1. Stop Motion Animation

It is a style where physically the animators manipulate objects, which makes it look like these objects are moving by themselves. So an exact sequence is played back, generating an image of movement and action.

2. 2D Animation

This is the traditional way of drawing for animation. Its function is to produce storyboards, backgrounds and characters in an environment of two dimensions. Now due to computers, it is mostly done on software. But earlier, everything was hand drawn. Though 3D is on the rise, 2D is still in demand.

3. 3D Animation

This is a revolutionary technique. In this style, objects appear in three dimensions. They have the ability to move and rotate. 3D animation is used in feature and short films, television commercials, brand or corporate videos, etc.

4. Mechanical Animation

This is utilised to show assemblies, modus-operandi and configuration of mechanical products. Explaining the functions of machines using this style of animation makes it easier to understand.

5. Cutout Animation

This animation is a form of stop motion. They move paper cutouts under the lens to tell a story. But with innovations in the industry, computers can now easily cut and animate images.

6. Animatronics

This is a robotic animation. This idea belonged to Walt Disney Imagineering, which they created to welcome guests at their theme parks. Many companies later began using this style of animation for their brand’s purposes.

7. Whiteboard Animation

It is also known as an explainer video. Due to its minimalistic design, it allows your audience to keep his/her focus on what is being shown on the screen without getting distracted by the visual effects. In this animation, a story will be told using a whiteboard to the audience using drawings. It is good for an educational purpose.

8. Clay Animation

A kind of stop motion were pieces of clay are used to form various characters. Here water based or oil based clay are used. It is a time-consuming process. That is why clay animated movies are much shorter than other animated ones.

9. Rotoscope Animation

In this technique, the footage is software-traced using the rotoscoping tool. It’s an early animation style. This equipment was developed by Max Fleisher, a Polish-American. Although computers create this animation now, it is still known by its previous name.

10. Typography Animation

In this style, there is both motion and text. This is used in cinematography during the title scene of the movie. If creating font faces is what you like, then this could be your favourite animation style.

At Magic Elements Studios, we are on a mission of making this world a better place, one film at a time.

Despite their experience and action of over three decades, November 2016’s “Moana” was a new chapter, a new accomplishment for the director duo. This went on to be Musker and Clement’s first film with 3D animations.

The last Disney 2D movie was 2009’s “The Princess and the Frog”. It was directed by the duo. All animation used were hand-drawn at their studios. In “Moana” lot of traditional techniques were used for production and pre-production, especially with the Mini-Maui character who was entirely drawn by hand.

Moana’s character was drawn using a computer and not by human hands. However, the character of Mini-Maui is a mix of 3D and 2D animation. The film’s Mini-Maui character travels using Maui’s body. This character represents a big technical accomplishment, as it is a 2D character who seamlessly interacts with the 3D animated world all around.

Animation is an art. For a film, after the artist adds the final touches to the drawings then the technical animation team takes over to draft the animations to the 3D model. Now unlike paper, our body is not flat and has curves. The skin moves and the muscle flex, which moves alongside the character. So to avoid any warping or stretching, the technical animators whipped a whole new technology. This would preserve old-fashioned and modern-day animation.

During the film’s production, the adjustments between 3D and 2D techniques did not always go smoothly. At times Musker and Clements asked for some changes, which made the animators push their limits. In fact, as the movie progressed, the team discussed as to how to make the movie more interesting. Now as 2D animators produced new drawings and the computer animation team had to frame and rearrange digital objects.

Combining a balance of modern as well as traditional animation and also of the techniques and ideas wasn’t easy, but in the end, was really worth it. The audiences and the critics agreed that this was the most advanced technologically animated movies ever produced. Not to mention that it had the same humour, charm and warmth for which Disney has been known and loved for over 100 years.

At Magic Elements Studios, we are experts of 2D and 3D animation styles. We appreciate good pieces of art. Disney’s Moana blended the freshness of 3D animation with old-fashioned 2D, creating a new cult. What a masterpiece!

Different Dialogue styles

Various animation studies used this element of dialogue in different ways. Disney used it in a way of reprimanding or whenever a conflict arose. Dialogue was a way to set things straight with discipline.

For example when Mickey trains Pluto, Donald complains against the world. Their style of dialogue was preachy and moralistic. Whereas the Warner Bros used dialogue to add a sense of comedy. Their dialogues were joke oriented and this style of dialogue in animation was established by them. Simple dialogues like ‘What’s up Doc?‘ showed Bugs’ Bunnys’ superiority! or ‘You realise, this means war’ when things didn’t go the Bugs’ way. Daffy on the other hand with his consistent lispy babble would utter in great shame, ‘You are despicable’. Elmer Fudd would quietly hunt wabbits whereas Yosemite Sam would hype himself up and say ‘I’m seagoing Sam, the blood thirstiest, shoot ’em firstiest, doggone worstiest, buccaneer that’s ever sailed the Spanish Main!’.

