vector animation in wakfu the animated series
TRANSCRIPT
1.0 Introduction
When it was realized that both the internet speed and computer technology at
the time cannot handle graphics and animated imagery that the community on the
internet started to demand, vector-based softwares were developed. To add, White
(2006, p.392) made a mention that the invention of vector graphics is indeed a big
leap in digital art technology. This is when Macromedia Flash, the first vector-based
software is first introduced and completely revolutionized web animation as it offers
both greater capability of motion-based imagery as well as the inclusion of sound.
According to Greenberg (2007, p. 115), vector graphics are made of geometrical
methods such as points, lines and curves which are all based on mathematical
equations. While a vector image is capable of looking identical to hand drawn images
and pictures, compared to them it is very small in file size thanks to its mathematical
nature; meaning that it is processed like an equation rather than as image-based
matters. This ultimately reduces the load on the computer.
To continue, the invention of vector graphics later give emergence to vector
animation, which can be defined as a sequence of a series of vector images that
provides an illusion of movements, in contrary to traditional animation, it utilizes
vector graphics instead of raster (pixel based) images. But White (2006, p. 392) also
focuses on an issue stating that vector animation differs from traditional, conventional
ones and therefore requires a different approach. As an evidence, in its earliest version
Flash is actually a website development tool that just happens to have a very
economic animation capacity meant to create slightly animated images for web pages.
The resourcefulness of traditional animators however adapted its use and this defined
a new industry standard for animation. Its pioneers do admit that significant
limitations do exist, however. Ever since Flash’s earliest time, vector animation
technology has advanced tremendously, such as the emergence of the more
traditional-styled vector software ToonBoom which is unlike Flash whereas it is
specifically made for animation. However, the economic approach to animation that
Flash offers still remain as the choice of some studios.
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The emergence of vector animation owes itself to a dark history as can be seen
in the words of Young & Young (2010, p. 166), where the two of them retell the story
of the declining of America’s golden age of animation after the World War II era,
where the cost for animation technology and crew increased drastically. The pressure
studios put on production companies to minimize production budget made things
worse. As a result many animation companies got shut down, putting an end to the
golden age and stunted animation development. Bidgoli (2003, p. 655) however
mentioned that the emergence of vector animation revived the production of cartoons
and animated shorts by making the process of production much cheaper and more
accessible to all. However due to low budget allocation the animations that came out
were still of much lower quality than what it used to be. This never gave vector
animation the chance to be shown to the public as an equally competitive method for
animating despite its potential capability.
Still, animation continues to be developed in the United States and as a result
some studios like Hanna Barbera both innovated and flourished in the arts of limited
animation as mentioned by White (2006, p. 394), creating animations that give
viewers the illusion of seeing full animations despite the actual work only containing
limited movements unlike those that can usually be found during the Golden Age.
This innovation continues to thrive further, giving birth to memorable cartoon series
in the later years such as Dexter’s Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, and El Tigre among
others. However, none of them reached Wakfu’s level of quality.
(http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Wakfu) Wakfu The Animated Series is
one of the few known productions that makes full use of vector animation’s
capabilities. Produced in France, the series is not aired internationally and yet it has
gained a following cult from all over the world thanks to the quality it demonstrates,
especially as a vector animation. There are animated features such as Sylvain
Chomet’s Triplets of Belleville, The Illusionist, as well as Tomm Moore and Nora
Twomey’s The Secret of Kells which are done via vector means whereas while all
three overshadow Wakfu’s quality, they are of feature length in nature and therefore
require a different kind of budget and production process. In its class, Wakfu stands
peerless as an animated series in terms of quality of animation for the time being.
