July 16, 2003

• Some 2D Animation Lingo
  ( or, an introduction to what Assistant Animators do)

  In a recent post (How-To-Animate Books) I neglected the fact that most of our readers may not know what an Inbetweener or a Clean-Up Artist is. Inbetweeners and Clean Up Artists are basically, ‘Assistant Animators’ who work with the Animator’s original (rough) drawings and timing instructions, and finesse these for the screen.

  –> ROUGH ANIMATION –> CLEAN-UP –> INBETWEEN –>

  When an Animator ‘animates’ on paper he/she usually draws only the Key drawings for every scene of animation. These are rough character drawings with timing instructions for the Assistants.

  

  THE CLEAN-UP ARTIST takes the rough drawings, places them on a lightbox and “traces” over these on clean sheets of paper. Literally, re-drawing every single key drawing with clean and accurate LINEWORK. The task involves much more that literally “tracing” though. He/she has to interpret each rough animation drawing and enhance it.

  The Clean-Up Artist has to:

  • Make sure every frame is on-model (ie, the character looks like what he/she is supposed to look like – all the proportions, details etc. are correct, using character model-sheets for reference)
  • Strengthen the attitude and energy of each character pose. 
  • Keep the bigger picture in mind by ensuring that the animation drawings flow from one frame to the next.
  • Make every drawing beautiful, with clean economical linework.These final drawings are going to be what we see on screen.
  • check that the animation key drawings correspond with the information on the charts (used for timing)

  When these key drawings have been cleaned up, they are passed onto the Inbetweener, who draws the ‘inbetween drawings’ between the key drawings using a lightbox.

   

  Some people think this is a really mechanical boring tedious process, but contrary to popular opinion (from people who are usually paid more than Inbetweeners) Inbetweening is NOT a no-brainer. It demands a lot of concentration, accuracy, and lateral thinking.

   

  THE INBETWEENER has to:

  • Draw ‘inbetweens’ that match the Clean-Up Artist’s linework and style. In other words, these have to be beautiful clean drawings, too.
  • Make sure that the movement flows from one key frame to the next key frame ( ie, make sure that the inbetweens have been drawn accurately and that they WORK)
  • Make sure that every inbetween drawing is consistent with the next one. (checking model-sheets for reference all the way)
  • In most cases, follow the animation charts and draw the correct “mouths” for each frame so that they match the dialogue.
  • Interpret the Animator’s intention, and create special (non-straight)’inbetween’ drawings that express the movement more effectively.
  • Essentially be the last person in the drawing-chain to make sure that the animation flows and hangs together. 

  That’s it – a basic explanation of what Assistant Animators do and how they contribute to the 2D animation process.

   

  Also, check out the Ten Commandments of Clean-Up, Helpful Hints for Clean-Up & Ten Steps To A Perfect Inbetween in the Downloads section of www.animationmeat.com for further details.

  • 7:26 am
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