Flip book animation workshop

Creating the flip book animation was the first workshop i explored into animation. It looked a lot easier than it actually was. The aim of the workshop was to create an animation using the flip book technique. I used post it notes to create the animation. Starting with the first post it note i drew an image on the post it note and then placed a blank post it note on top. The previous drawing was visible through the post it note so i was able to draw the next image in the sequence positioning it slightly different to the first image to give the illusion of movement. This is known as the onion skin technique. I then continued with this process to make the animation longer. I used around 50 post it notes - half a pack to create the animation, although the animation ended up being only 8 seconds long! This may have been because of the speed the post it notes turn. Don't under estimate how easy this sounds. Surprisingly i came across a range of issues using this technique. I don't remember it being this hard creating flip book animations when i was younger! So before making the animation above i had tried a ton of different animations which just did not work out. My first idea was to create an animation based on the twin towers. This did not turn out very well. I found it hard to draw scenes in such detail and create the illusion of movement whilst creating the drawings accurately so it flowed. So instead i decided to create a much simpler animation. I decided to draw the balloon above as this was easy to draw, i slightly changed each drawing the create the illusion that the balloon was floating and moving around in the wind. finally i created a flip book that worked. it may have been simple but it worked. Although to make this better i could have created slightly less movement in the drawings so the sequence flowed more smoothly. I could also colour in the animation.

The flip book above has been created by paper engineer Matt Shilan. He has used  very simple drawing although it's his accuracy and time spent drawing each image which makes his flip book so impressive and mesmerising. He has begun with a drawn 3d looking shape on the page. He has drawn each image changing it slighlty so the animation moves slowly. As he turns each page you can see how the shape appears to be rotating. To give the rotating effect Matt Shilan has captured very realistic and accurate shadow within the drawing. This also makes the object appear as if it is coming out of the page.