Digital animation equipment & materials

ANIMATION

The techniques of photographing successive drawings or positions of puppets or models to create an

illusion of movement when the movies is shown as a sequence.

TWO TYPES OF ANIMATION

1. Traditional animation
2. Computer-generated animation

TRADITIONAL ANIMATION

 An animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand.

 This is also called classical animation or cell animation.
 This type of animation uses specialized materials and equipment for artists and animators.

COMPUTER-GENERATED ANIMATION

•An animation technique that is purely digital and created primarily with computers.
• computer generated animators use high-powered computers to create 3d animations.

TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT

LIGHTBOX

• The essential features of this equipment is to have the light shine through different layers of paper for
tracing the in- between.
PEG BAR

• It is where paper is attached to the device so that the paper will not move as the animator is doing the
artwork.

PAPER AND CEL

• There is no specific paper on which animation should be drawn as long as it is big enough to flip. The
paper should be translucent enough for you to see the essentials of the next drawing through the top
sheet.

PAPER AND CEL PUNCH

• Each animation is registered by placing each sheet or cell consecutively on standardize registration
pegs so it does not move in relation to other sheets.

GRATICULE OR 12” FIELD CHART

• It is a grid system used to accurately create a field guides in the layout.

• these guides are what the camera will see in the scene.

BAR SHEETS AND DOPE SHEETS

• It is a traditional animation tool that enables an animator to organize his/her thinking and give
instructions to the cameraman on the shots needed.

PRODUCTION FOLDER
• It is an essential for large- scale studio productions that the dope sheet instructions for each scene be
kept separate from each other.

DRAWING KIT

•there are different kinds of pencil that you may use in the drawing stage of the animation process.

NON- PHOTO BLUE PENCILS

• are great for initial sketches. The right shade of pale blue tend to not show up on copies when
transferred from paper to clear cells.

DRAWING PENCILS

• Mechanical pencils may be used but for animation work, a regular wooden pencil is best. 2b is usually
the best hardness and are good for making dark lines.

PAINT, BRUSH, PASTELS, AND WATERCOLORS

• Used mostly for the background and the final stage of the process.

ART GUM ERASER

• These erasers are far superior to standard erasers because they rub out lead cleanly without smudging
away actual paper surface.

DIGITAL CAMERA AND VIDEO CAMERA

• It is essential to test the full animation to checks its movement.

 Digital in-between drawing requirements

To get right to the point, the 12 principles of animation are:

1. Timing and Spacing: The number of frames between two poses, and how those
individual frames are placed.

2. Squash and Stretch: The flexibility of objects to exaggerate or add appeal to a

movement.

3. Anticipation: The setup for an action to happen.

4. Ease In and Ease Out: The time for acceleration and deceleration of movement.

5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action: The idea that separate parts of the
body will continue moving after a character or object comes to a full stop, and
the idea that parts of the body will move at different times.

6. Arcs: The principle that smooths animation and moves action in a realistic way.

7. Exaggeration: The pushing of movement further to add more appeal to an

action.

8. Solid Drawing: The accuracy of volume, weight, balance, and anatomy.

9. Appeal: The relatability (or charisma) of a character.

10. Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose: The spontaneous and linear approach
to creating an action using many in-between poses along with the main poses,
and the more methodical approach to creating an action using only a few poses.

11. Secondary Action: The actions that emphasize or support the main action of the
animation.

12. Staging: The setting up of the scene, from placement of characters to the
background and foreground elements, to how the camera angle is set up, the
lighting and shadows, and more.

The 12 principles of animation are the most crucial techniques you must master as an
animator. Created in the 1930s (and first introduced in The Illusion of Life: Disney
Animation) by the pioneers of animation, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, these 12
principles of animation adhere to the basic laws of physics and also account for emotions
and appeal. While originally developed for pencil sketching, the same principles apply to
digital animation as well. They should be your ultimate guide for creating appealing and
realistic character animations. 

Explore them, start mastering them, and use them as a reference in your own work
to create captivating animations.

1. Timing and Spacing

Timing and Spacing in animation is what gives objects and characters the illusion of
moving within the laws of physics. 