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The plot of Wakfu follows Grougalolagran, a powerful dragon who feels a bad
premonition coming and decides to put his human offspring, Yugo under the care of
someone trustworthy to keep his son safe from an expected danger and until the right
time comes, Yugo is to be kept away from searching for his real father. With his
magical eyes that can see through a living being’s soul and intent, Grougalolagran
finally finds in a village, Alibert, a benevolent and retiring bounty hunter who stands
for his people before the law. Following his finding, Grougalolagran picks a nearby
Tofu, a kind of bird that Yugo later named Az, to be his companion and to encrypt a
message within Alibert that will tell him what to do when the time comes. With it,
Grougalolagran left both Yugo and Az to be picked up by Alibert, who later takes
care of them both without hesitations. Yugo grows up well under Alibert’s care, and
has become a great cook of the restaurant Alibert opened prior to his retirement as a
bounty hunter. One day, in a kitchen accident Yugo used his power which involves
teleportation portals unintentionally. He proceeded to experiment and play around
with it. This, along with some other following commotions attracted the arch villain
Nox that has been searching for Yugo. Nox proves to be too powerful for Yugo and
his companions both old and new to handle. Adept in time magic, Nox single
handedly stops the time around him and tries to claim Yugo, the person with an
abundant essence of life that he seeks. But through strong will that is born from
fatherly love, Alibert manages to fight against the effect of Nox’s spell and shatter its
source. Nox is unharmed and escapes the fight safely however, while Alibert becomes
old as an effect to fighting against the spell’s effect. It is later that the message
Grougalolagran imprinted in him is decrypted and commands Yugo to seek his real
father.
2.0 Objectives
Inspired by its success, this study will focus on various aspects of vector animation
like quality of animation, cost in both money and time, as well as animator workload
so that the results from doing this search could shed a new light on the true
capabilities of vector animation techniques that could revolutionize the animation
industry, especially in low budget productions.
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3.0 Problem Statement
Despite looking clean and optimized, vector animation do pose a number of
problems to animators. One of which White (2006, p. 392) made mention of is a
problem where vector animation being substantially different compared to traditional
animation in both looks and how it works. Technically it requires some time for
traditional animators, no matter how expert to become adept at adapting the use of
vector format in the production of an animation and even then it is still challenging to
ensure the animated movements are both smooth and looks as good as those that can
be found in a traditional animation. This problem is especially true for Flash as made
clear by Young & Young (2010, p. 166), where as the two stated, it has resulted in
many skilled animators favoring the use of a more traditional oriented animation
software which only high budget studios can afford. As a consequence, this leaves
Flash animation to the less funded ones that can only afford to pay Flash animators
that are more or less fresh to the scene and cannot animate as well as their better
skilled and funded adversaries.
To add, White (2006, p. 392) also said that vector animation is also rather
known for the fact that its file is tough to manage and to make sure it is under a
controllable environment. A vector graphic file with too much complexity but with a
poor management would prove to be very heavy to the system. As a result, animating
fluid movements would be much more challenging considering the lack of sources. A
similar problem in the most recent history occurs in the times of Hanna Barbera,
where the budget for most animation productions had been cut extensively, allowing
them with only limited sources to work with. With Flash however, this limitation is
more severe since even with a better budget, Flash can only handle so much. With a
less experienced crew to work with, this becomes almost impossibly challenging to
achieve. Few studios have thrived under Flash based productions, and even fewer in
number are those that are able to make quality animations with it. As can be seen
these days, Flash is usually used to produce animation series charting only mediocre
quality as can be seen in animated series like Southpark and Foster’s Home For
Imaginary Friends.
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White (2006, p. 393) also stated that when Flash was first introduced, it was
actually meant as a website creation software with economic animating capacity
originally designed for minimal animated elements like those can be found in a
website’s button or logo. Past the golden age of animation however, resourceful
animators had put it to a good use to publish their minimalistic production on the web.
Still, it can only handle and transfer so much of complicated animated sequences to
viewers on the internet. Ever since that time, Flash’s animation capabilities has been
improved by a mile, even though it is still not suited for an all out animation in
compliance to keeping its original use intact. Regardless, Ankama Groups for reasons
yet unknown has chosen Flash as its primary animation software for the production of
Wakfu despite the many shortcomings Flash posses. Whereby normally few top brass
animation studios would opt the use of Flash as their main animation software
considering how it is not suited for an all out production series.
