My Personal View

Conclusion

In my blogs I have talked how the western comic is not really related to the animation, that it is main influence for creating animation. In this last blog I would like to talk about this topic from my own perspective.

I think that if we lean more towards creating animations based on the comic books and their story this would increase popularity of animation and comic books. I think there are artist that deserve recognition for their work. If we look at Japan creator of Naruto manga Kishimoto Masashi is famous person in Japan which I really like how Japan is different from us that I does give chance to artist to express themselves and make living from what they are good at. And this brings me to my point how this industry would grow even bigger and that it would not be just a side entertainment that is being over shadowed by high budged movies.

When I was small boy I have seen Naruto anime in TV and I liked the new style which was very different from all the cartoons I’ve seen before and so I looked into it and I found about the manga that the anime was based on and so that’s how I started reading manga. What I am trying to say by this that if we give more space foe comic book animations in our TV this would benefit both print press and animators as those who read comics would want to see the actual story form the comic book and not rewritten and made p story using comic book characters and those who would watch the animation would want to see the origin of the animation thus they would buy comic books,

In this modern days all the old cartoons and comic book heroes are being remade into 3D CGI high nudged movies even though I think it’s because the directors thinks that because people who grew up watching and enjoying these characters grew up so the character need to grow with them on which I would say no I would still enjoy 2d animated movie with old charters.

Disney has been trying to bring these characters back and show us that this can be done. They have bought marvel heroes and started working on this projects. In past few years they have created cartoons with comic book heroes such and “Ultimate Spider-Man” and “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”. This series might not be following comic book stories but it is good way to show wold that Comic books can also provide us with good animations. We need to bring the darkest parts and more adult scenes from these books to attract adult not just focus on children and I am sure that this would be huge success and good name and increase for animation industry.

How is Anime Made?

So how exactly is manga based anime made? Well as every other cartoons and animate movie or series there has to be idea. It depends on the company who will chose to invest in making animation based on the manga. The manga is usually very successful or has a huge potential.

Preproduction

The next step is to write the script even though the manga contains script in itself it still has to be reviewed in case it contains something that goes against regulation of TV since some manga’s can be very gory or sexual. After the script is done the next step is on the story board artist who has to made story board for the scenes to give animator idea how the anime should look like which includes camera angles, actions and characters. The script and the story board serve as a blueprint for the anime this is so the studio doesn’t waste any expenses on wasting sequences etc..

Sound

Studio hires voice actors who fit into the role of the character they are supposed to voice for. This may be done in two different ways, either the voice over is done before the animation is completed which will give animators opportunity synch the lips with what they are saying or after the animation is done in which the actors need to try follow the already synced lips and try to fit their lines in specific duration. Lastly all sound effects are added which are either made by computer pre-sets or by using Foley and creating new fresh original sound effects.

Animating

Nowadays animations are made by using computers and programs which is very nice to see that most anime is Japan is still hand drawn. The animators usually draw the key poses that are form the story board or manga and then add the in-betweens to fill the space between these key poses to create the movement of the characters. The characters are usually very realistic looking and the movement is less exaggerated than in cartoons aimed for children

Finishing Touches

The last phase is to make everything look neat and perfect. So if the studio has and artist who have sketchy or rough drawing style they are people who will trace over the lines of the characters to me them look smooth and better. Then there is colouring where everything that has to be drawn has to be filled in with colours. All drawing are being scanned and taken into the computer where you can colour everything in digitally this includes background which usually is done separately and should be coloured already. And lastly composition. This means that all the characters and background are being lined up to make a good scene.

Manga’s and Anime

Manga’s and Anime

In previous blog I have talk how comics differs form story board and why are the comics not used as story boards for future animated movies based on the certain comics. In this post I want to address that even though the comic books are not used as story boards they may be turned into animated movies or series. Very good example for this are manga’s such as” Naruto” or “Attack on Titan”.

