Disney cartoons were created. How modern cartoons are made

Today, animation is familiar to almost everyone. This genre has a huge cultural significance, after all, it is cartoons that become the first educational materials for children; they lay the foundations of culture and education. However, cartoons can also be interesting for adults - some of the works may have a deep and complex plot that a child is unlikely to understand. We invite you to familiarize yourself with how cartoons are made today. We will tell you about the main genres, as well as one of the most successful projects modern Russian animation.

How the cartoon "Masha and the Bear" was filmed

The creators of the first animation masterpieces, who drew every frame by hand, would have been surprised to see modern technologies, which are used to create Masha and the Bear. Everything is different in this animated series. Each character is drawn once, but in detail and from all sides; this work takes about a month. Then, the created model is used in each new series many times. The movements of some characters are calculated by the program, others (for example, Bear) are read from human ones using motion capture technology.

However, that's not all. Making characters and thinking through movements is only a small part of the work on a cartoon. It is necessary to “settle” the characters in the living world, voice their speech, and add special effects. Full work It takes about 4 months to work on one episode of Masha and the Bear, while the studio simultaneously works on 4 issues at once, so as not to force young viewers waiting for new products is too long.

This animated series is shining example high quality computer animation. In this direction, artists work on the image of the characters and key movements, and the intermediate frames are calculated by the computer. However, there are other ways of creating cartoons that are used today.

This classical direction animation. Its essence lies in the fact that each frame of the scene is drawn separately and is a copy of the previous one with minimal changes to ensure the dynamics of what is happening. As a rule, characters are depicted on transparent sheets, under which the main background is placed.

Today, hand-drawn animation is by no means losing ground under pressure high technology. Not at all - she managed to put them at her service: instead of transparent films and canvases, layers in graphic editors, shooting frames with a camera has given way to the use of video editing programs. Thanks to this, the genre is still used by leading animation studios such as Disney and Warner Bros. Professionals know many tricks that allow them to create masterpieces in this genre, and we can tell you at home.

Puppet animation

From the point of view of filming, it is practically not inferior to a hand-drawn one, with the exception of one nuance: dolls act as the heroes of the plot. Their movements are filmed frame by frame, which creates the appearance of real movement after editing. The birthplace of the genre is Russia, and the first puppet cartoon was filmed by Vladislav Starevich in 1911.

Plasticine, silhouette, collage and other cartoons that use physical objects can also be classified as the puppet genre. In terms of the detail of what is happening, such animation is inferior to the capabilities of hand-drawn and computer animation, since there is no way to correctly convey dynamics, emotions and many other nuances. Exceptions are possible if the material filmed with puppets is then subjected to additional processing - but in this case we are talking about mixing genres, and not about a purely puppet cartoon.

Is it possible to make a cartoon at home?

Of course you can! Moreover, today it will be much easier thanks to the ubiquity of computers and cameras. Photographic equipment will be useful to those who decide to take up puppet animation, and to create hand-drawn cartoons you will need a graphics editor.

The Russian version of Windows Movie Maker allows you to collect all the frames together. You can follow the link to try your hand at animation. After all, now you know how cartoons are made, and you can take your first step in animation yourself!

Mickey Mouse, born 1928

Mickey Mouse became a replacement for another cartoon character, Oswald the Rabbit. Disney came up with it while he was still at Universals Pictures, but lost the copyright to it. According to the recollections of colleagues, the artist initially thought of drawing either a kitten or a frog. But he chose a mouse, since there were many rodents living in his studio.

Oswald Rabbit is a distant “relative” of Mickey Mouse

It is noteworthy that Walt Disney initially wanted to name the mouse not Mickey, but Mortemir. However, his wife convinced him that it did not sound like that. However, a character with that name still appeared in the Disney universe. He is the complete opposite of the kind and sympathetic Mickey. Walt Disney himself voiced Mickey. Mickey Mouse first appeared on screens in the cartoon “Steamboat Willie.” This character appears from the very first minutes:

Donald Duck, born 1934

Walt Disney wanted to create a character that would incorporate several negative qualities, missing from Mickey. And besides, children really liked the duck as a toy. And Clarence Nash, American actor dubbing, became the official voice of Dak. He was one of the few who could reproduce that very duck voice.

