Equipment for an Animation Studio

[sunovian]

Hi Friends
What are the equipments needed for a small animation studio setup. I reside in INDIA. A six guys having only FLASH knowledge (all are about five years experienced) have put this small setup. Within a 6 months they have delivered two 5 minute FLASH PRESENTATIONS. They had used only FLASH (and PHOTO SHOP for some Bitmap images). We can get jobs for 8 to 10 minutes short films too. I am a hand drawing artist, having 25 years of Advertising Field experience, resently joined them. Now we are thinking of investing some more money and buy some more materiel for our studio. At presant we have an 8 Number of P4 Computers. All have Intel Mother Boards, 3 Ghrz Processor, 2 GB Ram, 32 mb nVidia Graphix card. I know Photoshop and now learning Flash. None of us know any 3D application. But if we get a 3D job we are prepared to engage some freelance 3D Animators. Comparing to America and Europe things are cheaper here in INDIA. As well as employees. Since we have got western clients we can manage our financial affairs we hope.

I want to know some things. Since I was a manual artist I am more interested in Cel Animation than Flash Animation. So first we are thinking of buying Cel Animation Equipments. Here what I want to know is what all the applications are used in 2D Animation Presentations.

What applications are used in presant day 2D Animation feature films ( not in the Audio side). Don't laugh. I don't have any big ideas. I am just curious and want to learn things. How far the Cel Animation is used in presant day 2D movies. Especially for Back Grounds. Whether they are using scanned hand drawn Back Ground Images or Digital vector Back Grounds. And how many animators would be there in a feature film studio approximately. This is enough for a start. If I show more curiosity I may be ignored I’m scared.

Thank you friends

[phacker]

I really don't think traditional cel animation has a real future.

Instead of worrying about how many employees, you should be out there drumming up business. You've delivered five productions, look for more and grow according to your market. Hire as you need specialists. Setting up the ultimate studio isn't going to insure you business. But if you have a list of potential clients waiting for finished work, that's what will get your studio off the ground.

[sunovian]

Dear Phacker!
Thank you for your kind advise. Counting employees was just out of curiosity. But my other two questions were serious. I really want to know about the Back Grounds.
Whether the movies are using scanned hand painted Back Ground Images or Digitally drawn vector Back Grounds? Since we are primarily working on 2D Ainmation it's easier for me painting backgrounds mannually than drawing vector backgrounds in computor. Though we have WACOM TABLET Digital Graphic pen I am not able to get the flow what I am getting while drawing mannually. And what are the other aplications used in 2D Animation than Flash and Photo Shop? These two questions are vital for me. Please try to give me these two answers.

Thank You Very much

[beeblebrox]

If you are more comfortable doing hand-painted backgrounds, then I'd stick with that and just scan them in.

For 2d cel animation, I'd recommend either Toon Boom Solo or Digicel Flipbook, both of which work for traditional animators looking for a digital ink&paint solution. Flipbook is a lot cheaper but maybe less powerful and less suited for a studio environment than Toon Boom.

[EustaceScrubb]

Sunovian: If you're looking for software that can assist you in making animation that has more of a traditional hand-drawn "cel" look you should check out TVPaint Animation (http://www.tvpaint.com). You can use TVPaint to draw directly using a Wacom tablet or you can import animation drawings into TVPaint for coloring. As Beeblebrox mentioned there are also other very good applications such as DigiCel Flipbook and ToonBoom which can be used for coloring scanned drawings. You can also draw directly in ToonBoom using a Wacom tablet. I believe I've heard that the latest version of Digicel also has improved drawing tools , but I haven't seen the new version yet. The older version of Digicel did not have drawing tools which could match the subtly of something like TVPaint or even ToonBoom. It depends what style you want to use. I prefer TVPaint because it has a greater range of drawing and painting tools which "feel" like natural media , but some people prefer the vector tools in Flash or ToonBoom. Or a combination of both. Some people do their rough animation on paper or with a program like TVPaint because it is a more free form of sketching for rough animation , then import the rough images over to something like Flash or ToonBoom to do the final clean-ups with a vector line which reduces the final file size of the project.

[sunovian]

Dear Beeblebrox
If I use scaned backgrounds the file size will drastically rise. I think I can try Toon Boom Solo as you suggest.
ThankYou very much.

[sunovian]

Dear EustaceScrubb

You have shown me a right site I think. I went in to their Painting Gallery.Seeing those good paintings I am getting hope on that Application. As you said it has a greater range of drawing and painting tools which "feel" like natural media. First I will go for the trial version.

Thanks a lot for a useful idia.

[Daniel Poeira]

As for 2d software, I also recommend Toon Boom - and also Moho (now known as Anime Studio) for different possibilities.

But you asked for equipment, so here are some suggestions:

- The best AMD PCs you can buy :) (Macs are expensive and have no real advantage except they look cute)
- One old TV to serve as a monitor. No matter how your movie looks great on your computer monitor, it's the real-life TV that will define the colors and contrats in the image. If you have extra money, but also an HD TV set. You can slso use it to impress your clients.
- A coffee machine. You don't have to like coffee. Just drink it.
- Electric pencil sharpeners (in case someone is wondering, no, there is no such think as an electric pencil).
- A video camera. No matter the quality, even a VHSC will do - but it's important for animators to shoot themselves acting and later analyse the video on the computer.
- Meeting table and comfy chairs, so your clients can feel good while discussing projects and pricing.
- An external hard drive, to easily move large amounts of files between computers.
- A good video game, so you can relax while you wait for the render to finish.

That's about all I can say from my animation studio experience. Have fun :)