PHOTOGRAPHY AND OTHER TECHNICAL MATTERS
Respecting adaptability and results, the same motion-picture camera
that is used in the field, or the studio, can be used to make films
for animated cartoons. In making cartoons, however, two particulars
at variance with the usual procedure first must be noted: (1) The
camera is pointed downward and not horizontally, as is ordinarily
the case, and (2) with each turn of the camera handle only one
frame—one-sixteenth of a foot of film—is photographed, and not eight,
as is commonly the case.
The camera in making animated cartoons is held, pointing downward, by
a firmly built framework. The artist, having decided on the dimension
of the field for his drawings, determines the height approximately
of the camera above the table top, where the drawings are placed.
Naturally it will be high enough so that when he works at the table
while disposing the drawings, adjusting the dummies, or in some cases
making drawings, his head will not come in contact with the front
of the lens. The particular distance between the lens and the table
top is dependent upon the kind of lens in the camera. It is a common
practice to equip a camera with a two-inch (fifty-millimetre) lens.
It is possible to use a lens of this focus for cartoons.
There is no special type of structure for supporting the camera above
the board upon which the drawings are placed for photography. An
artist contemplating embarking upon this line of work, and intending
to carry on the whole process from the beginning to the time when he
hands the exposed film to the laboratory for development, will have a
chance to put any inventive ability that he may have into practice in
designing a framework for the purpose. In building such a structure
these things must be thought of: (1) The structure must be firmly
built so that the likelihood of the camera being jarred is lessened;
(2) the distance between the camera and board to be ascertained,
approximately at first; (3) an arrangement for fixing the camera in
a grooved sliding section so that its exact height can be adjusted
when the field and focus are definitely fixed or there is to be any
later readjustment. The camera, for instance, may get jarred and put
out of focus, or get set obliquely with respect to the lines defining
the field.
[Illustration: TYPICAL ARRANGEMENT OF CAMERA AND LIGHTS TO PHOTOGRAPH
DRAWINGS FOR ANIMATED CARTOONS.
_C._ Camera. _L._ Lights. _M._ Mechanism to turn camera shutter.
_F._ Hinged frame with glass to press down on the drawings. _B._
Board holding the registering pegs.]
Some animators have mounted their camera so that the same framework
can be used for a small field as well as a larger one. This
necessitates, each time that the size of field is changed, a
troublesome setting of the camera in order again. It is wisdom to
keep to one size of field for all work, so that when the camera is
once in position it need not be changed.
The frame that holds the glass, and which is hinged to the board
where the drawings are placed, and the registering pegs have already
been described. It is an excellent plan to have this board with the
above-named adjuncts separate but screwed down upon the table top. By
having it this way it is possible to have another means of getting
the camera and the field lines adjusted. Then if the outline of the
field on the board and those defining the field in the camera do not
fit each other exactly, the board can be unscrewed, shifted until it
is right, and fastened again.
In any film where there is a preponderance of straight
lines—horizontal ones, especially—it is a serious fault to have
the slightest obliquity. It will be emphasized on the screen. The
outlines of the little rectangular area, where the pictures are
taken in the camera, must coincide with the outlines of the field
on the board. When the field is fixed and permanently marked with
ink lines, it is a good plan to draw a smaller rectangle, one-half
inch all around, within the outer one. The idea of this is to have a
limiting area within which all important matters of the drawing are
kept.
If the animator has had any experience with the ordinary still
camera, the practical knowledge gained then will help him in the
matter of focussing, or regulating the diaphragm of the lens, so that
all the details of the picture are sharply defined. This comes next,
or rather in conjunction with the determining of the field and the
permanent fixing of the camera. In a still camera—that is to say,
an ordinary portrait or view apparatus—the focussing is on a ground
glass, while in a cinematographic instrument it is usual to place a
piece of celluloid with a grained surface somewhat like ground glass
into the place where the film passes. The picture is focussed on this
celluloid. Some, however, find a piece of blank film answers the
purpose.
To the above consideration of setting up the camera and ascertaining
the correctness of the field and the sharpness of the image, the
worker wise in perception will, before beginning any important work,
make a test. This is merely a matter of photographing a drawing, or
two, on a short length of film, taking it out of the camera, and
developing it. Here, again, any knowledge of photographic processes
previously learned will be found useful.
There are in all metropolitan centres film laboratories to which the
animator can send his exposed films to be developed and printed. But
for a test before beginning the work it is prudent and expeditious to
keep a supply of chemicals on hand, and then, in a few minutes, it
will be possible to tell how matters stand in any particular that is
in doubt.
