Final Storyboard

This is the my final storyboard for the final 20 seconds animation.

Final Animation

Evaluating final animation

My final animation went really well. The rotoscoping technique I decided to use was very effective and I am happy with the result.

I experienced many problems with Toonboom whilst rotoscoping, one of the many problems I experienced was that Toonboon didn't have any type of a layer system which would have been allot easier to work with. to over come this problem I started to group certain section of the animation.

I also found it kept crashing with the slightest changes that I wanted to make, therefore by overcoming this problem I decided the best solution was to several backups of the working files which could be referred to at any point.

Another problem I found was as I filmed my footage on a low quality camera the rendered PNG files were not clear to see which made them a lot harder to trace over, therefore it took more time than I had planned it would do.

Improvements

If I was to redo this animation again I would probably change the software which i used to Adobe Photoshop as I'm very familiar with the interface and with the software in general, therefore I think the animation would turn out a lot better. 

If I had more time I would also have added more colour to it all as it would have brought out the animation a lot more.

I would re-shoot the footage with a better quality camera so that it would be easier to rotoscope over so that the animation can run smoothly and also in a much better quality to be able to trace.

Overall my animation is simple and very effective it could be used as an advertisement for my self. I am happy that I tried out this software as it gave me the experience and insight of what this software is capable of doing and what type of animation would be best to use Toon Boom/rotoscope.

Animated Horse

This is an example of a simple animation movement in which a horse moves.

Research

I carried out some research on Rotoscoping and on some films in which this technique has been used in.

Rotoscoping was first invented in 1915 by someone called max fleischer who used it in his series "out of the inkwell". he also then used this technique many times in his cartoons. the fleischer`s most effective use of rotoscoping was in a film called action oriented "superman". in which superman and other animated figures displayed very realistic movement. which was then used in the warner brother productions producing cartoon geered more towards exaggerated comedy.

this method was then used by walt disney used it very carefully and effectively in snow white and the seven dwarfs.

the very first extensive film in which rotoscoping method was used in was created in China called "Princess Iron Fan" 1941.

Rotoscoping is geneally known for bringing a sence of realism in the larger budget animate films.

Henna process

Once the hands had been Rotoscoped, I, then went back and created henna on each frame on the hands. The screen prints below showed how the henna looked once applied on the hand.

I found creating the henna very challenging as I had to make sure the henna was in the correct place of the fingers in every other frame as the fingers were moving slightly in every frame.

I also found using the group option very useful as I could just group parts of the pattern and transfer them to the next frame by copying and pasting.

Final Animation in ToonBoom

I started my final animation in Toon boom as the screen prints demonstrate below. The idea of this animation is for a an advertisement for henna. Before starting in toon boom I filmed my own footage. I filmed a business card being lifted.

i then exported this footage as PNG images from adobe after effects they were exported as 12 frames per second. the frames where then imported into Toonboom.

to draw over these frames I used a graphic tablet.

I decided to use my buisiness card and a hand lifting it.

The whole idea of this animation is so that its rotoscoped over frame by frame. once the whole animation is completed the alongside of the movement of the hand henna will appear on the hand frame by frame.

the videos below show the animation in the early stages.

Final Idea

For my final animation i have decided to use the Rotoscoping technique in Toon boom. The animation will be advertisement for myself. i will film a hand lifting a business card, the video will them be rendered out as a set of frames to rotoscope over. the idea is when the hand reaches out for the card the henna will start to appear on the hand and eventually my name will be stopframed on to the arm.

Above is a rough sketch/Storyboard for what the final animation may look like.

Rotoscoping a DOG

Rotoscoping is a technique which animators trace over live action movement frame by frame. Its been used for many of the disneys animations. this technique is very effective although its very time consuming.

I followed a tutorial where i rotoscped a dog running. i found this method very effective. Toon boom was used to carry out this tutorial, it was very simple to create the animation. a graphics tablet was used to draw with.

i will be using this method for my final animation.

Why animation is relevent to Multimedia Technology

Animation is relevent multimedia technology because it is heavily used in Multimedia area. It will also be great use for my final group project as it will be a animation trailer therefore for choosing this module it has helped me immensely to experiment new and old animation software by this i mean new softwares which have been introduced to me like processing, toon boom and motion builder. old software such as flash, istop motion. It will also help me with my career in the near future.

Storyboard

I have created a storyboard animatic as demonstrated below.

I created a storyboard as they are good for pre-planning ideas. big companies always use storyboarding before creating any films or animations etc.
for my final animation i will also create a storyboard to help me with my practical.
disadvanteges for storyboarding maybe that they can be time consuming but on the other hand it saves time when comeing to the practical side.

istop Motion

istop motion
The screen prints demonstrates the process of the animation.

I created a short animation in istop motion. the animation was very time consuming but very effective. i created this animation using a post it note and an external web cam.
what i found challenging was getting the drawing in the exact place so that it would not look jerky. to overcome this problem i made a reference point where to stick the note back. as seen in the video the animation runs quite smoothly.

Advantages of this software and technique is that it is very quick and easy to learn and with this technique effective work can be created.
Disadvantages may be that it can be very time consuming, also there may be an issue with the lighting as the animation may take many days to create and not being able to get the exact lighting will be very noticable for the final anmation.

I may use this application for the final animation but i will first test the other application to see which may suit my animation best.

Motion Builder

Here i have used Motion builder to animate a character. Motion Builder is the most common suite for games, films and Multimedia productions.
The screen prints demonstrate the process of the tutorial. The tutorial made the character walk in a smooth cycle using the timeline option.

The tutorial was easily followed but to take the animation further i found it quite challenging. to take this any further i would need to carry out extensive research on this software and go through many tutorials.

This is the video for the walk cycle created in motion builder.

Processing

Processing is a programming software which is heavily based on scripting. This was used for this next tutorial.
Here is a a tutorial which i followed to create a ball animating in processing. this tutorial was very easy to follow as it was going through basic scripting.
The screen prints demonstrate the step by step process of the animation.

The screen prints demonstrate the step by step process as shown in the second screen print the ball left a trail behind in so i had to re edit the script. many different animations could have been added to this ball like making it squash and bounce etc. i will not be using this software for my final animation

Flash

Flash is a very powerful software which was used for this next tutorial. it can create presenting data much more effective.
Here is a a tutorial which i followed to create a ball animating in flash. this tutorial was very easy to follow as it was going through basic scripting.
The screen prints demonstrate the step by step process of the animation.

I will not be using this application for my animation as i find scripting hard. although i have used flash for year2 and worked through complex scripting. i may bring my final animation into this programme to edit.

Toon Boom

I carried out a tutorial on Toonboom this software has been a choice of many major animations for 2d animations. it has features such as lip syncing, dynamic cameras and effects and many more.
Below the screen shots demonstrate the process of the animations.

The first animation i created was a man throwing a ball as demonstrated abovethis was the basic tutorial which i followed. the animation was quite jumpy as i drew the chracter everytime i wanted it to move and the drawing and the drawing was not exact as the last frame. To overcome problem i demonstrated it in the second animation. I copied and pasted the whole character into the next exposure.

The second animation I created is a little character moving its arms and blinking its eye as demonstrated above. As demonstrated in the video the animation is not jumpy and runs quiet smoothly. This animation was easily achieved. The most useful tool I used to create the animation was the onion skin to refer to previous drawings.

Overall I found learning this programme was very useful as i will be using this software for my final 20 second animation. The features which will be most useful to me are being able to import directly from the scanner to the animation software, being able to convert bitmap to vectors easily and easily being able to import from flash into Toonboom.