Animated cartoons

Respecting adaptability and results, the same motion-picture camera that is used in the field, or the studio, can be used to make films for animated cartoons. In making cartoons, however, two particulars at variance with the usual procedure first must be noted: (1) The camera is pointed downward and not horizontally, as is ordinarily the case, and (2) with each turn of the camera handle only one frame—one-sixteenth of a foot of film—is photographed, and not eight, as is commonly the case.

The camera in making animated cartoons is held, pointing downward, by a firmly built framework. The artist, having decided on the dimension of the field for his drawings, determines the height approximately of the camera above the table top, where the drawings are placed. Naturally it will be high enough so that when he works at the table while disposing the drawings, adjusting the dummies, or in some cases making drawings, his head will not come in contact with the front of the lens. The particular distance between the lens and the table top is dependent upon the kind of lens in the camera. It is a common practice to equip a camera with a two-inch (fifty-millimetre) lens. It is possible to use a lens of this focus for cartoons.

There is no special type of structure for supporting the camera above the board upon which the drawings are placed for photography. An artist contemplating embarking upon this line of work, and intending to carry on the whole process from the beginning to the time when he hands the exposed film to the laboratory for development, will have a chance to put any inventive ability that he may have into practice in designing a framework for the purpose. In building such a structure these things must be thought of: (1) The structure must be firmly built so that the likelihood of the camera being jarred is lessened; (2) the distance between the camera and board to be ascertained, approximately at first; (3) an arrangement for fixing the camera in a grooved sliding section so that its exact height can be adjusted when the field and focus are definitely fixed or there is to be any later readjustment. The camera, for instance, may get jarred and put out of focus, or get set obliquely with respect to the lines defining the field.

Some animators have mounted their camera so that the same framework can be used for a small field as well as a larger one. This necessitates, each time that the size of field is changed, a troublesome setting of the camera in order again. It is wisdom to keep to one size of field for all work, so that when the camera is once in position it need not be changed.

The frame that holds the glass, and which is hinged to the board where the drawings are placed, and the registering pegs have already been described. It is an excellent plan to have this board with the above-named adjuncts separate but screwed down upon the table top. By having it this way it is possible to have another means of getting the camera and the field lines adjusted. Then if the outline of the field on the board and those defining the field in the camera do not fit each other exactly, the board can be unscrewed, shifted until it is right, and fastened again.

In any film where there is a preponderance of straight lines—horizontal ones, especially—it is a serious fault to have the slightest obliquity. It will be emphasized on the screen. The outlines of the little rectangular area, where the pictures are taken in the camera, must coincide with the outlines of the field on the board. When the field is fixed and permanently marked with ink lines, it is a good plan to draw a smaller rectangle, one-half inch all around, within the outer one. The idea of this is to have a limiting area within which all important matters of the drawing are kept.

If the animator has had any experience with the ordinary still camera, the practical knowledge gained then will help him in the matter of focussing, or regulating the diaphragm of the lens, so that all the details of the picture are sharply defined. This comes next, or rather in conjunction with the determining of the field and the permanent fixing of the camera. In a still camera—that is to say, an ordinary portrait or view apparatus—the focussing is on a ground glass, while in a cinematographic instrument it is usual to place a piece of celluloid with a grained surface somewhat like ground glass into the place where the film passes. The picture is focussed on this celluloid. Some, however, find a piece of blank film answers the purpose.

To the above consideration of setting up the camera and ascertaining the correctness of the field and the sharpness of the image, the worker wise in perception will, before beginning any important work, make a test. This is merely a matter of photographing a drawing, or two, on a short length of film, taking it out of the camera, and developing it. Here, again, any knowledge of photographic processes previously learned will be found useful.

There are in all metropolitan centres film laboratories to which the animator can send his exposed films to be developed and printed. But for a test before beginning the work it is prudent and expeditious to keep a supply of chemicals on hand, and then, in a few minutes, it will be possible to tell how matters stand in any particular that is in doubt.

