How Cartoons Are Brought To Life? Your favorite characters growing up have stuck with you for the better half of your life. Characters like Winnie the Pooh or Spiderman left lasting impressions on us. We love cartoons for so many different reasons. The storylines make us happy. We root for our favorite animated hero, and hope they can overcome adversity. When they do, we believe we are equally capable of overcoming our own challenges. They represent happiness and creativity. They identify with us because they go through similar challenges.
Now you know and loved Saturday morning cartoons growing up, but did you ever stop and wonder about the amount of work and time that goes into creating your favorite characters and shows? The cartoon production process can be a lengthy one. So here’s a general run-through for what the process can be like: Brainstorming Whether it’s a small animation studio or a large one, it’s important for a creator to work within his means. A budget can sometimes be limited, but there is no limit for what imagination and talent can accomplish. Regardless, creators must keep in mind what they can afford to invest in the process and what the artist is capable of creating. For someone who is just starting out in this industry, it may be best to stay away from complex stories and themes that require very intricate machinery and huge climactic battle scenes. These types of scenes require refined animating skills often acquired through time and experience. Depending on how complex the cartoon will be, a creator could require much more equipment. For example, Claymation cartoons with several characters call for more than cel animation, and this may sometimes lead to going over budget.
Considering the length of the piece also heavily affects the production process. The length of your animated production will depend on the market your piece is aimed at. Setting an ideal length early on in the process will help when brainstorming the story and whether or not it will fit within the set time frame. If an animator is considering producing a cartoon that could potentially turn into a long-term show they may want to produce a piece between 11 and 25 minuets. Animated cinema pieces will be anywhere from an hour to two hours long. It’s super important to remember who the intended audience is. While most cartoons are created for kids, several animated cartoons can captivate the attention of older children and adults. Demographics can heavily dictate the ideas a creator comes up with. Storytellers emphasize, “Write what you know,” when creating animated pieces, or any piece for that matter. Why? Because when stories are based on experiences, feelings or relationships they themselves have gone through, it makes a production much more credible and relatable. But above all, animation requires a great deal of imagination. Scriptwriting & Storyboards If a cartoon contains actual dialogue, then a script must be written. Typically, shorts will contain little to no dialogue; therefore those scripts are a lot easier to produce. Scripts also mean voice actors are needed to recite the written script. The script must be created before a creator can animate their characters. Mouth movements are just one of the many things that must be considered. Storyboards are a great for brainstorming because they allow a creator to layout their story into major parts. While simpler animated pieces may only consist of a single scene, others may be a lot more elaborate, requiring several scenes to be panned out. Storyboard illustrations aren’t always very elaborate. They can be simple stick figures. Their main purpose is to help a team decide how different scenes will work and whether certain ideas will work or not. Ultimately, storyboards are very basic. Animation There are many forms of animation. There are different categories. The most common are cel animation, stop motion, 2d and 3d computer animation. Cel animation is the most traditional method for creating an animated cartoon. Each cel is hand drawn, and then pictures are taken with a particular camera. Cel animation can most likely be compared to a flipbook. Stop motion techniques are less commonly used. This technique is also known as “Claymation.” Shadow puppets, paper puppets and sand art can be great for stop motion animation. The movements are all small in between takes and a photograph must be taken at every change. Like the cel animation, the photographs are mashed together to create what an eye will perceive as movement. When attempting to use 2d or 3d animation, special computer programs are necessary. The product of 2d and 3d animation is considerably smoother compared to the two types of animation we discussed previously.
Sound Effects Adding sound to an animated piece requires the right type of equipment. Excellent microphones are needed. When recording sound for an animated piece, producers must prevent echoes and background noise. This will affect the quality of their product. Projects with a bigger budget may typically reserve a recording studio for the finest quality of sound. Some sound effects may be a lot more elaborate than others. For example, in the event of a fight sequence, there may be the need for special equipment to produce loud and explosive sounds. On the other hand, some sound effects may be as simple as the sound of clapping hands, in which case a producer can simply record their own hands clapping. Animated cartoons are pretty complex and involve several different elements to create the highest quality product. From character design to sound effects and the final distribution of a product, the process can be very lengthy. This was just a brief overview of the type of work that happens at animation studios all over the world.