All of these Verbal Dynamics,

be it admonishing or humourous added texture and remarkably supported the visuals. Philip Brophy suggested that Disney soundtrack leaned towards the Symphonic which was inspired by classical aspirations, poetic, balletic and operatic. On the other hand, the Warner Bros leaned towards the Cacophonic which included more urban, industrialized, beat-based vocabulary. Now that you know the secret of how the most successful animation studios used dialogue and language in their projects in order to be more striking and relatable, how are you going to use it? The Disney style? Warner Bros style? Or something new altogether?

The art of writing stories is based on creativity and innovation. But along with that it’s based on a set of guidelines and rules. These storytelling guidelines decide which route the story will eventually take. In animation, there are two basic types of stories that are Linear and Non Linear stories.

Linear stories.

Linear storytelling is the most widely used and accepted format in animation. It develops with a beginning, progresses into a middle and then goes off to a resolution at the end. At the beginning a situation is shown along with a problem arising in the middle of the story and it ends with a resolution or a solution to the story. Linear stories can also work in reverse as seen in Piet Kroon’s short film T.R.A.N.S.I.T. The movie begins as a man is moving away to Argentina after a murder. The movie then goes into a flashback showing the interconnections in the characters’ past and how this situation was inevitable and unavoidable.

Non Linear stories.

Whereas non-linear movies aren’t based on structural outlines, they’re based on setting a mood or an effect. Non linear movies basically consist of experimental short films. Waking Life is a rare example of a full fledged feature film of a non linear pattern. The story revolves around dreamy logic and it builds up over time. Instead of being a carefully assembled narrative.

However both of these type of stories will require extensive pre-production work. Although non linear stories might not need character development as much as linear stories to attains it’s desired effects. If you’re wanting to create a non linear film, you must concentrate on the moods, effects and emotions. Try out different artistic styles, color, sound, music and effects that will impact the audiences in the required and necessary manner.

Creativity has indeed affected by all of the improvements and progress in visual effects during the past century. The transition from the original hand-cranked camera, to optical printing, to digital compositing, to computer graphics imagery—have had one major impact. They have opened creative options well into the post-production process, virtually until the last possible moment.
When the techniques available to us were photochemical, the effects artists knew exactly what had to be done to finish the film. Shots were not easily changeable, and filmmakers had long settled on what they expected from a given visual effect.
They knew exactly what everything had to do. It was an intense exercise to get it done. And to come up with a creative technical solution that looked good on screen. Now, after remarkable progress in the power to create visual effects, everything can be constantly manipulated and changed (although often with extraordinary effort).

Because of this, filmmakers are no longer disciplined to make critical creative decisions up front and often postpone them as long as they can.

In essence, the creative process only ends when time runs out and the film, game, or other project must be released.

We’ll start with the production designer who works closely with the director, director of photography and VFX Supervisor to develop the overall look of the film. The production designer oversees the art department. An art director supervises the construction of sets and modifying locations. The set decorator is responsible for the decoration of the sets. And the property master deals with all things that the actor will have to handle.

The art department also includes production illustrators, concept artists, and storyboard artists. Environment design, Vehicle design, Creature and character design is usually done by specialists brought in by the art department. The design and the look of the film have a large impact on the approach and techniques employed for visual effects. The art department creates a number of concept art studies in pre-production for the director and the studio to review. Once this concept art is refined and approved, it will be used by the visual effects artists as both a reference and a guide.

This is the core of the pre-production team roles in any big budget Hollywood movie production besides the role playing on screen.

We are proud to announce the launch of a new logo as part of the ongoing evolution of our brand. With the new vision to be the foremost Indian animation house that develops ideas from script, through to finished piece.
We continue working with advertising and digital agencies, as well as direct with brands, entrepreneurs and companies. We love working on anything that moves with character- TV commercials, brand idents, web banner ads, online explainer videos. We have the facility to produce it all- from concept to delivery.

And we also produce our own short films.

It gives me great pleasure to share with you all out there these warm words by Aksha from Isobar, whom we worked with for Kellogg’s Video.
Thank you Aksha for the acknowledgement, it is an honor for us (Magic Elements) to receive this testimonial.

“It was a delight to work with Magic Elements!

