Widescreen animation

[nakak]

Just a stupid technical question. What is the handdrawn animation process for widescreen animation? Do animators drawn on bigger paper, or do they use the regular full-frame paper and just adjust it when it's inked?

[Kagetsu]

Not being an animator, this is just opinion.

Widescreen, or what I would call movie grade, is simply a larger dinension the animation needs to fill. But along with that, and the bigger budget needed, comes more attention to features in the back ground, more levels to the backgrounds for depth of field, and more frames per second to give the images a smoother motion. You'll often see more secondary movement rather than just the main characters, and facial expressions are more complex and defined. You'll often see more shadow/light play that is left off of tV level shows. it's all this extra complexity that had movies going to CGI enhancement before it ever came to tV shows.

[SirLemming]

I would imagine there's always cropping involved, so I doubt the medium changes. They probably just adjust the way they lay things out.

[Roman Legion]

I've seen at least one studio work regularly on wide paper, which was simply cropped to 4:3 before ink and paint.

Romey
--Useless Fact

[nakak]

I've seen at least one studio work regularly on wide paper, which was simply cropped to 4:3 before ink and paint.

Romey
--Useless Fact
Interesting. Do you remember which film, or at least the studio, that used the wide paper you mentioned?

[SirLemming]

Well, most paper is wider than 4:3 to begin with. Not quite as wide as 16:9 though, but I imagine film studios use paper that accomodates 16:9 all the time. That has been the standard film aspect ratio for many decades, after all.

[Kagetsu]

Well, most paper is wider than 4:3 to begin with. Not quite as wide as 16:9 though, but I imagine film studios use paper that accomodates 16:9 all the time. That has been the standard film aspect ratio for many decades, after all. It really wouldn't stand rationalisation. It appears the story boarding is done in a square that approximates the screen. From there the inbetweeners add the frames for the motion. Then the cleanup people would redo the images to screen size. then everything would need to be transfered to the cell's for the filming photographs. The area dimensions would have to remain constant for the phototable. Any extra work beyond a little over run would be a waste. Now the backgrounds that the animation moves in could be much larger so that the background artist could render the entire image whole. Then the cells could be placed to show movement through the space. Though they would need a reference grid to make an even placement. I would think close ups and farfield shots of the same story part would each likely need to be done at different details and not simply move the camera close or far as close, flaws would be revealed and far, cell edges would be revealed.

Concept line drawing to create the look of the characters varies and often several details are place on the same paper.