Video Production | Animation
Are you looking for animation for your next big project? Do you want dynamic cinematics for your television commerical? Need eye-catching graphics for your mobile app? Parralux specializes in animation & video production with an emphasis on storytelling. We can assist or manage your production pipeline from initial design and storyboards all the way through final animation. Whether you're based in West Chester or on the West Coast, Parralux makes animation easier.
At Parralux, we're proud to offer a roster of talented animators - no matter what style your project requires.
Traditional animation
Traditional animation, sometimes referred to as cel animation, is one of the older forms of animation, in it the animator draws every frame to create the animation sequence. Just like they used to do in the old days of Disney. If you’ve ever had one of those flip-books when you were a kid, you’ll know what I mean. Sequential drawings screened quickly one after another create the illusion of movement.
In traditional animation, animators draw images on a transparent piece of paper fitted on a peg using a colored pencil, one frame at the time. Animators usually test animations with very rough drawings to see how many frames they would need for the action to work. The animation process of traditional animation can be lengthy and costly. Once the clean-up and the in-between drawings are complete, the production would move on to photographing each individual frame. Today, though, traditional animation can be done on a computer using a tablet, and does not require actual photography of individual frames.
Vector-based 2D animation
2D animation is the term often used when referring to traditional hand-drawn animation, but it can also refer to computer vector animations that adopts the techniques of traditional animation.
Vector-based animations, meaning computer generated 2D animations, use the exact same techniques as traditional animation, but benefits from the lack of physical objects needed to make traditional 2D animations, as well as the ability to use computer interpolation to same time.
3D animation
3D animation, also referred to as CGI, or just CG, is made by generating images using computers. That series of images are the frames of an animated shot.
The animation techniques of 3D animation has a lot of similarities with stop-motion animation, as they both deal with animating and posing models, and still conforms to the frame-by-frame approach of 2D animation, but it is a lot more controllable since it’s in a digital work-space.
Instead of drawn or constructed with clay, characters in 3D animation are digitally modeled in the program, and then fitted with a ‘skeleton’ that allows animators to move the models. Animation is done by posing the models on certain key frames, after which the computer will calculate and perform an interpolation between those frames to create movement.
When the modeling and/or animation is complete, the computer will render each frame individually, which can be very time-consuming, depending on the quality of the images and the quantity of polygons in the scene.