by kthulhu » Sat Dec 28, 2002 2:12 am
Cel drawn animation is typically done in layers. A background is drawn on the bottom cel, and then the actual animation is successive layers of cels piled together, to build a frame. Each frame is then filmed with a special camera, then changed.
Take the example of a character throwing a ball. You have the background (a field, a playground, a stadium, something like that), and then the first frame is of the character lifting their arm to throw the ball. When it looks right *snap*, you film it (basically take a snapshot), then change the cels for the next frame, film it, and so on. Naturally, all those cels take time and work, and a GOOD cel drawn series (fluid, vibrant, quality drawing) can be very expensive. It can also look VERY good. Which brings in CGI.
Computers can be used to draw frames faster, add effects that are a pain or nearly impossible to do by hand, and clean up cels (or create clean ones digitally). CGI can also be used to render 3D scenes and objects, but how well that integrates with the cel drawn stuff depends on budget, director, and the animators' own talent.
Regardless, there's usually a lot of people involved.
I'm out...