The next step, after the camera has been fixed in place, is to
construct a mechanism by which it can be turned conveniently by the
photographer, as he is seated below at the board where the drawings
are placed. This is contrived by a system of sprocket-wheels and
chain-belts coming from the camera and carried down to the side of
the table top, where it ends in a wheel with a turning handle. For
the average individual this would not be a difficult construction
to put up; but it would be an altogether different problem if the
animator wished to equip his camera with an electric motor to turn
the camera mechanism. In this case he would have many things to
consider, getting the particular type of motor, for instance, that
will operate with the continual turning on and off of the power. Here
certainly the best course is to have an expert install the motor and
fix the intermediary mechanism connecting it with the camera-working
parts.
Electric motors to drive camera mechanisms are in general use among
those who make titles for moving-picture films. For this particular
branch of the industry they are an indispensable adjunct.
[Illustration: PART OF A LENGTH OF FILM FOR A TITLE.
For every second that the wording is viewed on the screen, sixteen
of these frames pass through the projector.]
It would seem to the spectator in the theatre, unfamiliar with the
technic of cinematography, that when he sees a title held on the
screen for any lengthy period, the practical way of effecting this
would be to have a single picture of this title kept stationary
during the period. But this is not the way the matter is worked out.
A title in a screen story is given a certain length of film, with
every frame in this length containing the same words. The particular
length—footage—allowed for a title depends upon the amount of its
reading-matter. Some titles are very long. One such, requiring,
say, fifteen feet, makes it necessary to turn the camera handle
two hundred and forty times, if the operation is by hand. A very
monotonous job. So title studios attach a motor and appropriate
mechanism to a camera, and with it, too, an automatic counter. Then
in photographing a title it is a simple matter of starting the
mechanically driven shutter, watching the figures on the counter
dial, and when the required exposures have been registered, pulling
the lever that stops the mechanism. Where a camera, however, is
used for animated drawings exclusively, a motor is not absolutely
necessary.
An automatic counter would be a very useful addition to a camera in
making dissolves. One form of these fantasies is that in which the
screen is perfectly black at first and then a small spot of light
appears, which grows larger by degrees, to reveal at the full opening
the scene or subject of the film. This is produced by a vignetter, or
iris dissolve. A vignetter is a device, fixed generally in front of a
lens, that consists of a number of crescent-shaped segments of thin
metal pivoted on a circumference. When these segments move in unison
toward the centre, they gradually decrease the aperture in the lens
tube. But when the movement is in a contrary direction, they cause
the aperture to open by degrees. Those who have used an ordinary
snap-shot camera no doubt are familiar with a similar device—the iris
diaphragm, or lens stop. But in the diaphragm the segments do not
completely close, and there is always a tiny opening left in the
centre. The iris dissolve, or vignetter, is made to close completely.
The way by which pictures are “faded on” is to start with the
vignetter closed and then open it while the camera handle is turned
to take the picture. To “fade off” a picture, the process is simply
reversed; _i. e._, gradually closing the vignetter while the last
part of the picture is being taken.
The most frequent application that an animated cartoon artist makes
of a vignetter is making cross dissolves, or causing one picture
to blend into another. Imagine now that the idea to be expressed,
through the medium of one of these cross dissolves, is that of a
character standing in an attitude of reflection and supposed to be
thinking of how he would look in a complete suit of armor. There
will be two drawings: one with the figure in ordinary dress, and the
other with him clad in the armor. First the picture with ordinary
dress is photographed. During this operation the vignetter is closed
by degrees. When it is closed, the film that was just photographed
upon is wound back again into the magazine. Now, as we know, during
this procedure the light, which was getting weaker and weaker,
proportionately lessened its effect on the sensitized emulsion of the
film, so that its picture-forming property was not all used up. There
is still a certain proportion of photographic potency left for the
next exposure. The next step is to replace the first drawing with the
one showing the character in armor.
[Illustration: VIGNETTER, OR IRIS DISSOLVE.
_Below_: Three stages during the movement of the pivoted segments.]
We left the vignetter completely closed, and the same length of film
that had just passed back of the lens has been wound back into
the magazine and is ready to cross the exposure field again and be
photographed upon the second time. Now the vignetter is gradually
opened, the new picture is being taken and blended with the image of
the first picture.
These two procedures in their method of operating and their effects
compensate one another. The gradual closing of the vignetter has its
reciprocal part in the gradual opening; the lessening of the light
strength is reciprocal to the increase of the light strength; then
the fading of definiteness in one picture is made up by the gradually
increasing clearness in the other.
In trick work of this kind a mechanical counter would be very useful
in measuring the length of film as it is turned into the magazine
and then out again. It is understood, of course, that our particular
counter also counts backward. And, again, with reference to cameras:
an animator when he selects his camera should be certain that he gets
one with which it is possible to turn the camera backward for making
these dissolves and any other trick work involving like manipulation.