Timing refers to the number of frames between two poses, or the speed of action. For
example, if a ball travels from screen left to screen right in 24 frames, that would be
timing. It takes 24 frames or 1 second (if you’re working within the film rate of 24 rates
per second) for the ball to reach the other side of the screen. Timing can also establish
mood, emotion, and personality.

Spacing refers to how those individual frames are placed. For instance, in the same
example, the spacing would be how the ball is positioned in the other 23 frames. If the
spacing is close together, the ball moves slower. If the spacing is further apart, the ball
moves faster.

2. Squash and Stretch

Squash and stretch is what gives flexibility to objects. The easiest way to understand how
squash and stretch work is to look at a bouncing ball. As the ball starts to fall and picks
up speed, the ball will stretch out just before impact. As the ball impacts the ground, it
squashes before stretching again as it takes off. Please note, the volume of an object
doesn’t change. In the case of the ball, when it is squashed or stretched, the width and
depth need to correspond accordingly.

There’s a lot of squash and stretch happening in real life that you may not notice. For
instance, there’s a lot of squash and stretch that occur in the face when someone speaks
because the face is a very flexible area. In animation, this can be exaggerated. Squash and
stretch can be implemented in many different areas of animation to add comical effect or
more appeal, like for the eyes during a blink or when someone gets surprised or scared. 

3. Anticipation

Anticipation is used in animation to set the audience up for an action that is about to
happen, and is required to sell believable movements.
An easy way to think about this is before a baseball player pitches the ball, they first need
to move their entire body and arm backward to gain enough energy to throw the ball
forward. So, if an animated person needs to move forward, they first must move back. Or,
if a character is reaching for a glass on a table, they must first move their hand back. This
not only gets up their momentum, but it lets the audience know this person is about to
move.

Other cases where anticipation is used include when a character looks off screen when
someone is arriving, or when a character’s attention is focused on something they are
about to do.

4. Ease In and Ease Out

As any object moves or comes to a stop, there needs to be a time for acceleration and
deceleration. Without ease in and ease out (or slow in and slow out), movements become
very unnatural and robotic. 

As a car moves away from a stop, it doesn’t just reach full speed in an instant. It must
first gain speed. As it comes to a stop, it doesn’t go from sixty to zero in the blink of an
eye. Instead, it slows down until it reaches a complete stop. 

The same must be accomplished in animation and the easiest way to accomplish ease in
and ease out is to utilize the principle of spacing. As a character stands up from a sitting
position, the spacing of each pose will be closer together at the start so that they can ease
into the movement. As they stand up, they will ease out of the movement by spacing the
poses further apart at the end of the action. Without this acceleration and deceleration of
actions, everything would be very abrupt and jerky.
5. Follow Through and Overlapping
Action

In real life, everything moves at different speeds and at different moments in time, so
follow through and overlapping action is important for capturing realistic and fluid
movement.

Follow through is the idea that separate parts of the body will continue moving after the
character has come to a stop. As a character comes to a stop from a walk, the arms may
continue forward before settling in a down position. This could also be the case with
articles of clothing.

Overlapping action (also called “drag” or “lead and follow”)  is very similar in that it
means different parts of the body will move at different times. An example of
overlapping action is when a character raises their arm up to wave: The shoulder will
move first, then the arm, and then the elbow, before the hand lags behind a few frames.
You can also see this when a blade of grass waves in the wind. The base moves first and
then the rest of the grass follows behind at different rates, giving it that waving motion.

Additionally, characters who are remaining still need to display some sort of movement
(blinking eyes, breathing, etc.) to prevent the animation from becoming “dead.” This is
called “moving hold.”   

6. Arcs
Everything in real life typically moves in some type of arcing motion. Since it's unnatural
for people to move in straight lines, you should adhere to this principle of animation to
ensure you get smooth, realistic movements. The quicker something moves, the flatter the
arc and the broader the turn. The only time something would move in a perfectly straight
line is a robot. 

If a character is turning his head, he will dip his head down during the turn to create an
arcing motion. You also want to ensure that more subtle things move in arcs. For
example, when a character walks, even the tips of their toes should move in a rounded,
arcing motion.

