Animation Teaching Kit
Year Level:
Year 3 to Year 10
Curriculum Study Areas:
English; The Arts
Themes/Topics:
Film language; Genre; Symbolism and Icons; Cultural
studies
Description:
This kit provides teaching ideas for exploring animation with
students. It includes a brief history of animation, an outline of
animation today, animation techniques and lesson ideas.
Many of the animation techniques described in this kit have
accompanying lesson plans with instructions for making
them. Creating a storyboard and a zoetrope are included in
the kit.
Resources:
Lesson Plans
Animated Stories years 1-4
Introduction to Animation years 5-8
Making Animations – flips book years 5-8
Lesson plan:
Animation is the illusion of movement. It is like magic. Nothing is real, nothing exists, yet
after watching an episode of an animated series like Li'l Elvis Jones and the Truckstoppers,
we are able to relate to the characters as if they were alive and we can believe in the world
where these characters live.
All films including live action films are created by joining together a sequence of still
photographs with very small changes in-between. These photograph sequences appear to
move and to be alive when they are run through a film projector or video recorder.
This happens because our eyes cannot keep up with
the speed of change between each photograph. This is
called persistence of vision. Persistence of vision refers
to the length of time the retina (the screen at the back of
the eye) retains an image.
Animated films are created by filming drawings instead
of photographs. Each single drawing is called a frame.
When twenty four frames per second - each one slightly
different - move in front of our eyes, we 'see' the picture
moving. This movement brings the drawings to life
giving us the characters and the stories of the cartoon
or animated series.
© Australian Children's Television Foundation (except where otherwise indicated). You may use, download and reproduce this
material free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes provided you retain all acknowledgements associated with the
material.
History of animation
Cultural groups have used drawings for centuries as a way of telling stories and folk tales.
The Egyptians used wall decoration; the Australian Aboriginals developed cave paintings;
the Japanese used scrolls. These art works attempted to capture motion through drawings.
The first form of true animation was the thaumatrope, a simple
animation technique where a spinning device has two parts of a
drawing, one on either side of a disc. When the device spins, the
drawings combine to make a complete picture. The original
thaumatrope showed a bird on one side of the disc and an empty
birdcage on the other. When the disc was moved (by an attached
piece of string) it appeared as though the bird was actually in the
cage.
The zoetrope is another simple animation technique. The zoetrope
is an optical toy in the form of a cylinder, with a series of pictures
on its inner surface. When these pictures are seen through slits in
the rotating cylinder, they appear to come to life.
A flip book demonstrates persistence of vision very well and is an
easy way to demonstrate how animation works.
Zoetrope
A Zoetrope is an optical toy in the form of a cylinder with a series of pictures on its inner
surface. When these pictures are seen through slits in the rotating cylinder, they appear to
come to life.
This impression of motion depends on two things: persistence of vision and the Phi
phenomenon. The Phi phenomenon is a result of human instinct. When we see two different
images close together we automatically try to create a relationship between them connecting the images in this way gives them movement and meaning. The slots of the
Zoetrope simulate flashes of light broken with moments of darkness which enable the illusion
to work.
To test this out, look over the top of the drum at the drawings and you will note that the
illusion of movement disappears and the images are now just a blur.
© Australian Children's Television Foundation (except where otherwise indicated). You may use, download and reproduce this
material free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes provided you retain all acknowledgements associated with the
material.
Make a Zoetrope
Materials:
• one strip of white cardboard 54cms long and 50 cms deep
• a circle of cardboard 18 cm in diameter to make into the base of the Zoetrope
• a stick
• stanley knife
• scissors
• drawing and colouring tools
• staples
• glue
• adhesive tape.
Procedure:
1.Divide the 54 cm strip into 12 equal frames leaving a gap at one end for gluing the strip
into a circle at the end.
2. Carefully cut out a slit of about 3mm between each frame.
3. Draw the 12 cycle Zoetrope frame by frame making a small item change each time to
follow the story though from the start to the finish. A Zoetrope works best if the story returns
back to start at the end of each cycle. This will make the Zoetrope appear to be endless as it
revolves seamlessly through the cycle, time after time.
