"faking it": traditional cell animation

LT
Posted By
Lars_TBK
Apr 19, 2007
Views
321
Replies
6
Status
Closed
Hi,

We’re on a crazy deadline for 30 seconds of traditional cell animation (hand-drawn look). We’ve captured video of the actor doing the movements on a blue screen, and are now trying to figure out whats gonna be the most time-efficient way of producing the frames.

We’ve considered creating body parts in Illustrator and animating those, but the dude moves very dynamically (twisting, turning, cartwheeling, backflipping etc!) so we’re not sure if this is the best option!

The last option is obviously to redraw each frame by hand (which we CAN do, but don’t wanna!)

PLEASE HELP!!! Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Really, anything at all!

Lars

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B
Bernie
Apr 19, 2007
You should look into dedicated animation software like the ones Toonboom Animation (http://www.toonboom.com) or Crater (http://dbsys.de/en/ctp.html) sell

And rotoscoping 30 seconds is 900 drawings (assuming 30 fps o ones), a good animator should be able to do that in a reasonable amount of time and it will look better than digitally manipulating the footage.
P
Phosphor
Apr 19, 2007
I hate to mention it, but knowing how to do this type of work (which includes all the little esoteric techniques, workarounds and workflow efficiency methods) is a good idea before accepting a job which requires it, especially if you have to work under a "crazy deadline."

Good luck with that.
JO
Jim_Oblak
Apr 19, 2007
Look under Photoshop’s File menu for this option:

‘outsource’

(what Phos…. said)

🙂
B
Bernie
Apr 19, 2007
Or even better, on fours or sixes. Think Plimpton and other folks like that, of course you lose the sucky rotoscope look for some great motion.

Animating, even rotoscoping, is much harder than most poeple assume it to be.
P
Phosphor
Apr 19, 2007
Then, there are some of us who actually toiled over hand drawn and modeling clay animation as a hobby back in the Super-8 days, with a homemade animation stand, using shop lights for illumination?

Who here has had to edit out frames that were taken too quickly, and included your hand in the shot?

Man I’d kill to still have my old stuff, so I could digitize em.

🙂
B
Bernie
Apr 19, 2007
Who here has had to edit out frames that were taken too quickly, and included your hand in the shot?

Me! <raising hand included in way too many shots>

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