A.C.E. 2/ACE CD 2.iso/FILES/DOCS/HBANIMWD.LHA/HannaBarberaAnimationWork.doc2

Text File | 1994-11-27 | 21.6 KB | 525 lines

               COMPLETE DOCS FOR THE HANNA-BARBERA
                ANIMATION WORKSHOP

MAIN MENU

When You Start Up The Hanna-Barbera Animation Workshop, You Are Presented
With The Main Menu Screen, This Screen Links All The Different Aspects Of
Animation Workshop Together. There Are 3 Main Areas To The Main Menu
Screen: Main Control Area Contains The 6 Main Control Icons For The
Program. Animation Control Panel Is Used To Control The Display Of
Animations. Exposure List Shows The Order In Which The Frames Making Up The
Animation Fall.

Getting Started Quick

You Got Here! This Is The Best Way To Quickly Learn The Power Of The
Hanna-Barbera Animation Workshop. Here We Go... This Section Is a Series Of
Icons For You To Click Followed By a Description Of Where You Are And What
You See On The Screen. Just Click On Each Icon In Turn Using The Left Mouse
Button (Unless The Right Mouse Button Is Specified).

Animation Basics

Animation Is a Simple Process. Usually It Either Copies Or Exaggerates How
Something Actually Moves In Real Life. Once You Know The Basic Steps, You Can
Create The Magic That Makes Still Drawings Come To Life. Remember That There
Will Always Be More To Learn, But Here's a Good Place To Start.

Drawing

First, An Animator Must Be Able To Take Any Character Or Object And Make
Drawings Of It Doing Anything. Use Your Spare Time To Practice Drawing Any
Character You Like Doing Many Different Things. This Will Be The Best
Training For Your First Animation Projects.

Changing Shapes

When We Giggle At a Funny Cartoon, It's Probably Because Some Movement Is So
Silly And Exaggerated, We Can't Help But Laugh. Here Are a Few Tricks That
Are Always Used To Make This Happen.

Example 1: When Fred's Thumb Gets Stuck In His Bowling Ball As He Throws
It, His Arm Streches Way Out. All Objects Change Shape When They Are Making A
Strong Action. Rigid Objects Will Change Very Little, But Flexible Ones Will
Change a Lot. Exaggerating These Changes Can Be Very Useful In Creating A
Funny Scene.

Example 2: When Dino Falls From High Above And Hits The Ground, His Body
Flattens, Then Stretches Out And Bounces Up Like a Rubber Ball.

These Examples Are Called Strech And Squash. Nothing In Real Life Gets
Stretched Or Squashed As Much As Cartoon Characters, But This Exaggerated
Drawing Technique Is Constantly Used In Animation To Create Fantasy And
Humor. Next Time You Watch, The Flinstones, Notice How Many Times You See
Fred Or Barney Get Streched And Squashed.

Timing

Timing In Animation Is The Speed That An Action Takes Place. There Are 3
Very Easy Rules.

1. If You Want The Action To Move Slowly, Then Use More Frames And Make The
Drawings Overlap.

2. If You Want The Action To Move At a Medium Speed, Then Use Less Frames And
Have The Drawings Slightly Overlap.

3. If You Want The Action To Move Fast, Then Use Very Few Frames And Do Not
Let The Drawings Overlap.

The Best Way To Understand How This Works Is To Look At The Sample
Animation Printed In The Bottom Left Hand Corner. Using The 3 Rules
Above, Practice Making Your Own Flip Books Using The Corners Of An Old
Book, Magazine Or Even a Telephone Book.

Storytelling

Strech And Squash And Timing Are Important Techniques To Know, But There Is
One More Element That Makes The Real Difference, And That Is
Storytelling. This Is How You Get To Add Your Own Style And Sence Of Humor. A
Good Storyteller Knows How To Create Situations That Bring Reactions Like
Laughing, Crying, And Surprise. Once You Get An Idea Of What You Want To
Animate, Think About How You Can Add Something That's Totally
Unexpected. Remember That Animation Is The Perfect Medium To Let Your
Imagination Run Wild.

