How To Make A Frame By Frame Animation In Illustrator

Frame-by-frame is a staple of the animation industry.

Not simply is information technology ane of the nearly recognisable and long-running forms of blitheness, but also one of the most commercially-successful.

Merely what exactly is frame-by-frame blitheness all near?

Having seen thousands of animation projects completed through our platform, nosotros've compiled everything you need to know into this helpful guide, including the advantages, disadvantages and unlike types .

We've likewise thrown in some great quality examples from freelancers on our platform.

Ready?

Let's dive in:

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What Is Frame-By-Frame Animation?

Frame-past-frame animation refers to any grade of animation that's shot one frame* at a time. It'southward almost-always reserved for certain types of not-digital animation (such as mitt-drawn or stop move blitheness ).

This is in straight contrast with digital techniques such every bit rigging, whereby a skeleton model is created for a character to allow it to motion.

Throughout most of the 20th century, animating frame-by-frame was the only method of producing animation.

Although it'southward no longer necessary, it's still used past many animators for the following two purposes:

Tradition: To replicate the traditional qualities of hand-fatigued animation
Practicality: Certain types of animation (such as stop movement or rotoscope ) can only be produced frame-by-frame.

*Frame: Ane of the many notwithstanding images that brand up a full motion sequence. The term originally derives from footage originally beingness recorded to a strip of photographic film (which looks like a large sequence of private images).

Types Of Frame-By-Frame Blitheness

There are four master types of frame-by-frame animation:

Flipbook Animation:

Flipbook blitheness is the earliest and most unproblematic form of frame-past-frame blitheness.

This is where each frame is drawn on a carve up folio of a volume. The pages are then flipped through rapidly in lodge to create the illusion of a continuous motion sequence.

Traditional Animation:

Traditional animation (also known as cel animation or hand-drawn animation ) is 2D animation that's drawn by-paw, ane frame at a time. Information technology served every bit the dominant form of animation for most of the 20th century.

Every bit each frame must exist drawn entirely from scratch, it'southward incredibly time-consuming and requires a loftier-level of artistic skill to produce.

Cease Motion Animation:

Stop move animation is a technique used to give inanimate objects the illusion of motion. This is washed by incrementally moving the objects in-betwixt frames.

Although any type of inanimate object can be used for end movement, plasticine models are most-commonly used due to their flexibility of motility. A stop movement production that exclusively uses plasticine models is known every bit Claymation.

Rotoscope Blitheness:

Rotoscope animation is a type of 2nd animation where animators trace over live action footage frame-by-frame.

This not only saves a significant amount of fourth dimension when animating past-hand, only also results in a more realistic sense of movement in the finished product.

Rotoscope animation came to prominence throughout the 1920's, with many blitheness studios using the technique to save time & produce realistic-looking animations.

Frame-By-Frame Animation Advantages

Here are the iii main advantages of frame-by-frame animation:

Information technology's Traditional:

As frame-past-frame blitheness dominated much of the 20th century, it serves as ane of the most recognizable and beloved forms of animation.

Although no longer the required method of producing animation, many studios still produce frame-past-frame blitheness to provide projects with a nostalgic and fantasy-like flavor.

It Offers More Creative Control:

Creative control is arguably the greatest benefit of frame-past-frame blitheness.

Frame-by-frame animation is built on strong creative & artistic skills, offer far greater telescopic for artistic freedom by the animator. When working with manus drawn or end motion animation styles, an animator volition likely use their own artistic style to the projection, resulting in a creative and distinct-looking animation.

This is slightly harder to attain inside digital blitheness , which is largely reliant on physics and mathematics to create realistic movement sequences.

Information technology'southward Fantasy-Like:

Traditional blitheness in particular has strong connotations with magic & fantasy. This is largely due to the piece of work of industry-leader Disney Studios throughout the 20th century, who based every product in a fantasy-like globe.

Frame-By-Frame Blitheness Disadvantages

Here are the three chief disadvantages of frame-by-frame animation:

It's Fourth dimension-Consuming:

Having to produce each frame one-by-one is an incredibly fourth dimension-consuming procedure. This is specially true for traditional animation, which requires an extremely detailed cartoon to be completed for every new frame.

