Animation Comparison and Write Up

South Park animation process:
They have a storyboard and design department, which is the beginning of the production chain, where they start designing and writing the ideas, jokes and characters etc.
First they get a script, then they have to turn each action that the characters do into camera shots (bring the words to life). They get an hour per page, which isn't long as most places get weeks.  Also they have to design all of the characters, and when doing so they use Cartman as a comparison, and draw a turn around of their new characters (a side view and a behind view).
When the storyboards done, they send it to the editorial department, and get turned into animatics by the lead editor Keef Bartkus. 

Unlike traditional animation, they do it by drawing out each character on the computer, and then making it move digitally, like puppets. If however, the character needs to do something more complicated, like punching some one, they'll have to draw out the character again in their new pose.
Once they're done with the character background props, they send the characters to a lip sync department, where they sync the audio with the characters mouths. Then they begin the animation, where they use the same process for each character, and move features such as the arms, legs, head, body, and have different expressions such as eyes to choose from.

For each show approximately they spend 120 hours a week to get it ready.

Pepper Pig animation process:
Pepper Pig, created by Amy Blazdell and produced by Phil Davies, is made using a programme called CelAction 2D, which is a highly professional piece of software that can produce top quality two dimensional animations, but is also easy for animators to get used to, and takes a week to learn how to use. It is an easy software to use, and the screen can be adjusted to different working methods.

The Pepper Pig studio is based in London, and they have 30 members who all help to produce the film. It takes approximately a week to make one episode. They have 4 teams of 4 animators, and the first series costed 1.4 million pounds to make, which is cheap compared to model, stop motion or computer animation. This is why they chose to produce the series in 2D.

Dot animation process:
Nokia commissioned the makers of the Dot advert to do something to celebrate and advertise their new piece of Technology. The technology allows people to use the phone to capture images of microscopic footage, like cells, which can be used for things such as diagnosing malaria. They took the challenge on, to make the worlds smallest film, using the cell scope technology. They were worried at first, as cells were far to small to animate, so decided to do something different, and made a plastic 9mm tall girl named Dot. They have 50 different replacements for Dot, and 3 standings for each pose. They made Dot by using a 3D printer, and then painted her under a microscope. They produced the set on a flat table, and positioned the phone and the cell scope technology directly above it, moving it for each frame. They filmed it by changing the Dot with a different pose each frame, and each Dot was attached to a wire, which meant they could move her around.Once the animation is done, in post-production they use a back plate to digitally remove the wire.

It takes one man a whole day to make 4 seconds of the animation.