From: currmann@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Curtis Hoffmann)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime
Subject: cheats in anime
Date: 11 Oct 92 22:20:21 GMT
Reply-To: doi@jrd.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Japan, R&D center
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   There are many ways to cut corners in the process of creating
animation.  I'm going to try to describe some of them in an attempt to
catalog the cliches used in both western and Japanese cartoons.  If you
have any comments on this file, feel free to make them.  If you have
anything to add to the list, please do so.
   Most of the names used here are my own creation, and are not in
common usage anywhere else.

Simple definitions:
   Anime   -- Japanese produced and directed paint-on-cel animation.
   Cartoon -- Paint-on-cel animation, usually aimed at children and has
              little story-telling potential.  Encompasses cel-based
              animation from around the world, but normally is applied only
              to North American animation.

                        ------------------------

   Changes:
      Knuckle cracking

                        ------------------------
   Shooting on 3's:
   In film, there are 24 frames per second.  For video tape, there are
30 frames.
   Really fluid animation is gained by drawing one frame of a
character's movement per frame of film.  However, this is only
necessary when a character is moving from left to right (or right to
left,) and the camera is panning along the background artwork.  This
prevents a strobing-effect that occurs when the background moves too far
on the screen from one frame to the next.
   Normally, the animator can make do with one drawing per 2 frames of
film.  This is called "shooting on 2's."  Most theatrical films, and
some TV cartoons are shot on 2's, and everything looks fine.
   However, you can save money by skipping some work, and shoot 3
frames per drawing.  Many TV cartoons are shot on 3's or 4's, which
gives a very jerky feeling to the action.  Something like _Hammerman_ is
shot at least on 4's, if not on 8's.

   Simplicity:
   The standard western cheat is to simplify the character design, so
there are fewer lines to draw per frame.  This is obvious both in the
body features, and the clothing elements.  You can also see this in
Anpan-man, Mary Bell, and Chibi Maruko-chan.

   The Blend:
   When you have a very detailed image, like the close-up of a person's
face, it takes a lot of time and effort to animate it smoothly.
Instead, you can paint maybe 4 or 8 "extreme poses" and film them as
static images.  The next step is to use post-production editing to fade
from one still to the next.  Alternatively, a few in-between cels
can be painted that have ghosts of the extremes, which gives the same
effect, but with much less work than if every single frame had been
created from scratch.  This may cut the total number from 60 drawings,
to 15, or 8.
   The final results may be used to heighten the emotional effect of a
scene, or to simply stretch out the action of a complex drawing.
Usually, you'll see this when a crying girl turns away from the hero, or
when a top sports player dives for the ball during a crucial play.

   The Triple Repeat Attack (TRP):
   When someone gets hit hard, the camera pans by a single still of the
attack three times, occasionally with little variations in each pan, like
zooming in a bit further for each pass.  It is very easy to over-use
this device for even the most trivial of situations.  It is very much a
cliche, but it's also a cheat since you may only have one drawing for 30
seconds of film.

   Chan-Style, or Super-Deformed Style:
   Admittedly, this is a purely Japanese technique that is mostly just a
cliche, and not necessarily a cheat.  But, the results are the same --
less work per frame.
   Both techniques consist of drawing a normal character as if he were a
5 year-old, with a larger head, smaller body, and chubby limbs.  Most of
the details will be lost at the same time.  These are done mainly for
slapstick comedy effect.

   Tokyo Feet:
   This is a term coined by Larry Greenfield to describe another
Japanese cliche -- a cloud of feet and sweat (sometimes tears) that
surround a character when he goes into panic-mode.  There is no longer a
relation between the character's feet and the ground, as the character
just slides back and forth on the screen.  Again, the result is less
work per frame.

   The Assembly Sequence:
   You'll see the Assembly Sequence normally in a kiddie power-suit, or
mecha show.  It consists of the character (like Sailor Moon, or Metal
Jack,) calling out something ("Make Up!" or "Jack On!") which will be
followed by stock footage of the character standing around while the
suit or outfit wraps itself around him.  By itself, this is no big deal.
Except, that it's the exact same sequence from one episode to the next.
In this way, the animators save themselves about 1 to 3 minutes of
animation per character per episode.
   It's both a cheat, and a cliche.

   Separated eyes and mouths:
   The opposite side of the coin from Simplicity is Shading and Detail.
Here, the animators (usually Japanese,) have added so much detail and
color to the character's face that it's too much work to redraw it in
each frame as the character talks.
   So, instead of redrawing the face a lot (which allows you to get a
jaw that moves as the character speaks,) you draw the face on one cel,
and the mouth and eyes on another.  (Admittedly, western animators use
this technique for the same reasons, but the faces in their drawings
have much less detail.)

