Home Movies Technical Info

[Ramso]

Allright, all you Flash wizards, a coupla questions:

1. I know that the show alternates between different framerates in scenes. Any idea which ones are the most frequently used in "Home Movies?"

2. And what are the dimensions they usually work with? I realize this one will probably have to be an educated guess, but what would that guess be? Television broadcasts is usually in 320x240, right?

Thanks for all the help.

Ramsey

[King Yertle]

Are we sure that they're using Flash to animate Home Movies? There are many 2-D animation programs out there and, although Flash is one of the most popular, it's one of the least sophisticated, and probably not the best choice for animating a TV series.

[Ramso]

Yep, we're sure.
Here's a bio on Chris Georgenes from the Macromedia website (or to be more specific: http://www.macromedia.com/support/forums/team_macromedia/team_flash.html)
"In 1996, Chris joined the animation department of Tom Snyder Productions, responsible for the award winning Dr Katz Professional Therapist. Now known as Soup2nuts Productions, Chris has been responsible for helping design, develop and animate several series for major broadcast networks, including Home Movies on Cartoon Network.

Chris implemented Macromedia Flash into the production process across all projects related to broadcast and Internet. "

[King Yertle]

Thanks, I always wondered which software they used.

1. I would just guess that they use 30 frames a second, since that's the TV standard.

2. And then I would guess that they use the NTSC resolution, since that's also the TV standard. However, I don't know if resolutions are that relevant with vector animation, since you can scale it up to any size without losing quality.

Any idea which software they use to animate ATHF, Sealab, Brak?
South Park? Just curious.

[livingfruitvirus]

Soup2Nuts uses a 640x480 resolution to animate Home Movies. They use the maximum of 24 fps, but some animations are done in 12 fps. The Flash is exported to AVI and then any additional effects are made in Adobe Aftereffects. After which it's cleaned up and edited in Final Cut Pro, and then exported to the final cut.

[cbxweb]

South Park uses Maya Studios. :eek: Strange thing is, thats the same software to make games like Gran Turismo 3.

[King Yertle]

Originally posted by cbxweb
South Park uses Maya Studios. :eek: Strange thing is, thats the same software to make games like Gran Turismo 3.
Maya is what they use to do digital effects in sci-fi movies. I haven't heard of it being used for 2D animation before, but I guess you could.

[bassist]

Just some interesting framerate facts:

TV and movies use 30 fps.
The human eye can barely notice 16 fps.

Hmmm... could've sworn I had more...

-Big Ben

[zimbach]

Originally posted by bassist
Just some interesting framerate facts:

TV and movies use 30 fps.
The human eye can barely notice 16 fps.

Hmmm... could've sworn I had more...

-Big Ben
NTSC frame rate officially is just barely short of 30 fps (29.975ish). In reality it is variable (an allowance for the lack of precision in early TV technology), but 30 fps is easier to remember.
PAL and SECAM (European TV) both have different frame rates than NTSC, but I don't remember what they are.

Motion picture film typically runs at 24 fps, but can be set to run at 18 fps (usually used for silent films and 8mm).

Animated cartoons are typically done at one-half film speed (usually 12 fps).
When smoother action is required, the full rate is used, but this is done spareingly to save money. When butgets are small and the animation is very limited, it is sometimes shot on threes (8 fps). The only time I recall seeing animation done at this frame rate was on Hammerman.

[Killtacular]

The human eye can see up to 70 frames per second. This has been proven on several websites, with evidence.

[King Yertle]

PAL is 25 fps.
Next up for discussion: various film and video resolutions. zzzzzzzzzzzz

[TylerL]

NTSC
D1 video: 704x486
DV: 720x480
29.97 FPS
Film is run through a Telecine machine that does some funky field pulldown to make 24FPS (technically 23.976 for broadcast) look smoother.

PAL
Standard PAL: 768x576
DV: 720x576
25FPS
Film is either sped up 4% (makes music sound awful) or skips a frame every second.

Film
Has no set digital resolution.
4K: 4,000 vertical lines of resolution
HDCAM: 1080p (1,080 vertical lines)
24FPS
HDCAM is used for low budget films due to the cheapness of HD cassettes.