The real advantage of animation as an artificially constructed medium is the variety of ways that projects can be realized. This flexibility ensures that traditional and digital processes can co-exist, enabling traditionalists and purists to continue producing work in the field, but opening up the possibility that new participants can use animation also for communication, information, education, and entertainment productions. From simple projection devices, such as the zoetrope and praxinoscope, through traditional hand-drawn and painted cels, stop motion, and jointed puppets, to advanced computer-generated virtual animation, the continuing experimental possibilities of animation are central to its extraordinary success as a pervasive and progressive art form. A great idea, a burning ambition to tell a particular story, or a compulsion to deliver a particular set of facts, coupled with a thorough understanding of previous, current, and potential future techniques of animation are the raw ingredients needed to produce exciting work.

This chapter examines the variety of production methods used to create animated content—traditional cel animation, stop motion, 3D computer-generated imagery (CGI), and unorthodox processes. Consideration is given to the history and development of these forms, illustrating successful exponents of each and providing detail about the benefits and limitations that students can expect to contend with when producing their own work. Attention is also given to the development of sound in the production phase and the signing off of the final work by the director.

Choosing animation as a preferred communication vehicle has been commercially very successful for the British bank Lloyds TSB, with spin-off merchandising following public awareness and brand recognition.

Barry Purves animating on set.

The animation pipeline in production

The animation pipeline in the production phase varies slightly according to the processes and techniques used. As a general rule, two-dimensional work is key-framed, with drawings or images created identifying the main actions in the scene in tandem with the pencil tests made for each character to enable them to move convincingly. Background and scenes are created, and the in-between frames are generated to link the key frames together, smoothing the movements of the characters and objects in the scenes. Frames that have been drawn or scanned are tidied in “clean-up” ready for inking and painting. The process of compositing layers can then begin, developing the level of detail that may be required for each frame before picture editing and rendering complete the process and create a final workprint of the animation.

Three-dimensional production differs inasmuch as the image-making process is largely achieved through modeling the form, either as a whole or as a physical or virtual skeletal framework. The model will usually need to have its articulation engineered; in a virtual production process the technique of “rigging” creates data-mapped “points” that the crew can use to manipulate the model by dragging a cursor to a desired position on screen. The model is then animated by enacting movement with the body, limbs, and lips to make the character walk, gesticulate, and talk. Once the basic moves have been established, the model is lit to heighten its sense of presence, drama, and intensity. The captured film or data is composited together to bring all the animated shots together as one combined frame and rendered or blended together to achieve a final workprint.

Dad’s Dead (2002) is noteworthy for Chris Shepherd’s decision to use a variety of animation production processes to challenge the viewer’s perception of mediated images.

Introduction to basic techniques

In essence, all animation is made using the principle of creating a still frame, recording it, and playing it back with corresponding frames to give the illusion of movement. The variation comes through the creator’s choice of materials, dimensions, and method of capture and is not simply confined necessarily to one form or technique. Indeed, the dynamism and versatility of animation are repeatedly expressed through productions that use multiple techniques and processes to convey meaning. A good example is the award-winning short film Dad’s Dead (2002) directed by Chris Shepherd, which cleverly uses multiple animated techniques mixed with live action to engagingly tell the story of childhood experiences through a boy who has lost his father. The innocence of the animated techniques is juxtaposed against the often dark and subversive content, providing an uneasy viewing experience.

For those new to animation, it is helpful to have some understanding of the history and significance of the moving image. This not only requires a theoretical and critical knowledge and comprehension of the history of the subject but also an appreciation of how different practical devices such as zoetropes and praxinoscopes were invented, enabling the illusion of movement to be illustrated. These simple motion devices played an important historical part in creating the illusion of movement on which many of today’s production processes are based. They all play on the idea of the illusion of movement by using moving parts themselves.

Cel animation and traditional 2D processes

A common way to understand the basic principles of animation is through the process of simple cel animation. The technique has been used extensively, from full-length animated feature films right through to animated television commercials. Cel animation represents the majority of people’s understanding about what constitutes the form, as it is often encountered for the first time as a child through animated cartoons.

A glimpse into Japanese animator Koji Yamamura’s studio reveals shelves of individually hand-drawn images that have been scanned to create sequences.

Drawn cel animation

The process of drawn cel animation gives an animator great artistic freedom and an intimate sense of engagement with the creation of animated work. Two-dimensional drawings are created on separate surfaces that are calibrated by fixing them to the same registered position, photographed, and then played back in order, so as to create a simple linear animated sequence.

Patented by Earl Hurd in 1915, cel animation traditionally consisted of rough drawings created in light-blue pencil (invisible to photographic processes), which were then drawn over in pencil or ink to finalize the design. The individually inked line drawings were crafted onto single prepunched acetate cels (or animation paper) by the animator at the animation table. The table was tilted at an angle toward the animator, lit from underneath, with the cel fixed on a peg-bar (a piece of wood or plastic fixed to the desk, with notches to register the punched holes) directly over the light source, which illuminated a movable frosted glass or plastic disk in the center of the table. The illuminated disk allowed the animator to draw the new image onto a cel using the previous cel as a guide underneath, ensuring that moves previously drawn were incremental and consistently in keeping with the intended action.

The inked cels were turned over and painted on the back using acrylic paint on a factory line and, once dry, were turned right side up for filming. In the heyday of this kind of production during the 1930s and 1940s, many women were employed by the animation-producing Hollywood studios to ink and paint the cels. The results of this process are known by millions around the world through the seminal works of the Walt Disney Studios. It remains the method of choice for many animators today, including Koji Yamamura, Joanna Quinn, Bill Plympton, Igor Kovalyov, and Frédéric Back, who have each explored the medium with different expressive dry and wet media to exciting effect.