Donald Duck also “participated” in World War II as the hero of a propaganda cartoon that parodied Nazism. In the cartoon "The Fuhrer's Face" a duck salutes portraits of Hitler. Donald Duck makes his debut in the short film "The Wise Little Hen":

Like Mickey Mouse, Donald has his own soulmate - this is Daisy Duck, who appeared in 1940. Minnie Mouse came out at the same time as Mickey.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, born 1937

One day, Walt Disney as a child saw a cartoon about Snow White without sound and was delighted. In 1934, when the artist had long grown up, he began work on full-length cartoon based on the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. In 1937, the premiere of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs took place. This picture was a huge success. Disney liked working with fairy tales, and in 1940 the second full-length film, Pinocchio, was released, based on the work of Carlo Collodi. And Snow White became the first in a series of cartoons about princesses. Cinderella (1950), Sleeping Beauty (1959) and many other films will be released next.

Excerpt from the cartoon “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”:

Bambi, born 1942

The cartoon "Bambi" is considered the most beloved creation of Walt Disney and best cartoon his studio in general. He was even nominated in several Oscar categories. However, the fawn was not invented by Disney. Bambi is a hero novel of the same name Austrian writer Felix Salten. The film adaptation of the book became incredibly successful. And the book itself sold out in huge numbers, and was well received by critics.

Walt Disney sketches little deer to create the Bambi American cartoon trailer.

This is where that very popular book appears:

In the history of animation they always like to say “it all started with a mouse.” But in fact, it all started with the pioneer and visionary Walt Disney. The Walt Disney Animation Studio was created by him. At that time, Americans very much liked to call their companies by their first and last names, and the Disney studio was no exception.

Walt Disney's legacy is large collection cartoons that shocked the whole world: “Snow White”, “Donald Duck”, “Pinocchio”, “Alice”, “Bambi”, “Cinderella” and, of course, “Mickey Mouse”.

Now we will tell you about how these cartoons were created at the Walt Disney Animation Studio.

The process of creating animation or where miracles were created!

1. When the preliminary script was ready, all the directors and animators got together and discussed the storyboard, that is, the storyboard. The storyboard itself represents the story itself in pictures. ()

2. When the story is already ready and the characters' dialogues have been recorded in advance. That is, this is done so that the animators know what the characters are saying in advance, so that it is easier for them to animate and create correct image cartoon characters.

3. When all the dialogues have been recorded, the animators draw sketches (the Americans call them sketches), and only for the characters. Often, animators draw rather sloppily and without color, or even without a background. For one cartoon, as many as 50 thousand individual drawings with characters could be drawn!

The best animators drew only a few drawings or sketches to create the animation, for example, after two or four frames, and left empty frames. Then there was a person who was directly involved in filling out these empty frames (he is also called an inbetweener or the one who fills in the empty field).

4. When the entire cartoon was drawn on paper, the animation drawings went straight to the ink department. Here, animation drawings (that is, character outlines and shapes) were transferred to a transparent film, onto which gouache can be easily applied.

5. And after the ink department finished applying the contours to the film, he sent them to the painting department. The artists would put paint on the transparent film there, but before applying it, they would turn them over to the other side so as not to blur the outlines of the characters and so that they could see where the different parts of the characters were.

6. Before these animation drawings or a series of drawings were sent for photographing, a background had to be added to them, because there is nothing else on the film yet except the characters. Basically, the background was painted with water-based paints and tempera. In some Walt Disney films, the backgrounds were painted on glass and combined with other backgrounds that were painted separately to give a sense of speed and extremeness. Walt Disney Animation Studios used this technique in Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs.

7. When all the elements were combined into one whole, then it was possible to move on to photographing. But the final product itself is not a finished film, it is what was made precisely with the help of a projector that shines onto the frame. The background and character were fixed separately from each other. So the character could walk and not leave this frame, moving only through this environment. And the pictures of the character themselves were changed and inserted under glass one frame at a time and photographed on a camera so that each frame was recorded on film.

8. After all the frames were shot with a camera, the cartoon itself was ready for showing. Of course, you will need to add music and edit moments later. But these are minor things.

9. Walt Disney Animation Studio created and released hundreds of its cartoons this way.

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Who among us doesn't love the good old Disney cartoons, full of goodness and magic and giving the audience exceptional positive emotions? However, not all of us, when watching, notice the unusual details inherent in our favorite plots and characters.

website invites you to take a closer look at famous cartoons and find surprises that the creators have in store for the most attentive viewers.

1. Of all the princesses, only Rapunzel has green eyes.

Majority disney princesses have blue, blue or brown eyes. And only Rapunzel was drawn with light green.

2. The monster from the cartoon "Beauty and the Beast" has the features of 7 different animals.

Artists spent a very long time creating the image of the Beast. As a result, it was decided to reward him external signs 7 different animals. The Beast got his blue eyes from the prince he eventually turned into.

