At present, the main software tools for making MG animation are AE, PS, AI and C4D. AE can be said to be a good tool for MG animation. Anyone who knows about AE knows that the motion graphics module of AE is very powerful. The use of two graphic design softwares, PS and AI, also greatly enhances the expressive force of animation graphics and makes them full of vitality. C4D motion graphics module is also very powerful, and can only be output after final rendering in AE.
Recently, with the rise of short videos, many advertisements and short videos are in the form of MG animation. So many people are confused about MG animation. What is MG animation? What's the difference with ordinary animation? Today, Shadow Morning Culture will tell you about the introduction and production process of MG animation, hoping to help you!
Traditional graphic design is mainly a relatively static visual expression of graphic media, while MG animation is an image visual symbol made on the basis of graphic design.
MG is the abbreviation of MotionGraphic or Mograph, which is literally translated as "dynamic graphics" or "graphic animation", usually called "MG animation", which can be understood as a style of expression. Dynamic graphics refer to "graphics that change shape with the flow of time". MG animation design can transform static plane images and shapes into dynamic visual effects, and can also transform static characters into dynamic text animation.
MG animation can even create a three-dimensional virtual space, and make some design elements of the plane three-dimensional, giving it new vitality and expressiveness. The difference between MG animation and animation is that MG animation focuses on non-narrative and non-figurative visual expression, while traditional animation serves the story.
What is the process of MG animation?
The creation of MG animation contains roughly a dozen links, each of which is very important, as shown in the figure. The relationship between rings belongs to "multiplication", that is, the script level is 0.8 and the mirror level is 0.8, and the result is 0.8×0.8=0.64.
General process of MG animation production
Relatively speaking, the creative links in the middle and late stages are based on the previous scripts and settings, so the preliminary work is particularly important. Once the middle and late stage work is carried out, if the early stage is still being adjusted, the modification work in the middle and late stage will be extremely cumbersome and inconvenient, wasting a lot of time and labor costs. Because there are many links involved, the length of this paper is limited, and only a few key links are selected for introduction.
Script copy
Before making MG animation, customers or designers should make clear the specific production ideas and ideas, and then make clear the approximate time, the number of shots, the dubbing of lines and so on according to these ideas.
Good copy can make up for the lack of pictures and supplement the picture information. In MG animation, copywriting mainly exists in two forms: one is voiceover commentary, which needs to be dubbed later; The other is pure subtitle display, and there is no dubbing later. These two forms and pictures complement each other and cooperate with each other, so that MG animation can be presented in a more complete posture. In the process of writing a copy, we should first make clear the form of the copy, and then consider the complementarity between the copy and the picture.
In some commercial projects, the specific needs of copywriting often come from customers. Therefore, in the process of copywriting, we should fully consider the customer's needs and the handling of the relationship between screen information, not only to meet the customer's needs and complete the expression of needs in the screen, but also to give consideration to artistic creation, so as to make the whole MG animation more ornamental.
The overall tone of an MG animation lies in the copy and the picture, in which the copy can convey the author's intentions and demands, make the picture vivid, highlight the theme and let the audience understand the meaning of the theme, as shown in the figure. Therefore, the most important thing in the copy of MG animation is that the sentences are concise and accurate, which is convenient for compressing time. In addition, the text has a strong sense of picture, which is beneficial for designers to grasp the design points.
Artistic background
Before drawing, you need to set the main shape, tone and style of the animation. Under normal circumstances, according to the early copywriting script, the set roles are first drawn uniformly, and then one or two pages are drawn to determine the tone and so on. To ensure the overall unity of the later pictures. After establishing the overall style of animation, you can start to draw the original painting in large quantities according to the script, as shown in the figure.
Design separation lens
Shot splitting refers to designing and processing each shot through words and drawings on the basis of copywriting before making MG animation, marking the shots in sequence, and writing the corresponding copywriting under each shot. In this process, the expression, action, image and style design of the scene can be reflected, as shown in the figure.
The shots of MG animation are mostly two-dimensional pictures, and some three-dimensional pictures will be interspersed according to the actual situation. In MG animation, creating split shots can improve the efficiency of the whole production process and allow animators to complete the actual animation in the shortest time. In the process of creating shots, we need to pay attention to these aspects: lens design, scene design, picture style design and so on.
Drawing materials
After the artistic style and lens design are completed, you can enter the medium-term creative link. MG animation is mainly based on simple geometric drawing, and good painting skills and color matching skills can greatly enhance the overall visual experience, as shown in the figure.
In terms of software use, Illustrator is mainly used as a drawing tool and Photoshop as a processing tool. Because MG animation mostly uses vector material, the required graphics are usually drawn in Illustrator, and then imported into other animation software for post-processing.
If you are creating MG animation with "people" as the main element, you can design a set of cartoon images with the same design style according to the copy, as shown in the figure. It should be noted here that the designed role is aimed at making MG animation, so the limbs need to be flexible and operable.
Scene drawing is mainly to realize the scene drawn in the process of shooting script creation on software. You also need to draw vector elements in Illustrator and import animation software according to the copy and overall tone of MG animation.
Sound production
An MG animation is an audio-visual language, and sound and picture are two very important parts in the language. Among them, sound includes three aspects-dubbing, music and sound effect, and the creation of sound in MG animation is also based on these three aspects.
Dubbing refers to presenting the created copy in MG animation in the form of voiceover, and the dubbing style depends on the specific needs of MG animation. For example, serious commercial MG animation, dubbing requires clear articulation and standard pronunciation.