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5 Basic Principles of Animation

5 Basic principles of animation

Animators follow a strict guideline of 12 principles of animation to create the most believable movement. But 5 basic principles stand above the rest as the most important. Your animation will fall flat and look wooden if the key principles are ignored.

1. Squash and stretch

Squash and stretch give weight and believability to an object. Imagine a rubber ball bouncing on the ground. As it hits the ground it squashes and it comes back up it stretches. A metal ball on the other hand would barely squash or stretch. This is how you give weight to your animation.

5 Basic principles of animation

2. Anticipation

One of the most overlooked principles of animation, anticipation is important to give animations a sense of grounding. Before getting up from a chair, you need to position your body to help you move. It would be unnatural to get up without using your arms to help push your body up. This is why anticipation is so important.

Anticipation animation

3. Ease in ease out

Imagine a clock’s swinging pendulum. It slows down on each side before gaining speed. The swing from side to side would be fastest in the middle and naturally slow down on each side. This is the basic concept of easing in and out. It makes movement feel more natural.

Ease in ease out animation

4. Timing

The number of drawings for a given action will vary depending on the movement needed. Fast movements get less drawing while slow, complicated ones need more. Timing will give believability to the movement of your characters and objects.

Solid Drawing

5. Solid Drawing

Without solid drawing practices, an animator cannot animate effectively. Solid drawing means the animator understands the dimensions of the object in 3D space. Volume, depth, and weight can be conveyed by the necessary movement.

Solid Drawing

If you are having difficulty with any of these principles, it’s time to hire a professional.

Get in touch today and we will provide you with the best animation.

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Six illustration styles you should know: Prayan Animation

Six illustration styles you should know

The act of presenting your ideas via examples or describing information in a visual manner can be termed an illustration. The illustration can be drawings, paintings, graphs, or photographs. In simple words, an Illustration can be termed as a visualization made by an artist in the form of an image.

Types of Illustration Techniques

An illustration can be categorized into traditional and modern styles. Changes happen in styles over time with better medium, outputs, and time consumption. Pen and paper are replaced by digital canvases with the help of illustrative software like Photoshop and 3D Max. Have a look at types of illustration techniques.

  1. Woodcutting
  2. Metal Etching
  3. Pencil Illustration
  4. Charcoal Illustration
  5. Lithography
  6. Water Coloring
  7. Gouache illustration
  8. Acrylic illustration
  9. Collage illustration
  10. Pen and Ink illustration

Illustration Styles:

Style represents either a particular design genre or the way of expression. Let’s discuss six illustration styles that you should know.

  1. Concept art
  2. Comics and graphic novels
  3. Books and publications
  4. Advertisement illustration
  5. Packing illustration
  6. Branding illustration

1. Concept art

Illustration for gaming, fantasy illustrations, and One-Pager fine illustrations are generally done on concept art. The artist creates several concepts for a particular theme and the client can choose from the created concepts for further development.

Concept art illustration

2. Comics and graphic novels

Comics are a medium that combines text and visual information to express stories or ideas. In short, comics can be defined as an artistic medium composed of images and text.

Comics and graphic novels illustration

3. Books and publications

Currently, book illustrations can be designed and printed easily using many techniques. The role of illustration in books is to create an eye-catching cover to grab the attention of readers.

4. Advertisement

Unlike books and publication illustrations, advertisement type of illustration is meant to steal the show and grab quick attention rather than sharing an idea. An illustration is chosen by a wide range of companies in order to make their advertisement better style and more attractive than photography.

advertisement illustration

5. Packing illustration

The importance of packing illustration arises in the differentiating products on the shelf during the business. Businesses such as jewelry, children’s products, and bakers choose illustration packing to grab more attention from the audience in an easier way. Elegance, custom feel, and personalized touch are the main advantages of illustration packing.

packing illustartion

6. Branding illustration

Branding illustration, especially the logotype of illustration requires specific skills and more attention to make sure the readability, message, and brand value. Logos should be small, simple, and memorable. The business also demands to create cartoonish characters or mascots for branding.

