Designing and Animating a Character Sprite with Modern Techniques

High-quality 2D animation for video game production is both strenuous and time consuming. Traditionally, 2D game animation consisted of drawing each frame by hand and processing it into a bitmap for use in-game. As every frame was individually drawn, it was difficult to create enough drawings for smooth animation as well as keep form consistent between frames. Although, this technique usually resulted in a strong sense of 3D volume and realism when well executed. Current technology allows for faster 2D animation workflows using interpolation and bone systems as well as greater consistency, smoothness, and efficiency, but oftentimes the results lose the sense of depth and quality found in traditional animation. This thesis explores efficiently creating, and animating a 2D sprite by utilizing a composite of traditional animation techniques and computer animation practices. Using Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash, and the Unity3D game engine, a short game was created to demonstrate this process in a finished work

Perancangan Media Pembelajaran Berbasis Multimedia untuk Dasar-dasar Pembuatan Animasi 2d Menggunakan Macromedia Flash Mx 2004

Developments in information technology today, triggering the emergence of hardware that really help people to get information. In the field of education the author tries to meet how do technology advances in the world of information can be utilized in presenting material about basic animation to help peoples to be able to develop into a form of 2D animation.Based on the background of these problems, the authors designed a learning media about the basics of 2D animation. Designing learning media will be using some software, such as: Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and SnagIt.This thesis is the result of making such a Media Learning About Basics 2D animation featuring a video about creating basic animations and movements

How streaming platforms can bring 2D animation back

In this paper, we analyse how streaming platforms, especially Netflix, have been changing the cinema industry and what role they can play in the revival of 2D animation. Firstly, we describe a brief history of 2D animation and link it to the proliferation of the streaming platforms that have been actively changing the media landscape. After this, we explain how these platforms work and how they might benefit the streaming industry, the spectator and the creator. We use the example of the live action film Roma to show how these platforms are helping independent films and creators to thrive. We also explain how these platforms can give 2D animation a boost, since this industry is growing a lot in the independent world of animated cinema. Moreover, we also show how these companies are ready to receive different kinds of content by using the example of the 2D animation film Klaus (2019) and statements by Sergio Pablos, the director of the film, that demonstrate that these companies give the freedom to animators to produce their films and experiment in creating different narratives or even styles. Another important aspect mentioned in this paper is how these platforms are helping to introduce to the general audience different genres and styles of animation and why 2D animation can still prevail. In this paper we also point out how different companies act towards the animation industry. We compare Disney Plus, a company that reutilizes old content for their platform, and Netflix that strives towards creating new animations. We also show how this might be helpful for companies to invest on animation films that are more experimental. We finish by bringing up the importance of animators in doing their work with these platforms and of these platforms, investing in animation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bitter Lands - The Making Of A Short Animated Film

My thesis is centred around the creation of a short animated film. My goals included solidifying the union of my background in 2D animation and my more recently acquired skills in 3D animation, and furthering a fictional universe which I had created in a novella. As an artist I naturally come up with visual depictions of any narratives that I create, so the transition from written word to moving image was very organic. The animation depicts an exciting scene from early on in the timeline of my text. I imagine this short film could act as a “teaser trailer” for a hypothetical full-length animated film based on my novella. I chose a scene which I hope will leave viewers guessing and wanting to know more of the story, as teaser trailers attempt to do. I used character designs and environmental sketches which I had previously made to start the animation process. The modelling, rigging, and animation was done in Autodesk Maya, using both motion capture data and animation done by hand. I first created the character models and environment, then directed an actor through the motion capture process. I imported the motion capture data into Maya, cleaned it up and supplemented it with additional shots which I created from scratch. I also used Mudbox during the animation process. Post-production was done in Photoshop, AfterEffects and Flash. I rendered this animation entirely with toon shaders and included outlines around many elements, creating a look which is very similar to 2D. Using this technique, I retain what I consider the best parts of both disciplines: the charm and organic quality of 2D animation and the greatly simplified technical maneuvers, such as camera moves, of 3D animation. Creating this animation has made me even more excited about exploring the world which I have created in my narrative. I have also discovered a style of animation which greatly appeals to me by rendering my 3D work to look two dimensional. I hope that my experiment with this technique inspires others in the animation industry to try it as well, and that my narrative inspires everyone to explore their own stories, no matter what medium they may tell them through. Film: https://vimeo.com/14809608

gMotion: A spatio-temporal grammar for the procedural generation of motion graphics

