Published between 1982 and 1995
Fred Wells tells us of his simple method of adding mouth movements to cut-out animation. My knowledgeable friend (we all have one) then suggested that I might find lip synch. a more difficult exercise for cut out animation. Unable to resist a challenge (the mark of an animator, I subsequently found) I picked up the … Read more
By Ian Witworth of Cosgrove-Hall Animation. Animals moving have a definite pattern to the order in which they move their legs. Study the dog walking – when the front left leg is moving forward the back right leg is also in motion. The sequence of the dog running shows that the front legs begin to … Read more
Sheila Graber is a well known professional animator whose work is often seen on television. She gives us some tips on getting our characters moving. These are not meant to be definitive methods of timing two and four legged movement they are just based on sequences that I’ve done in the past which I have … Read more
RUNNING TOWARDS CAMERA: can easily be done in as few as a dozen drawings. Use a vanishing point: and draw a few guide lines from it to establish the size of your character. Starting with the smallest let the figure grow step by step. When filming zoom into centre field over the last two or … Read more
David Coleman tells us about Animated Black Theatre and Camera movements. Most of you have seen live-action “black theatre” puppet shows, where the stage and the puppeteers are completely dressed in black and can thus manipulate the puppets in space (without the need for strings, sticks or other obtrusive equipment) while themselves remaining “invisible”. It … Read more
In one scene from “Vulture” in which each of the three characters is filmed on a separate exposure, we see in the far distance a man in red (i.e. an element in the composition that remains on an implied “ground”) watching the vulture – on the same level to start with – spreading his wings … Read more
By Ian Whitworth. Ian Whitworth is an animator with Cosgrove Hall Productions. He begins a series about getting good movement in animated drawings. Tips that I would like to pass on are the importance of keying your action, good key poses can carry your animation if your in-betweens are a little out. Also don’t just … Read more
page 1 | page 2 Printed in Animator’s newsletter Issue 9 (Summer 1984)
By Ray Cowell. I see that getting ideas for cartoons is the biggest problem with most amateur animators. I find that I usually have an abundance of ideas but finishing them off and bringing them into being is my biggest let-down. I find that one way of getting ideas for scripts is to use the … Read more
David Jefferson tells of the advantages of using storyboards and looks at two professional storyboards done for TV adverts. It has been said that the storyboard was invented at the Walt Disney studios. This may be true although it is hard to imagine a cartoon film being made without first having the scenes mapped out … Read more