Two-dimensional drawn animation has expanded beyond these early “industrial” methods and can imaginatively encompass drawing on paper using a variety of wet and dry media and textural and tonal surfaces. The further possibilities of using creative digital media, such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, allow artists to create digital frames as separate files or to layer frames over one another to control more effects.

A student reviews his scanned drawn cel on screen.

Rotoscoping was used as reference to great effect in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), where Snow White’s character came alive through pioneering use of the technique, combined with the skillful art direction of Webb Smith. © Disney

Rotoscoping

The rotoscope was invented and championed by the Fleischer brothers in 1915. The writer Mark Langer describes the rotoscope as “a device that allowed the rear projection of a live-action film frame-by-frame on to a translucent surface set into a drawing board. An animator could simply trace each live-action image on to a piece of paper, advance the film by another frame and repeat the process. By these means, the live-action images became a guide to detailed and lifelike animation.” Rotoscoping was used specifically to great effect in the Cab Calloway “dance-walks” in a number of Betty Boop cartoons, and as reference to help animate the sequences where Snow White appeared in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

While the instrument has been superseded by more efficient digital technology, the term “rotoscoping” is still in evidence today. It is arguably the closest form of technique linking live-action film to a two-dimensionally animated process. Rotoscoping has the potential to give the animator freedom to make content and stylistic editing decisions, making it useful for showing technically accurate, but non-specific information. For example, it could be used to show particular figurative actions or situations without revealing the individual, by masking his or her identity.

However, as a technique that enables a form of translation to occur, it is worth noting that visual differences between “reality” in cinema and in animation mean that investing solely in such techniques can produce visual results that can appear wooden. Avoiding such unnatural depictions of form and movement requires careful checking and tweaking by the animator.

2D computer-generated images

Two-dimensional computer-generated animation is created, produced, and edited exclusively using digital technology. The animator commands the computer to store and act on creative instructions, processing them into a form of mathematical data that translates how each frame of animation is constructed, rendered, and pieced together in a corresponding sequence. While some may consider digital technology a relatively young phenomenon, in animation it has existed for a significant period. Highlighted by independent pioneers such as Larry Cuba, Ed Emshwiller, and John Stehura, who embraced, experimented, and shaped digital production possibilities during the early 1960s, computer-generated imagery has informed and developed an important strand of animation production through larger studios and smaller production companies. Much of that early experimentation and research with primitive digital technology has informed software production. Today, there is a significant variety of production, editing, and compositing software available for a fraction of the cost once associated with this kind of production. Such availability and affordability opens new doors of possibility for animators, and has also encouraged other creatives to explore computer-generated animation.

Thanks to digital animation pioneer John Stehura’s film, Cibernetik 5.3 (1964), the possibilities of merging art and science through animation became a possibility for exploration and output.

Toon Boom Animate Pro allows animators the opportunity to create content, animate, and composite all in one program.

CGI platforms

While acknowledging that computer-generated imagery has revolutionized the production of animated projects, especially for independent producers and small studios, it is worth remembering that this revolution has also affected the editing, compositing, and distribution of digitally made work. A platform for creating work is generally dependent on the software used. For simple core designing, processing, and editing of images, the Adobe programs Photoshop and Illustrator, together with Corel Painter, are good examples of versatile and user-friendly “off-the-shelf” packages available to buy at competitive prices.

Animators wanting to scan, line test, ink, and paint cels and animate movements use programs such as Cambridge System’s Animo, Toon Boom, and Bauhaus Mirage, with Cel Action and After Effects popular among independent producers. On larger-scale productions, several studios have in-house developers responsible for creating specific software programs. Often these developers are highly qualified computer scientists who work closely with their creative counterparts to seek solutions to difficult production problems and these products are then offered to the wider market to fund future projects. A good example of such a program is Pixar’s Renderman.

Adobe Flash

A program primarily directed at helping animators create work for the Web, Flash is cheap and easy to learn and has proved to be an extremely versatile product. It is a good example of a transitional program: written originally to work as a drawing tool, it was reincarnated as an animation package to respond to the rapid growth of new technology. Flash has gone on to be the tool of choice to create simple, effective pieces of animation online where bandwidth is limited and large and complex image files would clog a user’s system unnecessarily. Increasingly, it is also used for creating limited animation, with several studios, including Studio AKA and Robber’s Dog, creating successful productions using Flash that showcase a creator’s economical conceptual, development, and articulation prowess.

Stop-motion animation

As the term implies, a simple “motion” can be created between “stops” by manipulating elements incrementally in front of, or under, the camera and then shooting the result as an individual frame. The finer the move in each frame, the smoother the transition when played back in sequence. This is what makes stop motion so time-consuming, but equally so rewarding. For a second’s worth of animation, twenty-four frames will need to be manipulated, anchored, lit, and shot. Stop motion can be two-dimensional or three-dimensional in format, and includes techniques such as oil- or sand-on-glass animation, two-dimensional cut-out animation, puppetry using stringed or silhouette forms, and clay animation.

2D stop motion

There are several ways of working two-dimensionally in stop motion, each essentially applying the principle of incremental movement effected and recorded by the animator, creating a frame of film. Animators have experimented widely with simple malleable media to striking effect.

