My venture into 2D animation continues. From now on I'll be trying to get familiar with some easily accessible ways to try it out. So I started by making a super simple gif with software I have at hand. Here's the result.
The picture was drawn on Procreate on an iPad Pro 11". I still haven’t used Procreate that much so I wanted to take the opportunity to get familiar with the animation options. The process was fairly intuitive and there are a ton of tutorials available on Youtube to further help the case.
First I started by drawing the static image. I chose one of the pieces I had scribbled earlier in my sketchbook and redrew it in Procreate. I wanted to give a sense of motion to the text so I decided I’d make at least three frames to achieve that.
To begin with I watched this short video to get an idea of how animating works in Procreate. Seeing that it was super simple I just grouped all the layers on my original picture and duplicated it twice to have three identical folders. Then I individually drew the text in each one. To actually make these folders into a gif you have to go to Actions --> Share --> Animated GIF.
In the next screen you can choose how many frames per second you want the animation to be.
I'm quite happy with the final result and the process was super easy, even for a beginner. Next time I'm sure I can go for something a bit more complicated, perhaps even animate the whole picture and not just a part of it!
As I’m very interested in learning 2D animation in the future but have no previous experience, I decided now would be the perfect time to find out more about it and eventually try it out myself. So I decided to start by making a little investigation of the stages of creating a 2D animation and the crucial steps in the process. Not long ago I saw this gem called Hazbin Hotel by Vivienne Medrano aka Vivziepop. On Youtube I noticed a lot of the people who worked on the show posted videos of their progress and this is what got me interested in what actually happens behind the scenes when making an animated film. So I’m going to talk a bit about that and use Hazbin Hotel as an example to illustrate the steps.
The animation pipeline is always divided in three segments, no matter the method:
Pre-production
Production
Post-production
Note: In this post I am talking specifically about paperless 2D animation and for simplicity's sake I'm not going into very much detail. My goal is to get a basic understanding of the workflow.
PRE-PRODUCTION
Script Putting the story in a written form that is the source for all the upcoming steps. Contains all the information the artists will need to illustrate and animate and is also used as a dialogue for the audio recording.
Storyboard Created from the script by the storyboard artist. It’s a visual representation of all the scenes and actions, containing the dialogue, backgrounds, characters and so on. The storyboard might go through some changes during the production.
Concept art Character, prop and location design need to be addressed before any animation is done. This includes for example the production style, the location’s complexity and the characters’ look. A model pack is then produced, containing all the models for all these aspects.
Audio recording The audio for the animation is often recorded at the same time the storyboard is created. This way it's easier for the animators to draw the correct facial and physical expressions of the characters to coincide with the dialogue.
Animatic Also called a leica reel, it's basically the storyboard turned into a movie with the audio in place. Helps spot any possible errors and get a sense of the pacing and the rhythm of the film to begin with.
PRODUCTION
Layout and posing This process links the storyboard and the animation and consists of creating an organised folder for the animator. It should contain information about the proper camera movement, the right size of the scene, backgrounds and the characters’ main poses from the storyboard. The backgrounds are done directly from the storyboard and location design.
Background painting Once their layouts are complete the backgrounds are painted based on them.
Rough animation The first stage of the actual animation process. After receiving the layout folder the animator starts drawing each frame of the animation. This can be done by first drawing the key poses of the scene and then the frames in-between (also referred to as tweens). In a bigger studio the lead animator would do the key poses and the assistant animators the in-betweens.
Clean-up The process consists of transforming the rough animation into cleaned, inked drawings. When the clean-up is done, the scene may be passed along to the colourist for the ink and paint step, which would be applying colour to the cleaned drawings. Based on the videos I’ve seen Hazbin's clean-up animators post, in the case of Hazbin Hotel the inking and painting step was a part of the clean-up. You can see some more clean-up shots here (by Colten Seamans).
Compositing Adding the final touches to the animation and making everything look coherent. This includes creating camera movement and other necessary motions as well as adding any digital effects required by the scene (tones, highlights, shadows etc.)
The following clip is actually not from the Hazbin Hotel pilot itself but a music video that further explains the backstory of two of the show's characters. I chose to go with this one as an example because the lead compositor clearly shows us how and why the scene changes after compositing.
Rendering Finally, the scene is rendered as a movie or an image sequence.
POST-PRODUCTION
Final editing Comes after the rendering of the production scene. It’s the assembling and adjusting of different scenes and possibly adding transitions and other extra effects.
Audio editing Adjusting and placing the dialogue, sound effects and soundtracks according to the project’s final editing. Adding volumes and effects.