Which is a strange case considering that Flash techniques still have significant
limitations as stated by Cantrell, Hall, & Torrone (2002, p. 168) Whereas with every
embedded animation element, file size increases and and even the fastest of
processors can only handle so much. This results in lower playback rates, which can
pose a problem in a production. Failing to make use of what little resources available
look convincing (especially in the production of a television-broadcasted animation)
would result in either a very stiff or expressionless style of animation. Choosing to
expand the number of available frames to increase materials to work with in this case
would ultimately pay a toll in file size as well as the requirement of working memory.
All these tight limitations are contradicting the requirement of a good Flash animation
in itself, yet without breaking any of it, one would find that it is almost impossible to
create a good Flash animation, let alone an excellent one with very fluid animations
(or one that projects an illusion of quality animation for that matter) surpassing even
that of any animations produced via means much closer to traditional mediums. At
most, generally one would find that by not breaking the limitations, one could only
create animations of very minimalist nature. On the other hand, if they are to be
broken, one would find that the file size would increase in addition to it consuming
too much working memory and by chance would even overwhelm as well as crashing
the processor due to overloading.
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4.0 Significance of Research
Although it generally takes time for a traditional animator to get accustomed to
vector animation techniques, often is the case where a well-educated animator would
find this technique to be providing sufficient aide in animating, thus reducing the
workload on animators and this eventually increases an animator’s productivity rate.
To add, since work rate is hastened, more time can be allocated for both the quality
and detail level of an animation production. White (2006, p. 286) regarding this
matter elaborates on his opinion saying that most modern animation software
certainly makes it easier to animate in technical terms up to the point where a person
does not even need to know how to draw in order to animate. To animate creatively
well within the bounds of a modern animation software however, White (2006, p.
294) further adds that an animator who is of innately or well trained artistry can be
trained to eventually learn how to work and animate digitally in an accomplished way.
As to which, it can be seen in White’s opinion that digitized animation processes do
have many benefits and any problems that is associated with differences from
working traditionally can be overcome one way or another in the hands of any good
animator.
While file management is a quite a problem in vector animation, given the
animators are specialists in vector file managements this can be advantageous seeing
as vector file sizes, especially Flash files, are really small in size as written by Parsons
& Oja (2011, p. 448). This can benefit in many ways. For example, these files can be
transferred much faster across various platforms. On top of that, it would also require
much less computer resources to work with. With fewer requirements across various
issues, studios can invest excess money somewhere else in making sure that it is
running smoothly in the production of an animation project. A well-rounded
investment within an animation studio would ensure a project will see a bright end.
The animating process is also likely to present itself with much less computers
overloading in the work process in consort of the small work file size. The small file
size would also ease the process of storing work files since the files would only
require minimal space. In addition to that, small file size can result in the possibility
of increasing the graphical details available within a vector animation substantially
relative to file size increase.
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Although Flash isn’t originally meant for creating animations, White (2006,
p.406) also said that at the same time it offers a very economical way of working with
animation wherein he mentioned the fact that vector animation can be resized and
reused indefinitely without compromising on the quality of the resized element. This
process is also very minimalist in terms of resource usage and can be committed
without much hassle. In the animation industry, this is an invaluable aspect as any
scene that requires recurring animation of a particular element but of a differing shot
distance, for example, can be reused indefinitely regardless of the original size the
element is drawn at. Greenberg (2007, p. 115) thus made a statement that in the case
of 2D animation, this is only possible with vector animation because the created
images are actually made of mathematical calculations. Whereas with every change in
size is to occur, the processor would only need to recalculate certain elements and
render the resized element in full quality. Aside from advantages in resizing, the
mathematical nature of vector animation also renders it as very light as compared to
raster animations. All of these advantages when combined ultimately reduce work
time.