Sand and oil-paint animation

Applying oil paint or sand onto a glass surface allows the animator to draw with, inscribe into, or in some way manipulate the materials on a surface that is non-absorbent. Both materials are useful to animate with: dry sand can be worked endlessly and oil paint remains wet under lights that become increasingly hot, allowing the animator time to draw or paint. Shooting each movement from above using a suspended camera attached to a secured metal framework—known as a “rig”—makes for a rewarding working method. It allows important acts such as metamorphosis to occur. It is also possible to film more than one layer at once in a single frame by adding other layers above or below the original. In this instance, the animator needs to determine which parts of the lower layers are going to be obscured. This process effectively enables limited animation to happen without the need to redraw a whole new frame. An example might be where a character’s face appears in shot, but the only movement is the eyes looking left and right, so only the eyes need to be animated through the next few frames.

Working with transitory materials such as paint or sand on a non-porous surface creates interesting opportunities, illustrated here by Ferenc Cakó’s film, Érintés [Touch] (2009).

The late Oliver Postgate with fellow creator Peter Firmin was responsible for creating some of the most endearing children’s animated television series, including Ivor the Engine, Noggin the Nog, and The Clangers.

Simple paper cut-outs

Allied to the idea of working with layers, the process of paper cut-out animation can be used to striking effect for relatively little effort. A technique best employed where only simple or limited incremental movements are required, it is both a cost- and time-effective method of creating a credible and believable animated result. Famously employed by Terry Gilliam in the animated sequences of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the technique uses pieces of paper, card, or cloth that have been cut, torn, or folded and placed on a surface where they can be manipulated and recorded frame-by-frame. To create a character using such a technique the animator must create a series of heads, torsos, and limbs that can be placed, removed, and replaced by others incrementally to create a desired move. The greater the number of interchangeable parts, the more sophisticated the movements can become.

However, the process does require great craftsmanship and a mastery of technique to manipulate the limited elements convincingly so that they can be read correctly in motion. Those willing to attempt the technique must be organized in the way that scenes are constructed and recorded and need to pay particular attention to the way movements are planned, timed, and documented, as mistakes are difficult to correct in postproduction. The rewards of using the technique are revealed in the works of many wonderful artists who have imaginatively and enthusiastically embraced the process. Examples include the veteran Russian Yuri Norstein’s masterpiece Hedgehog in the Fog (1975) and British animator Oliver Postgate’s collection of children’s television series such as Ivor the Engine and Noggin the Nog.

3D stop motion

This technique simply enables three-dimensional forms to be created, manipulated, and captured. The process is complex but is rewarded by the potential to achieve magical results, since every element within the frame will have been crafted to match the creator’s expectation. Sets, props, and characters are imaginatively constructed from a variety of materials to make full use of the spatial possibilities of this kind of format. Meticulous preparation is required to dress the set for shooting, successfully manipulate the elements within the frame to indicate movement, and also control conditions around the set itself to ensure stability and continuity. Stop motion as a technique encompasses areas such as puppet animation, clay animation (also known as “claymation”), model or object animation, and go motion.

Armatures

Where figures require manipulation to suggest movement, an armature is needed to act as a strong skeletal framework. The armature can be made from any material that is sturdy enough to support the weight of its body material. Armatures can be bought or individually crafted, but much will depend on the kind of movement the figure is anticipated to make. Small movements may only require certain parts of the figure to move, but full-scale movement will ultimately mean the armature will need to be finely engineered.

This sequence of images from Madame Tutli-Putli shows the creation of the armatures and puppets used in the film, working from a twisted wire construction and using custom-molded parts to authentically create original characters.

Simple armatures can be fashioned from wood, which has the advantage of being easily shaped and joined but has limited durability. A more robust choice is an armature made from metal such as aluminum, which is light, strong, and reliable—an important consideration given how many thousands of potential movements will need to be created to animate a production. These armatures are normally movable using ball-and-socket joints that allow for a variety of poses and holds to be staged.

Puppets

A puppet is a representation of a human or animal form, or an inanimate object, that is manipulated by a puppeteer to animate movement. Animation has had a long and successful association with the puppet form, particularly in the Eastern European tradition of toy-making and puppetry through the talents of Jirí Trnka and George Pal. Trnka lived in his native Czechoslovakia all his life and created the masterpiece Ruka (The Hand) (1965) where a puppet interacts with a live hand as a tale is told of oppression and censorship using deft but hugely loaded figurative movements. Pal escaped Nazi Germany for Hollywood, where he invented the “Puppetoon” for Paramount through a series of stop-motion short films and also created special effects for films such as War of the Worlds (1953).

Historically, puppets have been used as props to tell stories or explain myths and legends in many forms throughout the world. From the carved wooden Bunraku puppets developed in Japan in the seventeenth century, through to simple cut-out “shadow” puppets that form silhouettes against lit backgrounds, to hand puppets such as Punch and Judy where the character is worn like a glove by the puppeteer and fingers inside are used to indicate movements, puppets and marionettes have been central to an audience’s understanding a creator’s intentions. Animators Vladislav Starevich, Willis O’Brien, and Ray Harryhausen are pertinent examples of creators who have achieved global critical acclaim for their productions featuring puppet animation, the latter two combining their artistic and technical prowess to create Mighty Joe Young (1949). The tradition continues today with such animators as Britain’s Barry Purves, whose film characters display a remarkably complex but educated affinity with figurative movement.

As previously noted, puppets can also be object-based, enabling creators to explore surreal worlds beyond the seemingly feasible and to deal with deeper and more complex spiritual or psychic behavior. For example, the Czech animator Jan Svankmajer has centered much of his work around interpreting the meaning of dreams and memories, often using objects as motifs to embody and crystallize wider philosophical ideas. Street of Crocodiles (1986) by the Brothers Quay (comprising Americans Stephen and Timothy Quay), adapted from the Bruno Schulz short story, is a good example of an object-based surreal world, where a figure is trapped inside an old machine that is shared by other objects that alarmingly come to life.