Animation

Now You Know The Tricks Of Drawing. Let's Learn How To Animate. The
Dictionary Says That The Word Animate Means To Give Life Or Motion To. We'll
Go Step By Step And Find Out How To Give Life To Your Drawings.

Step 1-Whats Happening?

The First Step Is To Know What You Want To Happen. Let's Say You Want a Cat
To Chase a Dog Up a Tree. Sounds Funny, So How Do You Make It Happen?

Step 2-Block Out The Action

Determine What Takes Place First, And Then Last, And Something Inbetween. The
Sketches Of These Poses Are Called Key Drawings. You Might Think Of Them
Like The Panels In a Comic Book. They Are Single Moments Of Activity. In Your
Chase Scene, The First Sketch(Frame 1)Might Have The Cat Running After The
Dog. The Last Drawing(Frame 10)Could Have The Cat Looking Up At The Dog
Trying To Hold On To a Tree Limb. (Frame 6)Might Be The Dog Scrambling Up
The Tree.

Step 3-Breaking Down The Drawings

An Animator Creates Breakdown Drawings To Show The Secondary Movements That
Would Happen Between Each Key Drawing. In Your Case (Frame 4)The Dog Jumps
Onto The Tree Trunk. (Frame 8)Would Have The Dog Jumping To Catch The Tree
Limb.

Step 4-Inbetweening.

An Animator Creates All The Drawings That Fit Between The Finished Drawings
To Smoothen Out The Action.

Step 5-Exposure Sheet

In 35Mm Film, There Are Usually 24 Drawings (Or Frames)That Pass By Every
Second. Next Time You Watch a Cartoon, Try To Guess How Many Frames Go Buy In
A Half Hour. It's a Lot, So An Animator Uses An Exposure Sheet To Keep Track
Of The Drawings, Frame By Frame. To Save Time And Money, Some Frames Are
Exposed Twice(Called Shot In Twos). Then Only 12 Drawings Are Needed Per
Second. Some Frames Are Only Used Once, But Others Can Be Cycled Over And
Over, Like The Movement Of Running. It May Take 4 Frames For The Dog's Legs
To Move Back And Forth Once, So Those Frames Can Be Repeated Over And Over
To Make It Look Like The Dog Is Running.

Step 6-Shoot The Frames

Once All The Frames Are Drawn, They Are Put In Order According To The
Exposure Sheet And Individually Photographed Onto Film. Sound Effects, Voices
And Music Are Added. And That's It! You Now Have a Cartoon.

Features Explained

Main Control (Paint)

Clicking On The Paintbrush Icon Takes You Into Background Paint Mode.

Animate

This Icon Takes You Into Foreground Animate Mode, For Drawing The Outlines
Of Your Animations.

Video

This Icon Will Take You To The Video Digitizing Module For Using With A
Rombo Digitizer And Video Camera.

Load/Save

You Can Load And Save Your Animations To Disk. See Load And Save Information
Section On How To Do This.

Trash

This Icon Will Remove The Current Animation From Memory. Be Careful Doing
This, As You Cannot Retrieve The Animation If You Have Not Saved It To Disk.

Exit

This Icon Takes You Out Of The Program. This Icon Is Used On Other Screens
To Exit Back To The Previous Screen. On The Main Menu There Is No Previous
Screen And So The Program Simply Terminates.

General Drawing Icons (Brushes)

The Four Squares Show The Varying Thickness Of Lines That Can Be Used For
Drawing. Just Click On One And It Will Be Highlighted To Show It Has Been
Selected.

Freehand Tool

Next To The Brushes At The Top Is The Freehand Tool Which Lets You Draw As
You Would With a Pencil. When You Select It By Clicking On It, The Picture
Turns Blue. You Can Now Draw With The Mouse. If You Use The Right Mouse
Button Then You Can Draw With The Background Color.

