Unit 65 – Uses and Principles of Web Animation for Interactive Media (Task 2-Investigate The Development of Animation)

Hand Drawn (cel) AnimationThis section is essential to the way in which Animation is traditionally set out, as it enables particular parts of each frame to be replicated frame by frame, so therefore this saves time and effort. A basic sample would be two characters on screen, one that is talking and the other one is stationery. Meanwhile, whilst the 2nd character in the scene is standing silently it can be shown on the screen with the production of one drawing only with the use of multiple drawings and cells which are implemented in order to create a speaker character. The main advantage of using hand drawn cell animation is that it is highly detailed within the output of the sketches and the audience can simply relate towards the characters. But the main disadvantage of cell animation is that it is very time-consuming where this is due to the overwhelming number of frames that are needed in order to make the movement.

A more sophisticated example of cell-animation is where you put a plate upon a table and then physically draw around it in which will be incorporated into the background of the cell-animation.

These graphics illustrate how Cell-animation is integrated on screen and through objects.

Flick BooksIs a sequence of images that vary from one page to another, so that when you turn each of the pages consecutively the pictures emerge as an animation. Flipbooks are most often illustrated for children but it could also be appealing towards adults and use a range of Photographs instead of Drawings. Due to the technological developments in web animation it has now become digital meaning that people can gain access to every page by just a flick of the finger. The main benefits of having an enhanced flick book model is that you are not tied with other servers and the pages per costs and all of the files related to the flick books are obtained within the server and you do not have to rely on anybody. However, the main drawback of the improved flip book is that it can freeze up odd times which causes the user to be agitated and frustrated due to the fact they cannot do anything with the digital flipbook.

The first flip book shown in, "September 1868", when it was originated by John Barnes Linnett under the name of "Kineograph" motion picture. This was the first form of producing animation in a linear sequence of images rather than being Circular.

These images shows samples of what a flipbook actually looks like, how it is produced and how it is displayed on a technological device.

Animated CartoonsThroughout the decades of producing film for children TV animation has become a big hit which can be well-known as, cheap-fun. Different types of animation within this area include: Puppet animation, Puppetoons, Clay-Mation, Cut-Out animation, Silhouette animation, Model animation, Graphic animation and Pixelation. The Captain Pugwash is an example for the type of animation used within children’s TV animation which is `Cut-Out`. Another example of the kind of animation used within children’s TV is `Bagpuss` which resemble the way model animation is laid out. The main advantage of animated cartoons is that you tend to have a more sense of humour, expressions and general social skills. However, the disadvantage of watching too much animated cartoons is that you may neglect your studies which will result into bad grades and stress.

Animation ProcessIs where you take steps towards put together a piece of animation. Firstly, there needs to be a script or storyline in which links towards sketching your ideas and the filming production for the animation where this will be discussed between the animator and the director, therefore this will help them to gain a visualisation of the approximate timescale of the movie and how many drawings are involved within the animation. Secondly, you need to obtain a dialogue of what each character will say before they get animated in the way you wish. Thirdly, you need to draw out the characters of the story and there appearances in which the sketches are normally very messy. Many of the films today do use 70,000 plus of separate drawings. Whereas, the best animators only need a few drawings and leave gaps between for the inbetweener who would come along to finish off drawing the animation gaps. Fourthly, the layout of the film and the storyline is produced by very specialised artist or group on the basis of all of the research materials and sketches. All of the features such as, background and the position of the characters is drawn on to a sheet of transparent where they are amplified with subtle movement of the characters. Fifthly, everything involved within the animation is then put through the process which is called `Line Test`, where the animation testing is carried out by using a computer or video equipment to ensure that the animation is running smooth. Sixthly, When everything is completed, the drawings are then sent to the people that ink and paint them. The whole process can be very problematic if the images that used within the animation are very ugly. Finally, after all the drawings have been filmed, the dialogue is then added. From time to time the film is edited through computer software applications such as, Adobe Picture Elements 10 and Adobe Premier Pro 9. Once this has been done the film is then released to the public.

Graphic Information File Format (gif)Is an animated GIF that was originally used on the web where the animations makes use of a limited range of colours to make up the maximum number of colours within the animated GIF which is 256. It can also use transparency layers where each layer has it own moveable object in terms of colours and images etc. The main advantage of an animated GIF is that it can be obtained at a very restricted file size which means that the web animation will be more quicker to upload on the internet. However, due to the limitation within the amount of colours that can be used the motion picture tends to be very quick and speedy.

Dynamic Hyper-Text Mark-up Language (DHTML)

The usage of DHTML may not be favourable as making use of the shockwave/flash for web animation but has mainly recognised for what it has done in the past. DHTML can help with producing small animations and vibrant menus on the webpages. The code for DHTML is made up on HTML (Hyper-Text Mark-Up Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and Java script. As flexible as it is within the earlier platforms, users who operate with the Windows 95 or the Windows 98 will not get the smooth animation as they intended. Even if you try to amplify the speed of the animation it would still be a slow bumpy ride and there is a limit on how fast you will enable your animation to go with DHTML and therefore how smooth it will play. This means that it is not very cross-platform compatible, even though a minority of the people would use such old platforms these days. Nevertheless, DHTML animation does work fairly well on every platform if it is carrying out basic animation for instance, transitional effects, drop down menus, wipe effects and other animations with a small duration. DHTML used within animation is a simple way of making a site become interactive for the user without the need of loads of coding and testing.

Extensible Hyper-Text Mark-up Language (XHTML)

Is a derivation of the HTML (Hyper-Text Mark-up Language which is used for producing webpages. It is centred around the HTML 4.0 syntax, but has been altered to follow the guidelines of XML (Extensible Mark-up Language). So therefore, the XHTML 1.0 can be sometimes referred to as the HTML 5.0. Because the XHTML is expansionable, Web Developers can produce their own objects and tags for every webpage that they build where this gives the Web Developers more control over how the web animation looks and being able to manage their own webpages. The only obligation is that the custom tags and attributes are defined in a document type definition, that is referenced by the XHTML webpage. XHTML webpages also follow strict arrangement in comparison to the regular HTML webpages. While the web browsers on the internet are very user-friendly of the HTML syntax the XHTML must have the correct quotes and capitalisation in the mark-up language for all of the coding within a webpage because if you don not put the right coding in it will not function as you want it to. As the strictly arrangement of the webpage requires a more thorough creation of the webpages, it should also make sure that the webpages do look more uniform across different web browser platforms.

Java AppletsAre small programs which are used on the webpages that help to make animations become functional. Unlike the DHTML as explained above the java applets are intersectable towards other computers in other words they are linked together. This is because the languages are not available on all of the platforms and they don’t always agree about what they consider to be proper code. Java applets are mainly used to provide many interactive elements towards web applications which cannot be provided by HTML where many forms of animation are possible. What all java applets have in common is that they produce motion on screen by drawing consecutive frames at a high speed of around 10 to 20 frames per second. The main advantage of java applets is that it is safe and trustworthy online application meaning that any untrusted online apps can only access the server it came from. However, there is no standard to make the content of applets available towards any screen readers. So therefore, applets can harm the accessibility of a web site to users with special needs.