The Brothers Quay film, Street of Crocodiles (1986), pays homage to Eastern European animation traditions.

Eastern Europe has a rich and varied tradition of puppet animation, influencing many contemporary animators in other parts of the world, such as Liz Walker’s Invisible Thread company in the UK.

Master stop-motion animator Barry Purves with his Tchaikovsky puppet, created by Mackinnon and Saunders, for the film of the same name released in 2011.

Unlike conventional actors performing on a stage set, puppets are able to walk a proverbial tightrope of possibilities, projecting an air of believability while performing movements that in human form are restricted or impossible to achieve. They can be moved simply by one person who uses their skill to portray the movements of the character, or by a team of puppeteers working together to express more complicated acts. Usually, the puppeteer will remain out of shot and direct the puppet using a system of strings, rods, or even remote control. However, in some cases, the puppeteer(s) can become integral to the scene, as illustrated by Guilherme Marcondes’s Tyger (2006), which uses a mixture of live-action film of the puppet tiger being manipulated superimposed over computer-generated animated sequences and original photographs.

Guilherme Marcondes took the unusual step of employing puppeteers as actors in his film, Tyger (2006), who are intrinsically connected to the very fabric of the film by amplifying the movements of the puppet tiger.

Beyond the facility to articulate movement, puppets also have the great advantage of being able to be constructed to different scales depending on the “stage” on which they will perform. Their features can be scaled up and engineered to provide movements, while other parts of the body of the puppet remain dormant. This allows key movements to be articulated that can give the greatest resonance to a character, while still maintaining a sense of believability and harmony in the overall design.

One of the most famous historical examples of innovative puppetry in animation exists in Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s original Thunderbirds television series, where the process of “Supermarionation” is employed to animate characters. The term is derived from the words “super,” “marionette,” and “animation,” and the process involved an ingenious mixture of traditional marionette wired movements combined with synchronized mouth movements driven by tiny solenoid motors inside the puppets’ heads. These motors were triggered from an electronic signal on the prerecorded tape of the actor’s voice. However, while the heads and arms may have articulated relatively complex movements—being the most expressive parts of a puppet character—the legs and main torso appeared static and were often disguised using poses that would not showcase their deficiencies. Puppets requiring several puppeteers to manipulate them clearly require great technique and communication skills and an exemplary understanding of exaggerated continual movement.

Having a series of presculpted heads that are interchangeable saves valuable production time and offers extensive creative possibilities while on set.

Clay animation (claymation)

Pioneered by the work of animator Helena Smith Dayton, who was working with clay in 1917, and illustrated to dramatic effect by the work of Bob Gardiner and Will Vinton in their Academy Award-winning film Closed Mondays (1974), and more recently by Aardman Animations in the United Kingdom, clay animation, or “claymation,” has been used widely from feature films to commercials. The use of modeling clay (Plasticine) provides a pertinent example of a “hands-on” approach to animation, allowing figures, props, and sets to be sculpted and manipulated to create movement at low cost and with maximum flexibility. Sculpting and modeling by hand ensures that the final production is imbued with a degree of authenticity and craft.

Simple clay animation can be created instantaneously, as the properties of the medium allow the weight of the clay to support surprising movement possibilities. For more complex productions, using an armature as a base is a necessity. Characters can be built up, modeled, and remodeled in clay endlessly until the desired effects are achieved. During the process of animating itself, variations to body poses and facial gestures can be easily sculpted thanks to the pliable and forgiving nature of the medium. Animators often have a series of heads, limbs, and torsos that can replace the current one, both to speed up the process and to avoid unnecessary drastic remodeling.

Perhaps one of the most complex stop-motion sequences ever shot, Nick Park’s The Wrong Trousers (1993), sees Wallace and Gromit engaged in an epic pursuit of Feathers McGraw.

Model and object animation

These processes are commonly used in conjunction with live-action filmmaking, where aspects of the scene that cannot be filmed in real time are artificially constructed, manipulated, and edited into the live-action footage. A good historical example is Ray Harryhausen’s Jason and the Argonauts (1963), where armed stop-motion animated model skeletons seemingly grow out of the ground and attack the live-action Jason, played by actor Todd Armstrong. The battle scene, which lasts four minutes, took Harryhausen nearly five months to produce.

Go motion

Go motion was invented by Phil Tippett at ILM (George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic) originally for The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and was used extensively in the film Dragonslayer (1981). Connected to stop-motion principles, this method relies on the process of “motion blur” created using techniques between frames of film that nullify the stops between frames. Animators move a model incrementally during the exposure of each film frame, producing a motion blur. The crucial difference between the processes is that while stop-motion frames are made up of stills taken between the small movements of the model, frames in go motion represent images of the object taken while it is moving. This approach is usually created with the help of a computer, often using rods connected to the model that the computer can manipulate to reproduce movements programmed in by the animators. It has now largely been superseded by CGI technology.

Sets and lighting

Even the most simple stop-motion sets are often elaborately designed, and their creators pay painstaking attention to detail to ensure that every aspect of the design works efficiently, showcasing scenes in ways that are convincing and often imaginatively remarkable. In a production, members of the crew will be specially chosen for their design and construction ability, both in relation to the physical materiality of the set itself and for the crucial lighting design that works hand-in-hand to achieve the desired unity of finish.