4. Paint the outside of the drum black.
5. Join the ends of the strip with glue or staples to create a circle with the drawings on the
inside.
6. Fit the base inside the strip to make a drum. Use adhesive tape if it does not fit snugly
inside.
With the development of the motion camera and projector, animation was moved to another
level. Short films could be created with the images, making drawings come to life. Walt
Disney created his first Mickey Mouse cartoon in 1928, and with the addition of sound in
cartoons at the same time, audiences were experiencing the future of theatre.
© Australian Children's Television Foundation (except where otherwise indicated). You may use, download and reproduce this
material free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes provided you retain all acknowledgements associated with the
material.
Animation today
With the developments in animation at the Disney studio from 1930-1940 animation has
moved forward in leaps and bounds. There are now entire series devoted to specific forms of
animation. Wallace and Gromit, Rex the Runt, Gumby and Pokey and Chunga Chui, for
example, use clay animation to tell the story.
With today’s technology there are numerous ways to create animations, all of which require
many stages of creative work.
The Storyboard
The storyboard is the "visual script" for a cartoon. It describes all of the action that is going to
take place in the finished cartoon. Storyboards may have as few as one and as many as 12
drawings per page.
The Layout
After the storyboards are complete and the animated sequence timed each scene is broken
down into its background and action levels.
This occurs because while the background painting does not change during a scene, the
scene’s characters do and they need to be drawn differently, frame by frame so that they will
appear to animate. (In traditional animation the character drawings are traced onto sheets of
clear acetate, painted and then placed one by one on top of the background for filming.)
At this stage the registration of the characters to the background is also determined. This
important process ensures that when the animation is completed and filmed on top of the
background, the characters don’t float above the ground, miss the table when they put their
hand or a drink down, or walk through a table or chair.
Registration is a simple process whereby three peg holes are punched in the bottom of all
background layouts and character layouts. The animators and background artists continually
register to these pegholes throughout the animation process.
Casting and Dialogue Recording
Casting and recording takes place before any detailed creation of the animation characters
takes place so that the animators can draw the characters’ mouths to match the actual voice
of the actor. Actors are chosen on their voices alone and during the dialogue recording, the
storyboard is used by the director to coach actors in the character’s emotions and
motivation. Actors need an excellent ear and may be required to use a range of voices. The
most famous of these is Mel Blanc, now deceased who was a voice specialist from radio,
movies and TV rarely seen by his widespread audience. He was the voice of virtually every
major character in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon, including Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny,
Daffy Duck, Tweety & Sylvester and Yosemite Sam.
The Animation Drawing
This is the most basic and most difficult part of the production of a cartoon. Animation is a
very specialized skill. There are two steps in the animation drawing process: The first is the
animator's rough. These drawings are often just outlines of the characters with no details to
faces or bodies. After the animator is finished with the scene of roughs, a pencil test is shot.
© Australian Children's Television Foundation (except where otherwise indicated). You may use, download and reproduce this
material free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes provided you retain all acknowledgements associated with the
material.
The pencil test is a filmed version of the drawings. This test checks to see that the animation
drawings are fluid in motion and the characters do what the director wanted them to do. If
this test is successful, animation clean-ups are done. These are the final finished animation
drawings from which the cells are made.
Character Design
Two facets of character design in animation are vital:
• The visual look of the drawn character
• The personality and voice of the actor.
Characters must be designed so that they are easy to animate and can be drawn quickly, as
animators have to work very fast.
Each animation character begins as a drawing, but as the dialogue is recorded before the
process of animating the characters begins, an actor can sometimes add extra aspects to a
character which can then be incorporated into the drawings.
Once the look of a character is finalised the designers create the following:
Construction Drawings provide instructions on how to draw the characters.
Model Sheets have all the information the animators needed to copy the character in all
sorts of different poses and to draw them correctly.
Size Comparison Charts showed each character’s size in relation to the main character.
