How is Anime Made?

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 11:23 pm

Wheee_It's_Me! wrote:
Not entirely accurate, many 3D rendering programs can actually be configured to render out 2D looking frames. South Park is a good example of such an animation technique.

True, but South Park is really hard to compare to anime due to the ingeniously-crude visuals. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it's probably just as difficult to make an accurate, highly-detailed model of an animated character (and some variations on it, assuming he/she/it don't always look the same) as it is to just animate things frame by frame. And then get that model into the right poses, and render it to look 2-D... There has to be a reason we're only seeing a small number of the 'Final Fantasy' and 'Appleseed' type movies, and they still look different from anime...

It'll probably change once you get more powerful hardware, a good established set of 'character prefabs' and software that's specialized for that sort of thing. Right now it's probably easier just to go the old way, or screw good looks and imitate South Park

TheKorovaMilkbar · Post by **TheKorovaMilkbar** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 11:53 pm

LOL, but nowadays animators are just getting lazy and doing all-out cg. No more lines, no more 2d.....suck!

lol, jok

MAS PRODUCTIONS · Post by **MAS PRODUCTIONS** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 3:12 am

Im actually in the pre-process of producing my own "anime". Cant really call it an anime since it was made in america. Then again anime is japanese for animation so I guess it could. Oh well, anyways I am infact using a 3D animation studio package to produce it. The series is called EXTREME LUNACY. We are in the pre stages of production at the moment. We plan on spending the first month releasing comic forms of it on the net in the format of chapters much like manga. This is to see if there is any interest in our series. If it catches any popularity we plan on making full length episodes. We are using a cel shading program to create a 2-D effect. Just a slight side note, making animations even in 3-D is a pain staking and time consuming process just like normal animation.

If anyone is interested in EXTREME LUNACY, in about a month or 2 I plan on releasing the first 2 chapters of so of the comic. So look foward to it.

Wheee_It's_Me! · Post by **Wheee_It's_Me!** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 4:38 am

MAS PRODUCTIONS wrote:Im actually in the pre-process of producing my own "anime". Cant really call it an anime since it was made in america. Then again anime is japanese for animation so I guess it could. Oh well, anyways I am infact using a 3D animation studio package to produce it. The series is called EXTREME LUNACY. We are in the pre stages of production at the moment. We plan on spending the first month releasing comic forms of it on the net in the format of chapters much like manga. This is to see if there is any interest in our series. If it catches any popularity we plan on making full length episodes. We are using a cel shading program to create a 2-D effect. Just a slight side note, making animations even in 3-D is a pain staking and time consuming process just like normal animation.

If anyone is interested in EXTREME LUNACY, in about a month or 2 I plan on releasing the first 2 chapters of so of the comic. So look foward to it.

The really hard part I've found with 3D animation is building all the models. The more complex you want to make them it seems like the more problems you wind up with.

Just out of curiosity, do you plan on doing a mix of both 3D and 2D? I've noticed that in a lot of more recent Disney films they've done cel shading with the characters but then do the backgrounds fully rendered. It's a pretty nice technique.

MAS PRODUCTIONS · Post by **MAS PRODUCTIONS** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 8:41 am

I have found that animation is the hardest part. I have a natural talent for modelling but the annoying nature of animating frame by frame just gets to me.

As far as background goes I'm still not entirely sure yet. Its one of the things I will experiment with in production.

Wheee_It's_Me! · Post by **Wheee_It's_Me!** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 1:17 pm

MAS PRODUCTIONS wrote:I have found that animation is the hardest part. I have a natural talent for modelling but the annoying nature of animating frame by frame just gets to me.

As far as background goes I'm still not entirely sure yet. Its one of the things I will experiment with in production.

One of the easiest ways to do the animation is to simply rip it off! Even easier if you've got a lil camcorder, just film yourself doing whatever action you want the character(s) to be doing, encode the footage, and then mirror it frame by frame with the animation, easy breezy. And you can use footage from anything really, yourself, other animes, movies, tv shows, etc, etc, etc.

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 2:12 pm

Wheee_It's_Me! wrote: One of the easiest ways to do the animation is to simply rip it off! Even easier if you've got a lil camcorder, just film yourself doing whatever action you want the character(s) to be doing, encode the footage, and then mirror it frame by frame with the animation, easy breezy. And you can use footage from anything really, yourself, other animes, movies, tv shows, etc, etc, etc.

That's an interesting idea, and probably works. I thought of doing similar stuff with backgrounds (which is probably how most anime backgrounds are done).
Of course, I've never actually done an animation/serial drawing project yet, but I always thought doing that would make things easier.

Nekoboy Sal · Post by **Nekoboy Sal** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 3:04 pm

Wheee_It's_Me! wrote:One of the easiest ways to do the animation is to simply rip it off! Even easier if you've got a lil camcorder, just film yourself doing whatever action you want the character(s) to be doing, encode the footage, and then mirror it frame by frame with the animation, easy breezy. And you can use footage from anything really, yourself, other animes, movies, tv shows, etc, etc, etc.

I did something like that with my onion (His name be Oni-On). Its not quite the same but this is what I did:
I took out Photoshop and made boxes with lines thew them. I then made circles and lines in the shape of an upside-down icecream cone. Duplicated the layer a few times and manipulated each layer by rotating streaching and sometimes redrawing some layers. After I have the basic motion I printed out the icecreamcones on one sheet of paper and made one good copy of Oni-On. Taking the icecreamcones and the good Oni-on copy I traced over both of them on a new sheet of paper. *This is geting to hard to explain* Each icecreamcone had the good Oni-On copy over it, and I used the icecreamcone to refrence what the new Oni-On would look like. *for every one who has stoped reading, I don't blame you* I inked the new sheet of paper, scanned, Photoshoped, ImageReadied, and Gifed.

Check my Avatar for the result. Oni-On is also the mascot for my site (link on my profile). One last note on Oni-On, My AMVs (only one at the moment), contain Oni-on in there somewhere. 5 people have downloaded the video and I don't think anyone has noticed.
If you can find Oni-On in my Vid "HALFFULL up" you win. But don't expect a pize.