Alf Prøysens Barnesanger

[Elodie]

Here is the trailer of a Norvegian TV serie, made by Sandnes Media. The animation and the colorization are made in TVP Animation.

[toonybrain]

Thanks for sharing, Elodie!

[Elodie]

you're welcome =)

[D.T. Nethery]

Here is the trailer of a Norvegian TV serie, made by Sandnes Media. The animation and the colorization are made in TVP Animation.

Interesting. I saw this was also covered by CartoonBrew today:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/music-videos ... an-tv.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"...based on the songs of famed Norwegian singer/songwriter Alf Prøysen (1914 – 1970). The series is hand-drawn, made in-house by me and my five collegues. The episodes are short “music-videos” following Prøysens original recordings. We’re very passionate about our work, trying to master the medium of traditional 2D animation.”

On their YouTube channel they have some work-in-progress video:



It's interesting that for publicity purposes in the making-of video (above) they have taken steps to disguise the digital origins of the drawings by adding some "flipping paper" effects to the animation. I think I understand why this is done for the general public consumption: the minute you tell people "we used a digital program to do the animation" many people have this crazy idea stuck in their head : "ah-ha, the computer does it all" , as if the someone simply types in a command and pushes a button , then the computer program animates the scene. Whereas people still understand that if something is hand-drawn an artist is responsible for creating it. It is difficult for many people to grasp the idea that there can be hand-drawn animation made on a computer , which is virtually the same process as hand-drawn animation on paper, except the lines are drawn directly into a program like TVP using a tablet, instead of drawn on paper and scanned/photographed.

[Elodie]

Great thing for Sandnes Media to be quoted in Cartoon Brew =D

[malcooning]

It's interesting that for publicity purposes in the making-of video (above) they have taken steps to disguise the digital origins of the drawings by adding some "flipping paper" effects to the animation. I think I understand why this is done for the general public consumption: the minute you tell people "we used a digital program to do the animation" many people have this crazy idea stuck in their head : "ah-ha, the computer does it all" , as if the someone simply types in a command and pushes a button , then the computer program animates the scene. Whereas people still understand that if something is hand-drawn an artist is responsible for creating it. It is difficult for many people to grasp the idea that there can be hand-drawn animation made on a computer , which is virtually the same process as hand-drawn animation on paper, except the lines are drawn directly into a program like TVP using a tablet, instead of drawn on paper and scanned/photographed.

It certainly strikes a familiar note. Reminds me of how I can get all tangled up when people ask me what kind of animation I do. Funnily, today, if you just leave it at "I'm an animator" you are assumed to be doing CG 3D. But in order to specify you need to start adding descriptions. I tend to throw words like hand-drawn, traditional, like Disney but not, so no, not traditional, paperless (yet it means nothing to them), digital, on the computer, with a tablet, the thing with a pen, 2D, no, not vector, vector is flash and blah blah blah. It gets so tiring I now avoid describing it as much as I can. I do see why the above promotional piece has a fake paper flipping effect added. It simply spares them the talking.

[Elodie]

And even before talking about animation (2D, 3D, vectors etc...), when you say you work in the animation world, people who don't know anything about this subject always answered me "oh ! you do animations for children, like creating animals in balloon or juggling ?" "... err, no, not that kind of animation... I mean, cartoons, animated drawings" "Oh ! you want to be a comics' illustrator, so ?" ".... no.... U_U"


Fortunately, now when someone asks me what my job is, I simply answer "Oh, I'm a communication manager".

(but when they ask in which domain... *siiigh*)

It's interesting that for publicity purposes in the making-of video (above) they have taken steps to disguise the digital origins of the drawings by adding some "flipping paper" effects to the animation. I think I understand why this is done for the general public consumption: the minute you tell people "we used a digital program to do the animation" many people have this crazy idea stuck in their head : "ah-ha, the computer does it all" , as if the someone simply types in a command and pushes a button , then the computer program animates the scene. Whereas people still understand that if something is hand-drawn an artist is responsible for creating it. It is difficult for many people to grasp the idea that there can be hand-drawn animation made on a computer , which is virtually the same process as hand-drawn animation on paper, except the lines are drawn directly into a program like TVP using a tablet, instead of drawn on paper and scanned/photographed.

Oh, I didn't see your big comment below (yes, I must change my glasses ^^")

Yes, this video with the rabbit animated "on paper" is curious. I'm going to ask Hans Jorgen Sandnes if it's a "montage" or if they finally animated on paper =)
I'll keep you posted ^^

[malcooning]

Yes, this video with the rabbit animated "on paper" is curious. I'm going to ask Hans Jorgen Sandnes if it's a "montage" or if they finally animated on paper =)
I'll keep you posted ^^

If they did do it on paper, they still composited the digital lines over a fake paper flicker.
Look at the bottom right corner for evidence.
also, the roughs are not jittering, and if they been stabilized then the paper should be jittering.
also, the single-frame flicker of the paper does not match the 2s and 4s that the animation is animated with.

[Elodie]

Yes, but I want to be sure =)

BTW, maybe Hans will join the discussion (I gave him the topic link).