To continue, White (2006, p.394) also said that although vector animation,
especially Flash animation, has many limitations, it is at the same time also has its
own value and can be considered to be of a class of its own. Seen from a certain point
of view, Flash animation cultivates creativity by presenting its animators with the
challenge of creating maximum results out of the least resources. In the light of this
issue, this fairly difficult innerworking of Flash often push animators to their limit and
thus capable of making them coming up with new animation techniques as in the
times of Hanna Barbera. As mentioned earlier, one of the best examples of Flash
animation that made the most out of limited resources is Wakfu The Animated Series
where it clearly shows that Flash animation does not have to look cheap nor badly
done up to the point that it does not even have to look like the general Flash animation
that comes out on television like El Tigre, for example. Few however has dared to
venture into the heights that Wakfu did in fear of not having the manpower skilled
enough to undertake the animation process. This shows that if taken seriously, Flash
can be a very effective medium for animation.
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5.0 Scope of Research
The research scope of this study will first focus on a scene found in Episode
one, at minute 3:32. In this scene, Nox’s robotic bug is shown to be draining the life
energy of a tree in the foreground while the arch villain Nox confronts the dragon
Grougaloragran for the first time. In the draining process, all of the tree’s numerous
leaves are shown to be falling from it.
Following the first scene, the second scope will focus on a scene yet found in
Episode one, at minute 4:52. This scene shows that after Nox stops time in his battle
with Grougaloragran, he begins to leap from one falling rock to another consecutively
in a fairly complex and very fluid maneuver in order to retrieve his sword which got
thrown in the air in an explosion caused earlier by Grougaloragran, all the while
leaving trails to show an effect of Nox’s swift movements.
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The third scope focuses on a scene found in Episode 3, at minute 2:37. The
scene shows the protagonist Yugo getting excited seeing the wares offered at a stall he
is checking out. In the background is an anonymous woman who is seen carrying a
basket of meat from the left towards the right end of the frame. Although
chronologically she appears first in Episode 3 anonymously, both the character and
the very same movement is actually rehashed as the mother of a character named
Goultard in a special episode 23 episodes apart entitled Goultard Special, at minute
0:37. In the Goultard Special episode, her animation however is seen mirrored where
she is shown walking from right to left instead of her former appearance in episode 3
as can be seen in the screenshot of said scene below.
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6.0 Findings
In episode one, at minute 3:32 of Wakfu The Animated Series, numerous leaves
are shown withering from a tree. Back then in the days where animation is done
traditionally, scenes like this are considered to be very tedious work as each element
on each frame has to be animated individually on translucent cells arranged together
to create a scene. Rearranging each individual cell the leaves are on whilst replacing
them with the progressed frames each time ought to take a lot of time. With a modern
animation software like Flash however, all that is needed to be done is to create a
single leaf and a variety of other frames for it in one single dictated instance. The leaf
animation can then be done in one stationary position by dictating which frame should
be shown at what time, before appointing it to fall in the way intended. It can then be
resized, copied and pasted to be further edited to create other variations of the falling
leaf animation. When enough variations are done, all that the animator has to do is
repeat the steps and carefully place each falling leaf animations in place and Flash
should do the proceeding work of animating the leaves by itself. This is just one of the
many examples of how a modern animation software is worth mastering as it would
prove to be a great aide for any traditional animators, as stated by White (2006, p.
286) earlier.
Following the first noted scene, in the same episode at minute 4:52, the arch
villain Nox is shown performing complicated combat maneuvers mid air. Although
this scene seems overly complicated to animate, through the creative use of Flash and
knowledge in animation it is made much easier to animate and with much less work
too. Instead of creating full animations, the limitations that Flash comes with as stated
by White (2006, p.394) has cultivated the creativity of Wakfu’s animators to turn it
into an advantage, which is actually done by creating illusions of fluid movements
whereby most of the time rehashing of the same frames which are just slightly moved
occur. This is especially true for the trails that follow Nox, which is just a
repositioned copy of the original animated instance and are especially used to create
an illusion of fluid movements when the actual animation is far less fluid. As the
process of animating Nox in one stationary position is done, the rest is put into motion
by using the same methods as the falling leaves mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Of which, this scene shares many of the same benefits as the scene on 3:32 does. Here
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it can be seen how even limitations can prove to be beneficial as can be seen as well
in the earlier times of Hanna Barbera, the pioneers of limited animation as can be seen
in The Flintstones. Wakfu however takes limited animation to another level by
utilizing it to overcome even full animation techniques by tricking viewer’s eyes into
seeing it as being even better than a fully animated sequence.