Manga is style of Japanese comic book produced in Japan. The manga’s are aimed for all genders and ages where western comics are more aimed at children and teenagers. When I say all ages I also include also adults because some of the manga’s include brutal violence, horror, mystery, suspense and some even sex. In Japan Manga’s are very popular form of entertainment and therefore some of them are made into anime.

Anime are Japanese style of animation production. The word comes from word animation. Similarly to manga anime is also aimed on the same target audience as manga’s especially when some manga’s are being turned into anime. Anime are more than just a cartoons in Japan they are being taken seriously and some of the TV channels play anime during the prime times.

Manga vs Comics

What are the differences between comic and manga? Well most of the manga releases weekly but just parts of the full issue where the big western comic books are released usually every month full issue. Another difference is that manga is mainly black and white where western comic are fully coloured. Manga can be find in the general stores and newspaper stand in Japan where if you want to find quality western comic you will mainly have to go comic book stores.

Even though some manga’s are made into anime the animators do not use manga as story board. Story board for anime is made the same way as it is made for other types of animations, the story board is just based on the story that is shown in manga. If you read the manga and then watch the anime made after that manga you will notice that sometimes anime contains different scene or it complete rewrites the parts that are shown in manga. This happens when the manga contains something that is against the TV regulations or if the manga contains very disturbing parts they will be replaced with something different in anime to be more appropriate if the anime is shown in the prime time when there are even children watching.
(Manga for dummies)

Comic books into animated series

If we search for animated series based on comic we will see very few of them but these stories in these series are usually made up and do not follow the original comic books stories. Why are these type of animated movies not so popular in western cultures but in Japan they are huge hit? It is probably because the westerner thing of comic books as childish and do not give them a try. This maybe the reason but it my opinion it would be worth give it a try and create animated series based on comic books that would be aimed at same audience as are manga’s and I am pretty sure it would become very popular.

Comics vs Storyboard for Animation

Comics influence on Animation

If you were kid who liked to read comic books you would often see your favourite comics heroes in TV and then think that comics has been first template to influence animation in past. Some people may view comics as template that was then made into the animation, however this is not true. Even though there are many cartoons or animated movies about the heroes from the comic books that doesn’t mean that comics were made for purposes to become animation in the future. Some people may argue that comics is essentially storyboard for the animated movie but that is also not true because storyboards are very different from the comic books even if it may be confusing because of the similar strips that both comic books and story board contain.

Comics

When you read through comic book you will notice that the strips have variety, some are stretched some are smaller and some are just one whole page big. This would probably confuse animator and make it hard for him to follow in which order should scenes be made.

Comic books may also skip whole scene which would leave animator wondering what he should animate to get to another scene. Comic books do not provide any time or order which would help animator to know in what order the animation be and how long should the animation last.

There are however occasions where comics provides more insight what is happening in the scene such as when hero punches somebody the comic artist writes in onomatopoeia such as “bang” or “whack” to show the power of the hit which would be helpful for the animator distinguish how powerful should he made the hit look like.

Story board

Story board although look little bit similar to comics they are very different mainly for these reasons:

The strips in the story board are same sized and next to each other to make them easier to follow and to not confuse the animator. They also provide numbers or letters to show the order in which animation should go.

If we look at the story board made for cartoon we can see that in some strips there is animation happing right in following strip for example in one strip we see character looking forward and in next strip he is in same position same size but now he is looking upwards.

Another difference between comic book and the storyboard for cartoon is that the sound effected are noted bellow or above the strip. Storyboard for cartoon may also show distorted images of the character to show the animator what animation technique he should use such as blur to show that there is something happening very fast.

Conclusion

It may seem to some people that comics was one of the main influences on the animation because it reminds them of the storyboard but this is simply not true. There many factors that differs story board form comic, where the animators look at story board and they see the characters, their job is to bring them to life and make them move as the story board tells. Comic book is more and drawing art telling some kind of story