[ematecki]

I think I understand why this is done for the general public consumption: the minute you tell people "we used a digital program to do the animation" many people have this crazy idea stuck in their head : "ah-ha, the computer does it all" , as if the someone simply types in a command and pushes a button , then the computer program animates the scene.

This does work. The very first CG animations were even done this way.
The only drawback, the command to type is several million lines long :)

[Elodie]

Hans answered me

Hi Elodie!

Thank you! The post on CartoonBrew was very nice, and it's great to see TVPaint users are dicussing this.
I'm so glad you're using this on the TVPaint page. Because, it's ALL sketched, animated and coloured in TVPaint.
The backgrounds are PhotoShop, and the composite is in AppleMotion.

We're working on the subject of painting the backgrounds in TVP as well.
The composite is very minimal, and AppleMotion works great with FinalCut.

OK – so, the paper flicker:
It's not drawn on paper. The flicker is added later. BUT the charts, sketches and everyting else is authentic.
So, why the paper? We're visiting hundreds of schools each year, talking about what animation IS and how hand-drawn animation works.
This video is not a "promotional piece", but a video we're using when talking to the students.
We're explaining how animation works, that many drawings are put together in sequense. This is a way to visualize this.
You see the fluid movement, and still feels all of the drawings passing by.
After that, we're telling them that we can now draw directly on the screen, and shows them the images from our studio:
http://barnas-ark.blogspot.com/2010/08/hos-oss.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
We're also telling how that changes the process of animation, and that it's still hand-drawn, drawing after drawing.
Of course we're telling about TVPaint, and how it changed our work.

I see that David Nethery is active on you forum, and he posted a very nice comment on CartoonBrew.
Well, he's the reason we started using TVPaint in the first place : ) We researched the software, and found his blog.
The way he presented the software made us very curious, and we tried the software.
It's now our all-time favourite software.

I hope this gives you some insight. But since others are so interested in our process, I will make a post on how we're working.
I'll also include how the animation is actually done in the software. I'll post it on your forum and my blog.

Anyway, feel free to share this information : ) Looking forward to hear from you again!

All the best,

Hans

[Fabrice]

the minute you tell people "we used a digital program to do the animation" many people have this crazy idea stuck in their head : "ah-ha, the computer does it all" , as if the someone simply types in a command and pushes a button , then the computer program animates the scene.

They are still sooooo many people thinking like this !
We have even had article from ??professionnal?? reviewers saying in a pejorative way : "It's an incredibly outdated piece of software, you have to draw all the images to make an animation !"

I hope this gives you some insight. But since others are so interested in our process, I will make a post on how we're working.
I'll also include how the animation is actually done in the software. I'll post it on your forum and my blog.

Cool Would be really helpfull for newsbies and pros. I can't wait to read

[D.T. Nethery]

Yes, this video with the rabbit animated "on paper" is curious.

Disney does this all the time in their promotional material . The fake "flipping paper" effect in this video of Frank Thomas showing off his animation of Lady (actually showing his assistant's clean-up drawings of Lady) .
Of course these drawings are on actual paper, but to communicate the idea of flipping they shot an ordinary pencil test of the drawing with the "flipping effect" superimposed over the pencil test:

Starting at around the 0:20 mark


Psychologically as a little visual trick the effect works quite well to communicate the feeling of flipping drawings.

I'm going to ask Hans Jorgen Sandnes if it's a "montage" or if they finally animated on paper =)
I'll keep you posted ^^

Oh, I was quite sure that the drawings are actually done in TVP (I think I recognize that orange/red underdrawing line) with a textured paper level superimposed underneath and the "flipping" effects superimposed on top.
The effect is well-done and very attractive , giving the feeling of pencil drawings transforming into final full color animation.

For the non-animation person it communicates everything they need to know: the character is drawn by an artist , then it's colored , then it is superimposed on top of a full color background .

[D.T. Nethery]

I see that David Nethery is active on you forum, and he posted a very nice comment on CartoonBrew.
Well, he's the reason we started using TVPaint in the first place : ) We researched the software, and found his blog.
The way he presented the software made us very curious, and we tried the software.
It's now our all-time favourite software.

Hans -

That's so nice to read ! I had no idea. It's a very good feeling to know that someone noticed the posts I made on my blog.
That is exactly why I was so enthusiastic about TVP on my blog : to me it is the software that most closely duplicates the traditional animation process
and I think it is something that most traditional animators fall in love with once they try it .

I have shared the link on CartoonBrew and to your blog with my students and my colleagues in the traditional animation department at Academy of Art University and
as yet another good example of high quality animation work that looks and feels like traditional "Disney-style" animation, but is drawn paperless in TVP.

Congratulations on completion of this project and I look forward to seeing what your studio will do next.

Best,

-David Nethery

[ZigOtto]

... to me it is the software that most closely duplicates the traditional animation process
and I think it is something that most traditional animators fall in love with once they try it .

yeap ! ... at least the ones who love to draw,
the others, looking for "tricks" to apply and animate "without drawing", and going in for bypassing the drawing step, they will prefer the Flash road,
(or Anime Studio for few others).


Hans, you're welcome !