Set design

In practical terms, the set has to be stable and solid, but must also have scope for expansion and be able to be manipulated from different positions as required by the director. Understanding the scene outlined in the storyboard and masterminding a design that can incorporate all of the action that will take place within that scene are paramount. Thought needs to be given to the size, scale, and proximity of the camera, or series of cameras if a more complex scene is required. Other considerations involve the placement of internal walls and dividers so that camera moves and shots are not impeded, the provision for lighting, and the placement of key props that will be used or referred to in a scene. Above all, planning needs to ensure that the animator is able to reach into the set and manipulate the characters without accidentally moving other aspects of the filmed frame, and that the camera can move back sufficiently to allow an establishing shot without capturing superfluous material beyond the limit of the set.

Stop-motion animation relies on teamwork and communication, with lots of animators working in tight, confined spaces at any one time.

Stop-motion sets need to satisfy aesthetic and practical requirements, so designing entry points is important to aid accessibility, while ensuring continuity in the shooting sequences.

This image demonstrates the complexity and scale of a stop-motion set, requiring its own studio and extensive lighting rigs that can be easily manipulated and changed by the crew.

Maciek Szczerbowski adjusts a custom-created lighting rig on the set of Madame Tutli-Putli.

Sets can be built at a variety of heights depending on needs and conditions. Generally, it is favorable to have the set built at a height that allows maximum flexibility but that promotes comfortable working conditions for the crew, given the number of hours they are likely to be filming. This set-up also allows trap doors to be built in larger sets, giving animators more accessibility to move props. The set must be as temperature- and atmosphere-resistant as possible, usually best achieved using an indoor environment. This also allows lighting to be carefully orchestrated on set to remain consistent and reliable, and to avoid casting unnecessary shadows that could detract from the overall feature.

Lighting

Lighting design is frequently undervalued by the audience, but is a highly prized skill among the production crew. It requires technical prowess to think ahead and plan how lighting will best optimize a scene, but may also involve some immediate creativity to overcome structural problems. Different lights and positions create variety for the director in a single scene.

On a basic level, stop-motion sets operate using three-point lighting: A key light illuminates the core focus in the scene, usually from slightly to one side to appear natural; the fill light compensates for the shadow cast by the subject from the key light; backlights are employed to distance the subject from the background and are usually hidden between the subject and the background to minimize the possibility of unwanted shadows being cast. The intensity of lighting can also be controlled to suggest different conditions or evoke particular emotions. Sets bathed in strong light are described as having “high-key” lighting, whereas subtle depictions are considered as being “low-key.” Specialized variations of these core principles can be applied according to the director and lighting designer’s instructions to give extra dimensions to the sets.

Construction materials for sets and props

Despite often meticulous planning, there is still an element of uncertainty involved in the construction and modeling of sets. As designs mapped out on paper are translated into three dimensions, hybrid solutions are often employed to construct sets and build supporting props. It is essential to experiment with materials, processes, and techniques to best represent ideas concerning surface properties, in order to achieve believable representations of products. It should be remembered that where the production is being used in an advertising context, many clients require their products to be displayed outright and this needs to be borne in mind throughout the development process.

Extensive research and testing of materials goes into the construction of an animation set, to create an environment that befits the production.

Most sets are constructed around a wooden framework and glued and screwed together for strength and durability. The outer paneling of the stage set itself is often fashioned out of plywood as this is relatively light but sturdy. Plywood can also be quickly removed or applied using a system of dowel rods and holes to give flexibility to some shots where changes in camera angle might be required. High-density foam core also offers possibilities for filling and modeling surfaces, as it can be easily fixed and shaped using simple tools and mistakes are easy to rectify.

Using a metal foundation, such as perforated steel, as a floor keeps a set rigid and has the added benefit of acting as a magnetized surface, which allows props and characters to be positioned accurately, holding poses without the aid of supports. The floor’s surface can easily be disguised or covered to resemble other materials as required yet still allow magnetism. Other forms of “tie-down” systems for holding characters in place on a set include wire loops or spikes that can be threaded through the floor of the set, screws for more substantial models, or low-tack adhesive agents where models are lightweight. Each requires experimentation to determine the best suitability for purpose.

Ingenious solutions are often required to create props to furnish sets. Props makers go to extraordinary lengths to source a wide variety of materials and test these out through exhaustive processes to make objects appear real. Using sculpting products such as Sculpey, Fimo, or Milliput, it is possible to cut, mold, shape, and texture using a variety of hand tools, and then bake the props using a household oven. They can even be painted for extra effect if necessary. A larger item, such as a flag on a pole, might have its own simple wire framework if it is to suggest movement, or if the join is load-bearing. In some cases complex props have their own armatures to allow movement where necessary. Where multiple props are required, such as a row of soccer boots, a simpler solution may be to use a silicon mold filled with fast-cast resin.

The central issue that is applied to all props is one of believability of scale. In a set situation, clearly each prop needs to feel like it belongs in the scene. Nonetheless, in shots that offer a close-up of the character interacting with a prop, such as pouring tea from a teapot, it may well be more appropriate to work in a larger scale to show more details—such as labels, patterns, or surface textures—and to scale up the character’s hands in proportion to compensate.

Hours of painstaking work is required to manufacture each individual prop to perfection to add believability to scenes.

On the set of Guilherme Marcondes’s Tyger (2006), the crew check each movement of the puppet on the facing video screen.

Checking the filming of stop-motion animation

As 3D stop motion is a slow process requiring many separate actions to facilitate movements, it is important for the production crew to check filming as it is being recorded. Studios use a system called “video assist,” which shows the scene being filmed on a television monitor, flattening the three-dimensional set into a two-dimensional image. A video camera is mounted on the studio camera viewfinder, at the same lens angle, ensuring that the production crew see exactly the same shot that the studio camera is seeing. Animators can then examine movements of the figures by directly tracing onto the monitor screen using a water-soluble pen, checking whether these movements flow correctly by imitating the principles of anticipation, slow ins and outs, and so on.