The next step, after the camera has been fixed in place, is to construct a mechanism by which it can be turned conveniently by the photographer, as he is seated below at the board where the drawings are placed. This is contrived by a system of sprocket-wheels and chain-belts coming from the camera and carried down to the side of the table top, where it ends in a wheel with a turning handle. For the average individual this would not be a difficult construction to put up; but it would be an altogether different problem if the animator wished to equip his camera with an electric motor to turn the camera mechanism. In this case he would have many things to consider, getting the particular type of motor, for instance, that will operate with the continual turning on and off of the power. Here certainly the best course is to have an expert install the motor and fix the intermediary mechanism connecting it with the camera-working parts.

Electric motors to drive camera mechanisms are in general use among those who make titles for moving-picture films. For this particular branch of the industry they are an indispensable adjunct.

It would seem to the spectator in the theatre, unfamiliar with the technic of cinematography, that when he sees a title held on the screen for any lengthy period, the practical way of effecting this would be to have a single picture of this title kept stationary during the period. But this is not the way the matter is worked out. A title in a screen story is given a certain length of film, with every frame in this length containing the same words. The particular length—footage—allowed for a title depends upon the amount of its reading-matter. Some titles are very long. One such, requiring, say, fifteen feet, makes it necessary to turn the camera handle two hundred and forty times, if the operation is by hand. A very monotonous job. So title studios attach a motor and appropriate mechanism to a camera, and with it, too, an automatic counter. Then in photographing a title it is a simple matter of starting the mechanically driven shutter, watching the figures on the counter dial, and when the required exposures have been registered, pulling the lever that stops the mechanism. Where a camera, however, is used for animated drawings exclusively, a motor is not absolutely necessary.

An automatic counter would be a very useful addition to a camera in making dissolves. One form of these fantasies is that in which the screen is perfectly black at first and then a small spot of light appears, which grows larger by degrees, to reveal at the full opening the scene or subject of the film. This is produced by a vignetter, or iris dissolve. A vignetter is a device, fixed generally in front of a lens, that consists of a number of crescent-shaped segments of thin metal pivoted on a circumference. When these segments move in unison toward the centre, they gradually decrease the aperture in the lens tube. But when the movement is in a contrary direction, they cause the aperture to open by degrees. Those who have used an ordinary snap-shot camera no doubt are familiar with a similar device—the iris diaphragm, or lens stop. But in the diaphragm the segments do not completely close, and there is always a tiny opening left in the centre. The iris dissolve, or vignetter, is made to close completely.

The way by which pictures are “faded on” is to start with the vignetter closed and then open it while the camera handle is turned to take the picture. To “fade off” a picture, the process is simply reversed; i. e., gradually closing the vignetter while the last part of the picture is being taken.

The most frequent application that an animated cartoon artist makes of a vignetter is making cross dissolves, or causing one picture to blend into another. Imagine now that the idea to be expressed, through the medium of one of these cross dissolves, is that of a character standing in an attitude of reflection and supposed to be thinking of how he would look in a complete suit of armor. There will be two drawings: one with the figure in ordinary dress, and the other with him clad in the armor. First the picture with ordinary dress is photographed. During this operation the vignetter is closed by degrees. When it is closed, the film that was just photographed upon is wound back again into the magazine. Now, as we know, during this procedure the light, which was getting weaker and weaker, proportionately lessened its effect on the sensitized emulsion of the film, so that its picture-forming property was not all used up. There is still a certain proportion of photographic potency left for the next exposure. The next step is to replace the first drawing with the one showing the character in armor.

We left the vignetter completely closed, and the same length of film that had just passed back of the lens has been wound back into the magazine and is ready to cross the exposure field again and be photographed upon the second time. Now the vignetter is gradually opened, the new picture is being taken and blended with the image of the first picture.

These two procedures in their method of operating and their effects compensate one another. The gradual closing of the vignetter has its reciprocal part in the gradual opening; the lessening of the light strength is reciprocal to the increase of the light strength; then the fading of definiteness in one picture is made up by the gradually increasing clearness in the other.