3. Ariel from the cartoon “The Little Mermaid” was copied from actress Alyssa Milano.

The main character of the cartoon “The Little Mermaid” was based on 11-year-old Alyssa Milano, who later became famous for her role as Phoebe in the television series “Charmed.” In addition to her appearance, they also took some character traits from the actress, as well as her demeanor.

4. Eeyore and Optimus Prime from Transformers speak with the same voice.

Actor Peter Cullen voiced both the plush Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh and the robot Optimus Prime from the blockbuster Transformers.

5. The vultures from The Jungle Book were copied from The Beatles.

The manager of the legendary four agreed to voice these characters in the cartoon “The Jungle Book”. However, John Lennon responded for the entire group with a sharp refusal. Nevertheless, the necks themselves turned out exactly like the famous Liverpool musicians.

6. Simba from The Lion King doesn't roar like a lion.

It turns out that in the cartoon it was decided to use a tiger's roar instead of a lion's roar, because the lion's roar was too quiet.

7. In the cartoon “City of Heroes” you can see Hans from “Frozen”.

Remember the seductive villain prince from the cartoon “Frozen”? The creators of the recently released City of Heroes decided to play a joke on the villain and placed his photo on the wanted board at the police station.

8. In the cartoon "Ratatouille" you can see the shadow of the dog from the cartoon "Up".

The main character Remy in one of the scenes stumbles upon the shadow of a dog. At the time of the filming of Ratatouille, Disney was only planning the creation of the animated film Up. The appearance of the dog Doug from the future cartoon is a kind of joke and a hint at the next project.

9. In one scene in Tarzan, the stuffed toy that falls out of the professor's bag is actually Little Brother the dog from Mulan.

Creators Disney cartoons don't mind making a joke sometimes. One of my favorite tricks is to supplement cartoons with elements from past films. Only a very attentive viewer can notice such references.

Illustrations for the text – working material for the studio’s new animated film “The Mystery of the Desert”TouchFX . The project has not yet been announced anywhere, so the footage is exclusive.

About animation

Animation (to put it very roughly) is the creation of a visual series from changing images (for example, 24 frames per second). Depending on how the image is obtained, animation can be hand-drawn (the frame is drawn by hand), puppet animation (the frame with dolls is photographed), computer animation (the image is generated using computer graphics).

Visual development and concept art

Computer animation, in turn, can be raster, vector, three-dimensional (depending on the selected software and method of work). We will talk about three-dimensional computer animation - that is, the creation of animated films using three-dimensional computer graphics programs. And let’s immediately define the concepts. Animation will be the process of creating a film, and animation will be the process of “setting in motion” the characters and objects of the film. But more on that below.

Where does the cartoon begin? From an idea. The producer sets the task of developing preliminary materials on the theme of the future film. The screenwriter begins working on the story. Artist and art director on the visual solution.

The finished package is sent to the supervisor (technical director). The supervisor reviews the project proposals with a kind smile and calmly explains that the studio's technical and human resources are limited. Therefore, the film cannot have a super mega-epic battle scene involving two thousand characters. It's better to make do with a fight between the main character and the antagonist. Forty-seven unique locations is also a bit much. Three will be enough. When the shouting and swearing between romantics and pragmatists subsides, the new stage creating a cartoon is a process of finding consensus between the producer, supervisor, director and art department.

From model to render

An animated film is the result of adapting existing technology and resources (including financial ones). Classic 2D hand-drawn animation is no exception. There, too, there were problems finding ways to implement ideas. Remember the Disney cartoon 101 Dalmatians? It was the result of using black-and-white photocopying technology, new to the studio. Unromantic, but very effective. It's the same story with 3D animation. At one time, computer-generated images were seen solely as entertainment for geeks. But John Lasseter (the current head of Pixar) saw in this technology the potential for realizing his creative ideas. Thanks to the synthesis of the principles of classical animation and latest technologies the first full-length computer film was born animated film- "History of toys". The choice of the plot, by the way, is also not accidental. The technologies of that time did a poor job of creating organic characters - people and animals. But it was easy to make a plastic toy. And it was easier to animate her than a human. Then there were “The Adventures of Flick” - about insects (visually the same plastic). And only the development of production capacity and an increase in budgets made it possible to begin large-scale use of animals and people in cartoons.

Let's go back to our studio. After numerous rounds of negotiations, discussions, debates, disputes and quarrels, the concept of the future film is approved. The “pre-production” stage begins. The script is written, and visual development of the film begins.