Using a parallel computer-based video recorder, the image is viewed on the studio’s digital frame store, which looks like a small video mixing desk. It stores the last shot image and compares it to the one about to be shot. A slider control allows the crew to gently mix between the two images, ensuring details are correct and spotting any mistakes, such as unexpected movements with the characters, props, or set. Increasingly, digital stills cameras are employed as the technology has developed significantly in a short space of time. The recorded still images are stored on a computer attached to the video assist, allowing the animator to add or delete frames during production. The crew are able to employ “onion-skinning” during shooting, checking several frames in unison using semi-opaque layers to determine the best sequence.

3D computer-generated images

Animation has enjoyed a long tradition of experimenting with emerging technologies and animators have been quick to seize on the creative possibilities that computer-generated imagery enables. As a result, there has been a significant digital shift, which has been felt in three-dimensional animation as well as its two-dimensional counterpart. Such emerging technologies have been capitalized upon both by creators already interested in animation and by users who have seen the possibility of telling stories or exploring ideas that were previously difficult because of a lack of knowledge or opportunity. Inevitably, pioneering work in the field has encouraged some to work in tandem with software and hardware industries to develop new products, such as Dragonframe, that can push the medium forward.

3D computer-generated animation merges stop-motion animation and frame-by-frame animation by allowing animators to create and manipulate worlds in which characters and environments are constructed as mathematically-rendered data. Like stop-motion animation, three-dimensional computer-generated imagery is predominantly created in an artificial state, and every aspect of what is seen on screen needs to be constructed. This primarily includes characters, props, and sets, but also involves how these elements are painted, lit, and positioned, and indeed, how they move. Animators working in this field, therefore, need to have not only complete knowledge of the programs they are using to create the production but also a significant awareness of cinematography, movement, and narrative techniques to bring ideas to life. While different programs offer myriad approaches to designing, producing, and outputting three-dimensional computer-generated creations, the basic operational sequence of production involves designing and modeling, creating a framework or rig, animating and lighting, applying surface textures and colors, adding special effects, rendering, and compositing the material, checking and touching up any inaccuracies, and finally outputting the material ready for distribution (see pages 173–77).

Designing and modeling

Designing and modeling a character on screen may require different kinds of physical skills, but the intellectual approach to describing, developing, and testing shapes is similar to conventional means. A basic shape on screen can be created by establishing a point, known as a “vertex,” and then plotting another vertex in a different location. The computer connects the path between each vertex with a line known as a “vector.” Subsequent vector lines define squares, rectangles, and triangles that can be pieced together to create the properties and contours of the imagined shape. These shapes can also be joined together to create the basic model. And like stop motion, virtual armatures can be created inside the model to be coded to perform particular roles in the production if necessary.

Technological advances have enabled the realistic simulation of hair and skin, which are notoriously hard to recreate.

Rigs and texturing

With the basic model assembled virtually, more complex adjustments can be made throughout the process by clicking a vertex or vector and dragging it across the screen to a desired position through a process known as “rigging.” Rigging provides the ability to finely adjust the virtual model, but it also enables a series of connected moves to be established through parenting objects. This effectively groups together shapes and enables animators to mimic real-life actions by anticipating or following on actions. With rigging complete, the animator can begin to color and texture the virtually modeled object, applying surfaces that give added information and authenticity to the shape.

The transparency and opacity of colored and textured surfaces can be altered using alpha channels. These are graded controls, created in the computer program, that allow the animator to try different visual description options to give maximum versatility. In recent years, imaging technology has developed to simulate more natural properties like fur, hair, and skin, but identical matches with real examples are difficult to achieve and are, perhaps, overrated. Instead, the animator’s ability to ingeniously improvise and experiment with importing surfaces into the computer program can pay handsome dividends in creating unique and specialized results that interpret situations and circumstances more convincingly on screen than a faithful rendition.

Exquisite lighting design in this frame plays on the sense of anticipation and wonder in a dreamscape environment, as Marc Craste directs a television advertisement for The National Lottery in the UK.

The application of visual special effects gives a production an added dimension, helping to achieve the director’s vision by intensifying the atmosphere and creating theatrical drama.

Animating and lighting

To animate convincingly, the virtual environment needs to be correctly staged just as in any other animated process. The spatial properties of the set and character design, and their relationship with each other, must be considered in tandem or the results on screen will seem awkward and forced. The animator first establishes a path in virtual space with a start and end key frame where the character will move from and to, calculating how much time will be required to deliver the move. Using these key frames and processing the time required to enact the movement, the computer simulates the action by in-betweening the missing frames.

Lighting design, established as being important in traditional stop motion, is crucial in a digitally rendered environment. Here, the animator has the luxury of not having to worry about the physical weight and bulk of a real lighting rig and instead can move the virtual light source to any position without restriction. Key and fill lights can be dragged to various positions and can equally be used in multiple configurations to amplify the key components of an overall scene. This can create really atmospheric and surprising results if used intelligently, but can also seem unnatural and glaringly wrong if the animator does not have an empathy with the subject. Experimentation and testing are thus key.

Visual special effects, rendering, and compositing

Despite the multiple tools at an animator’s disposal in the shaping, texturing, coloring, and lighting processes, the application of visual special effects gives production crews an extra set of tools to authenticate a project with unique structural and atmospheric attributes. Custom-made visual special effects are invented to simulate everything from violent thunderstorms to spring blossoms, and from explosions to the glow of a candle. Major animation studios occasionally employ visual special-effects studios, such as George Lucas’s influential and celebrated ILM, to specifically create effects to give their work an added dimension. For example, Steven Spielberg’s movie Jurassic Park (1993) was the first time ILM’s digital visual special-effects technology was used to depict a complete and “living” detailed creature.

