JICETS 2019 IOP Publishing

Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1529 (2020) 022093 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1529/2/022093

Hybrid Animation: Implementation of Two-Dimensional (2D)

Animation

Syed Muhammad Hazry Asraf1, a and Syed Zulkarnain Syed Idrus1, b, *1

School of Human Development and Techno-Communication (iKOM),
Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP).

a
hazrysyed@[Link]; b syzul@[Link]; c, *

Abstract. In the 21st century, much progress has been made following the industrial revolution
4.0. Therefore, the field of animation has also been injected into technological advances. The
transmission of information is difficult to convey accurately and interactively to users. In
providing users with more exposure and convenience in a more attractive and convenient way.
Therefore, animation and motion capture are the best options for use today. As a result, the
results of this project can have a huge impact on the animation industry in making video or
animation more interesting in 2D animation.

1. Introduction
The Two-Dimensional (2D) animation focuses on creating characters, storyboards, and backgrounds
in 2D environments. Often thought as traditional animation, the figures can move up and down, left,
and right. The 2D graphic components can be manipulated by 2D geometric transformation:
transformation in position, scaling, and rotation.
The two most exhausting processes in 2D animation production are, the generation of key-frames
and in between frames. The enormous amounts of still animation are produced by most cartoon studios
manually, which is time-consuming and heavy. Compared to 2D animation, three dimensional
animation take advantages such as, ease of camera motion, complex lighting and shading, realism and
high reusability of assets from scene to scene[1].
It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for computer and robotics
vision verification. In filmmaking and video game development, it refers to the recording of human
actors, and uses that information to turn digital character models into 2D or 3D computer
animations[2].

2. Related works
In principle, 2D animated images are still created in much the same way as they were traditionally,
although the technology has improved. One of the oldest forms of animation is cell shading, whereby
each cell or frame is drawn individually and placed into a linear sequence. This was originally
accomplished with pencil or ink on a ‘cell’, and would be coloured later on by a dedicated colourist
and layered over other cells in the sequence.
When 2D animation is created today, it tends to utilise digital software and frame technologies such
as onion-skinning. This allows for faster, more accurate and more easily editable sequences, although
some purists would argue these methods lose some of the charm of analogue animation. Adam
claimed that both instances rendered in two dimensions during the animation process[3].

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JICETS 2019 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1529 (2020) 022093 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1529/2/022093

Figure 1. Putih – Official Trailer (Rashid Sibir, 2001)

In the 2001 Fine Animation Sdn. Bhd. cooperation with Skop Production Sdn. Bhd, Putih is a
Malaysian animated film published around 2001 by Rashid Sibir's directions. The story is based on the
folklore "Bawang Putih Bawang Merah". The story is about a beautiful girl, Putih a poor girl who was
abused by his stepmother, Kundur and stepsister, Merah after the death of his father, Pak Sukam. This
story tells the envy of the stepmother and the Merah who end up with the right repayment of their
deeds. In order to match a 2D style, all animation is in 2D template, to achieve lively movement of
texture. Figure 1 shows the cover of Putih movie [4].

Figure 2. Treasure Planet (Ron Clements, 2002)

Treasure Planet is a 2002 American animated science fiction adventure film produced by Walt
Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 43rd Disney animated
feature film. The film is a science fiction adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure
novel Treasure Island and was the first film. It is an interesting animation and use all the characters in
3D animation, while the background uses 2D animation. Thus, when it is combined, this animation is
in hybrid animation. Figure 2 shows one of the scenes in the Treasure Planet movie [5].
Comparing the films, the production studios were using the mixing approaches for different
purposes. Putih’s production animated the actor based on a 2D drawing. In Treasure Planet, 2D assets
were breakdown for smoother and precise animation. Table 1 shows some points and comparison
features made by films when applying 2D mixed approaches.

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JICETS 2019 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1529 (2020) 022093 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1529/2/022093

Table 1. Comparison of the previous projects

Index Title Released (Year) Remarkable approaches in the Nationality
integration of 2D assets

[4] Putih 2001 Applying 2D motion template. Malaysia

[5] Treasure Planet 2002 Building a 3D environment made America
of 2D visual elements.

3. The structural design of the 2D animation

In the development of 2D, it goes through some of the processes commonly used by some animation
industries as shown in Figure 3.

System Planning 2D Modeling

 Design character Software

 DAZ Studio
 Design Environment
 Unreal Engine 4

Figure 3. The structural design of the 2D animation.

3.1. System planning

In animation design, the main factor is the design of the character and the environment. Character
design plays an important role in the presentation of animations. It does not matter from the shape of
the body to the facial expression of the character. Figure 4 shows the sketches and storyboards in the
making of an animation. Storyboard is important as an introductory idea before doing character
modeling.

Figure 4. The storyboard in designing character and environment

3.2. 2D Modeling
The 2D Modeling is the process of manually creating geometrical object models which meet desired
design criteria and Cinema 4D software are used. The features in the Cinema 4D software has a
significant impact on the product development process, allowing improved quality, reduced cost, and
aids products to get to market faster. Nowadays, The approaches from the films is studied, however
not all of them will be selected to be implemented in this project. The development in Figure 5 showed
great efforts in blending 2D assets, however it is line programming approach will not be adapted into
this project due to time constraints and lack of related skills. The following issues determine how one
medium is chosen over the others.

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JICETS 2019 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1529 (2020) 022093 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1529/2/022093

Figure 5. The environment modeling

4. Conclusions
After being observed in this 2D animation project, among them, the animated shows are very short but
full of the good content. This makes audiences feel satisfied when watching. In addition, the animation
shown is in silent form, only motion and background sound. The boundary and the nature of terms
used in the project were studied and described. The old and current techniques and technology of
current animation process were explained, and then related to this project. The comparison of existing
works refines, by a greater distance, what to be experimented and achieved in this project. The
methodology explained the process of the project. The software and hardware requirements are briefly
brought up, and will be further discussed. This animation is very interactive to the user due to the
suitable color selection and lighting in this animation. Multimedia consists of orderly instructions and
codes written by the programmer in any special computer language. Before using software, the
individual needs to evaluate more about software in a subject to give a deep understanding.

References
[1] Lee,H-C., Chang, C-M., Chao, J-S., and Lin, W-T. (2017) ‘Realistic Character Motion
Response in Computer Fighting Game’ Multimedia 2007. ISM 2007. Nineth IEEE
International Symposium on, pp. 169-175, 2007.
[2] O’Hailey, T. (2010) Hybrid animation: Integrating 2D and 3D assets. Amsterdam: Elsevier
Science.
[3] Laybourne, Kit (1998). The Animation Book: A Complete Guide to Animated Filmmaking–
from Flip-books to Sound Cartoons to 3-D Animation. New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN
0-517-88602-2.
[4] Putih – Official Trailer (Rashid Sibir, 2001).
[5] Treasure Planet (Ron Clements, 2002).

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