All About Eels - By: David Bunch

The eels and the background picture arc sent to the cameraman. The background picture is placed in front of the camera and the first eel is put over the picture. The cameraman snaps this, making his first frame of motion-picture film. He then removes the first eel and places the second eel over the background picture. placing a new eel over the proper background picture for each frame of film he photographs. A eel placed over the background picture does not cover up any part of the background except that part that is behind the walking man. All the rest of the background picture shows through the clear cellophane. Scene after scene of an animated cartoon story is prepared like our imaginary one above. When you see a Donald Duck, or a Tom and Jerry, or Merrie Melody animated cartoon in your motion picture theater, you are seeing something that took many men many hours to do. Thousands and thousands of separate drawings go into the making of each animated cartoon.

Adding the sound Not only do the figures in an animated cartoon move, they also talk and sing. The sound is recorded separately and added to the film. An animator must make the lips of a talking figure move so that it looks as though the figure were actually speaking. The animator has to know exactly how many drawings he must make for each word that is spoken. When Bugs Bunny says, "What's up, Doc?" the animator must make Bugs Bunny's mouth move in exactly the right way. If "What's up, Doc?" takes fourteen frames on the sound track alongside the pictures on motion-picture film, the animator must make fourteen drawings of Bugs Bunny saying "What's up, Doc?" The fourteen separate drawings must look the way Bugs Bunny's lips would look if they were saying this. The first animated cartoons in the movies were very simple black-andwhite drawings. They were usually very jumpy and jerky. The animation was not very lifelike. Today's animated cartoons are so skillfully done that all kinds of movement can be shown. There is no more jumpiness or jerkiness. Animated cartoons are now almost always made in full color.

About the Author

other articles: Bones TV Show Car Loan Calculator

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/David-Bunch/109430

Additional Articles From - Home | Reference & education | History