Creating by hand compelling 2D animations that choreograph several groups of shapes requires a large number of manual edits. We present a method to procedurally generate motion graphics with timeslice grammars. Timeslice grammars are to time what split grammars are to space. We use this grammar to formally model motion graphics, manipulating them in both temporal and spatial components. We are able to combine both these aspects by representing animations as sets of affine transformations sampled uniformly in both space and time. Rules and operators in the grammar manipulate all spatio-temporal matrices as a whole, allowing us to expressively construct animation with few rules. The grammar animates shapes, which are represented as highly tessellated polygons, by applying the affine transforms to each shape vertex given the vertex position and the animation time. We introduce a small set of operators showing how we can produce 2D animations of geometric objects, by combining the expressive power of the grammar model, the composability of the operators with themselves, and the capabilities that derive from using a unified spatio-temporal representation for animation data. Throughout the paper, we show how timeslice grammars can produce a wide variety of animations that would take artists hours of tedious and time-consuming work. In particular, in cases where change of shapes is very common, our grammar can add motion detail to large collections of shapes with greater control over per-shape animations along with a compact rules structure

IMPLEMENTASI MOTION GRAFIS VIDEO ANIMASI 2D UNTUK PENGENALAN NIRMANA

One of the purpose information technology nowadays is to deliver the information in an interesting way. For example, the using of animation tend to be more interesting to present the information. This project created a 2D animation for introducing Nirmana. Some steps were conducted to finish this product starting with creating the storyboard namely finding the idea and arranging the synopsis, continuing with creating the character sketch and storyboard. After completing this step, the next step is making animation by using Adobe After Effect Software. It is started with editing and composing based on the scene by using Adobe Premiere Pro. Project software. For the final step, the researcher intends to test the using this 2D animation by applying motion graphics as the media for teaching Nirmana to the children. This 2D animation is presented with a colorful layout and completed by voice effect for getting the children’s attention

PERANCANGAN FILM ANIMASI PENDEK 2 DIMENSI BERJUDUL "ELPHIS TAVERN"

WHO (2021) menjelaskan bahwa sebanyak 3,8% populasi di dunia atau sekitar 280 juta orang mengidap depresi. Kasus terburuk bagi pengidap depresi ialah melakukan bunuh diri. Sekitar 700.000 orang meninggal karena bunuh diri. Mengacu pada uraian diatas, munculah gagasan yang menjadi inspirasi untuk membuat karya penciptaan animasi 2D dengan bertemakan depresi yang ditujukan untuk menimbulkan empati masyarakat umum khususnya bagi masyarakat sekitar pengidap depresi. Rumusan masalah dalam karya penciptaan ini dibuat untuk mengembangkan ide berkarya dari video animasi 2D yang berjudul “Elphis Tavern”, menjelaskan bagaimana proses produksi dalam pembuatan animasi 2 Dimensi, yang kemudian hasil dan visualisasi dari animasi 2D “Elphis Tavern”. Metode penciptaan yang dilakukan dimulai dari ide berkarya, stimulasi, observasi, pra-produksi, proses berkarya, pasca produksi. Menggunakan aplikasi Krita 5.0.0 sebagai program animasi dan Davinci Resolve 17.3.1 sebagai program editing yang kemudian menghasilkan animasi berdurasi 2 menit 28 detik. Visualisasi animasi dibuat sedemikian rupa dengan memperhatikan prinsip - prinsip animasi. Penulis berharap dengan animasi 2D ini dibuat sebagai media komunikasi visual dalam mengekpresikan perasaan pengidap depresi yang dapat memicu rasa empati penonton. WHO (2021) explains that as many as 3.8% of the world's population or about 280 million people suffer from depression. The worst case for people with depression is committing suicide. About 700,000 people died by suicide. Referring to the description above, an idea emerged that became the inspiration for creating 2D animation creations with the theme of depression aimed at creating empathy for the general public, especially for people around people with depression. The formulation of the problem in this creation work was made to develop the idea of creating a 2D animation video entitled "Elphis Tavern", explaining how the production process in making 2-dimensional animation, which is then the results and visualization of the 2D animation "Elphis Tavern". The method of creation that is carried out starts from the idea of creating, stimulation, observation, pre-production, work process, post-production. Using the Krita 5.0.0 application as an animation program and Davinci Resolve 17.3.1 as an editing program which then produces a 2 minute 28 second animation. Animation visualization is made in such a way by taking into account the principles of animation. The author hopes that this 2D animation is made as a visual communication medium in expressing feelings of people with depression that can trigger a sense of empathy for the audience