Action Poses show the characters ‘alive’ with any evident personality traits. For example, the
character of Li’l Elvis in the ACTF series L’il Elvis and the Truckstoppers has a hair quiff
which droops when he is sad, stands upright when he is happy and ‘flames’ when he is
angry.
Mouth shape charts for each character show the correct mouth shapes for phonetic sounds
such as ooo, oh, eee, p, t, s etc. This ensures that the characters appear to mouth the
dialogue and that they will speak the same way all the way through the series.
One of the arts of animation is to draw the character in the many ways the script requires
such as stretched, squashed, screaming, yelling, crying, angry etc., while still looking like the
same character. This is very difficult.
The Animation Celluloid (Cel)
The cel is made by tracing the outline of the animation drawing onto a sheet of celluloid or
acetate in ink. When the ink has dried the cel is turned over and paint is applied to the back
of the cel. The cel is then ready to be photographed. The name "CEL" is derived from the
material from which the cels were originally made, cellulose nitrate.
© Australian Children's Television Foundation (except where otherwise indicated). You may use, download and reproduce this
material free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes provided you retain all acknowledgements associated with the
material.
Nowadays cels can be completely created on computer. Computer technology offers
significant shortcuts over traditional cel painting as the artists do not need to wait for paint to
dry before adding the next colour. This digital process allowed each cel painter to average
250 cels a day in comparison to 30 or less if they were hand painted.
The Background
Each background represents a "scene" in a cartoon. All of the cels painted for use in that
scene are photographed on top of the background. There can be hundreds of cels painted
for a scene, but only one background. Background Artists use the layout as a blueprint to
paint the background for each scene following the layout exactly so that the characters
would register. Like the character, location and prop designs, these paintings must be on
model so that buildings and even their door handles will always look the same.
Filming
In the traditional animation process, the backgrounds and painted acetate cels were filmed
under a ‘Rostrum’ camera. This process is now usually done on computer.
Editing
Each individual scene is then synchronised to the dialogue so that the Animation Director
can check that the animation is correct and that the characters’ lip movement match their
dialogue.
These are called the rushes. The rushes are viewed by a team of people who are
responsible for spotting any technical errors and getting them corrected. These corrections
are called retakes.
Once all the technical errors are removed, all the individual scenes are edited together on
computer. The animation is then put onto video tape so it can be watched, checked and
approved. This stage is called the fine cut.
Principles of Animation
The Disney Studio developed a number of principles of animation. These principles are:
1. Squash and Stretch – the animator needs to define the rigidity and mass of an object by
distorting its shape during an action.
2. Timing – the animator should space actions to define the weight and size of objects and
the personality of the character.
3. Anticipation – the animator creates anticipation through the preparation of action.
4. Staging – the animator presents ideas that are clear.
5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action – the animator terminates one action and
establishes its relationship to the next action.
6. Straight Ahead Action and Pose-To-Pose Action – these are the two contrasting
approaches to the creation of movement.
7. Slow In and Out – the animator needs to consider the spacing of the in-between frames
to achieve subtlety of timing and movement.
8. Arcs – this is where the animator creates a visual path of action for natural movement.
9. Exaggeration – the animator should accentuate ideas via the design and the action of the
objects and characters.
10. Secondary Action – the animator considers the action of one object/character which
results from another object/character’s action.
© Australian Children's Television Foundation (except where otherwise indicated). You may use, download and reproduce this
material free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes provided you retain all acknowledgements associated with the
material.
11. Appeal – the animator must create a design or an action that the audience enjoys
watching.
(John Lasseter, ‘Principles of Animation’ ACM Computer Graphics, Volume 21, Number 4,
July 1987, http://www.3dark.com/archives/animation/the_principles.html, Accessed October
6, 2003)
Teacher References
Jayne Pilling Ed., A Reader in Animation Studies, John Libbey, Sydney, 1997.
Maureen Furniss, Art in Motion: animation aesthetics, John Libbey, Sydney, 1998.
Paul Wells, Understanding Animation, Routledge, London, 1998.
© Australian Children's Television Foundation (except where otherwise indicated). You may use, download and reproduce this
material free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes provided you retain all acknowledgements associated with the
material.