Straight Line Tool

This Lets You Draw Straight Lines. Click On It And Then Put The Mouse
Pointer Where You Want The Line To Start And Hold The Button Down While
Moving It To Where You Want To End. Release The Button.

Square/Rectangle Tool

Click On Here To Draw a Square Or a Rectangle. Click In The Top Left Half To
Draw a Filled Shaped. Move The Mouse Pointer To Where You Want To Position
One Corner Of Your Shape And Then Hold The Button Down While Moving To The
Opposite Corner. Release The Button To Draw The Shape.

Circle/Oval Tool

This Works In The Same Way As The Square/Rectangle Tool But Allows You To
Draw Circles And Ovals. Start At The Center And Move The Mouse Until You
Have The Shape That You Want And Then Release The Button.

Fill Tool

This Allows You To Fill An Area With a Single Colour. Click On This Icon And
Then Click On The Colour That You Want To Use To Fill With. Position The
Mouse Over The Area That You Want To Fill And Click The Button.

Text Tool

This Lets You Type Text Onto Your Picture. Click Here And Then Position The
Mouse Where You Want The Text To Start, Click The Button, And Start
Typing. You Can Choose Any Colour You Want.

Magnify Tool

This Will Magnify a Section Of The Screen So That You Can Work In
Detail. Once You Are In Magnify Mode You Can Zoom In And Out With The Icons.

Cut And Paste Tool

This Has a Very Special Application. You Can Select a Picture, Or Part Of
It, To Be Cut Out And Pasted On Another Part Of The Screen, Or On Another
Frame In The Animation Sequence. This Can Save a Lot Of Time When You Need
To Repeat The Same Drawing In a Different Place. You Can Also Create Your
Own Brush And Draw With It. For Example You Might Want To Draw a Leaf And
Then Cut It Out And Paste It Lots Of Times Onto a Tree. The Way That You Cut
Something Out Is By Clicking On The Scissors Which Makes Them Go Purple
Indicating That You Are Ready To Cut. Click The Mouse Pointer At One Corner
Of The Thing That You Want To Cut Out And Then Drag It To The Opposite
Corner And Release The Button.

Under Tool

This Is a Picture Of Shaggy Going Ooops!It Only Works On Your Last
Mistake, So Click Here As Soon As You Have Made An Error. If You Decide That
It Wasn't a Error After All Then Just Click Again And It Will Undo What You
Just Undid!

Wipe Tool

When You Want To Completely Clear The Screen Then Click On The Wipe
Tool. This Will Fill The Screen With The Selected Background Color. If You
Accidentally Wipe The Screen, And Haven't Done Anything Else Then Just Click
On Undo To Bring The Screen Back. You Can Also Correct Mistakes By Selecting
The Background Color With The Right Mouse Button And Then Rubbing Out
Whatever Is Wrong With The Right Mouse Button Again.

Creating Colours

There Are 8 Colours Which Are Used For The Background And 8 For The
Foreground. These Can Be Selected By Clicking On Them (Left Mouse Button For
Foreground Colour, Right Mouse Button For Background Colour)Or Modified By
Clicking On The Palette Icon. Select The Colour That You Wish To Modify By
Clicking On It, And Then Modify The Red, Green And Blue Content By Moving The
Slider Bars On The Right. You Can Either Click On These Bars And Hold Down
The Button To Drag Them Left And Right, Or Just Click To One Side Of Them To
Move Them Up And Down In Steps.

Animation (Animation Frames)

The Icons To The Left And The Right Simply Move Forwards And Backwards One
Frame In The Current Animation. To Start With, These Will Do Nothing Since
The Program Starts With Only 1 Frame In The Animation. The Central Icon Is
The Add Frame Icon And Adds a New Frame Just After The Current Frame Being
Displayed. The Frame Number Used Is The Lowest Number That Has Not Yet Been
Assigned.

