A Future For Traditional Hand Drawn 2D Animation?

I've started developing a 2D video game to be played on mobile phones. It's a basic gather and chase game using one of my studio's animated characters as the hero.

As I develop the game, I'm concentrating on short animation cycles that convey my hero's personality...very much of a throw back to early cartoon pantomime. Makes me think "is this the future for 2D animation?" By the way, I'm drawing pencil on paper and scanning the drawings into Photoshop.

I find myself approaching the project as an early Fleischer cartoon in that I'm not censoring my imagination at this point of development. The characters in my game will perform actions that are eccentric and fanciful, as well as realistic. The overall design of the game will embrace both caricature and cartoony elements. Right now, I'm jotting down all ideas that come to mind. But the most important element is the playability of the game! Without that nobody will buy it!
I'm writing and designing this game as though it were a traditional cartoon short with a sympathetic and relatable character...but with the viewer being able to guide the main character past the villains and obstacles to a successful conclusion. The fun is that it is all action with sound effects and music,etc.

 

The Animator's Team

Historically, the best way of producing animation in terms of both creativity and hitting production quotas was to set up animation units, whereby the various members of a unit could concentrate on certain aspects of bringing a scene to life. This was how the Disney studio set up its animation teams. At its most successful, it made for a great sense of pride and security amongst the team members that they could count on one another to get the job done.

It was also a great way of having an apprenticeship program by which everyone had the opportunity of being trained to go up to the next level; or it became apparent that a person could not handle the next stage and he/she'd gone as far as ability would let them. (The fact there was studio politics that stood in the way of deserving talent does not diminish the validity of this team concept.)

Before there were animation schools, on-the-job training was the only way to learn more than just the basics (which you can teach yourself). Even today, an apprenticeship program would be the best way of developing animation talent. But that would mean a commitment by the studio to keeping its artists employed from production to production.


The following is a basic Old School Unit the way I remember it on the feature Raggedy Ann & Andy:
1) Animator
2) Rough Inbetweener
3) Assistant Animator
4) Breakdown Assistant
5) Clean Inbetweener

Work flow:
The Animator draws the rough keys and eccentric partials. These are shot for a pose test. When the pose test is okayed by the director, the scene goes to the Rough Inbetweener who rough inbetweens the entire scene for the first action pencil test.

Once the director okays the rough pencil test, the Animator may go back in and add the important lip sync (if he hasn't already included it in his rough pass). The Assistant Animator then cleans up the keys, making adjustments so that the character is on model, and checks the exposure sheets to make sure that any leveling of the figures, overlays, etc. are correct.


The Breakdown Assistant then cleans up and completes any eccentric partials and crucial inbetweens, leaving the Clean Inbetweener to finish off the rest of the drawings.

But let's not come away with the mistaken idea that working this way was a bed of roses. The pressure on the artist to produce has always been enormous. The following is a 1976 cartoon by Eric Goldberg showing a bit of foxhole humor during my last few days on Raggedy Ann and Andy. I was leaving to start my first gig as an animator at Nelvana...and there was the assumption that I would be introducing Hollywood animation production methods to that studio in the Great White North.

INSPIRATIONAL SKETCHES #2: Rough House Comedy

I'll use inspirational sketches to work out the basic staging for a physical gag.

Shown below is a walk-through of the ape triplets each trying to be the first to get out of an airplane. The ape triplets are very much Three Stooges-like: Larry (Algeria), Curly (Angola), and Moe (Zaire). 

In order to be successful, the gag will have to rely on the animator's sense of physical timing and acting ability.

Question for you: What's the funniest gag that you have seen in animated films of the past 20 years? Was it based on personality or surprise?

INSPIRATIONAL SKETCHES #1: Poses Portraying Character Interaction

As a director, I like to use inspirational sketches as a way to give aid and guidance to storyboard artists. For me, the entertainment value is more about character performance than camera angles. If the storyboard artist has a better way to convey the performance and/or the camera angle, then great! We'll use that!

But I believe that an animation director should be able to at least use quick sketches to convey how he/she envisions the acting in the script. The director should give a starting point for the storyboard artist to work from...after all, the director should be the one with the overall vision for the film.

Here are some of my inspirational sketches showing the ape triplets (Algeria, Angola, and Zaire) interacting. Sometimes they fight. Sometimes they act as one.

These sketches were gathered together onto model sheets to show personality attitudes.

The ape triplets are very much Three Stooges-like Larry, Curly, and Moe

Forms and Forces By Master Animator Bill Tytla #2

I never cease to enjoy looking at Bill Tytla's work.

Here are some rough poses of Grumpy being washed by three other Dwarfs (Bashful, Sneezy, and Sleepy). These drawings are of pure forces affecting form. The choreography of the interaction between the four characters is amazing. Study these well. This is pure animation...no Motion Capture here.


These drawings appeared in the December 1978 issue of CARTOONIST PROfiles as illustrations for Grim Natwick's article about Bill Tytla, who had passed away ten years earlier on December 29, 1968 at the age of 64.

Pose A

Pose B

Pose C

Pose D

Pose E

Pose F

Pose G

The Difference Between Being Influenced By and Copying Someone Else's Work

No artist develops in a vacuum. From the moment we open our eyes, we are affected by what we see and feel. Some things attract us in a pleasing way, while others repel us. It is natural for us to want to grow close to and possess that which pleases us. As artists learning to crawl creatively, we naturally copy the work of those we like. Copying another artist's work develops your hand and eye coordination, which (in traditional 2D animation) is essential in being able to understand how to follow a character model sheet and keep your poses "on model".

The danger is that sometimes copying becomes a crutch which some young artists never throw down...and that cripples your creative growth.

Study the why's and how's of your favorite artist's work. Imitate that artist as a young bird would imitate its parents' flapping of their wings... but learn those lessons and principles that make for pleasing design, so that you can soar on your own into new territories...and not trudge along the well worn paths that were created in the past.

Pleasing designs are created by universal truths...and audiences are always interested in a fresh take on universal truths.

Forms and Forces By Master Animator Bill Tytla

Here are some rough poses of Dopey slapping water out of his ear. These are drawings of pure forces affecting form. Based on frame by frame study of the finished scene, this is a cycle where the last drawing hooks up to the first with 3 inbetweens.


These drawings appeared in the August 1970 issue of CARTOONIST PROfiles as illustrations for I. Klein's article about his friend Bill Tytla, who had passed away on December 29, 1968 at the age of 64.

Dopey Pose 1

Dopey Pose 2

Dopey Pose3

Dopey Pose 4

Dopey Pose 5

Dopey Pose 6. Hooks up to Pose 1 with three (3) inbetweens.