Winging Dreams through Animation – Basics Explained

Animation has been turning dreams into reality for a long. In the beginning, it mainly involved the experts drawing by hand for each and every frame, creating the animation sequence. All it required was the simplest tools of the trade, that is, paper and a pen or a pencil. The traditional animation methods relied heavily on drawing, which is an important skill required of any animator. For a successful animation career, an artist must be well acquainted with it in order to prepare quick sketches for a story character or a theme.

Besides, it is important to learn how to animate with a pencil before you can learn to animate on computers; learning how to draw gains prominence. AAFT School of Animation encourages its students to practice drawing and sketching as a basic step to develop the skill, required for traditional and modern-day character animation.

Every student at the institute is taught to follow this basic methodology in animation drawing,

• Draw what you See
• Draw what you Feel

The students, who do not have a good freehand drawing talent, get ample guidance from the faculty to explore and observe various objects around the campus. To master this skill, every student is encouraged to draw freehand shapes, curves, abstract geometric shapes, etc. to get a perspective on the real-world objects and 2-dimensional objects drawn on paper.

The art and craft of animation begin with basic drawing and continue to the sketching of life-forms. For instance, to be able to draw characters you need to draw human forms, animals, birds, insects, etc. This thought process stimulates young minds to stretch their imagination and creativity. They can always draw people on the street or in a café, a dog with his master, a bird in the nest – anything that will inspire them to enhance their power of expression.

Traditional animation is lengthy and boring, but mandatory to master the technique of movement. Our School also incorporates paper set patterns, puppets, and clay figure sculpting in the curriculum for the aspiring animators of tomorrow.