Backgrounds

Background Graphics Can Be Loaded In By Clicking With The Right Mouse
Button On The Background Icon While In Background Paint Mode. This Will Call
Up a Separate Screen With a Disk Icon. Click On This Icon And a List Will
Appear Of The Available Files To Load In.

Clip Art

Clip-Arts Are Line-Drawings That You Can Include In Your Own Animations. To
Call Up The Clip-Art Screen, Click With The Right Mouse Button On The
Scissors Icon. This Will Call Up Another Scissors Icon(For Cutting Brushes
Out Of The Clip-Art Screen), a Disk Icon And An Exit Icon To Get You Back To
The Normal Mode. Click On The Disk Icon To Bring Up a List Of All The
Available Clip-Art On The Disk. See The Sample Animation Art Section For A
List Of The Available Screens.

Load And Save

You Can Load And Save Your Animation To Disk. Click On The Filling Icon On
The Main Control Panel And a Box Will Appear. First You Will Need To Select
The Name Of The File. You Can Do This By Clicking On It (If It Already
Exists)Or By Clicking In The Space Below The List Of Files And Typing A
Name. The List Of Files Also Contains Directories Which Hold Other
Files. Directories Are Indicated By a > Sign In Front Of The Name. If You
Need To Change Directory Then Just Click On The Directory Name And Then
Select a File. You Can Go Back To The Previous Directory By Clicking On
<---Back. When You Have Selected The File Name Then You Must Select One Of
The Arrow Icons. The Arrows Indicate Whether You Load Or Save The
Animation. To Load An Animation, Click On The Arrow That Points From The Disk
To The Computer. To Save An Animation Click On The Arrow That Points From
The Computer To The Disk. Click On The Arrow You Want, And Then Select The
File. If You Are Loading a File Then You Will Just Click On The Name Of The
File That You Want. Be Careful! You Do Not Want To Load An Animation Over
Something That You Have Just Drawn, Or Save An Animation Over Another One On
The Disk That You Want To Keep. If You Are Going To Overwrite An Animation
(Either In The Computer Or On The Disk)Then a Box Will Appear. If You Are
Sure That You Want To Carry On Then Click On The Tick. Otherwise Click On
The Cross And Nothing Will Be Overwritten. If You Wish To Change To A
Differernt Disk Drive Then Click On The Disk Icon. This Will Take You To The
Next Available Disk (Like The Floppy Drive)And Show You What Is Available
On That Disk. This Can Be Useful If You Want To Save Some Animations Onto
Floppy Disk Instead.

Exposure Lists

The Exposure List Provides a List Of The Frames And The Order That They
Appear. This List Can Be Changed Very Easily To Alter The Order Of
Frames, Make One Frame Last Longer, Or Even Repeat Little Sections Over And
Over. To Delete a Frame From The List Simply Click On The Number In The List
And Press The Delete Key. To Add a Frame Just Click On The Frame Just Before
Where You Want The New Frame And Then Press Return. Type The Number Of The
New Frame - Do Not Press Return Since This Will Add Another Frame.

Note: You Can Only Add Frames That Have Already Been Designed. You Cannot Use
A Frame Number Higher Than The Highest Frame Number. If You Want To Add A
Completely New Frame Then You Must Use The Add Frame Icon.

