The world of animation is huge, it can be fascinating as well as challenging for those who are not versed in the history, foundations and basis of animation, the techniques and evolution of animation techniques over time. The power of animation brings life into the still images that you see. The animation industry is a thriving and growing industry, from the simple flip books to the motion picture films.
Animation techniques can be generally divided into
- Traditional animation
- Stop motion animation
- Computer animation (Digital animation)
There are a number of different animation techniques being applied during the N.E.mation! 11 Top 10 production phase. I would like to share some of the animation techniques that were used by the teams during this time for my readers and followers to have a better understanding and a short introduction to some of the animation techniques that were being applied.
Stop Motion Animation
In N.Emation! 11 Top 10 production phase, although there wasn’t a purely 100% stop motion animation technique being used to produce the video clip, some of the teams used a hybrid of animation techniques, combining stop motion animation technique with digital animation techniques to produce their final animation clip video. One of the teams was Team NE HEH HEH and I would share a bit more about their hybrid animation technique in a later paragraph below.
During N.E.mation! 6, I attended a stop motion workshop, learned about paper cut (Cutout animation) animation and produced a short stop motion video clip. The experience was invaluable for me as I started my involvement and support for N.E.mation! over the past 5 seasons.
Some of the stop motion techniques include clay animation a.k.a plasticine animation and object animation. The plasticine animation technique was used previously in some of the earlier seasons of N.E.mation! Keep a lookout for the object animation technique used by Team NE HEH HEH that I would be sharing about below.
Digital Animation (Computer Animation)
Digital animation, sometimes as known as computer animation, utilises modern technology and software on the computer to create digital animation clips. The students used photography editing software such as Adobe Photoshop to edit their images. For the segment on digital animation, there are a number of different software that can be used such as Adobe Animate, Adobe After Effects. The students spent quite a large amount of time on the computer screens, ensuring that their flow, timing and movements of their animation were correct.
Some of the digital animation clips are not just done on the computer, the students also had access to tablets whereby they need to do their editing of their images via Photoshop before they could be input into the animation software to produce their animation clip.
Hybrid Animation (Stop Motion Animation + Digital Animation)
One of the five teams under my care, Team NE HEH HEH, applied the hybrid animation technique to produce their animation video clip during the production phase. Their stop motion animation was object animation, with the plastic cups being the object and focus of attention. There was a fair bit of initial preparation for the plastic cups and the flow of their story boards. Once the plastic cups were all prepared, they would find themselves being placed inside the light box with a Canon DSLR camera mounted on a tripod to take the photographs.
Once all the necessary photographs were taken, they were combined together with the digital animation portion, to produce a hybrid animation video clip. How do you think this hybrid animation video clip by Team NE HEH HEH would turn out? Stay tuned, coming soon! The video clips by the Top 10 teams would be released in the month of January 2017, do keep a lookout for them!
The short introductory write ups of the animation techniques used in N.E.mation! 11 Top 10 Production would give a glimpse into what the students had been doing and using during their three weeks production phase. From my personal experiences following and supporting N.E.mation! over the past six seasons (including this season 11), the animation video clips produced by the students during N.E.mation! were impressive, pretty good quality and standards too! The students never fail to amaze me with their final animation video clips (from the past few seasons) when they are officially announced and launched to the public for viewing and voting.
While the Top 10 teams animation video clips are now currently going through post production process, I am excited and eagerly awaiting for the official announcement for the Top 10 animation video clips to the public for viewing and voting.
The N.E.mation! 11 Top 10 videos are coming soon in January 2017! Stay tuned and keep a lookout!