[kopoko]

Anime, what techniques do they use to animate?
(Draw by hand, Use a program?)

The biiig companies ofcourse.

Do they like, Have a thousand of slaves to draw for them? w00t

[muizz93]

if u have animax channel u should know the there r show name japan culture or something like that.. at that time there were doing sengoku basara second season...is started using a drawing of picture...this job called key animation...if u look at ann,look ..any anime u should find the key animation..after that it scan(i think,not sure) into the pc then color the pixel of the picture

[aJohnE]

Its learning time!

Today's subject: Basic Animation!

In anime, most of the animation is done painstakingly by hand. To make this process easier, animators will work with what are know as key frames, which are specific drawings that usually represent the start, middle, and end of actions. To give an idea of this, taking one step in an animation will have a key frame for the start with both feet planted, then another with the moving foot at its peak, and then another for when the foot is planted on the ground again.

Now, you might be asking yourself, "well, then how is it that it would look so smooth with only 3 drawings?". Well, thats where the out sourcing comes in! A large amount of animating is outsourced to production line-esque processes where more frames are added to the process, and these frames are called in betweens. Now, going back to our step example, in betweens will be drawn to match the flow and style of the key frames, but will continue the flow of the animation, making the movement more smooth.

COLOR!!!!

Its actually added digitally in most cases. At the same time as coloring, certain effects as well as line cleanup can be done digitally. Now, thats not to say you couldnt color it by hand, but you will run into issues with flow, as well as the possibility of messing up and then having to redraw.

Backgrounds are usually added after all animation is done, while there are still references to background and environment included in the animated frames, it is usually blended into the background image that is used.


tl;dr version:

Animators actually draw out the main poses, while the majority of the work is offloaded to others, who are able to work as a group to finish an animation in unison. This allows the animators to move on to the next pieces of the anime.

It is possible to do animation almost entirely on a computer, and have it not look like 3d models for the most part (an example would be parts of the King of Thorn movie), but there is almost always traces that point to it being CG.

[chomio]

Studio Ghibli is still doing it by hand (the classic way).
But other studios use software like animestudio pro.

[Frediloc]

Ya, I heard about Studio Ghibli in that respect. Thanks for the overview, that gives me a different impression of the process.

[Mora]

I thought the newer anime series where all drawn using digital sketch pads with software like photoshop.

Using pen and paper is old...

[aJohnE]

Originally Posted by Mora

I thought the newer anime series where all drawn using digital sketch pads with software like photoshop.

Using pen and paper is old...

Theres two sides to this. The way I think most go about it, is to do rough sketches in pencil on paper (needs to be pencil to be able to do rough cleanup) and then transfer a more complete sketch into photoshop using a drawing tablet.

[kopoko]

Ofcourse, im familiar with animation, i was more curious of how, Classic or software(Which)