Video Digitizing

You Can Only Input Pictures With This Section Of The Program If You Have A
Video Camera And a Rombo Digitizer. Set Up The Video Camera, Preferably On A
Stand, To Point At a Flat Area Where You Can Place Your Drawings. Connect The
Camera To The Input On The Video Digitizer According To The Manufacturers
Instructions. When Everything Is Turned On, Click On The Video Icon On The
Main Screen And You Will Be Taken To The Digitizer Screen Which Should Be
Blank. The First Screen Is For Digitizing Hand Drawn Animations. This Will
Quickly Digitize In 2 Colours (Black & White)The Image In Front Of The
Camera-Use a Appendix B In Conjunction With The Animators Scrapbook For
Some Examples Of How To Use This Feature. The Large Eye Icon Lets You View
The Image Before You Actually Digitize. If The Image Is Too Bright Or Too
Dark Then Simply Click On The Moon Or Sun Icon Until The Image Is
Clear. When It Is Clear, Click On The Video Icon And The Program Will Store
The Image And Move On To The Next Frame So That You Can Enter The Next
Picture In Your Animation. In The Other Booklet You Are Given An Example Of
Stop-Frame Cut-Out Animation Of Fred Flinstone And Pre-Drawn Scooby
Animation For You To Enter. You Can Also Digitize Backgrounds With This Part
Of The Program. Click On The Background Icon And You Will Be Presented With
A Screen What Is Blank. The Difference Here Is That You Can Use Either 2, 4
Or 8 Shades Of Grey - Click On The Number That You Require - And The
Digitized Image Will Be Used As The Static Background For Your Animation. It
Is Often Easiest To Digitize a Hand Drawn Background In 2 Colours And Then
Colour It In Using The Package.

The Animation Control Icons Are:

Rewind

This Jumps Back To The First Frame In The Animation.

Pause

This Pauses The Animation And Holds 1 Frame On The Screen.

Play

This Plays The Current Animation Once From Beginning To End.

Fast Forward

This Jumps To The Last Frame Of The Animation

Step Backwards

This Steps The Animation Back 1 Frame

Step Forwards

This Steps The Animation Forward 1 Frame.

Tortoise & Hare

These Icons Affect The Speed Of The Animation. Clicking On The Hare Will
Make The Animation Faster, While Clicking On The Tortoise Will Slow It
Down. You Can Also Drag The Slider Bar.

Sample Animation Art

The Samples Pieces Of Work Are In 4 Directories Called:

Flint
Jetsons
Scooby
Yogi

When Loading Something In You Will Have To Enter The Directory By Clicking
On The Name With The Mouse And Then Clicking On The File That You Wish To
Load.

Animations

The Sample Animations Highlight Various Animation Techniques And Features
Of The Package. You Can Load Them In And Step Through Frame By Frame, Or
Change Them, Colour Them In Or Just Watch Them Play. To Load One Of The
Animations Follow The Instructions For Loading & Saving. Make Sure That The
Arrow Is Pointing From The Disk To The Computer Or You Will Overwrite The
Animation.

Sample Animations

Scooby
Wipe: a Looping Animation. Try Adding Some Rain To Each Frame.
Snack: a Long Animation That Can Be Colored In. You Will Need a Lot Of Memory
On Your Computer To Finish This Animation.

Yogi
Grab: Notice How The Beginning And End Parts Loop.
Chomp: a Simple 5 Frame Loop For You To Color. Try Changing The Speed To
Make Yogi Eat Really Fast!

Jetsons
Dance: Only 10 Frames In This Animation But Sections Are Re-Used To Make The
Dance Last Longer. And It Loops!
Eat: Judy Jetson Gets Fed Up! Another Scene To Colour.

Flint
Rock1: Fred Gets a Surprise!Notice How His Head Gets Larger When He Is Hit
To Add To The Effect. Another Example Of How Many Frames Can Be Re-Used.
Rock2: Try Colouring In The Same Animation The Way You Want.

Clip-Art

The Clip-Art Screen Contains Line Drawings Of Art-Work For You To Include
In Your Own Animations. To Call Up The Clip-Art Screen Enter Fourground
Animate Mode And Click On The Scissors Icon With The Right Mouse
Button. This Is Essentially a Spare Screen That Forms No Part Of Your
Animation. Load a Piece Of Clip-Art By Clicking On The Disk Icon And Then
Selecting The Clip-Art File That You Wish To Load. These Characters And
Objects For You To Include In Your Own Animation.

