Home made animation rostrum

How do you support your webcam when you are filming pencil tests? Do you use a tripod, a chair or a pile of books? This post will tell you how to build a simple webcam rostrum using just a screwdriver, a drill and a saw. If you get your wood merchant to cut the wood to size you won’t even need a saw. If you opt for the bracket method you may not need a drill.

Before we start building lets take a look at a couple of ready made rostrums that I found on the
Animation Supplies.net website.

This compact rostrum is for lightweight compact cameras. It’s a good choice for those starting out in animation. Its baseboard is 30.5cm x 23cm and column height can be set from 7 to 30.5cm.

It includes a baseboard and telescopic column. Price £20.99.

Materials.

You may already have some off-cuts of wood in your workshop that can be utilised. Or your local wood merchant may have an off-cut bargain bin.

Baseboard: Chipboard 18mm thick, width and depth about 150mm larger that the animation paper you are using.

Screws: 60mm long.

Camera bolt: ¼ inch Witworth fits most cameras. If you are unsure take your camera to the hardware store and try it. Be careful not to damage the camera thread when testing.

Click diagram for larger version.

Method.

Click diagram for larger version.

Measurements

Top arm = A – B.

Column = C – D.

Base board depth = E + F.

Baseboard width = animation paper width + 20mm.

The length of the column (C – D) can be be worked out by holding the camera above a sheet of animation paper and moving it up and down until you get the best fit of the paper on the screen.

Cut the materials to size.

Drill, screw and assemble using the diagram as a guide.

An alternative method of assembly is to use brackets.

Lighting can be the available light in the room since webcams usually work in low light. Or you could use a couple of small desk lamps, one either side, to give more consistent coverage.

Preston Blair’s Animation was one of the first books that I added to my animation library many years ago. It is said by many industry professionals to be the best “how to” book on cartoon animation ever published. He went on to produce two more books and all three have been made available free on a website called freetoon.com.

In the introduction to the book Preston Blair said: “The art of animators is unique. Animators bring life to their drawings, creating an illusion of spirit and vigour. They caricature the gestures and expressions in the drawings, give them a fantastic array of character and personality, and make us believe that the drawings actually think and have feelings.”

He continued: “This book was written by an animator to help you learn how to animate-how to make a series of drawings that create a sensation of movement when viewed in sequence. The pioneers of the art of animation learned many lessons, most through trial and error, and it is this body of knowledge that has established the fundamentals of animation. This book will teach you these fundamentals.”

Here is a sample illustration from a page entitled The Dance Kick.

Page from the 1st edition

I was interested to learn that when Blair put the book together in 1947, he used the characters he had animated at Disney and MGM to illustrate the various basic principles of animation. Soon after publication the rights to use some of the characters were revoked. He redrew most of the MGM characters, replacing them with general characters of his own design for the next edition. The complete first edition can be downloaded free from the ASIFA website.

Preston Blair’s Animation 1st Edition Part One
Preston Blair’s Animation 1st Edition Part Two

There is a PDF version of Preston Blair’s Advanced Animation at the On Animation blog.

It is great to discover new animation blogs and if they are written by professionals in the animaton industry then that is a special treat. Much can be learned from the wisdom imparted by these talented bloggers. Sometimes even a casual remark can shed light on the creative process.

These are my favourites picked from my list of bookmarked websites. Rather than put them in order of merit I am going to give them in alphabetical order.

Angry animator. Written by Dermot O’ Connor who tells us he is “an itinerant animator, making a living through contract work”. He has worked in the animation industry for over 20 years, in features and TV.

Animation Blog. Written by Ian Lumsden, an animation teacher and deputy head of Performing Arts College, in the United Kingdom, it is billed as a critical guide to the animated short: classic, new, and on-line! Ian says he began the blog “to highlight art and suchlike that may be of interest for our animation students”.

Animation Tips & Tricks. This blog has numerous different guest writers from the world of professional animation. It is run by AnimationMentor.com as an add-on to their online animation school.

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive. This is a treasure chest of illustrations, cartoons, history, instruction and much more. The blog is indexed under various headings but if you want to view it in date order look for the small “Archive of Past Posts” drop-down box part way down the right-hand column.

BJ and the Blog. BJ Crawford is a freelance animator in the Midwest of the USA. It is subtitled “a character animation blog” and is packed with contemporary illustrations and movie clips. There are also lot of links to other animators and illustrators.

Jamaal Bradley is a character animator in Los Angeles, California, USA. He blogs about his work in the animation studio and uses lots of his own sketches to illustrate the posts. Jamaal also runs the excellent Pencil Test Depot blog.

Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. Joel Brinkerhoff is an animator from Oregon, USA, who also sculpts and paints. His blog has lots of illustrations from stuff he has worked on.

John K Stuff. John Kricfalusi is a cartoonist in LA, California, USA. He worked at Hanna Barbera studios in the 1980s as a layout supervisor. His blog is packed with illustrations and he analyses the cartoon films with great authority.

Michael Sporn Animation, Inc. Michael blogs about the art, animation, work and some of the thoughts of the artists working at his New York animation studio. He has produced and directed numerous animated TV specials and short spots.

The Cartoon Cave subtitled “The Blogsite That Time Forgot”. Blogger Pete Emslie is a freelance cartoonist and also teaches character design in the animation program at Sheridan College, Canada. His blog is packed with illustrations plus hint and tips on drawing. He says “I love to draw cute characters”.

