I've recently transfered to BYU (Brigham Young University) so that I can apply to their animation program. I'm hoping that others will find the process that I'm going though useful. To start off I decided to post a short hand-drawn animation that I did as one of my assignments.

It's made up of a total of 55 drawings, it's 6.20 seconds long, and the frame rate is 24 frames per second (fps). Most of the animation is drawn on twos, meaning that each drawing lasts two frames. This is traditionally how most animation is done. Film standard is 24 fps so when you draw on twos you only have twelve drawings for each second of film rather than 24. That cuts your drawing in half without much loss of quality. There are some parts that a drawing will last longer than two frames and other where it's on ones (one drawing per frame). For instance, I animated on ones for the flip at the very end so that it would look smooth without causing the action to be too slow.

My setup for hand-drawn animation is as follows:

• Peg Bar to mount drawings on. This is used to hold the pages in place both as you draw and shoot each frame. At BYU we use the standard ACME style peg bar, but If you're on a budget you may want to look at a round peg bar because you can use any old three-hole punch on your paper rather than having to buy an expensive specialty one.
• Lightbox so that you can see your previous frames through the current drawing. There is a large range in price on these. One thing you'll need to know is what size paper you'll be using. I'd suggest 10F, which is standard 8.5" x 11", because it's inexpensive and easy to come by. To save money you can go with a small lightbox with a peg bar on it, but if you can afford it, it is nice to have one with a rotating disc.
• Digital Video Camera and a Tripod to shoot your frames. Using a tripod is sort of the poor man's pencil tester, but it gets the job done.
• Pencil Test Software is what brings it all together. I've been using DigiCel's FlipBook software. They have versions for both Mac's and Windows. Right now they're having a Spring sale and the software is 50% off. If you miss the sale you may want to check to see if you qualify for educational pricing.

So here's 2D hand-drawn animation of a bowling pin:

Please feel free to leave your comments and criticisms below.