Animation Talk -The classics, Hardware and Software

Animation is one thing I wanted to do since I was a kid. If you grew up in the 1960's-1970's, there were many great studios that produce the classic Animation / cartoons that are still around today. First some history and how they did it. After that , I might talk about some Software and hardware that I found out by some research I did on this subject.

first it's Walt E. Disney, The creator of Mickey Mouse and founder of Disneyland and Walt Disney World He was creating cartoons back in the 1920's right to his death in Dec  1966  BIO at  http://fuv.hivolda.no/prosjekt/gunnargrodal/ bio.htm" title="http://fuv.hivolda.no/prosjekt/gunnargrodal/ bio.htm" target="_blank"http://fuv.hivolda.no/prosjek... .  In the 1960'S How many of us watch the Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights. glued to the TV watching the cartoons of Disney and the Micky mouse club with the dud ranch and the hunted house segments. He was truly the master of animation and cartoons and brought the magic to are TV on Sunday night. How many of you have your mouse ears???  I never had them(I was left out :(  )

Hanna-Barbera was one such Studios that created so many of the Cartoons that we grew up   http://weww.cartoonnetwork.com.au/asp/scrapbook/studioto ur.asp" title="http://weww.cartoonnetwork.com.au/asp/scrapbook/studioto ur.asp" target="_blank"http://weww.cartoonnetwork.co... Hanna-Barbera is no longer. It was sold to Warner Brothers studios( As you know produce a lot of cartoons) some time ago. So many that I can’t list them all, So you have to click on the links, But one of my favorites Is Johnny Quest. I watched it as a kid back in 1966-1970 or around there and loved it. It’s on of the classic Animations when animation was still hand made(I will talk about that later).

How many of you remember Speed Racer cartoons in the 1967-1970's? That was a Japanese Cartoon that was first called in Japan "Go, Go " That was a good cartoon but the animation was fair.There was so many that to much to list them all. but back then they all did it all by hand Back then it was a big deal in writing a cartoon.  Each stop was all hand done. No computers were used. Let’s do the steps.

1.) First it went to the  story writers, where they wrote the story of that one cartoon.

2.) Then it went to the Animators, where a story board is done each Cel (Cel is a single image of a thing) is done as the story is played out. At the same time the Background deportment people are working in the backgrounds for each seen .

3.) Each characters are drawn on a then clear plastic film called Acetate. Every movement and expression has to be drawn on different Film( called a Cel).

4.) Then it is turned over to the painters where each drawing is(hand panted onto the Film, call Acetate) every Cel is done.

5.) Now the background and foreground are rendered(foreground and back ground are overladed t ogether) and put on the camera and filmed.

6.) Now the editors get it and cut out the on wanted seems( I am not sure about this stop maybe someone who does this can tall use).

I am sure the first 2 steps are still done, but the others are done with Computers now.  Book I will be reading: ANIMATION BOOK [Hardcover] by Laybourne, Kit ISBN: 0605K7817071

I let you know what I think about it. I will be post it when I get it in my book reading corner.

Reaching this on the net, I have found out some of the top programs used for Animation:

    & nbsp; Software and hardware list for Animation work.

* Animation Master(www.hash.com Great demos and video that are free). I saw it for $229.00 or Maya another one. It cost  more. 

* Photoshop (for drawing) 

* Premiere by Adobe (for art work)   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;         & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;         & nbsp;  

* Acid pro link http://www.sonymediasoftware.com" title="http://www.sonymediasoftware.com" target="_blank"http://www.sonymediasoftware.... (for sound)   & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;  

* Sound Forge (for sound)   & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;         & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;         & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp; 

* PC Sketch pad that goes for around $100.00 -$150.00 USD (for drawing)

You may not need all of this at once. The Animation master have a lot of audio option in it.

about me: I am still working on my art and a new sculpture other then that not much to report over here. I hope to still do some more update on my blog.