If you have favourite that is not on my list please let us know in a comment to this post.

The good news is that you are already an expert at many things. You have mastered at least one language and have learned to read. By following the technique of learning by doing, you will become an expert animator over time.

The best thing of all is that learning how to animate is great fun. The first time I run a new animation sequence that I have created, I feel like I have performed a magic trick. Maybe it needs a bit more work and polish but the satisfaction is immense.

So what is the special formula that elevates someone to the position of expert in their field? The answer lies in five key stages in the learning process.

When people exhibit a special skill in a particular area such as music, drawing or sport we tend to assume they are naturally gifted. However, scientific research has shown that the differences between experts and less proficient individuals nearly always reflect attributes acquired by the experts during their lengthy training.

Researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours. Neurologist Daniel Levitin says “In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, this number comes up again and again… It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery… This is true even of people we think of as prodigies”.

The 10,000 hour theory is also supported by the fact that when I was a lad craft apprentices were usually indentured for five years (40 hours a week x 50 weeks x 5 years = 10,000 hours).

If 10,000 hours seems impossible look at it this way: it is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or 20 hours a week, of practice over 10 years. Take it one step at a time and eventually you will reach you goal.

Author George Leonard identified five stages in learning in his book Mastery – The Keys To Success:

Key 1: Instruction. There is nothing better than being mentored by a master animator, either in the workplace or as a student. If this is not possible there are many books written by master animators. Also study sequences from the classic animation films, view them one frame at a time to see how it was done.

Key 2: Practice. The more you do something the easier it will become. Whatever you chosen medium, be it drawn, puppets or computer animation, put the knowledge you have gained from instruction into practice. Set yourself a specific goal, such as 10 second sequence, and work towards it. Once you have achieved this set yourself a harder goal.

Key 3: Surrender. Your early attempts at animation are bound to feel clumsy. Don’t let this put you off. Trust in your own ability and follow the guidance of your instructor (be it a mentor, a book or a film clip). Immerse yourself in your animation and keep going.

Key 4: Intentionality. You should bring willpower, attitude and imagination to the learning process. Keep focused and think ahead about what you want to achieve.

Key 5: The Edge. Almost without exception, those we know as masters are dedicated to the fundamentals of their calling. They are zealots of practice, connoisseurs of the small, incremental step. At the same time they are likely to challenge previous limits, to take risks for the sake of higher performance. But before you can play the edge there must be much instruction, practice, surrender, and intentionality.

Check out the following blog for more info on these key steps: The Five Keys to Mastery.

Colors! is a painting program that takes advantage of the pressure sensitivity of the Nintendo DS touch-screen to create a digital sketch-book. Animator Sheila Graber, who has been experimenting with it, told us; “It is great for ‘smudge and click’ as I used to call it in ye pastel days when I used 16mm film. It is SO much easier using this programe and you don’t get your hands dirty! I can recommend it for animators of today”.

During her long and illustrious career Sheila has produced a number of “face to face” movies where one face dissolves into another. Now she has produced one using Colors! called “Facelife”. It covers life from cradle to grave through various faces.
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The land where the Bong-tree grows

Since my “Computer modelled cat” post describing how I created the model using Animation:Master I have decided to do a short animation based on “The Owl And The Pussy-Cat” by Edward Lear. This is the poem that starts: “The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat”.

I have now upgraded to the current version of Animation:Master. My favourite part of the computer program is creating models. There is a line in the poem that goes: “They sailed away, for a year and a day, to the land where the Bong-tree grows”. The Bong-tree is mythical so is open to interpretation. I thought it would be fun if the Bong-tree made a bong noise whilst bouncing like a spring.
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Cover of the Morph DVD.

If you are considering having a go at Plasticine animation then an easy way to start is with a “my own Morph” kit from Flair Create.

The Plasticine stop-motion character Morph first appeared on a children’s TV art show called “Take Hart” in 1977. He interacted with the shows presenter Tony Hart, providing short humorous sequences. Much of the action consisted of Morph changing shape, such as rolling into a ball. Or he would disappear into the table top as if sinking into water. These kind of actions suit the medium of Plasticine as it is infinitely changeable.
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Exaggerated squash and stretch is a great way to add amusement and believability to your animation. I have created a demonstration using a bouncing ball made of very flexible rubber.

This demonstrates Newton’s third law of motion, more commonly called action reaction. For every action in one direction, there is an equal and opposite reaction in the opposite direction; even if the object does not move.
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Tristan Oliver.

Director of Photography, Tristan Oliver, demonstrated the secrets behind Aardman’s animated Wallace and Gromit movie “The Curse of the Wererabbit” to a group of 11 year olds in a video clip on the BAFTA website.

In very clear language Tristan takes the children through the process from scripting to animation using clips, real models from the films, drawings and stories. Near the end of the video clip he takes questions from the children who demonstrate a great enthusiasm for the subject.
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Stop Motion Pro interface.

Having mentioned the Stop Motion Pro software in my previous post about plasticine animation I decided to test drive the free version that  is available as a download from the Stop Motion Pro website. The latest Wallace and Gromit half hour special from Aardman, “A Matter of Loaf and Death” was filmed using Stop Motion Pro HD Studio. You would expect software of this calibre to be very expensive, but luckily for us home animators it comes in a range of prices to suit most pockets. The basic version is called “Stop Motion Pro Action!” and this does enough to satisfy the needs of a novice animator. It is compatible with Microsoft Vista, XP and Windows 7.
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