Dubbing Actors recording voices over the movie (it’s called post-synchro). Can be used for example to add multiple languages to the soundtrack.
Master distribution Transferring all of the data to the master copy and distributing the project to the clients, television, cinema, festivals...
So I’m back in the blogosphere, huh. It sure feels nostalgic as this is technically my third (or fourth??) blog. My previous blogs didn’t really have any certain topic so this’ll be something new, as this one will be acting as a media diary of sorts.
I consume media every day, unarguably most of it in the form of social media. In this day and age when our phones are basically extensions of our body and there’s a scary virus on the loose it’s easy to understand why we take staying digitally connected as a given. Apart from my phone I have a laptop, a PC (that’s just missing its hard drive at the moment) and the latest addition to the family has been an iPad. Each of these devices serve a different purpose and that alone tells something about how my media consumption habits have changed throughout the years. It feels like yesterday when I was a kid and we had our first clunky PC that was good only for fooling around in Paint and playing Doom.
So why do I consume media in the first place?
To stay in touch with people I know.
I do this mostly by WhatsApp. I have family and friends all over the world so I would be quite lost without instant messaging and phone calls over the internet. Back in the day I used to chat a lot on Facebook as well, but now I don’t really do that anymore. I only frequent some groups of Finnish pet rat enthusiasts. Since Instagram got the DM feature that’s my go-to if I need to contact someone whose phone number I don’t have. Speaking of that, social media can be a wonderful place to make new friends as well, or to just have a casual conversation with anyone with mutual passions. The downside of this type of media is that sometimes it might get kind of overwhelming when you get sucked into the mentality of having to be available all the time. Not like the good old days on MSN messenger when you logged in hoping to see your friends online!
To get inspired.
Photography, illustration, craft projects, fashion, makeup.. You name it. There are countless sources of inspiration on different social media platforms, my absolute favourites being Instagram and Pinterest. Browsing content created by other people can be a fantastic source of motivation. To top it off, nowadays it’s very easy to find tutorials for almost anything you could think of.
To get information.
I mean we basically have a whole library (and more) in our pockets! We might not stop to think about that very often but it truly is a privilege being able to access that infinite amount of information anytime and anywhere we need. Of course it also has its inevitable downside: it’s just as easy to spread false information, so it’s more important than ever to educate yourself on media literacy.
It’s also worth a mention that now that the world is in a bit of turmoil caused by Covid-19 we have to adjust to the situation and that means for the moment we study online. I have never taken online classes before so I must say I’m surprised how smoothly it’s going so far. Of course I’d love to get to know my peers and teachers in person as soon as possible, but the use of Zoom, Moodle and even WhatsApp as a part of our studies is making everything.. well, if not easy per se, at least bearable.
And the last but not least is entertainment.
Who doesn’t find themselves in a weird loop of watching unnecessary Youtube videos once in a while? On top of that we’ve got Netflix, all the public and commercial TV channels that stream online and so on. I haven’t owned a television since I was 18 and I don’t really miss it either, since everything is available online.
For me the same goes for the radio. When I was a teenager I used to listen to the radio in the morning while cycling to school. But as I realised I can just listen to what I want on YouTube, Spotify and other platforms there was no return for me. I neither have any program that would interest me enough to turn on the radio at a certain time, I rather listen to podcasts since I get to choose the time and the topic.
I suppose I’d put video games in the entertainment category as well. I used to play them a lot more than I do nowadays. It’s a bit of a shame having left that hobby, but I just find it very difficult to find the time and money for it! Let’s see if I can do something about that when I finally get my hard drive back from Bilbao and can assemble my PC once again. (Yes, moving between countries is a hassle.)
Well what about print media?
I read my news on the internet as luckily there are many reputable online news sources that don’t require subscription. I did have a period in my life when I used to read an actual newspaper every morning: this was when I had recently moved to Spain and I did it in the bar with my morning coffee as I was just starting to get a hang of the language. I also have a kind of personal tradition of buying a magazine whenever I have to take a plane, which is not very often.
And then of course there’s books. I have read various ebooks but I must say I’m not a fan. I do think it’s a great option to have and there are certainly situations when it could be more convenient, but if I had to choose I’d go with traditional books. I spend enough time in front of a screen already, and for me there’s just some inexplicable magic in the feeling and smell of printed paper.
Hello visitor! What you can expect to see here is my media diary during TAMK's Media Channels and Platforms course. I chose "monamedia" as the name since I was thinking about monomedia as opposed to multimedia, and my name is Mona so... Get it? Funny, right? No? Okay.
Anyhow, I welcome you to join me as I embark on the enchanting media adventure that is this blog!
