STAGES OF CREATING A CARTOON
1. Writing a cartoon script
2. Character development
According to the script, the illustrator develops the image of each of the cartoon characters. Sometimes, at a separate stage, even before the characters are drawn, a description of the character of each of the characters is developed – a portrait of each of the characters in text form.
3. Storyboard
Storyboarding is an optional step, but it helps you understand how the cartoon will look like even before you start creating the animation.
The essence of the storyboard is simple – it is the rendering of the main scenes of the cartoon in static. From the storyboard, you can understand how the scenes in the cartoon will look like, their sequence, duration (if the storyboard is with timecode), the location of the main objects in the background, and also the location of the characters relative to the background.
4. Animatic
Animatic is an animated storyboard. These are no longer static pictures, but also not a cartoon – something in between.
An animatic is usually created exactly according to the storyboard and according to the time of the cartoon (if the cartoon is 30 seconds, then the animatic is made exactly 30 seconds, so that you can understand the duration of each scene before the next one changes).
The most important moments can already be animated in the animatic (fully or partially). Something can be schematically shown with arrows, some additional explanatory frames are inserted, something is signed with text, etc. The animatic does not have to be clean. Its function is to make the storyboard material more understandable.
5. Create a cartoon
Each animator has his own scheme of work, which he likes more and which he is used to. Most often, first, according to the animatics, the animator draws the main locations of the characters. After that, the animation of intermediate frames between these locations and everything else is already underway.
BASIC PRINCIPLES OF ANIMATION
In classical animation (animation), a cartoon is created from a sequence of static pictures (frames). The frame rate can be different (most often, it is from 12 to 30 frames per second). That is, 12-30 frames are viewed per second, each of which is slightly different from the previous one. This creates the appearance of movement. The more frames per second, the smoother the movement, the smaller, the more choppy. For flash cartoons on the Internet, 12-18 frames per second are most often used – this is due to the fact that doing 24-30 frames per second is 2 times longer than 12-15. For TV standard Pal 24-25 frames for NTSC 30 frames per second. But, of course, it’s better for the Internet to do the same 24-25 frames per second – this animation looks smoother and more beautiful.
Cartoons for the Internet are usually flash cartoons. This animation program is focused specifically on the Internet and has a number of features that make it easier to work on a cartoon and reduce the size of the final file.