Animation technique?

GhostingFish · February 11, 2012 06:13 AM

Its been a while since I MADE a post in the forums

. So the past few months I have been watching a lot on animation films. Most of which would be anime from the early 80's to the mid 90's. I have been doing this to maybe learn a bit of something seeing that i want to major in animation. I know that traditional animation is becoming a thing of the past but what I'm looking to find out is something that i feel that computers will never be able to replicate as purely as was traditionally. This video is a good example on what i want to find out. (the animation is called "Running man" from the sci-fi anthology film "Neo Tokyo" (1987). Note that this is only a user-made music video from the film. Just to answer any possible questions about the vid

)

Danger-4h30 (Neo Tokyo-Running Man)

What is the technique called for making the lighting effects of the shattering glass, fire and lights? I've seen this used as early as 1978 in animations but I can not find what it is called (Google fucked-up someplace and searches are crappy as hell now). I think it makes an animation a whole lot better with this used. Also could you guide me to a place that does have some information on this? I want to replicate this effect some way or another and hope that i can get some cool results out of it. Thanks for taking the time to help me out. I really appreciate it.

They don't make it like they use to..

funzop · February 11, 2012 06:24 AM

lostman forever wandering... an internet nomad... comes and goes

emanhattan · February 11, 2012 06:40 AM

im not sure i understand your question. at first i thought you meant cel shading but really those pretty light effects (fire, lightning. glass reflecting light) all are simply smears of white or a high tone color over the shape of the object (obviously its not really light, its just a trick)

this probably wasnt even what you were asking so im sorry im no help at ALL

GhostingFish · February 11, 2012 06:45 AM

Quote from: emanhattan on February 11, 2012 06:40 AM
im not sure i understand your question. at first i thought you meant cel shading but really those pretty light effects (fire, lightning. glass reflecting light) all are simply smears of white or a high tone color over the shape of the object (obviously its not really light, its just a trick)

this probably wasnt even what you were asking so im sorry im no help at ALL

Thats what i was talking about (if i think that you are talking about what i was talking about.) The flashy lights are what i am talking about. I know that it is not just cell shading because cell shading was not really that vibrant until near the computer-age in animation.

rtil · February 11, 2012 08:38 AM

your question is entirely misguided. first of all, if you even did understand how they put a glow on traditionally painted cels, it wouldnt help you because you'd be doing it digitally/dont have the tools or resources to do it traditionally, and secondly you dont know how to animate, and putting glowy shit on an animation from someone who doesnt know how to animate would just be the same garbage animation with a glow on it.

but the thing that bothers me the most about your question is the statement that "traditional animation is becoming a thing of the past" - first of all, any animator worth their salt started by doing traditional animation - the principles and foundations in which animation is based all start with a sheet of pencil and paper. now you could have meant that the principles are still important and the method of doing it traditionally is the road less traveled now, but i doubt you know any principles of animation to begin with. however i'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say that if you wanted to recreate this look and feel digitally, your efforts would be wasted. their is a clear visual difference between hand-drawn and painted scanned cels and digital cels. regardless, the effect could be recreated in some sense with a simple glow or over-exposure effect on a blurred/duplicated color layer.

though my advice is to forget everything i just said, get a copy of the animator's survival kit and spend a few years learning how to actually animate before attempting to recreate something you don't know the first thing about.

Abnormal · February 12, 2012 08:50 AM

dey dont make it like they usde too............

GhostingFish · February 20, 2012 06:36 AM

Quote from: rtil on February 11, 2012 08:38 AM
your question is entirely misguided. first of all, if you even did understand how they put a glow on traditionally painted cels, it wouldnt help you because you'd be doing it digitally/dont have the tools or resources to do it traditionally, and secondly you dont know how to animate, and putting glowy shit on an animation from someone who doesnt know how to animate would just be the same garbage animation with a glow on it.

but the thing that bothers me the most about your question is the statement that "traditional animation is becoming a thing of the past" - first of all, any animator worth their salt started by doing traditional animation - the principles and foundations in which animation is based all start with a sheet of pencil and paper. now you could have meant that the principles are still important and the method of doing it traditionally is the road less traveled now, but i doubt you know any principles of animation to begin with. however i'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say that if you wanted to recreate this look and feel digitally, your efforts would be wasted. their is a clear visual difference between hand-drawn and painted scanned cels and digital cels. regardless, the effect could be recreated in some sense with a simple glow or over-exposure effect on a blurred/duplicated color layer.

though my advice is to forget everything i just said, get a copy of the animator's survival kit and spend a few years learning how to actually animate before attempting to recreate something you don't know the first thing about.

Alrighty.

CoolDrMoney · February 20, 2012 08:21 PM

Being an animator is very hard work so try it out (I don't mean half-assed) and see if it's for you. The number of things you need to consider with every form in an animation can be intimidating (weight, anticipation, momentum, etc) and then once you have all that figured out, you have to painstakingly animate it. You have to absolutely love doing it or you will fail. Simple as that.

So figure it out.