Branding illustration

Where to get a professional illustrator?

It’s really difficult to create your own illustration with a unique style and quality. Don’t worry Prayan Animation is ready to serve you with dedicated professional illustrators to meet your needs in different illustration styles.

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Free 2D Animation Software

2d animation software

It is really fun to create a unique creative animation with your own effort and voice-over. Great animation software is essential in this field even if you are a beginner or an expert in animation. The requirement for free animation software is generally among students who are looking to create a great career. Currently, numerous free software’s are available online to create animation quickly and easily. But for a professional and best quality output, it is necessary to contact a perfect animation company that meets your needs. The best part is that the available free software is equally effective as paid ones. The following list consists of the top three free 2D animation software currently available online. Now turn on your ideas, and make your creativity, these free software will help you to create great quality 2D animations.

Pencil 2D

Pencil 2D is free open-source software available on Mac OS, Linux, and Windows that helps to create 2D animation very effectively with the least effort. Pencil 2D offers a wide range of stunning features available on most of the paid software. Still, this software is packed with numerous important tools; the interface seems simple and immaculate. Pencil 2D also helps to export graphics along with Flash videos, movies, and many other formats. Determining the frame rate, image import and sound, and adding colors are some of the features offered by Pencil 2D software.

CreaToon

CreaToon helps to create 2D animations in cut-out fashion and enables us to add a wide range of special effects very easily. The interface of creation seems very simple and outdated but is capable of performing complex tasks resulting in remarkable outputs. It is really easy to access the main features since the menus are displayed on both sides of the working area. You can determine the frame rate along with height and width but the interface cannot be customized on creatoon.

Plastic Animation Paper

Plastic Animation Paper is the best 2D animation software for an expert animator. The uncomplicated and powerful tools in this software help to convert your creativity into animations and cartoons for free of cost. The main attraction of this software is to manage your swift sketching movements and as a result analysis of work as well as real time corrections can be done easily and quickly.

Make your creativity happen. If you are looking for free 2D animation software please try these softwares to create good-quality animation outputs. But for a professional animation, it’s better to contact one of the best animation companies in India. Prayan Animation has been the leading 2D and 3D animation company in India for the past few years serving the best quality outputs at an affordable rate. Contact Prayan Animation now for more.

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Most Popular Animated Characters Of 2017

Most Popular Animated Characters Of 2017

Animated characters are known as cartoons as well and mostly they’re popular among children but some of them are popular among adults as well and they also like to watch cartoons. Here are a few of the most popular cartoons in 2017.

Pokémon

Pokémon is a Japanese cartoon series that is quite popular among children and adults. The animation software used to create them features a few characters that are not the current cast of main characters.

Scooby Doo

‘Scooby Dooby Doo where are you?’ This is one of the most popular animated series for years now. Scooby Doo is an animated cartoon character, basically, a dog that makes people laugh through its actions. The dog though is not very brave but still, helps the team to solve various mysteries mostly due to funny accidents. Shaggy is the best friend and partner of Scooby Doo who is also not very brave just like Scooby Doo.

Doraemon

Doraemon is another popular Japanese cartoon character who became popular recently. In the last 2-3 years, Doraemon has become quite popular among kids all over the world. Currently, it’s the best-selling cartoon. Basically, Doraemon is a robot and a helper of Nobita who is a very lazy kid and runs away from all responsibilities and just likes to play with the Gadgets that Doraemon has.

Popeye-Popeye the sailor man

Popeye is one of the oldest characters who is an ordinary man and loves a girl. And in the constant struggle of winning her heart. He eats spinach which makes him a stronger person.

These were some of the characters that remained most popular in 2017 as well. Other than that, there are animated characters like Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, etc. who are popular forever.

Planning to launch your own animated characters for business marketing? We at Prayan Animation are here to assist you with all such needs.