Once designed, visual special effects produced for characters, sets, and props are rendered, along with all of the previous processes, to blend them together creating an overall visual outcome. The rendering process ranges from relatively simple processing of data for independent productions right the way through to industrial studio-sized render farms where banks of computer processors harness the colossal processing power required to blend the layers of information together. The compositing process takes all the visually recorded material (such as characters, props, and sets) and merges them together with aural components (such as dialogue, soundtrack, and sound effects) in the order that the audience will see them. This shows up any mistakes, which are then touched up before the material is distributed.

Norman McLaren’s experimental work, represented here by A Chairy Tale (1957), marked him out as being an important figure in the field, and he eventually founded an animation department at the National Film Board of Canada.

Unorthodox animation

Experimentation with creating artificial forms of movement and recording them has given artists plenty of opportunities to explore the medium of animation. As a testimony to this, the range of unorthodox processes continually expands, incorporating ideas from advances in technological innovation, cultural awareness, or scientific advancement. Unorthodox animation might encapsulate the re-programming of games or devices to create animation or to showcase it in an unexpected venue or surprising situation. Examples of unorthodox processes include pixilation, brick animation, auteurist or artistic approaches, performance, live-action/animation hybrid productions, installations, Machinema, and augmented reality.

Such developments are enthusiastically embraced by the animation community and continue to make the subject evolve in culturally rich and diverse ways. Unorthodox works are occasionally screened by national broadcasters, but with the growth of the Internet have quickly and inevitably established a cult fan base online, and also at the various international animation festivals.

Pixilation

Exemplified by the work of such artists as Norman McLaren through films including Neighbours (1952) and A Chairy Tale (1957), the technique of pixilation allows the creator to use a natural subject such as a human form but manipulate it to perform in stylized ways that are surprising or unexpected. By moving the real-life subject incrementally, and shooting each incremental hold of a pose as a frame, the animator is able to build a sequence that seems to move when played back. These incremental moves may be recorded by still or moving image cameras, and the frequency of captured movements, together with their resulting playback, can communicate ideas in ways that live action cannot. Filming and playback speeds can be determined before, during, or after motion capture by the animator. A parallel understanding of technology, and an ability to communicate with the actor or subject, is highly desirable.

A variation of this technique, known as variable-speed cinematography, allows the operator of a moving picture camera to record movements at a speed of their choice. A good example of this technique is time-lapse imagery, where a slow-speed camera is positioned to collect real-time imagery, while the resulting footage seems to speed up when played at normal speed. A commonly used example in live action is the depiction of changes in atmospheric conditions leading up to a rain shower or storm.

Brick animation

Simple, cheap animations can be created using children’s building bricks to create scenes and then shooting individual frames as stop-motion sequences. The building bricks have the advantage of having a versatile fixing mechanism that ensures that the models will stay in position throughout shooting. They can be customized in various ways, including by painting or drawing designs onto the surface, by changing the shape and form of the blocks, or by projecting other images, lights, or shadows onto the models to create layers of meaning for the audience. Software enhancement also opens up the possibility of adding additional computer-assisted drawn elements and special effects in postproduction. From humble beginnings, these films have a cult following all of their own, and many creators have films screened at festivals either based on their own work, or as highly accomplished pastiches of other works, including George Lucas’s Star Wars (1977).

Auteur or artistic processes

Describing work as “auteur” (French for “author”) signals the recognition that a defined and charismatic attempt has been made by the creator to imbue their own creative direction and style on a production. Originally coined as a term by film theorists in the 1950s, it champions the idea that the creator or director of the production wields influence in the same way that a writer does through the penning of his or her thoughts. As far as animated processes of production are concerned, the term “auteur” more usually identifies work that is celebrated as being unconventional and innovative, shaped by the intervening hand of the creator. It covers a huge range of narrative, conceptual, and ideological approaches that apply equally to vision and sound.

Auteurist creators have discovered they can add their own imprint to animated productions through manipulating film by cutting, scratching, drawing, or painting images onto the surface. Equally, additional representative or even abstracted pictorial elements can be incorporated by collaging found materials, or splicing (cutting and rejoining) previously exposed film footage, to communicate realized or abstracted ideas. Art and craft techniques such as batik, engraving, and stenciling are just a few examples of the spectrum of processes that can potentially work on film. When projected, they give an altogether different and visually arresting result. Recognized influential exponents of auteur animation include animators Len Lye, Lotte Reiniger, and Robert Breer. These artists championed pioneering approaches, pushed the boundaries of the form, and celebrated the marriage of fine art and technology as an important aspect of animation production.

German-born exponent of silhouette animation, Lotte Reiniger, took three years to produce The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926).

Performance animation and live-action hybrids

Animation enjoys a successful history of engaging with performance and theatrical events, in both originating and interpretative capacities. Stories are vividly brought to life with immediacy and some degree of improvisation, projecting a sense of awe and magic. A noted historical example includes Winsor McCay’s live engagement with his animated character Gertie the Dinosaur on stage as part of his vaudeville shows in 1914. The performative nature of the production consumes the audience as an integral part of the theatrical space and demands some form of engagement.

The opportunity to mix live action with animation is not solely confined to major studios, and there are numerous examples on the independent circuit of animators experimenting with such hybridization, often piecing together material shot on commercial hand-held digital video cameras with animated interjections. Liz Walker and Gavin Glover’s Faulty Optic company played with the audience’s perceptions of theater and choreography through often bizarre but heart-warming enactments.

Winsor McCay drew 10,000 illustrations and photographed each of them to create Gertie the Dinosaur (1914).

