1.0 Synopsis
We were chose One Piece Film: Gold. That is 13th One Piece movie and used 2D animation, which was released in Japanese theaters on July 23, 2016. The movie was first announced following the broadcast of Episode of Sabo. Set in Gran Tesoro, an independent country chartered by the World Government, home of the world’s greatest entertainment city where well-known pirates, Marines, and millionaires throughout the world gather in an “absolute sanctuary” that even the World Government can’t touch.
There, the Straw Hat Pirates meet the ruler of the country, the golden emperor, Gild Tesoro, who easily wins pirates, the Marines, and even the World Government over to his side with money. He is about to take action to satisfy his bottomless ambition which may result in major changes in power relationships in the New World.
The glittering Gran Tesoro, a city of entertainment beyond the laws of the government, is a sanctuary for the world’s most infamous pirates, Marines, and filthy rich millionaires. Drawn by dreams of hitting the jackpot, Captain Luffy and his crew sail straight for the gold. But behind the gilded curtains lies a powerful king whose deep pockets and deeper ambitions spell disaster for the Straw Hats and the New World alike.
2.0 The Type of Animation
First of all, One Piece one of the 2D animation is when scenes and characters are animated in a 2D space instead of a 3D environment. Today, artists use computer software to create everything in a 2D animation, including environments, characters, visual effects, and more. For most of the 20th century, animation was done by taking photographs of drawings on paper and then placing them on transparent acetate sheets called cels.
This process was abandoned with the introducing of computers, which allows artists to create digital animations and then use techniques to manipulate the image. Compared to drawing multiple images, using computers is far less time-consuming and effective. Although drawing skills are still required to be a 2D animator today, most of the work is done with the use of computer software.
These programs often have a huge toolbox of features that help the artists manipulate the animation in a number of ways, including making it look smoother by fine-tuning important elements such as timing. Other advantages of 2D animation over the traditional way include being able to save and load work. Being able to do so proves very handy if something didn’t work and you need to revert back to an earlier version of the animation.
Being skilled in a particular 2D animation program also allows you to make good use of a vast library of visual effects. Of course, every 2D animation software comes with its own learning curves, which only get steeper the better the program is. Knowing what each tool does and how to use it effectively is essential if you want to be a good 2D animator that isn’t limited to a few techniques.
2D animation is widely used in a number of creative industries and is still widely used despite the rise of 3D animation. Everything from cartoon series and Japanese anime to video games and full feature films are done in 2D. The fact that 2D animation is flexible enough to be done on a wide range of platforms it what makes it such a popular form for anything from entertainment and multimedia to broadcast video.
Television is where 2D animation is still used the most. The number of shows that have been made with 2D animation is near-endless, with some of the more well-known ones being The Simpsons, SpongeBob Squarepants, South Park, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Anime, a style of Japanese animation inspired by their manga comics, also makes use of 2D animation.
Some of the biggest anime hits are Dragonball Z, Naruto, One Piece and Attack On Titan. Plenty of influential and critically-acclaimed films have also used 2D animation, including The Lion King, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and The Iron Giant. Disney has always been at the top when it comes to companies that produce well-received animated feature films.
3.0 The Animation Technique
Animation productions begin by deciding on a story. The oral or literary source material must then be converted into an animation film script, from which the storyboard is derived. The storyboard has an appearance somewhat similar to a comic book, and it shows the sequence of shots as consecutive sketches that also indicate transitions, camera angles and framing.
The images allow the animation team to plan the flow of the plot and the composition of the imagery. The storyboard artists will have regular meetings with the director, and may have to redraw or “re-board” a sequence many times before it meets final approval.
Once the animatic is finally approved by the director, animation begins. In the traditional animation process, animators will begin by drawing sequences of animation on sheets of transparent paper perforated to fit the peg bars in their desks, often using colored pencils, one picture or “frame” at a time. A peg bar is an animation tool used in traditional (cel) animation to keep the drawings in place. The pins in the peg bar match the holes in the paper. It is attached to the animation desk or light table, depending on which is being used. A key animator or lead animator will draw the key drawings in a scene, using the character layouts as a guide.