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Difference between 2D and 3D Animation in Multimedia

Difference between 2D and 3D Animation in Multimedia

Gone are those times when you had to make a considerable effort to comprehend a simple figure or structure. The wide use of animations has made it far easier to present complex ideas in various contexts and connect with your audience quickly. No doubt, animation companies are serving so many different industries that range from entertainment to medical and engineering.

Before you decide to hire an animation company for your business, it is important to understand the difference between the two most common multimedia techniques and their relevance in your situation. Let’s have a quick overview of 2D and 3D animations.

Two Dimensional (2D)

The basic idea behind this technique traces back to the painstaking work of artists before the computer era who used to draw thousands of frames for a single animation movie. There’s a minor difference in each frame and then all of them are projected with a certain time difference and position to give an impression of motion.

However, with easy access to animation software, anyone can make a 2D animation video with a little effort. Such animations are commonly found in television ads, e-learning videos, websites, and many video games as well. It is interesting to note that our digital 2D has evolved from those traditional flip books in which an animation effect is observed when you quickly flip the pages.

Three Dimensional (3D)

This one is relatively more advanced and realistic than 2D animations. If you ever had a chance to enjoy a glimpse of virtual reality or a movie in which “characters and objects seem to come towards you out of the screen,” you can understand 3D much better.

What makes three-dimensional multimedia different is the depth of elements. While 2D only uses a flat surface, here you can actually see everything as a physical object and easily rotate it to view from various camera angles and positions. Of course, the process of making such animations is also somewhat difficult.

3D animations are commonly found in architecture, medical, aerospace, and engineering applications, and now in the entertainment industry as well.

For most business applications, 2D animations usually suffice. However, sometimes involving 3D figures can give significant added value. Prayan Animations is here to help you with the best animation techniques based on your business requirements.

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Various Animation Techniques in Multimedia

prayananimation

Animations are fun, right? You can write a thousand words to convey your point, but a short animation movie is far more effective. Perhaps, that’s the reason people prefer them for education, business, presentations, and various other purposes. However, before you finally move on to making one for yourself, it’s essential to have at least a basic understanding of the various animation techniques in multimedia. After all, it is quite possible that your audience could enjoy a 2D style more than stop motion.

We will cover five different techniques here briefly and try to learn their key differences.

Stop Motion

Cut-out animations are a great example of a stop-motion style. A single drawing is made rather than sequential images and it is then cut into pieces. Those cut-outs are joined together with pins or wires. This allows the animator to move specific parts of the character to show animation.

Traditional

This includes the oldest techniques that were used by Disney and other entertainment brands in the earlier days. The idea is simple – you draw sequential images for each frame and show them in series to give an illusion of animation. It’s just like those animation books that give an illusion when you flip the pages quickly.

2D Motion

This can refer to two things: traditional animations made from paper or other similar mediums and vector-based animations made on computers. We will focus on the latter here. The idea is the same as the traditional one. However, the only major difference is the lack of a solid medium. You make all the drawings digitally on a computer and play those images to give an animation effect. So, it’s comparatively easier and quicker than the traditional technique.

3D Animations

3D movies are quite popular entertainment these days. This technique is quite similar to playing with puppets but in a digital environment. The underlying process is quite technical, so let’s focus on the key principles. 3D animations combine the frames of 2D with the modeling of characters. The computer prepares the images in a digital space and does all the calculations to make the objects move in the desired way. Generally, this is quite an expensive style of animation and is seldom used.

Motion Graphics

This one is quite different from the ones listed above. Why? Motion Graphics is not dependent on any storyline. Rather it is just the movement of static images and texts to add some special effects. For instance, the credits list at the end of a movie, animated logos, and even explainer videos are all motion graphics.

There is a complete science behind these animation techniques in multimedia (which is usually more relevant to an animator). Still, confused about which style will work best for you? Contact us today to discuss various possibilities of animation videos to meet your purpose.