While the third scope focuses on both scenes found in Episode 3, at minute 2:37
and another in a special episode 23 episodes apart entitled Goultard Special, at minute
0:37 where an obviously rehashed model is used on the latter episode as a fairly
important supporting character. It is apparent in this scene that no matter how much
skill a vector animator has, one will either find oneself bounded by Flash’s limitations
or enticed by Flash’s simplification of digitized animating process eventually. The
rehashed models found in these two scenes show inclination towards the latter
whereby whether the problem is time or money related, it shows a sign that due to
permitting condition, the animators have chosen to rehash the same character model
just to see it done without making much effort to differentiate between the two. Even
though it may be largely unnoticed due to how far apart the episodes are, when
compared side by side it certainly shows in a cheap, negative way. Here it appears
that what White (2006, p. 392) said regarding Flash files being tough to manage
seems to have come into play which in turn results into this noticeable problem. The
severe limitations seem to have kept up in preventing the animators from creating a
genuine character for each of the scenes, especially the latter one.
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7.0 Conclusion
Based on the research that has been done on Wakfu The Animated Series, a
conclusion has been made in the form of an idea that enforces the assumption that
vector animation is definitely capable of revolutionizing the 2D animation industry.
Even though bigger production houses may prefer pitching in money into a 3D
animation production, smaller studios can start small and utilize part of their incomes
to train their animators to better understand the vector animation software of their
studio’s choice, either Flash or other vector based animation programs. This would
pay in the end as animators with better mastery in their working software would
definitely perform better and more efficient in each upcoming production and would
ultimately bring the studio good in the long run. From there, quality of productions
would increase, therefore creating more interest in 2D animation and when that
happens, the industry will regulate by itself. Areas of study for animation would be
expanded, and the animation workforce will grow naturally, bringing further
prosperity to both the company they work for and the industry itself. Although, for
this to happen, producers of animation companies need to consider this matter and
give it a chance to happen.
Otherwise, animation students could try to innovate by creating their own
animated shorts. With enough effort and ingenuity, a five to ten minutes short of
something that is similar to Wakfu’s quality should be achievable even when done
alone. With enough time spent on it, an animated short of satisfying quality should be
able to be produced and published on the internet for example. From there, one might
find oneself being offered jobs by various companies. Or one could even try to apply
for his or her short to be screened at a film or animation festival. When these steps of
innovation are practiced by not only a small number, but by a whole community of
animation students, it would surely attract attention in the long run and bring with it
various forms of fortune. Students could even collaborate with each other to create an
independent production of much greater stature, which could possibly possess a
bigger value whether in terms of points of interest or even as a showcase of skill.
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References
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Cantrell, C., Hall, B., & Torrone, P. (2002, May 14) Flash Enabled: Flash Design
and Development for Devices.
Greenberg, I. (2007, June 1). Processing: Creative Coding and Computational Art
(Foundation).
Parsons, J.J. & Oja, D. (2011) New Perspectives on Computer Concepts 2011.
Wakfu. (2011). In Television Tropes & Idioms. Retrieved Feb 11, 2011, from
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Wakfu
White, T. (2006, August 4). Animation from pencils to pixels: classical techniques
for digital animators.
Young, W. H. & Young, N. K. (2010, September 17). World War II and the Postwar
Years in America: A Historical and Cultural Encyclopedia Volume 2.
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