7. Exaggeration

Exaggeration is used to push movements further, adding more appeal to an action, and
should always be implemented to some degree. 

Exaggeration can be used to create extremely cartoony movements including physical

alterations or supernatural elements. Or, exaggeration can be incorporated with a little
more restraint for more realistic actions. But, even then you can still use exaggeration to
make a more readable or fun movement while still staying true to reality. So, if a
character is preparing to jump off a diving board, you can push them down just a little bit
further before they leap off. Alternatively, you can use exaggeration in the timing to
enhance different movements or help sell the weight of a character or object.

8. Solid Drawing

In 2D animation, solid drawing is about creating an accurate drawing in terms of volume
and weight, balance, shadow, and the anatomy in a pose. With 3D animation, animators
need to think about how to pose out your 3D character rig to ensure there is correct
balance and weight, as well as a clear silhouette. Avoid “twinning,” which is creating a
mirrored pose across to the other side (both arms on hips or both hands in pockets)
because this creates a rather boring and unappealing pose.

9. Appeal
This principle can really come down to adding more appeal (charisma) in many different
areas of your animation, such as in posing. The most obvious example, however, is
appeal in the character design because you want to have a character that the audience can
connect with or relate to, whereas a complicated or confusing character design can lack
appeal.

You can find areas on the character to push and exaggerate in order to create a more
unique design that will stick out in your audience’s memory. One example is to simply
exaggerate the jawline or push the youthfulness in the eyes. Either of these can help
create more appeal. 

Keep in mind that appeal is also required for villains. 

10. Straight Ahead Action and Pose to

Pose

Straight ahead action is a very spontaneous and linear approach to animating and is
animated from start to finish, frame by frame. With this, you’ll create each pose of the
animation one after the other. So, if your character is landing on the ground after jumping
in the air, you would create the poses where he is standing, then the poses where he is
beginning to kneel down, and then completely crouched. In other words, you’re really
working through the animation as you’re going to make quick action fluid and dynamic.

With pose to pose, the animation is much more methodical, with just the most important
poses required to properly tell the story. You would animate the character landing on the
ground after jumping in the air by using fewer poses (standing and crouched). This
allows for more simple work and ensures the proportions and timing are correct before
you add more intervals later, and is great for slow, dramatic, or emotional scenes.

Often, these two approaches are used in combination to great effect.

11. Secondary Action

Secondary action refers to the actions that support or emphasize the main action to
breathe more life into the animation and create a more convincing performance. It’s
important to remember that the secondary action should typically be something subtle
that doesn’t detract from the main action happening (perhaps even thought of as a
subconscious action). For this reason, dramatic movements take priority over things like
facial expressions.

Let’s say a character is talking to another character in a waiting room. The two of them
talking would be the main action, but if one of them begins tapping their foot nervously,
that would be the secondary action. Other examples would be a character whistling,
leaning on a wall, or crossing their arms while a primary action is taking place.

12. Staging

Staging is how you go about setting up your scene, from the placement of the characters,
to the background and foreground elements, the character’s mood, and how the camera
angle is set up. Staging is used to make the purpose of the animation unmistakably clear
to the viewer. You want to keep the focus on what you want to communicate to the
audience (and avoid unnecessary detail) so they don’t become confused.

Appropriate digital copies of model sheets

Introduction
Designers of things like chairs, new car models or rockets, always seek to represent the
dimensions of the object perfectly, and show how to build and assemble it.
The job of a character designer is exactly the same, but for characters. The designer tries
to explain to another draughtsman, modeler, or animator how to build a character; their
dimensions and how to keep them, their expressions and basic poses, colors, etc.
 
Knowing the tools of this profession can be useful to help you advance professionally in
that direction, or simply to help you better define your characters, and develop them
until you get a prototype that works best for them.
 
The rules of professional character design are not very strict, the aim is just to explain
the models in the best possible way. But they do tend to use a series of model sheets,
listed in the index below, which are used especially in animation production.
 

