simple Technique Can Save You Time
Limited animation uses special techniques that limit the effort required to create the entire animation so that each frame does not have to be drawn individually.
Creating an animated film from 20 minutes to two hours at 12-24 (or even 36!) frames per second can generate thousands or even millions of individual drawings. Even with an entire animation team at a large production company, this can be almost impossible and labor intensive.
Therefore, animators have limited animation techniques that reuse all or part of existing animation frames while drawing new ones only when needed.
This can often be seen more clearly in Japanese anime. In fact, this is one of the reasons why Japanese animation is said to be inferior to American animation, although American animation often uses limited animation techniques. It’s just a little less clear.
Limited animation example
One of the simplest examples of finite animation is run cycle reuse. If your character is walking towards something and you’ve created a standard 8-frame walk cycle, you don’t need to redraw the walk cycle for each step. Instead, it repeats the same walking cycle over and over, changing the character’s position or changing the background to display gradual movement across the screen.
This doesn’t just apply to humans. Think of the wheels of a spinning locomotive or the wheels of a spinning car. If the viewer can’t know that they’ve reused the same cycle, they don’t need to animate this over and over as long as the motion is smooth and consistent.
Another example is when a character speaks but doesn’t move other visible parts of his body. Instead of redrawing the entire frame, the animator uses one cell with the main body and another with the mouth or the entire face animated to blend seamlessly with the layered cell. You can change the movement of your mouth, your facial expression, or your entire head. This can be applied to things like arm swings in stationary bodies, mechanical parts, etc. Most importantly, it integrates seamlessly.
Another example is when the figure is held in a frame that does not move at all. You may have paused for a reaction beat, you may have been listening, or you may have frozen in shock. It doesn’t make sense to draw in the exact same position anyway, because it won’t move for a few seconds. Instead, the same frames are reused, and when the animation is brought into the movie, it continues to be captured by the grandstand camera for the correct duration.
archive footage
Some anime shows use stock footage (animated sequences that are reused at decisive moments that are usually an important part of the show in almost every episode). Sometimes the footage is flipped or reused with various zoom and pan changes to use only part of an animation sequence, but there are enough variations to make it look unique.
In particular, Flash often re-uses basic character shapes and animation sequences without extensive use of tweening to replace frame-by-frame animation, greatly simplifying and generalizing limited animation techniques. Other programs like Toon Boom Studio and DigiCel Flipbook have also improved this process, making it easier to recycle footage and character art.
More information
Definition and Examples of Limited Animation
How this simple technique can save you hours of work
Limited animation makes use of special techniques to limit the effort involved in producing the full animation so that not every frame has to be drawn individually.
When producing anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours of animated film at 12-24 (or even 36!) frames per second, that can stack up to thousands or even millions of individual drawings. Even with a full animation team in a large-scale production company, this can be almost impossibly labor-intensive.
So animators will make use of limited animation techniques, which involve reusing all or parts of existing animated frames while drawing new frames only when necessary.
You’ll often see this more prominently illustrated in Japanese animation; in fact, it’s one of the reasons that people often claim Japanese animation is inferior to American animation, even if American animation also frequently makes use of limited animation techniques. It’s just a little less obvious about it.
Examples of Limited Animation
One of the easiest examples of limited animation is reusing walk cycles. If your character is walking toward something and you’ve created a standard 8-frame walk cycle, there’s no need to redraw the walk cycle for every step. Instead just replay the same walk cycle over and over again, either changing the position of the character or the background to show movement progressing across the screen.
This doesn’t apply only to people; think of a locomotive’s wheels churning or a car’s wheels turning. You don’t need to animate that over and over again when viewers won’t be able to tell you’ve reused the same cycle as long as the motion is smooth and consistent.
