This is a 2D animated moving sequence created between 1948 and 1966. The two characters are a duo from the popular cartoon series, Looney Toons.
The majority of these drawings were created by Chuck Jones. To date 48 of these cartoons have been made. The content is generally a coyote that tries to kill the road runner. Yet he seems to fail throughout all 48 episodes. He either blows himself up with dynamite or falls off a cliff. Seems very simple but its very entertaining.
The target audience for this cartoon were mainly children but i don't see why adults wouldn't watch it either.
South Park
A very popular 2D animation sequence first aired in august 1997. Altogether there is 18 seasons and they still air today on channels like comedy central..
The animated series is not for children. In fact, its goal seems to be to offend as many as possible as it presents the adventures of Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman. South Park used to use the Cel Animation technique to make their animations but have moved over to computerized methods over the years like Adobe Flash.
When they were creating their animations through cels, they would use a technique known as 'Cut Out'. This is where you would cut and stick the arms and legs of the characters to each sequence to save time.
American Dad
Stan Smith is a CIA agent painfully dedicated to homeland security. His home life includes doting wife Francine, a ditzy housewife, liberal daughter Hayley and socially awkward teenaged son Steve.
American Dad has always used computerized software's to create their animations because of the technology available in 2005-2015.
First episode aired February 2005 and is still available today on channels like 'FOX'.
Traditional ways of showing animation
Cel Animation
The method of animation used to create these cartoons is Cel Animation. Computers weren't as advanced as today in terms of animation software so drawings were drew on pieces of plastic and traced. Cel Animation- This was the dominating technique for animation before the modern computerized way was available. simply using multiple sheets and tracing over the previous scene and adding something new to the next scene to form a moving sequence.
Flick book
This is probably the most easiest and cheapest way of making and showing your animations. Simply by drawings a series of images on independent pages of a book and flicking through them, will give you the illusion of a moving image.
kinetoscope
This is a more expensive and technical way of showing a moving image sequence through a device. The machine is made up of a series of cog wheels, film reels, a lens system and a sound system. It was designed for an individual to watch a film or animation through the lens at one time. The sound was recorded separately and played sync with the moving image sequence.
Modern 2D Animation
In this task the key words are:
. - Stage and size
. - Stage and size
· - Frame Rate and fps
· -Library
· -Modify>Convert to Symbol
· -Original Size of Image
· -Key Frame
· -Edit>Transform>Scale
· -KeyFrame
· -Final Size of Image
· -Window>Transform>Rotate
· -Classic Tween
Firstly, i selected a new document in Adobe Flash. I needed to make sure the frames per second, the height and the width were on point.
Secondly, i imported my 'eye' image making sure it was a vector.
After i set up the images properties, i then started on the moving of the image. i selected the 100th stage in the timeline and inserted a keyframe. This allowed me to have 2 separate frames where the image is different. This meant i had to link them together with a rotation in between.
Layers and Registration
Step 1
Draw the image you want to animate and move. For this i used an image of a sloth and traced it in Flash. I did this by adding a layer on top of the sloth image so i could draw over the lines. I would often switch between the layer visibility to see if my drawing was accurate.
Step 2
Once drawn, give it a fill colour. For this i was able to use the sloth image's fur as a pattern. The tool I used was the paint bucket tool. I also added a branch as you can see. Your drawings in Adobe Flash are vector graphics, meaning they never pixelate.
From this point it is simply just going through the process of animating the arm to move. By cutting out the arm and duplicating it to a separate layer, i was able to move the image to an angle on the 100th stage on the time line and select shape tween.
Developments in 2D animation
Pioneers
Quirino Cristiani (1896 – 1984)
An Argentine animation director and cartoonist, responsible for the world's first two animated feature films as well as the first animated feature film with sound. He is also the first person to create animation solely using cardboard cutouts.
Ub Iwerks (1901 – 1971)
Iwerks was a talented illustrator and worked for Walt Disney producing drawings for animations such as Mickey Mouse.
The phenakistoscope (also spelled phenakistiscope or phenakitiscope) was an early animation device that used a spinning disk of sequential images and the persistence of vision principle to create an illusion of motion. Joseph Plateu invented this device in 1832.
There is many ways in which animation is used today. In cinemas and TV, we have the likes of Disney productions and cartoons like adventure time. You will find on the Kids channel on TV Box providers, most content is actually 2D Animated image sequences using softwares like Adobe Flash. Furthermore, we have animations on the likes of mobile phones. For example the lock screen animation on the iphone or the swiping on most touch screen phones.
For my new animation, i would like to create a sequence of a motorbike race; capturing various angles and shots of the race. I think this would be quite challenging but rewarding at the end.