Animation of a High-Definition 2d Fighting Game Character

This thesis aims to identify the principles of good in-game character animation and examines different approaches to creating 2d animation. Traditional animation principles, such as timing and spacing, apply to in-game animation as they do to film animation. However, due to restrictions set by the technical and interactive elements of video games, additional challenges are faced in creating animations that both support gameplay and are visually engaging. Appealing character animation is particularly important in the fighting game genre. Early fighting games from the beginning of the 1990s used low resolution bitmap graphics with low frame counts for animation, but nowadays the standards for graphics and animation in games are high. In recent years, many game developers have shifted to using 3d graphics in place of 2d graphics, due to the more adaptive nature of 3d animation. However, there is still demand for the unique aesthetic of hand-drawn 2d, which cannot be fully replaced by 3d techniques. To make the creation process of 2d animation more efficient, supporting techniques such as tracing animation from 3d models have been employed. As the practical part of the thesis character animations suitable for a high-definition 2d fighting game were created. To assist in the creation of 2d animation, 3d animations were used as reference. While using 3d reference is beneficial especially for less experienced animators, it was discovered that relying too heavily on 3d may compromise the quality of the final 2d animation. The assistance of 3d tools cannot substitute good 2d fundamentals.Tämä opinnäytetyö pyrkii erittelemään hyvän pelihahmoanimaation periaatteita ja tarkastelee eri lähestymistapoja 2d-animaation luomiseen. Perinteisen animaation periaatteet, kuten ajoitus ja liikkeen välistys, pätevät pelianimaatiossa samalla tavalla kuin elokuva-animaatiossakin. Pelien tekniset rajoitukset ja interaktiivisuus asettavat kuiten-kin lisähaasteita animaatioiden toteuttamiseen tavalla, joka sekä tukee pelimekaniikkaa että on visuaalisesti kiinnostava. Vetoava hahmoanimaatio on erityisen tärkeää taistelupeligenressä. Varhaiset taistelupelit 1990–luvun alusta käyttivät matalaresoluutioista bittikarttagrafiikkaa ja niissä oli alhainen määrä animaatiokehyksiä, mutta nykyään pelien standardit grafiikan ja animaation suhteen ovat korkealla. Viime vuosina monet pelinkehittäjät ovat siirtyneet käyttämään 2d-grafiikan sijasta 3d-grafiikkaa, koska 3d-animaation tuottaminen on monella tavalla joustavampaa. Perinteiselle 2d-grafiikalle on kuitenkin edelleen kysyntää, sillä käsin piirretyn animaation ainutlaatuista ulkoasua ei voi täysin korvata 3d-tekniikoilla. 2d-animaation luomista on pyritty tehostamaan avustavilla tekniikoilla kuten animaation jäljentämisellä 3d-animaatiosta. Opinnäytetyön käytännön osuutena luotiin hahmoanimaatioita jotka soveltuvat teräväpiirtoiseen 2d-taistelupeliin. 2d-animoinnin apuna käytettiin 3d-animaatiota. Vaikka 3d-animaation käyttäminen mallina on hyödyllistä etenkin kokemattomalle animaattorille, liian tukeutumisen 3d-animaatioon todettiin saattavan heikentää lopullisen 2d-animaation laatua. 3d-työkalujen avustus ei korvaa hyvää 2d-perusteiden hallintaa

Sketching-out virtual humans: From 2d storyboarding to immediate 3d character animation

Virtual beings are playing a remarkable role in today’s public entertainment, while ordinary users are still treated as audiences due to the lack of appropriate expertise, equipment, and computer skills. In this paper, we present a fast and intuitive storyboarding interface, which enables users to sketch-out 3D virtual humans, 2D/3D animations, and character intercommunication. We devised an intuitive “stick figurefleshing-outskin mapping” graphical animation pipeline, which realises the whole process of key framing, 3D pose reconstruction, virtual human modelling, motion path/timing control, and the final animation synthesis by almost pure 2D sketching. A “creative model-based method” is developed, which emulates a human perception process, to generate the 3D human bodies of variational sizes, shapes, and fat distributions. Meanwhile, our current system also supports the sketch-based crowd animation and the storyboarding of the 3D multiple character intercommunication. This system has been formally tested by various users on Tablet PC. After minimal training, even a beginner can create vivid virtual humans and animate them within minutes