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How to Create Animations Videos?

How to Create Animations Videos

We often feel annoyed when we come across advertisements that interrupt our favorite YouTube videos or television shows, right? Similarly, it becomes increasingly difficult at times to watch a business’s explainer video till the end. Well, you are not to blame – it’s the fault of the marketing team who ends up adding low-quality content to their campaigns. The point is that videos and animations have become quite common among brands for promotion purposes. However, few make the best out of this powerful tool.

It’s important to appreciate that making great animation videos is not all about being an expert in graphics design. Let’s break down this process into small steps to see what makes some animations stand out.

1. Write a Script

This is the most important step as it will determine the quality of your video. Writing a script can be challenging, especially if you are trying for the first time. To get started, view some animation videos relevant to your topic to get some ideas. We assume that the basic purpose of your video is to market your brand. In that case, showing the problem of your audience and then introducing your brand as the solution works pretty well.

Also, decide the approximate length of your video at this point.

2. Sketch your Characters and Theme

Now you have the storyline out of your creative mind. Let’s use the imagination to sketch the characters and scenes. Are you trying to show a certain place or landmark? Or maybe you can use an entirely fictional theme that is unique to your brand. The visual impact of animation videos is far more powerful than words in engaging your audience.

3. Choose an Appropriate Software

Here comes the technical part (but not difficult!). There are many products out there in the market that you can use for making animation videos. If you have made some videos before, you may have some personal preferences here based on which software you find easy to use. However, if you are completely new to graphics and media, it’s a good idea to try some free products and watch tutorial videos to learn the basics.

Don’t worry; there are many useful resources easily available. In any case, you can always contact us for expert assistance!

4. Prepare the Narration and Sound Effects

Once you are done with making the video frames using your desired software, it’s time to add the narration as needed. It’s best to write down everything and practice saying it in an appropriate tone several times. This will help you maintain ideal speed and accent throughout.

Review

Congratulations! You just completed the first draft of your video. Review it carefully and make improvements where necessary. Why not ask your friends for feedback?

Creating great animation videos demands practice, patience, and creativity. Looking for some more guidance? Contact us today at Prayan Animations!

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2D Animation Techniques

2D Animation Techniques

The world of animations is becoming more sophisticated day by day as we progress from traditional paper animations to virtual reality. This makes it easier to make our presentations, lectures, and even marketing campaigns more fun as people love watching short clips that are somehow relevant to their own lives and problems. After all, a short video is worth a thousand words, right?

While 3D motion and virtual reality are becoming a new fascination, most of our business, education, and entertainment purposes are fulfilled well with 2D animations. Let’s look at some of the interesting, advanced works and techniques that are being used these days to create them.

  1. Frame-by-frame

We all heard that videos are nothing more than a series of pictures being shown with a negligible in-between duration and our “persistent vision” makes them look like a smooth motion. That’s the basic idea behind 2D animation.

What the frame-by-frame technique refers to is that we declare each frame as a “key frame” and make a new image for it. This is especially more useful to show complex, detailed animations in two-dimensional.

  1. Digital Rotoscoping

Ever wonder how those special visual effects are achieved in animated movies? Digital rotoscoping is the technique used here. In simple words, an object that needs to be shown in a different background is traced and a matte or silhouette is made out of it. This allows placing that object in a different environment as required.

The glowing lightsaber in Star Wars movies is a good example of this technique.

  1. Motion Capture

Not all people prefer digital rotoscoping, especially when we have a better technique of motion capture. It is amazing to see taking trees or rocks in animation, right? They are often achieved by motion capture. An actor wears a skin-tight nylon suit and his joints are covered with light balls. Then a scanner detects the joints and makes a digital version of the actor’s expressions. Now, these expressions are embedded in an animated character.


Motion capture is relatively more accurate and less time-consuming than other 2D techniques.

Planning to make a 2D animation for yourself? Prayan Animation can help you with this task to achieve impressive results!