Animation and live-action performance are routinely employed by Liz Walker in her performances, including Plucked, which was created in her more recent role as artistic director of Invisible Thread.

Experimenting with “living painting,” Robert Seidel merges explorative imagery with ambient music at the Phyletic Museum in Jena, Germany.

Installations

Several animation film festivals have experimented with the concept of installation animation, thereby bringing art to the public sphere rather than using conventional means of showcasing work, notably the Platform Animation Festival in Portland, Oregon, in 2007. The process exposes animation to different potential audiences and allows featured work to exist in a different scale and surroundings from that originally intended. Installation animation works most successfully where it incorporates some form of audience engagement or interaction, and is becoming more commonplace for such places as museums, galleries, and information centers to explain their exhibits, especially where factual knowledge is still being uncovered. A good example of installation animation might be a planetarium, where images of planets, stars, and faraway galaxies are projected into the viewing arena, simulating space travel.

Machinema

Computer games and animation share a number of common attributes, including artificially created worlds, characters, and storylines. More fundamentally, many creators of animation have cut their creative teeth in the world of computer games design, or have found animation through playing some form of computer games. The two disciplines have many creative, technical, and cultural crossovers.

Machinema exploits these similarities by essentially borrowing scenes, characters, props, and even entire sets from computer game engines and using the tools inside the computer game, such as changes in camera angles and editors, to subvert the original meaning of the game into something wholly different. This can be achieved by, for example, reordering scenes, aping environments, and transporting game characters into other game worlds. Games such as Grand Theft Auto, Quake , and The Sims have all been used by Machinema animators as the basis for their own work. As a note of caution, copyright laws sometimes make the legal copying of material problematic, and some films made using this process have been stung by legal demands from games companies.

Augmented reality

An exciting possibility for animation, augmented reality effectively allows creators the opportunity to modify the audience’s real-life view, using animated virtual computer-generated imagery. Augmented reality is an immediate interactive facility that merges real and virtual information in a three-dimensional viewing area. The technology is being explored by both individual creators and major corporations for products and services as diverse as enhancing retail environments, selling properties to interested buyers, supporting museum and gallery interaction, and even teaching medical students in the middle of clinical procedures.

Augmented reality can be seen to good effect on many personal digital assistants (PDAs), including Apple’s iPhone 4, which uses a global positioning system (GPS) and solid state compass to present a view of what the user can see in real time, regardless of his or her pose. Using layers of information, such as statistical data, collected imagery, and other available footage, the device enables a real worldview to be supplemented by interactive “live” information. An example of this is a televised swimming race, where a world-record pace is established for a viewer by a virtual line that seemingly moves on the pool surface, allowing viewers to measure the real swimmer’s progress against a known measurement of time.

Sound in production

In preproduction, sound can be a standalone or an integral catalyst for an animated project. An animated documentary might be based around recorded interviews gleaned in the research and conceptual phase of a project, while an animated music video will have a demonstration (demo) track recorded for reference. These recorded sounds become the basis of the first animatic, building the foundation for the gathering of more reference to be incorporated into later animatics as more direction over the production is exercised. In other instances, some test recordings are made of passages of scripted dialogue or narration for creation of the animatic, and a rough working musical score, known as a temporary (temp) track, is written, performed, and recorded. These sound recordings also sometimes provide the starting point for characters to be developed, while occasionally they act as invaluable evidence that the tone of the actor’s voice is not right for a particular role and needs changing or recasting.

The animatic is reincarnated over and over again, producing many variables in terms of visual information and instructions to the crew concerning camera angles, which invariably change depending on the director’s (or commissioner’s) view. However, the variations do develop through decisions made by the director and facilitated by the crew and the animatic will, at the very least, have its timing approved and confirmed. This allows the sound editor to charge the sound engineers with the job of fitting dialogue and/or narration, music, and special effects to the scenes. Each stem of every scene is carefully edited, mixing the sound details, playing back the recording, and checking for any mistakes or inaccuracies. The meticulous task of processing the information received, from fine-tuning down to the final edit, and against budget schedules and production timelines, is now being prepared for output onto the right format for postproduction.

Simple sound design used economically can grammatically alter the pace of a production, ensuring that key information is imparted to the viewer.

When elements of a production are combined, the resulting imagined world is full of magic and intrigue.

Conclusion

The process of creating an animated production differs depending on the technique being employed by the production crew. While some projects are reasonably simple and straightforward, many rely on mixing production techniques or on preparing animated sequences to be edited into live-action material, and it is imperative that the crew remain vigilant of the final expected outcome. This requires testing completed sequences by seeing them in conjunction with sound, making decisions about the progress of the animation, and either altering or confirming the schedule and keeping the workflow on target, or reporting issues that need addressing. The director works with the production supervisor to oversee all the elements of production, managing the crew to keep on schedule and on budget.

Production is both an exciting and nerve-wracking time for many in the studio, but there is also a sense of excitement and anticipation about what is being produced. At this stage, it is sometimes necessary to have prescreenings with pn footage for specially invited audience members. These events offer invaluable insights into how well a story is being absorbed, and the crew will watch closely to see if characters have the necessary appeal to and resonance with the audience. If a product or service is being promoted, the director will carefully screen audience opinion about whether the commercial has the right tone of voice, trying to avoid obvious advertising but making sure the product or service conforms to the brand expectation and the aspiration of the commissioning agency.

Regardless of which production processes are employed, the production process is complete when the rendering has occurred and a final edit can be signed off by the director. This is known as the final workprint, and forms the solid foundation from which the postproduction team work on tidying up the animation ready for release and distribution. The next chapter considers these processes in greater depth.