Immediately above we gave certain reasons for the making of tests on
a small piece of film before photographing. Another matter for which
tests should be made is the question of illumination. It is important
that the field should be evenly illuminated. All this is an affair of
adjusting the lights; that is, getting them one on each side of the
camera in their proper positions with reference to the lens opening
and the distance away from the drawing-board.
[Illustration: DIAGRAM TO EXPLAIN THE DISTRIBUTION OF LIGHT IN A
CROSS DISSOLVE.
_A._ When the vignetter is gradually closed during the taking of
the first picture. (The film having been wound back is ready to be
photographed upon again for the second part of the procedure.) _B._
While the vignetter is gradually opened during the taking of the
second picture. _C._ The percentages of light in the two exposures
combined and giving the complete exposure time.]
The mercury vapor-lamp which, as has been mentioned, is in general
use for cartoon films, has besides its illuminating qualities
another great merit. It is this: it does not emit heat rays. When
it is remembered that an artist sometimes spends hours at a stretch
photographing his numerous drawings for a cartoon film, and that all
this time his head is but a few inches from the lights, this absence
of heat is a desirable feature.
The manner of going about the photography, which is the next stage of
the work, has been touched upon in another part of the book.
There are many more minute particulars in the making of an animated
film to be considered. Take, for instance, the technical questions
respecting the preparation of the drawings. In the process where most
of the drawings are made on paper, the paper should be a fair quality
of white linen ledger paper—but not too thick, as transparency is
a thing to think of, and it is preferable, too, that there be no
water-mark. The design of a water-mark would be a disturbing element
in tracing from one drawing to another. Ordinary black drawing ink
is used for the line work, but when a large area is to be solid
black, it has been found best to employ one of the black varnish
stains that are mixed with turpentine. In spite of the turpentine
medium it is possible to apply it to paper. These black stains are an
intense black and do not lose their strength when viewed through the
celluloid sheets.
It is not usual to obliterate a mistake in drawing with white
pigment, as it is an uncertain quantity in photography. Whether or
not it will come out as a patch of gray, or photograph correctly
as white, is difficult to judge beforehand. It is best to take out
ink lines that are not wanted with a sharp-bladed penknife and then
smooth the surface of the paper with an ink eraser (of rubber).
In drawing over the smooth surface of the celluloid a preliminary
cleaning with weak ammonia water will make the ink flow evenly. It
is of course understood that the celluloid sheets can be used again
after any particular film is finished. Ink or pigment can very easily
be washed off with water.
In drawing on celluloid with a pen it is well to select one that
will not scratch the surface. Scratches will hold, in their shallow
depths, enough ink or pigment to break the evenness of a uniform
background. They will come out as spots on the film. A well-worn pen,
one that has been “broken in,” as the pen draftsmen say, is the best.
The scheme of employing celluloid sheets to hold simple ink drawings,
which scheme is in common usage in the art, has been adapted to the
purpose of holding intricate drawings in distemper pigment. Before
drawing any series of movements on celluloid it is the usual plan to
work out all the scenes and actions on paper first and then trace
them, from these drawings, to the surface of the celluloid.
When the drawings for a cartoon have been photographed, the
magazine into which the exposed film has been wound is taken out
of the camera. Then, in the dark room, the film is taken out of
this magazine and put into a regulation tin can and sent to the
laboratory. And so as to make it quite certain that the lid will not
slip off and spoil the whole reel, it is sealed around the edge with
a piece of adhesive tape.
After the film has been developed, the next step in the process
is that of printing the positive. This as well as the remaining
technical matters is attended to by the laboratory. Titles, to
be sure, could have been made at the same time that the animated
pictures were taken; but it is found advisable to have titles made by
a studio that does this work exclusively and then have them joined to
the film in their proper order.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATING THE OPERATION OF ONE TYPE OF
MOTION-PICTURE PRINTER.]
With respect to this joining, or splicing, this is also looked after
for the animator at the film laboratory. But as it is not difficult
to do, the animator—impatient to have his film completed, and not
caring to wait until the laboratory finish it—will try his hand at
it, no doubt.
[Illustration: ANOTHER PLAN FOR AN ANIMATOR’S DRAWING-BOARD.
Reflecting the light with a mirror does away with the direct glare of
the electric lamp.]
He needs for this a little device to hold the two ends of the film
together in their proper relationship while he spreads on the
overlapping section a little film cement. This is a firm adhesive.
The emulsion on the film where the cement is spread must be removed
by a little moistening.
When the positive is entirely finished, with main title and
subtitles, it is ready for screen examination. Then only will the
artist be able to see, as a finality, his skill as an animator, his
expertness as a technical worker, his cleverness as a humorist, and
the extent of his adroitness in plot construction.
[Illustration: CANINE THOUGHTS.
In giving screen life to the above, the dog and dish would be drawn
but once on celluloid and the other parts separately drawn for each
phase of the movement.]
ON HUMOROUS EFFECTS AND ON PLOTS