Another example is when characters are speaking, but not moving any of the other visible parts of their bodies. Instead of redrawing the entire frame, animators will use one cel with the base body, and another with the mouth or even the entire face animated on top of it so that it blends in seamlessly with the layered cels. They may just change the mouth movements or may change the facial expression or even the entire head. This can count for things like arms swinging on static bodies, machine parts, etc.—anything where only part of the object is moving. What matters most is that it blends in seamlessly.
Yet another example is in hold frames where characters aren’t moving at all. Maybe they’ve paused for a reaction beat, maybe they’re listening, maybe they’re frozen in terror. Either way, they’re not moving for a few seconds, so there’s no point in drawing them in the exact same position. Instead, the same frame is reused and snapped over and over again for the correct duration using the rostrum camera, when the animation is brought to film.
Stock Footage
Some animated shows make use of stock footage—animated sequences that are reused in almost every episode, generally for some hallmark moment that’s a key part of the show. At times footage will also be reused in mirror image, or with various changes in zoom and pan to just use part of the animated sequence but with enough of a variation to make it seem unique.
Flash, in particular, makes limited animation techniques extremely simple and commonplace, often reusing base character shapes and animation sequences even without the extensive use of tweens to substitute for frame by frame animation. Other programs such as Toon Boom Studio and DigiCel Flipbook also enhance this process and make it easy to recycle footage and character art.
#Definition #Examples #Limited #Animation
Definition and Examples of Limited Animation
How this simple technique can save you hours of work
Limited animation makes use of special techniques to limit the effort involved in producing the full animation so that not every frame has to be drawn individually.
When producing anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours of animated film at 12-24 (or even 36!) frames per second, that can stack up to thousands or even millions of individual drawings. Even with a full animation team in a large-scale production company, this can be almost impossibly labor-intensive.
So animators will make use of limited animation techniques, which involve reusing all or parts of existing animated frames while drawing new frames only when necessary.
You’ll often see this more prominently illustrated in Japanese animation; in fact, it’s one of the reasons that people often claim Japanese animation is inferior to American animation, even if American animation also frequently makes use of limited animation techniques. It’s just a little less obvious about it.
Examples of Limited Animation
One of the easiest examples of limited animation is reusing walk cycles. If your character is walking toward something and you’ve created a standard 8-frame walk cycle, there’s no need to redraw the walk cycle for every step. Instead just replay the same walk cycle over and over again, either changing the position of the character or the background to show movement progressing across the screen.
This doesn’t apply only to people; think of a locomotive’s wheels churning or a car’s wheels turning. You don’t need to animate that over and over again when viewers won’t be able to tell you’ve reused the same cycle as long as the motion is smooth and consistent.
Another example is when characters are speaking, but not moving any of the other visible parts of their bodies. Instead of redrawing the entire frame, animators will use one cel with the base body, and another with the mouth or even the entire face animated on top of it so that it blends in seamlessly with the layered cels. They may just change the mouth movements or may change the facial expression or even the entire head. This can count for things like arms swinging on static bodies, machine parts, etc.—anything where only part of the object is moving. What matters most is that it blends in seamlessly.
Yet another example is in hold frames where characters aren’t moving at all. Maybe they’ve paused for a reaction beat, maybe they’re listening, maybe they’re frozen in terror. Either way, they’re not moving for a few seconds, so there’s no point in drawing them in the exact same position. Instead, the same frame is reused and snapped over and over again for the correct duration using the rostrum camera, when the animation is brought to film.
Stock Footage
Some animated shows make use of stock footage—animated sequences that are reused in almost every episode, generally for some hallmark moment that’s a key part of the show. At times footage will also be reused in mirror image, or with various changes in zoom and pan to just use part of the animated sequence but with enough of a variation to make it seem unique.
Flash, in particular, makes limited animation techniques extremely simple and commonplace, often reusing base character shapes and animation sequences even without the extensive use of tweens to substitute for frame by frame animation. Other programs such as Toon Boom Studio and DigiCel Flipbook also enhance this process and make it easy to recycle footage and character art.
#Definition #Examples #Limited #Animation
Synthetic: Vik News
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