Timing is important for the animators drawing these frames; each frame must match exactly what is going on in the soundtrack at the moment the frame will appear, or else the discrepancy between sound and visual will be distracting to the audience. For example, in high-budget productions, extensive effort is given in making sure a speaking character’s mouth matches in shape the sound that character’s actor is producing as he or she speaks.
While working on a scene, a key animator will usually prepare a pencil test of the scene. A pencil test is a preliminary version of the final animated scene; the pencil drawings are quickly photographed or scanned and synced with the necessary soundtracks. This allows the animation to be reviewed and improved upon before passing the work on to his assistant animators, who will add details and some of the missing frames in the scene.
The work of the assistant animators is reviewed, pencil-tested, and corrected until the lead animator is ready to meet with the director and have his scene sweatboxed, or reviewed by the director, producer, and other key creative team members. Similar to the storyboarding stage, an animator may be required to redo a scene many times before the director will approve it.
In high-budget animated productions, often each major character will have an animator or group of animators solely dedicated to drawing that character. The group will be made up of one supervising animator, a small group of key animators, and a larger group of assistant animators. For scenes where two characters interact, the key animators for both characters will decide which character is “leading” the scene, and that character will be drawn first. The second character will be animated to react to and support the actions of the “leading” character.
Once the key animation is approved, the lead animator forwards the scene on to the clean-up department, made up of the clean-up animators and the inbetweeners. The clean-up animators take the lead and assistant animators’ drawings and trace them onto a new sheet of paper, taking care in including all of the details present on the original model sheets, so that it appears that one person animated the entire film.
The inbetweeners will draw in whatever frames are still missing in between the other animators’ drawings. This procedure is called tweening. The resulting drawings are again pencil-tested and sweatboxed until they meet approval.At each stage during pencil animation, approved artwork is spliced into the Leica reel.
This process is the same for both character animation and special effects animation, which on most high-budget productions are done in separate departments. Effects animators animate anything that moves and is not a character, including props, vehicles, machinery and phenomena such as fire, rain, and explosions.
Sometimes, instead of drawings, a number of special processes are used to produce special effects in animated films; rain, for example, has been created in Disney animated films since the late 1930s by filming slow-motion footage of water in front of a black background, with the resulting film superimposed over the animation.
3.1 Animation Loops
Creating animation loops or animation cycles is a labor-saving technique for animating repetitive motions, such as a character walking or a breeze blowing through the trees. In the case of walking, the character is animated taking a step with his right foot, then a step with his left foot.
The loop is created so that, when the sequence repeats, the motion is seamless. However, since an animation loop essentially uses the same bit of animation over and over again, it is easily detected and can in fact become distracting to an audience. In general, they are used only sparingly by productions with moderate or high budgets.
3.2 Special effects animation
Besides traditional animated characters, objects and backgrounds, many other techniques are used to create special elements such as smoke, lightning and “magic”, and to give the animation in general a distinct visual appearance. Today special effects are mostly done with computers, but earlier they had to be done by hand.
To produce these effects, the animators used different techniques, such as drybrush, airbrush, charcoal, grease pencil, backlit animation, diffusing screens, filters, or gels. For instance, the Nutcracker Suite segment in Fantasia has a fairy sequence where stippled cels are used, creating a soft pastel look.
3.2 Live-action hybrids
Similar to the computer animation and traditional animation hybrids described above, occasionally a production will combine both live-action and animated footage. The live-action parts of these productions are usually filmed first, the actors pretending that they are interacting with the animated characters, props, or scenery; animation will then be added into the footage later to make it appear as if it has always been there. Like rotoscoping, this method is rarely used, but when it is, it can be done to terrific effect, immersing the audience in a fantasy world where humans and cartoons co-exist.
4.0 The Sounds
According to Mark Simon, “The right music can help your animation flow, and sound effects can give your work a solid feeling that adds to the illusion of life.”
5.0 The Smoothness of The Animation
6.0 The Lighting
The most important thing is lighting. Because is one of the first special effects you should consider when enhancing the look of your animation. Through adding special effects is an important part of creating high-quality cartoon animation. Applying an effect is not mandatory, but it will certainly help to catch your audience’s attention.
Lighting is one of the first special effects you should consider when enhancing the look of your animation. If done properly, lighting effects will add a lot of volume and depth to your character, contributing to a more realistic environment and a more convincing animation.
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