2D Animation - Dracula
The "Dracula" GIF above was the one of the first animations I had ever created.
I tried to implicate some of the 12 rules of animation to this, but I also didn't want to make things to difficult for myself bearing in mind this is my first considered approach towards animation. Granted it looks very amateurish, but its meant to be!
I think this is what I always had in mind when I imagined doing animation, drawing separate scenes individually on paper.
I have always a brief knowledge of the basic principles to 2D animation, I knew you could animate a static image by using a light-box and paper by tracing over your original key drawing.
I got the idea from making flip books as a kid, when the paper was thinner and more translucent than others, it helped me recognise the original image better. Therefore making the moving image became more accurate, this is called 'onion skinning' but in very amateur terms.
I remember watching this Simpsons episode as a kid where one of the characters is reporting the premiere of the new 'Itchy & Scratchy' Movie, I was always intrigued by what on earth was going on in the background of this scene.
It depicts Korea's labour practices of the cartoon industry.
I remember asking my Mum at the time what they are doing, She told me thats how they create the Simpsons itself! Drawing cell animations that is..
Banksy's Simpsons opening segment in a different episode also refers to this.
Anyway.
After discovering the basic process of 2D animation from the Simpsons, I learnt it had the potential to be a gruelling task unfortunately.
As I have mentioned prior I have always been curious into making my own animations.
I have always envisaged myself creating imagery in this 2D form if I ever wanted to attempt animation, so for my 'Dracula GIF' this is exactly what I done without a second thought.
Sizing up my image into halfs
lightly sketched rotation of head in pencil.
This is how I imagined the story board in my head.
Could of applied more sequences of angles of rotation to make the final GIF look smoother.
Key drawing. #1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6 (used tracing paper on these angles)
#7
#8 (loop back to #1)
Inked coloured - ready to be scanned in on to Photoshop.
Scanned on photoshop, using rulers to make boarders and images more accturate
Also drew the body which will remain as a static image, only the head will be animated.
Bumping up tone and contrast to make the colours 'pop'.
Securing head on to static image (torso).
Each rotation will have a different view of the rotation of the head but the same torso.
Overall I am very happy with the way this GIF image turned out, I like it when a plan comes together. The thing I should have maybe done was to put more planning into this, I should of sketched out a few drafts and tested them beforehand.
This would of made my final GIF's rhythm a lot smoother and have less lag (because I would of added more layers of angles of the head), also I would of noticed this before before deciding to settle on 8 images in total.
I decided on 8 images of the rotation of the head because the viewer will still understand the motion of what is happening.
The reasons for not planning this so much is because I had this idea already in my head, and I jumped the gun a little bit. But I don't think it turned out bad at all, in the future I will make sure I consider the entire process more considerably.
Also my first mistake was marking this out on acrylic paper, and using it to be scanned in.
Because the paper has a columned rib to it, it shows on my final image. It does sort of add to the effect, as it looks rough and ready. However I would rather prefer if the final image was a lot more flush, but to do that I would vector the entire story board on Adobe Illustrator to create the effect.
My inspiration came from the film Exorcist, although I've never watched the film.
The scene where the girls head is projectile vomiting and spinning around, this is probably one of the most iconic horror film scenes ever created. Even I know about that scene without watching it!
Originally I was going to create a characters head spinning up and down a screw, which is also the characters neck. (Im still keen on doing this)
But in the end this is what brought me to my conclusions, the motion of the head spinning made me think of the film 'The Exorcist'.
The character was inspired by the film also, I wanted to have a character that was immortal simply because no mortal could do the action I wanted it to.
Granted I haven't applied a lot from the 12 rules of animation, apart from balance and timing (8fps).
But this is what I wanted to focus on to begin with just to ease myself into this challenging process.
I was also influenced by an Illustrator called Helen Green, she has made a GIF of David Bowie and all his diverse alter egos. She has done it much much better than I have, reason being she has more frames per second. Also David Bowie will always trump Dracula, I'm not sure if any one has ever said that before..
http://dollychops.tumblr.com
Helen Green