Two very important reasons why I recommend working with them – Professionalism & Quality. Sampada will turn the world upside down to ensure the timelines are met and all paper-work is in order. And there is no one who will deny that Nikhil’s piece of work is always ace. I had reached out to them for an animated short film for a Kid’s Brand that I handle, the timelines as always were crunched. But Nikhil worked with us like a team and brought in his ideas on the table. We managed a successful release on the planned date all thanks to the magic of Magic Elements.”

Aksha Sachdev
Account Manager, Isobar India

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There are a number of storyboards differences between a live action and animated productions. Most storyboarder specialize in one or the other. As their personal drawing style may not work for all types of productions. For instance, live action directors don’t want to see cartoony looking storyboards or live action story artist may not able to draw cartoony style.

In live action boards, artists style vary greatly. The look of the characters and the boards don’t really have to look much like the look of the live-action actors. In fact most of the actors may not be cast when we start boarding.

Just ask the Director for general info of the characters and draw them all different enough so that you can tell them apart from the boards. For instance, if one character is bald and other is fat. Those are simple ways to make them look different on your boards.

For traditional animation, the storyboard need to look exactly like that of the character on the model-sheets. This is because most of the overseas animation studios tend to follow the look of the storyboard exactly as they animate.

When boarding a CG (Computer generated, also known as 3D animation) animation, matching the look of the character is not as important. The character designs may not be complete, when storyboarding starts on a CG project. But even though they are complete, you should have boarded characters somewhat like the final design, but you don’t have to make them exactly.

Another big difference between live-action and animation boards is how many drawings is generally necessary for any scene or action. In Live-action we need to draw the beginning and the end of any action and add drawings for any specific actions in any shots which needs to be seen. We don’t have draw every little actions for the characters as the actors decides for themselves how they act.

But in Animation, the animators are the actors. The storyboards for hand drawn animation in particular, needs to show most of the “key frames”. Key Frames are the key drawings dictating every big and little action drawn by the animator. The “In-betweens” are then added during the animation process to smooth out the action.

In CG Animation, the drawing to show the action will fall somewhere in between those needed for hand drawn and live-action productions.
Another difference in live-action and animation, is to how to properly number scenes and shots. In Live-action, a scene includes various shots or various camera angles used in one location during one period of time.

For instance you can have a scene in your living room that includes a wide shot and two close-ups. And all three shots are a part of one Scene. Hand-drawn animation considers every shot to be a new scene. So when they are saying the living room example you will have three scenes. We don’t even use the term “shot”, in 2D Animation.

The CG Animation can be numbered either way, but as more often than not they are numbered live live-action. The production which we work on will tell us how they work on a scene number.

This could sound a little confusing but knowing the distinction between them could make all the difference. Whether or not you get us back on a another production.

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Producing any Commercial, TV Show or Movie is like building a house. There are many elements to design! And in order for the house to stand, all the elements need to work together.

Every house needs blueprints before it can be build and blueprints are the architect’s vision. You can tell someone what kind of house you want, but everyone will see it differently in their head. What kind of floors you want? what are the doors? Where do you want the bathrooms? There are a thousand details of building a home, that needs to be detailed in order to get the construction crew know what to do.

Storyboards are the blueprints of any production, and the director is the architect.

Where do we put the camera? How much of the set are we seeing? What do you want the special effects to do? Which door do they go through? The Storyboards answers these questions so everyone knows what they need to do.

Every department relies on storyboards to prepared for their of the production. Budgeting and scheduling of many scenes are completely dependent on storyboards. A Script may describe what may seemed like a simple action. But the director’s vision may be bigger than what has been described on the page.

For example: a mere two-three lines of script can turn into a huge action sequence. There is no way the production department can plan without a storyboard to work from. Once that scene is storyboarded the art director then knows what needs to be designed. The set crew will know what needs to be build and dressed! The props crew will know what they need to purchased and rig, and the wardrobe department would know whether they need extras of certain outfits or to rig for tearaways! The stunt crew would need what they need to get prepared for ! The Special effects crew know what to expect and can provide the producer an estimate of both time and cost. And the camera crew could of course could know what equipment they need for the shots.

During the process of storyboarding, the story artist would know how the director and the crew-heads plan to accomplished the various elements of the production. And the notes on the storyboards needs to contain details to share it with the entire crew. Once the production team has all the information from various departments, they can finalized a production schedule and a budget. And none of this is possible without completely planning the stunts, special effects and hard to achieved shots with the storyboards.

A single problem on the set could easily costs the production thousands of rupees an hour or over and a good storyboard can save any production from many of these potential problems. STORYBOARDS CAN SAVE THE PRODUCTION MUCH MORE THAN THEY COST.

To sum up there more efficient storyboards are the more efficient the storyboards will be! They are a guarantee against the crores of investment put in to any production. And for getting just that you can get a quote from us here.