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Filip Stojanovski
Contemporary Storytelling: Comics and Animation
Making an Animation
Disney, the industry leader himself, considered
making animated movies "strictly a team effort" (Thomas &
Johnston, 1981, p.303). The elaborate process of making animated
cartoons developed by the employees of Disney’s studios requires
effort, precision and coordination. It is sometimes referred to as
making of cell animation, because each frame is drawn separately as a
single cell, then photographed, thus becoming a part of a sequence of
cells that make the movie. The frame rate for animations varies from 12
(Macromedia, 1999) to 24 frames per second, and on the average it is
about 18 frames per second. This may play a role in the increase of the
closure effects, since the standard frame rate for movies is 24 frames
per second.
According to the
methodology used by most of animation studios, the process of making an
animation is partitioned into several distinct stages, which can
overlap, but in general do follow a sequential pattern. Making an
animated cartoon is composed of work on the:
The Story Idea
The development of an animated movie starts with an
idea for a story. The idea can be taken from some other medium, such as
print, but in order to fit into the structure of an animated movie it
often has to be adapted. The primary thing that has to be acknowledged
about this phase is that, although changes in the script during the
subsequent phases are possible, the process does not start without a
clear notion of what is to be achieved by it. For this purpose, the
story idea is turned into a synopsis, a sketch of the story. The
synopsis undergoes several cycles of revisions, each adding more depth
and detail to the original idea. In the end this makes the synopsis
eligible to grow into a script.
The Script
The script provides a detailed description of the
animation’s storyline. It describes the scenes, the actions and the
behavior of the characters in as much detail as possible. Once it is
very clear what every scene should express, the animator starts of
devising ways to do it. The main players in this part of the game become
the characters.
Contents
| Foreword |
Glossary |
Works Cited
Comics: Bits of History |
Modern Age |
Great Adventurers |
Vocabulary
| Grammar: Closure
Animation: Origins |
An Early Animator |
Classical Animation |
Making an Animation
| Epilogue
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