Animation

Here is a character (known as "Biff" for now) from a short animated film I have been producing over the last few years. Below are the six stages of art required for each finished frame of animation. Each full-size frame takes about three hours from the initial sketch to a piece of art that can be overlayed onto a digitally-painted background. The sketches are prepared on paper, then scanned, coloured and shaded on the computer.

 six degrees of animation
In this example, Biff is speaking a line of dialogue. The head and shoulders are the only elements requiring animated movement. Working independently, and for three hours a frame at twelve frames a second, you must animate only what is neccessary to create an illusion of continuous movement.

View my tests for "Bleaker Street" (3:14 minutes)  (more...)