 
Contents
1. Character construction sheets
2. Full head turnaround
3. Full character turnaround
4. Color sheet
5. Expression sheet
6. Pose Sheet
 

Model Sheets for Character Designers

The character I’ve chosen as an example is a witch. This witch does not fit in the
contemporary version of the archetype. She is neither good nor nice, and definitely not
naïve in any way. She is your classic fairy tale witch – she is evil personified, possessive,
selfish, manipulative, scheming, sensual and seductive if it fits her purpose. Her beautiful
and youthful appearance hides a horrible old woman, blind and bald. You will have to
design those two physical aspects and all her psychological attributes: irritable, cruel,
immature …, but disciplined and contained in appearance.
 
She dresses like medieval nun, an abbess.
 

 
Her double pointed hat gives her a “double” look; sinister and satanic, like the forked
tongue of a snake.
With her large eyes, wide sleeves, and slim silhouette, she reminds the viewer of a
praying mantis. This needs to be reinforced in the poses.
 

 
It is necessary to understand the characters psychologically to be able to represent them
and get into their skin. Freud said that we are all the characters that appear in our
dreams. All the characters and all the archetypes live within our soul. To represent them,
you just need to connect with them, like actors following the Stanislavski method.

1.  Character Construction Sheets

The purpose of the construction sheet is to specify the general proportions of the
character, and the instructions for other artists to build it.
 
To build the head, start with the profile. Use the [Figure ruler] to help you draw a square,
and the [Linear ruler] to divide it into four equal parts. Find the lower half of the right
square. The right half of the large square will give you the dimensions of the face. The
eye and the pupil are in the horizontal half of the square. The nose protrudes from the
large square. The half point of the lower right square marks the upper lip. If you draw a
line from the nose to the lower lip, you can place the lips. The ear is at the same level as
the nose and the upper end of the pupil.
 

 
Let us start the construction of the figure.
The proportions are usually established in units of “numbers of heads”. A popular model
for a human figure is the “8¾-head” proportion.
(Check out recommendations from John Buscema and Stan Lee’s in their book How to
draw comics the Marvel way).
I have used this model as a base, but I enlarged her head and made her neck longer. Then
I reduced the size of her torso, reducing the character to about 6¾, or almost 7 heads.
 
I kept the modules from the model, though, since many cartoonists are familiar with it. 
The second module marks the chest, the waist or the belly button is a little over the end
of the third module, the middle of the figure is marked by the groin or the fourth module,
and the sixth is marked by the knees and the eighth by the ankles.
This makes up the seven modules of this character’s body, with the head taking up an
additional module and a quarter at the top.
You can use the [Symmetric rule] to help you draw the front view.
 
 

2. Full Head Turnaround

A turn or turnaround must include at least a front view of the character, a rear view, a
profile, and a three-quarter view.
I am going to show it in color, because it will help me build and define the different
views.
First make the profile and the front view reusing the previous drawing.
 

 
Then, using the [Ruler/Guide] draw the lines where the most important elements should
go: the center of the eyes, the chin, the eyebrows, shoulders etc.
Between the front and the profile views, sketch the three-quarter view and define it so
that the three views match.
 

 
So here you have the three quarter view.
 
 
Then to get the rear view, use the front view as a guide.
 

3. Full Character (Body) Turnaround

Make sure you reuse your construction drawings and head turnarounds as guides to
draw the body turnaround. In the example, I used the construction as a base, in one
layer. And in another layer on top, I adjusted the head turnaround until it matched. From
there, you’ve just got to “dress the mannequin.”
The guides, marked in blue, will help you to keep the elements matching across all the
different views.
 
 
Here is the result: The lower half of the character can be stylized even more, since she
still does not have shoes, nor is her skirt shown in perspective:
 

4. Color Sheet

The purpose of the color sheet is to set all the colors that will be used for the character.
 
 

5. Expression Sheet

Our character still looks a bit stiff, like a sculpture. Now is the time to play with her,
move her, give her emotions, see what she is capable of.
A character expression sheet covers at least the basic range of emotions and reactions:
joy, sadness, anger, surprise, suspicion, boredom, etc.
In a broader sense, the designer looks here to get deeper into the psychology of the
character to helps define their character and the way they act.
Now that the dimensions and structure of the character are set, it is convenient to use a
very basic structure to sketch (like in the following sketch).
 