   Gaping Mouth Wounds:
   In TV, it's not necessary to get the lip-sync down really tightly
when a character talks, which means that sometimes the mouth moves even
when the character has stopped talking.  This saves work, because you
don't have someone tied up with the very time-consuming task of breaking
the dialog down into single frames, and vowel sounds.
   The extreme case, though, is when you don't worry about the specific
dialog matching up with the shape of the mouth.  Now, you only have 4 or
5 standard mouth positions (open, closed, partially opened, and
yelling,) instead of the normal 7 or 10, and you just jump them around
under the camera roughly in time with the dialog.  This is common both in
anime, and western cartoons.

   The Hold:
   When a character is thinking, or becomes stunned, he'll freeze on the
screen.  The only action comes from a camera pan in, or out.  The Hold
also occurs when one character stops talking and the other begins. Anyone
not talking simply freezes on the screen.  This saves the studio a lot of
time and money, because the alternative is to draw separate frames with
the character's clothes rippling in a breeze, or the character's face
reacting to whatever is being said.

   Statue Crowds:
   Crowd scenes require a lot of work, and time that the studio can't
afford to spend.  Therefore, crowds will be treated as background
artwork.  The only element of movement comes from the camera panning
across, and the only signs of life will be the voice actors cheering as
voice-overs.  Occasionally, mouths will be painted on separate cels for
one or three audience members to do a little yelling on their own.

   The Cycle:
   This is a classic animation technique all studios use extensively.
The basic idea is to put the character into a repeating action cycle,
and just draw the first few cels necessary for it.  The normal example
is a simple walk, which only takes 7 to 12 cels for a sequence that may
last 30 seconds.  Disney is famed for its use of more complex cycles in
its early short cartoons.

   4-colors VS 256:
   Simply by looking at most western TV animation, you can tell that the
animators are saving themselves a lot of effort by eliminating shading,
and reducing the number of colors in the clothing designs.  Fewer colors
means less work, fewer costs, and a more boring image.  The Japanese will
use more colors and the GMW technique at the same time.

   Last Week's Re-Cap:
   When you have an episodic adventure series like Dragon Ball, or Dodge
Danpei, you'll get a re-cap of the action from the previous episodes
before the show starts up with the new stuff.  This means that the
animators are saving themselves about 3 to 5 minutes of work by
reusing old animation with a voice-over narration.

   The Repeat Thingie:
   Occasionally, you may notice a character doing one action in one
scene, and later doing the exact same action in an entirely different
scene.  This is a case of reusing existing cels with either a different
background, or a different prop (changing a hammer for an ax.)  Some of
the really bad American moralistic cartoons from the '60s used this
technique A LOT.

   Recycled Animation:
   Disney does this occasionally.  When the cels are filmed for any
given show or movie, the cels themselves will be either tossed or washed
and reused.  But, the pencil drawings will usually be stored for future
works.  This way, all that's needed is to xerox the existing artwork, and
change the color scheme for the new scene.

   Xerox:
   Originally, when a pencil drawing was cleaned up, the ink and paint
department would trace the pencil lines onto the cels via multicolored
inks (which allowed for more subtle shadings, and details,) before the
paints were added.  Now, it's easier to xerox the final pencils onto a
cel.  The drawback is that the xerox lines look rougher, may have breaks
in them, and will be all in black (removing the element of subtlety.)

   Speed lines:
   This is a cliche used to get a heightened emotional response, while
also filming a static pose.  When a character starts an attack, the
background is replaced with streaks of color, or simple racing lines.
This doesn't actually save the animators any work, and adds a little
more work for the camera operator because the backgrounds need to be
changed more often.  But, since the background was static to begin with,
and the main character has also become static, the speed lines help liven
things up a bit.

   Collars and Talking Heads:
   Hanna-Barbera is notorious for this trick.  Rather that redrawing the
entire character for each frame that the mouth moves, you give the
character a collar, and then place the head on a different cel
underneath the body cel.  The body is usually then kept stationary,
and the head cels are changed in sequence.  Although, if the character
does walk and talk at the same time, it's still less work to animate than
otherwise.

   Jumping Talkers:
   When a Japanese studio has a medium-range shot of a talking
character, they'll redraw the entire figure even though only the mouth
is moving.  This is not an easy operation, because the body has to be
copied and painted without variations, and the cycle cels have to be
registered exactly.  So, when a character bounces up and down as they
speak, you know that the registration slipped.  Nadia is a featured
Jumper in Nadia: Secret of Blue Water.

   Shimmering eyes:
   This is both a cliche and a cheat.  Take a Hold, and just redraw some
white highlights inside the pupils.  Why draw an emotional face, if you
don't have to?

   Tear Floods:
   Yet another Japanese cliche used instead of animating an actual
emotion.  Several series (like Kimengumi High School) have parodied this
cliche, with characters holding buckets to catch someone else's flood.

   The Sweat Drop:
   You'll also see this in manga when a character gets nervous,
apprehensive, or scared.  A large teardrop will appear somewhere on the
character (many times, on the back of the head.)  Occasionally, the
sweat drop will be placed on a separate cel, and slid down the
character's face (the face is in a Hold.)  It's easier than animating
the face for those emotions.

