The style of animation that I have been gravitating toward recently is one that uses 2D digital puppets, in software such as Anime Studio Pro, in order to cut down on the time consumed by animating everything with frame by frame drawings. This means that whole characters can potentially be animated with only one drawing and the technique enables me to bring to life a very direct translation of any given sketchbook image so my animation retains the same qualities as my illustrative style (as in my Father Time character for the Apex project).
the sketchbook drawing
the final animation
In this very direct translation of sketchbook images, however, there lies a problem. The animation will, inevitably, have a very 'paper cut-out' feel. I am, in fact, making cut-outs albeit digitally. Where such a style is the desired effect this is all very well but I wish to explore the possibilities of translating my sketchbook characters into more 3 dimensional beings while sticking with 2 dimensional animation techniques and the use of software such as Anime Studio Pro and After Effects. I have in the past felt daunted by creating more 3 dimensional characters and, apart from those with the most basic of geometries and features, I find it quite tricky to envisage and put to paper drawings of a character from many different angles that are consistent and that are clearly of the same subject. With this in mind I felt that a solution could be reached with a process that I have been imagining that would use plasticine models as reference for 2D drawings.
The plan is simple. Firstly start, as ever, with a sketchbook character. With this drawing as reference, model a 3 dimensional plasticine figure of the character. Now you have a model to be referenced from any angle for a more dynamic and believably 3 dimensional animation. In order to experiment with this idea I decided to simply animate a head that rotates a full 360 degrees. Once I had made the plasticine model I photographed it at different angles to inform the animation. In fact, I photographed the model for every frame of the planned rotation so that I had essentially made a photographic version of my animation already that I could rotoscope into my 2D illustrative style of choice.
One of the biggest problems with this technique is my plasticine modelling ability. Character design will, potentially, end up being compromised because you are adding an extra medium with an extra set of limitations: as well as being an illustrator I am now asking myself to be a sculptor. I may end up making decisions on character design based upon what I am able to build in plasticine whereas my imagination may manifest more easily with pen and paper alone.
I think that, for a relatively simple piece like this, the above technique could be useful. When you increase the complexity of the sequence, however, there would come a point at which you would need to actually be animating the plasticine character, features and all, in order to provide reasonable reference for the final, drawn product. You would perhaps just be adding to your work load unnecessarily, feeling as if you were animating twice, when you could just be working through the sequence with the final media alone (perhaps in trial and error mode). Nonetheless this technique certainly works and it would also be useful to reference light and shadow from the physical model adding form to the 2D final product. I'm happy with the outcome of this short experiment and I think that I may explore this further in the future.