 
Let yourself go and have fun trying expressions, focus on the expressiveness of the eyes,
mouth, and eyebrows. Sketch, and, in another layer, go over the line art.
 

 
Once you’ve got about six samples, your expression sheet is ready!
 
 

6. Pose Sheet

While the expression sheet focuses on the face, the pose sheet defines the character’s
typical postures, and shows a full-length view of the character.
As in the previous sheet, look for expressiveness in the sketch. In the cleaning and inking
phase, try to stick to the dimensions you gave the model in the construction.
 
 
Remember that we wanted to remind the viewer of a praying mantis with the design of
this character? This subconscious identification will make our character more interesting
and threatening.
Draw 4 or 5 poses at least, and the work is done.
 
 
To sum up, the model sheets used by character designers help develop all facets of the
character and find that final model which sometimes is so difficult to find. These sheets
are essential in animation production, but they can also be useful for whatever medium
you choose to develop your character.
 
As a contrast, I’ve added the illustration below, which was from an early concept stage,
before the character design process. You can see how its design has changed
considerably.
 
 
 Incomplete materials and faulty equipment

Risk management is at the heart of business success. It basically boils down to “protect your backside,”
and companies that don’t do that, don’t last long.

In The Checker’s many years of helping companies use inspections to improve profitability, it’s become
obvious that many companies aren’t paying enough attention to the risk of equipment wear and tear
that eventually leads to failure.

Consider these business risks:

Equipment that must be prematurely replaced due to excessive wear and tear.

Productivity losses and operational delays due to equipment failures.

Potentially enormous costs (including liability exposure) of on-the-job accidents due to defective
equipment.

Non-compliance with laws and regulations (e.g., safety, environmental) due to defective equipment.

Failing to address these risks leaves your “backside” wide open.

What Can You Do

These are four business processes companies can implement to minimize the risk of equipment failure.

1. Regular inspections.

Whether it’s a chainsaw or a multimillion-dollar crane, it’s common sense that thoroughly inspecting
equipment before each use is the best way to ensure that it won’t fail during operation.

With an easy-to-use, equipment-specific inspection checklist system such as The Checker, you can
ensure pre-use inspections are done properly and documented.

2. Reactive maintenance.
When equipment does fail—or much better, when an inspection identifies a problem to be addressed
before an in-use failure—reactive maintenance occurs. This is “fix it” maintenance.

Nonetheless, you can minimize the risk of equipment failure in your reactive maintenance processes by
insisting on proper fixes, rather than tolerating (or encouraging) a “get it back on the job ASAP, no
matter how” mindset. The palpable short-term pain of equipment downtime shouldn’t lead to hasty or
incomplete repairs that expose the company to potentially much-costlier operational, compliance, and
liability risk.

3. Preventative maintenance.

Companies that sufficiently appreciate the negative financial impact of equipment failure don’t wait
until equipment fails to give it attention. They have a formalized maintenance process to stay on top of
the routine care the equipment requires and replace parts according to schedule.Preventative
maintenance, along with safety inspections, can reduce business risk.

They also train personnel on how to use the equipment in as non-destructive a way as possible—which
technically may not be “maintenance” but surely helps reduce wear on equipment. (Because it’s human
nature to care more about things you’re responsible for, the process of having personnel conduct
regular pre-use inspections usually leads to gentler treatment of equipment—just one example of how
these four processes complement each other.)

4. Predictive maintenance.

This is the process of using historical data (e.g., maintenance records, inspection results) and ongoing
measurement of equipment during operation (e.g., testing load-bearing capability) to predict when it’s
going to fail (or fall below operational standards) and take corrective action before then.

Predictive maintenance is preventative maintenance taken to an even more proactive level. It’s a sign of
a company that completely gets the importance of keeping equipment in optimal operational condition.

The Bottom Line

Companies can substantially reduce the risk of equipment failure by combining regular, properly
conducted equipment inspections with a maintenance program that includes preventative and
predictive maintenance in addition to reactive maintenance.