In trick work of this kind a mechanical counter would be very useful in measuring the length of film as it is turned into the magazine and then out again. It is understood, of course, that our particular counter also counts backward. And, again, with reference to cameras: an animator when he selects his camera should be certain that he gets one with which it is possible to turn the camera backward for making these dissolves and any other trick work involving like manipulation.

Immediately above we gave certain reasons for the making of tests on a small piece of film before photographing. Another matter for which tests should be made is the question of illumination. It is important that the field should be evenly illuminated. All this is an affair of adjusting the lights; that is, getting them one on each side of the camera in their proper positions with reference to the lens opening and the distance away from the drawing-board.

The mercury vapor-lamp which, as has been mentioned, is in general use for cartoon films, has besides its illuminating qualities another great merit. It is this: it does not emit heat rays. When it is remembered that an artist sometimes spends hours at a stretch photographing his numerous drawings for a cartoon film, and that all this time his head is but a few inches from the lights, this absence of heat is a desirable feature.

The manner of going about the photography, which is the next stage of the work, has been touched upon in another part of the book.

There are many more minute particulars in the making of an animated film to be considered. Take, for instance, the technical questions respecting the preparation of the drawings. In the process where most of the drawings are made on paper, the paper should be a fair quality of white linen ledger paper—but not too thick, as transparency is a thing to think of, and it is preferable, too, that there be no water-mark. The design of a water-mark would be a disturbing element in tracing from one drawing to another. Ordinary black drawing ink is used for the line work, but when a large area is to be solid black, it has been found best to employ one of the black varnish stains that are mixed with turpentine. In spite of the turpentine medium it is possible to apply it to paper. These black stains are an intense black and do not lose their strength when viewed through the celluloid sheets.

It is not usual to obliterate a mistake in drawing with white pigment, as it is an uncertain quantity in photography. Whether or not it will come out as a patch of gray, or photograph correctly as white, is difficult to judge beforehand. It is best to take out ink lines that are not wanted with a sharp-bladed penknife and then smooth the surface of the paper with an ink eraser (of rubber).

In drawing over the smooth surface of the celluloid a preliminary cleaning with weak ammonia water will make the ink flow evenly. It is of course understood that the celluloid sheets can be used again after any particular film is finished. Ink or pigment can very easily be washed off with water.

In drawing on celluloid with a pen it is well to select one that will not scratch the surface. Scratches will hold, in their shallow depths, enough ink or pigment to break the evenness of a uniform background. They will come out as spots on the film. A well-worn pen, one that has been “broken in,” as the pen draftsmen say, is the best.

The scheme of employing celluloid sheets to hold simple ink drawings, which scheme is in common usage in the art, has been adapted to the purpose of holding intricate drawings in distemper pigment. Before drawing any series of movements on celluloid it is the usual plan to work out all the scenes and actions on paper first and then trace them, from these drawings, to the surface of the celluloid.

When the drawings for a cartoon have been photographed, the magazine into which the exposed film has been wound is taken out of the camera. Then, in the dark room, the film is taken out of this magazine and put into a regulation tin can and sent to the laboratory. And so as to make it quite certain that the lid will not slip off and spoil the whole reel, it is sealed around the edge with a piece of adhesive tape.

After the film has been developed, the next step in the process is that of printing the positive. This as well as the remaining technical matters is attended to by the laboratory. Titles, to be sure, could have been made at the same time that the animated pictures were taken; but it is found advisable to have titles made by a studio that does this work exclusively and then have them joined to the film in their proper order.

With respect to this joining, or splicing, this is also looked after for the animator at the film laboratory. But as it is not difficult to do, the animator—impatient to have his film completed, and not caring to wait until the laboratory finish it—will try his hand at it, no doubt.

He needs for this a little device to hold the two ends of the film together in their proper relationship while he spreads on the overlapping section a little film cement. This is a firm adhesive. The emulsion on the film where the cement is spread must be removed by a little moistening.

When the positive is entirely finished, with main title and subtitles, it is ready for screen examination. Then only will the artist be able to see, as a finality, his skill as an animator, his expertness as a technical worker, his cleverness as a humorist, and the extent of his adroitness in plot construction.