Pre-production and production

The main feature of computer animation is that everything that is in the frame must actually exist in three dimensions. This means it must have been invented and created by someone. Animation studio looks like a conveyor belt. The first person on it is the artist. He draws characters, surroundings, interior items, plants.

When there is ready-made concept art and sketches, direct production begins. In 3D animation, drawings themselves are not used. They are a kind of “drawing” or “scheme”, on the basis of which three-dimensional models will be created and visualized.

Three-dimensional modeling is the construction of objects from points, lines and polygons (polygons). It sounds boring, in practice it looks even more boring, but the result is already pleasing.

The three-dimensional model moves further along the “conveyor”. The technical development department adds models if necessary required attributes. A virtual “exoskeleton” (rig) is created for the character, which allows him to be animated, facial expressions are developed, hair is created, and much more.

In order for the model in the frame not to look like a gray cluster of polygons, it needs to be textured and shading done. Essentially, this is painting the model and giving it light reflective properties. Any object you see is the result of light reflected from it entering your eye. Depending on the properties of the object, light is reflected differently. It's the same in 3D graphics. Depending on the reflection settings of the incident virtual light source, the ball model can be glass, stone, or iron. How more difficult material, the more difficult it is to get desired effect. For example, human flesh partially absorbs the light falling on it, refracts and scatters it under the skin. All these indicators must be properly adjusted in order to get a picture that is pleasing to the eye (remember what was written about plastic characters?).

Storyboard

The character and environment models are ready. The time has come to “revive” them. Here we need to take a step back. While being created 3D world, the screenwriter completed the script, and the storyboard artist, together with the director, staged the film. A storyboard is a kind of comic book, a hand-drawn prototype of a future film. The sequence of actions in the film, the main plans are determined, and some kind of situational humor is invented. Each of us can interpret the script we read differently. For some, “fruits on the table” are apples and bananas, and for others, kiwis and apricots. The job of a storyboard is to make sure everyone sees the film through the eyes of the director. The finished “comic” is superimposed on the sound and a semblance of a rough edit of the future cartoon is created - an animatic.

"Storyboard"

Animation

This is where linguistic hell begins. Based on the animatic, animators animate the characters.

Animation literally means “animation”, from the Latin “anima” - soul.

How does animation work? Imagine a puppet in puppet theater. It’s exactly the same, only “inside” a computer program. The animator changes the position of the controllers on the character's exoskeleton in such a way as to obtain the movement he needs. The work is very painstaking. You can make a few seconds of good animation a day.

To speed up this process in animation, motion capture technology (mock-up) is used. In short, the mocap in the cartoon is the same thing that you know, heard and saw about “Avatar” and Golum from “The Lord of the Rings”. The technology used is the same. The actor wears a special suit with reflective markers, each of which is responsible for a controller on a three-dimensional character. A man moves, a cartoon character moves.

And again the conveyor. Virtual lighting, virtual cameras, and virtual special effects are added to the three-dimensional scene with objects, environments and animated characters. All this work goes into rendering - that is, into visualization.

Educational program on rendering

From physics lessons at school we remember that vision is the process of perceiving reflected light. It's the same in a 3D scene. A conditional “ray” from a virtual light source (say, a light bulb) hits the object. The beam is reflected from an object (taking into account the shading settings), hits another object, is reflected again and hits the “eye” (virtual camera lens). The number and manner of reflections depends on the complexity of the scene, the intensity and source of lighting, and many other factors. Rendering is the process of calculating and visualizing the results of this light reflection. The more physically correct the parameters of light sources, the amount of ray tracing and methods for reading them when they hit the “eye” are given, the more physically correct and photorealistic the final image will be. Rendering is technologically one of the most complex operations 3D graphics. To understand, rendering one frame, depending on the complexity and the task at hand, can take from several minutes to several hours. A second of animation is 25 frames. 25 hours of processor time. On average, it takes about three months to render a project.

Walt Disney Animation Studio, thanks to its own technical developments and programs, was able to achieve the performance of its computing power at 1.1 million rendering hours per day. For comparison, with such technologies, the cartoons “Wreck-It Ralph” or “Frozen” would have been rendered in 10 days (the total need for each of the projects was about 11 million render-hours).

The rendered video sequence is then edited, special effects are added, and color correction is carried out. If necessary, the image is stereoized so that the film is available in 3D viewing format. By the way, to obtain a stereo image, you need to render each frame twice - calculating the displacement for the right and left eyes.

The edited and processed video sequence is synchronized with sound (character voice acting and inter-noise). That's it, the cartoon is ready. Enjoy watching.

PS. I will talk about each stage in more detail, yes. But a little later. Thank you for your attention.

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