Animated Clip-Art

There Are 3 Clip-Art Screens In The Flint Directory Called
Mowerb, Mowerf, Mowerc. These Are For You To Build An Animation. Draw A
Background With a Piece Of Grass In Front Of a Long Wall. Add The Clip-Art
To The Foreground So That You Have An Animation Of Fred Walking Across The
Screen Pushing The Mower Creature With Barney Leaning On The Wall
Watching. This Animation May Take a Long Time To Assemble And Will Need A
Lot Of Memory.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds Can Be Loaded In Separately From Animations And There Are Some
Examples For You To Use. To Load a Background Enter Background Paint Mode
And Click On The Background Icon With The Right Mouse Button. Click On The
Disk Icon To Load a Background.

Video Digitizing Hints

If You Are Lucky Enough To Have a Digitizer And a Video Camera Then Here
Are Lots Of Extra Things That You Can Do With The Hanna-Barbera Animation
Workshop. Some Examples Are Included In The Booklet.

Note: You Do Not Need a Digitizer Or a Camera For Section 2

Section 1 - Entering Hand Drawn Animations

Pages 1-14 Contain a 14 Frame Animation Of Scooby For You To Enter. Set Up
The Video Camera Pointing At a Flat Surface As Described On Page 74. Enter
The Digitize Screen By Clicking On The Video Icon. Place The First Frame
(Page 1)Down And Modify The Brightness Control Until You Can Clearly See
Scooby On The Screen. Try To Make Sure That It Is Dark Enough So That None
Of These Lines Are Broken. When You Are Happy With The Picture, Click On The
Video Icon To Capture a Frame And Move On To The Next One. Turn The Page And
Position It In The Same Place And Repeat The Process Until You Have All 14
Frames Captured. Quickly Play The Adding Background. Now You See How This
Works, Try Drawing Your Own Animation And Entering It Onto The Computer In
The Same Way. You May Find That It Is Quicker To Draw With a Pencil On Paper
Than Trying To Draw Everything With The Computer.

Section 2 - Copying a Picture From a Grid

This Is a Way Of Accurately Copying a Picture. On Page 15 Is a Picture Of
Dino. Load The Background Called Grid Into The Background Screen. Now You
Have The Same Grid On Screen And You Can Copy The Picture Box By Box From
The Page Onto The Screen. Draw Dino On The Foreground Screen So That When
You Have Finished You Can Wipe The Background Away And Put Your Own
Background In!

Section 3 - Stop-Frame Animation Using Cut-Outs

This Is a Very Powerful Form Of Animation And Can Quickly Produce
Outstanding Results. An Example Of a Fred Flintstone Cut-Out Is On Page 16
With Some Extra Parts On Page 17. In Order To Use Him, Cut Out The Different
Parts Of Fred And Join Them Together With Split Paper-Clips. It May Be
Easier If You Stick The Different Parts Onto Card And Then Cut Them Out
Very Carefully. Once He Is Joined And Can Be Moved, Place Him On The
Digitizing Area And Set Up The Camera As In Section 1. You Can Now Capture A
Frame, Move Fred a Little Bit And The Capture Another One And So On. With
This Technique You Can Quickly Build Up a Very Complicated Animation That
Would Take a Very Long Time To Draw.

Keyboard Shortcuts

F1 - Toggle Control         F5 - Flip Brush
     Panel (On/Off)              Horizontally

F2 - Move Back              F6 - Flip Brush
     One Frame                   Vertically

F3 - Add One                F7 - Toggle Onion - Skinning
     Frame                       (Greys/Red-Blue-Black)

F4   Move Forward          F10 - Jump To Play
     One Frame                   The Animation



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                 * Typed In       *
                 *  Slo\/\/Ly     *
                 *   By           *
                 *    Twirl       *
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