Frame-by-frame animation almost-ever features a lengthy revision process, with mistakes having to be entirely re-produced and re-shot.

It's Expensive:

Frame-by-frame animation non just takes a meaning amount of fourth dimension, but as well requires a talented and experienced animator to produce the projection.

Many of the materials used to produce frame-past-frame animation (such every bit tracing tools and photographic equipment) tin can likewise be plush. Therefore, frame-by-frame projects can often come with massive overheads.

It's Non Realistic-Looking:

Digital rigging allows for extremely realistic-looking animated sequences, drawing potent parallels with alive action footage. Frame-past-frame animation by nature is slightly less disarming in terms of realism.

Frame-By-Frame Animation Examples

Hither are 2 examples of frame-by-frame animation completed by freelancers on our platform:

Run Takeshi Run (Sigmund Washington)

Here's an case of stop movement animation past Sigmund Washington :

You Already Know (John Peter Meiring)

Here's an example of paw-drawn animation past John Peter Meiring :

How To Create Frame-By-Frame Animation

Creating It Yourself

If you lot're looking to go the DIY road, hither's a half-dozen step process for producing a frame-past-frame blitheness:

i. Market Enquiry:

Market research is crucial for ensuring your animation volition be well-received by your target audition.

If you're creating an animated explainer video for a business, you'll want to ensure you lot understand the nature and aims of the business organisation itself to ensure yous're communicating the right message to prospective customers.

If yous're creating a series of animated shorts , you'll desire to spend some time learning almost your target audience's lifestyle & interests in social club to best-entreatment to them. Similarly, you'll want to inquiry the competition to see if there's any cracks yous can make full.

ii. Concept & Script-Writing:

Side by side, you'll want to typhoon up a bones concept for the animation and write a script for the voiceover.

This process volition likely require several revisions, but will serve every bit the perfect framework for producing the animation itself.

3. Voiceover:

One time yous're happy with your script, you'll want to record your voiceover. This tin can either be a narration or character dialogue.

Your voiceover will serve as the chief point of reference when producing your blitheness to ensure that the visuals line up correctly with the voice piece of work.

4. Storyboarding:

Once you lot've your finished voiceover, yous'll want to storyboard your animation.

A storyboard is a chronological sequence of drawings (typically with notes or directions) that represent the planned shots for your animation.

This allows you to run across how your blitheness is likely to look as a finished projection and make whatsoever necessary amendments prior to shooting.

5. Blitheness:

Now for the fun part!

Using both your storyboard and voiceover equally reference points, yous'll now bring the project to life by animating and shooting the project.

This is oft the nigh time-consuming stage of the process, with many frame-past-frame projects taking several weeks or months of full-time work to consummate.

6. Post-Production:

Here, you'll utilize editing software to bring everything together, placing everything in chronological order and making sure the blitheness lines up with your sound (typically a voiceover + music).

You may as well want to color-grade the projection in society to create a balanced-looking and visually-highly-seasoned final product.

Hiring A Freelancer To Create Frame-By-Frame Animation

As you've probably noticed:

Frame-by-frame blitheness is a lot of work.

It takes a huge amount of time to develop the necessary skills required to produce a peak-quality frame-by-frame project. Although animation is fun and creative, we wouldn't recommend yous pursue it every bit a side hustle.

Before yous invest your time and money into learning frame-by-frame for a projection, it's worth contrasting confronting the price of hiring a freelance animator .

Using the data from our platform, hither are the boilerplate day rates you lot can expect from an animator working on a frame-by-frame project:

Level	Inferior	Mid-Level	Expert
Mean solar day Rate	$150-250	$250-500	$500-1000

Here are the price ranges in GBP:

Level	Inferior	Mid-Level	Skillful
Day Charge per unit	£100-200	£200-400	£400-800

When you lot rent an animator through Twine , you lot can set your preferred upkeep and write up a detailed job brief for freelancers to pitch on.

We manually vet all pitches from freelancers & lucifer clients to freelancers using a detailed matching process (which features over 10 unlike criteria).

We're hither to help along every stride of the mode to make sure you accept a summit-notch feel.

To go started with your project, click hither .

Source: https://www.twine.net/blog/frame-by-frame-animation-complete-guide/

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