Portal:Animation

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

Introduction

The bouncing ball animation above consists of these six frames repeated indefinitely.

Animation is a filmmaking technique by which still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets (cels) to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animation has been recognized as an artistic medium, specifically within the entertainment industry. Many animations are computer animations made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Stop motion animation, in particular claymation, has continued to exist alongside these other forms.

Animation is contrasted with live-action film, although the two do not exist in isolation. Many moviemakers have produced films that are a hybrid of the two. As CGI increasingly approximates photographic imagery, filmmakers can easily composite 3D animations into their film rather than using practical effects for showy visual effects (VFX). (Full article...)

Outline of animation

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

edit

Selected article

"Focus Grill" is the thirteenth episode of the fourth season and the series finale of the American animated sitcom Home Movies, and 52nd episode of the series overall. It originally aired in the United States on Adult Swim on April 4, 2004. In the episode, Brendon, Melissa, and Jason decide to finally film an ending to the first movie they did together. "Focus Grill" was written by Brendon Small and directed by Loren Bouchard. Mike Lazzo, an Adult Swim executive, had informed the staff of the show's cancellation during the start of the fourth season production run, so Small ; he noted, however, that it was actually an optimistic note for the series. The episode concludes with Brendon's camera breaking, which Small believed was a way to get rid of the character's metaphorical crutch that he had had for the whole series. The final episode received a largely positive response, with reviewers praising it for its sentimental, bittersweet way of concluding the show. Small received various e-mails from fans who informed him that they cried while watching "Focus Grill".

More selected articles

Read more

edit

Selected image

'Bones' (in green) used to pose a hand. In practice, the 'bones' themselves are often hidden and replaced by more user-friendly objects. In this example from the open source project Sintel, these 'handles' (in blue) have been scaled down to bend the fingers. The bones are still controlling the deformation, but the animator only sees the 'handles'.

Skeletal animation

Credit: Sintel

Skeletal animation is a technique in computer animation in which a character is represented in two parts: a surface representation used to draw the character (called skin or mesh) and a hierarchical set of interconnected bones (called the skeleton or rig) used to animate (pose and keyframe) the mesh.

More selected pictures

Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

... that Encanto's Isabela Madrigal was animated to be aware that she is "always on stage"?
... that Raoul Servais invented a new technique for combining animation and live action for his short film Harpya?
... that the French animated film The Summit of the Gods is based on a Japanese manga series?
... that although Blizzard's franchise Overwatch is centered around video games, its lore is mainly told through animated shorts, comics, and novels?
... that at age 12, Shaylee Mansfield became the first deaf actor to be credited alongside the voice actors for a signed performance in an animated production?
... that the animated film The Exigency took thirteen years to make?

edit

Selected quote

If it is a dying craft we can't do anything about it. Civilization moves on. Where are all the fresco painters now? Where are the landscape artists? What are they doing now? The world is changing. I have been very fortunate to be able to do the same job for 40 years. That's rare in any era. Actually I think CGI has the potential to equal or even surpass what the human hand can do.

— Hayao Miyazaki, on the topic of hand-drawn animation (2005)

More selected quotes

More at Wikiquote

edit

Selected biography

Julie Kavner (born September 7, 1950) is an American film and television actress, comedian and voice artist. Noted for her role as Marge Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, she also voices other characters for the show, including Patty and Selma Bouvier. Born in Los Angeles, Kavner grew up in Southern California, attending Beverly Hills High School and later San Diego State University. Known for her improvisation and distinctive "honeyed gravel voice," Kavner was cast in her first professional acting role as Brenda Morgenstern in Rhoda in 1974. She received a Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Primetime Emmy Award in 1978 and several more award nominations for playing the character. Following Rhoda, Kavner was cast in The Tracey Ullman Show, which debuted in 1987. The Tracey Ullman Show included a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family. Voices were needed for the shorts, so the producers decided to ask Kavner to voice Marge. The shorts would eventually be spun off into The Simpsons.

More selected biographies

Read more

edit

Selected list

The accolades received by Ratatouille, a computer-animated film produced by Pixar and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was released on June 29, 2007 in the United States as the eighth film produced by Pixar. It was directed by Brad Bird, who took over from Jan Pinkava in 2005. The plot follows Remy, a rat who dreams of becoming a cook chef and tries to achieve his goal by forming an alliance with a Parisian restaurant's garbage boy. Ratatouille was released to both critical acclaim and box office success, opening in 3,940 theaters domestically and debuting at #1 with $47 million, grossing $206,445,654 in North America and a total of $624,445,654 worldwide. The film is on the 2007 top ten lists of multiple critics, including Michael Sragow of The Baltimore Sun as number one, A.O. Scott of The New York Times, Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times and Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal as number two. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Original Score, Achievement in Sound Editing, Achievement in Sound Mixing, Original Screenplay and Animated Feature Film, winning the latter one. Ratatouille was nominated for 13 Annie Awards, twice for the Best Animated Effects, where it lost to Surf's Up, and three times in the Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production for Janeane Garofalo, Ian Holm and Patton Oswalt, where Ian Holm won the nomination. It won the Best Animated Feature Award from multiple associations including the Chicago Film Critics, the National Board of Review, the Annie Awards, the Broadcast Film Critics, the British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA) and the Golden Globes.

More selected lists

Read more

edit

More did you know...

...that the actors in the film Planet of Dinosaurs had to sign partial payment deferments on their contracts, because most of the budget was spent on stop motion dinosaurs?
...that after bad reviews, the distributors of the 1992 animated film The Princess and the Goblin used enthusiastic comments from children in its promotional material?
...that Kot Filemon is the hero of a Polish animated TV series by Academy Award-winning studio Se-ma-for?