   The Stunned Fall-Over:
   One more Japanese cliche.  When someone says something stupid or
unexpected, everyone else will fall flat on their face or back.

   Knuckle Cracking:
   As everyone knows, when a huge, strong guy is about to beat the crap
out of a victim, he will crack his knuckles as a part of flexing his
hands.  This has been turned into an anime cliche, and extended to the
point where REALLY vicious guys crack the muscles and joints in their
neck.  Real people can not do this.  Do not try this at home on your
little sister.

   The Multiple-Character-Single-Gasp Reaction:
   I find this to be one of the more annoying time-consuming Japanese
cliches.  It's very simple -- something startling will happen, or a
character will get smashed up.  Then, the camera will pull in for a
close up of each of the other characters -- one at a time -- as they
gasp or speak the guy's name.  This has been happening too often in
Dragon Ball Z.  The result is to force a heightened sense of suspense,
and to stretch out a fight scene while doing a small amount of work.
   Example -- Piccilo will get punched into the ground.  The camera then
cuts to a close-up of #18, who will gasp.  Now, cut to #17, who will
gasp.  Then, cut to #16 for a gasp.  Next, cut to Kiririn to gasp.  And
continue down the line until you run out of characters.  Repeat this
operate 2 or 4 times per battle per episode.

   The Raging Flames/Crashing Surf:
   An alternative to Speed Lines -- when a character gets overly
emotional, or "highly charged," the background will be replaced by
roaring flames or surf.  This is just an intensity-building device, used
extensively by Rumiko Takahashi.

   The Slash Split Screen:
   Another cliche, related to the Multi-Character-Single-Gasp Reaction,
the difference being that the MCSGR is sequential, and the S^3 is
more-or-less simultaneous.  When the main character is hit, the first
reaction will appear in the top portion of the screen, the second
reaction appears on the bottom, and the remaining reactions will be in
the middle of the screen.  _Dodge Danpei_ uses this technique.  Bubble
Gum Crisis does the same thing, but usually when the Knight Sabers are
preparing to go into battle and all of them say "roger," or "Knight
Sabers -- Go!"

   The Temple Vein:
   Japanese cliche, especially in manga.  When a character gets
stressed-out, or angry, a cross-like outline of a 4-way vein
intersection will pop up on their forehead.  Somethimes, this gets
carried to extremes, as in the manga where an identical vein pops up on
the back of a guy's hand.  (Real veins don't act like that.)

   "Poits":
   In the wonderful world of the Japanese language, several words exist
that are nothing more than sound effects (like "niko," for the sound of
a smile.)  When you're watching anime played for laughs, a wide-eyed
character blinking in surprise will make a "poit", or "pika" sound.

   The Flashback:
   Standard anime cliche, used to fill in story details that the
audience doesn't already know, but which will immediately justify the
character's next actions.  A very common plot device used in episodic
serials.

   Trick Dreams:
   A common story device used to hook the viewer's attention.  Employed
heavily in Kimagure Orange Road.  Basically, something really bad or
really good will happen to the star right at the beginning of the
episode, only to turn out to be a dream.

   Cute Bastards:
   One of the worst developments to come out of the western world.  To
make a show appeal to small children, an otherwise unnecessary character
will be added to the line-up.  This character will be cute, appealing,
and utterly loathsome to adults.  Scrappy-Doo is an excellent example of
this.  If carried to extremes, the entire cast will be thus
metamorphised, as in The Muppet Babies, and the new version of Tom and
Jerry.

   Narrative Voice-Overs:
   Both a plot device, and a cheat.  The plot element of a NVO is
obvious -- to fill in details for the audience, rather than to make
those details a part of the story leading up to that point.  The cheat
comes in because the action on the screen will turn into a Hold with a
camera pan or pull out.  The work is shifted from the animators to the
cameraman and the narrator.

   Rain Shimmers:
   Not necessarily a cliche or cheat, but a commonly used special effect
in anime.  There's a lot of rain in the spring and fall in Japan, so
rain has become an accepted plot device (plus, when bad events happen to
the principle characters, rain will start falling to symbolize their
plight.)  To show that the rain is hitting trees, people, or animals, a
light halo will shimmer around the tops, heads, and shoulders.  A
separate set or 4 or 5 cels will be used for this, if the characters are
just standing and talking.

   The Background Cameo:
   One of the most prized anime devices for fans.
   Because it takes a long time for an animator to finish a sequence or
background, said animator will add silly things to make their job more
fun.  Such as the Star Trek USS Enterprise blueprints in _The Nolandia
Affair_, and the appearance of The Dirty Pair's Kei in a background shot
in the _Fist of the Northstar_ movie.  A little of this shows up in _The
Simpsons,_ but is more common in anime movies and OAV's than TV shows.

                   -------------------------------------

   If there are any other cheats or cliches, I haven't noticed them yet.
I'll add them to the list if someone else mentions them to me.


                                          -- Curtis H. Hoffmann
                                             Oct. 10, 1992