Characters In An Animating Program example essay topic

Movies have been around for years and years, and have brought enjoyment to many people. As years went on, movies became more elaborate. The technology of the world advanced, which gave creators of movies more yet to use. Three types of these movies making techniques are animation, computer generated, and real-life.

First, I will talk about Animation. Animation, in the dictionary, is defined as "the making of animated cartoons". It takes a lot of work to create an animated film. The director must first select a group of artists to do all the drawing.

Then the artists undergo the painstaking task of drawing out each and every frame. They must draw a picture of a character over and over, with minor movements to create the animation. After they draw out the characters, the backgrounds are drawn up for each scene. Once the drawing is completed, the pictures are filmed together with a special photo snap method.

This is done by taking a picture of each picture, thereby looping them together to create the animation. While this process goes on, the director finds actors to do the voice-overs. Once they are selected and given a script, they go into a sound booth with their script, and record the voices for the characters. It is the job of the technicians to make sure the voices line up with the drawings. I tried to draw out an animation scene once, a simple character walking down the street. I was only able to do a second or two of animation, and it was two steps.

Just this little bit took me five or six pictures to complete. Think about how many it takes them to complete an entire movie! The two most admired types of animation are American and Japanese, or "anime". The dictionary explanation for anime is "A style of animation developed in Japan, characterized by stylized colorful art, futuristic settings, violence, and sex". This definition explains it in a nutshell. Anime is growing more poplar in the U.S. as time goes on.

The people are usually drawn with highly accentuated features, with big eyes, big heads, wild hair, long legs, and large chests. A few of the more well-known animes are Dragon Ball Z, Outlaw Star, and Princess Mononoke. Princess Mononoke was completed with the help of American voice actors. American animation is more real to life. The characters are drawn like real people, and the people are mostly "realistic". Disney is one of the most known creators of American animation.

Computer Generated movies, otherwise known as CG, are a kind of in between animation and real life. CG movies involve complex methods of creating characters and backgrounds. One of the widely used techniques is the wire frame technique. This involves using a program that the developer first creates a wire frame "skeleton" of the character. After the skeleton is created, the developer sets a base skin on it, which is a simple boxed out form over the skeleton, so the character can be lightly discerned as to what character each skeleton represents. They can use this same technique for the backgrounds.

Once the character and background templates are created, they design the movement. This way is much easier than the animation method, because it does not require hundreds of drawings of each character. They only have to move the characters in an animating program which makes the character templates mobile. Once the animation is completed, which takes weeks to complete, the characters and backgrounds are finalized, and put into enhanced detail.

The characters are curved out, so they are not boxy, and then worked on to make them as life-like as possible. The same thing happens with the backgrounds. Once everything is completed, it is compiled together in another program. This is then put onto a reel, so it can be played in the theatres.

CG can also be integrated with real life movie making. The live actor does his or her actions in front of a blue screen. Then later on the CG character is inserted into the right place, with the corresponding actions. Most CG animation involves non-human characters, such as aliens, bugs, inanimate objects, or animals.

Some of my favorite CG movies are: "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within", "Ice Age", and "Zone of Enders". The last category is Real-Life movie making. Although this one is easier in the sense that it does not involve any drawing, it is by no means easy. First, a cast is selected to play the parts of each character, not just do the voices like in CG and animation. They must memorize the script, learn their actions for each scene, and become familiar with their fellow actors.

Most backgrounds are set in cities that already exist, but sometimes backgrounds are actually built for scenes. The actors are then put into the scenes, where they act out their roles. All of the action is being recorded on multiple cameras, so that the director has many viewpoints to choose from. After take and retake of each scene is completed, the film is brought to the editing room. Here all the parts of the reels that are needed are spliced out of the reel they are in. Once each section is picked out, they put all the pieces together to form the final film.

Some of my favorite films include: "The Matrix" movies, "The Crow", "Blade II", and any Jim Carrey movie. I myself am striving to act in films, and have done a few short films. I would also like to do a voice-over for an animation someday. Of these categories, I prefer Japanese animation the best.

I like the story lines involved, the beautiful drawing abilities, and the fantasy settings. The one I believe to be the most difficult is animation. Hours of work go into the drawing of the characters and backgrounds. Making movies is an interesting and fun process. Not many people know of all the work that goes into making a movie. A movie that is only an hour and a half long could take years to make!