By Dan Grushkin
Career Training Review Columnist
You've made the leap. You're enrolled in animation school. If you want to get ahead of your animation class here's a first lesson.
Lesson 1: Frame it Up
Film and television have different rates of frames per second. That means for a series of still images to appear like motion in film, you'll need 24 frames a second. Twenty four different images go into a single second of film. In television it's 30 frames a second. That's a lot of drawing. But don't fret. There are techniques to lessen the load.
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Animators use a technique called "doubling" or "tripling up." They essentially repeat the same image over and over again to lessen the drawing load. But recently digital animation software allows you to lessen the images even more. Macromedia Flash only requires you to draw 12 frames a second.
Twelve frames or 30 frames a second you're still going to have to make the motion in your animation believable. Animation school is designed to teach you the techniques to make your animation convincing. Most major animation schools offer a year-long animation class that starts you with the basics.
Your Animation Class
The animation class will explore a variety of animation techniques and materials. A beginner animation class teaches the original methods of animation, including drawing directly on film, cutouts and drawn animation. All this helps you learn that in order to create great animation you have to meticulously plan the number of frames each individual character movement will take.
A great deal of your learning will be in timing and matching your soundtrack. But in the end your animation class will pay off. Have fun in animation school!
About the Author
Dan Grushkin is freelance writer in Brooklyn, New York. He has written about world affairs for Agence France-Presse news wire, various international publications and has contributed to a book on the Middle East crisis. Dan holds a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University.
Monday, May 2, 2005
