

I'm curious about how they are animated:

  * Flower petals in the air
  * Water effects (e.g the intro of _The Garden of Words_ ) 
    * Water droplets in pond ([00:17](https://youtu.be/2fA54tY7hO8?t=17s) and [1:35](https://youtu.be/2fA54tY7hO8?t=1m34s))
    * Reflection of a person walking ([01:54](https://youtu.be/2fA54tY7hO8?t=1m54s))
    * Sun reflecting off water
  * Time-lapse (e.g [_Your Name_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqHqH1DNAmg))

Are backgrounds done frame by frame? Or do they use something like AE?


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2018-08-11T17:27:14.180
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2018-09-16T22:00:24.023
2018-08-11T18:02:27.700
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anime-production
How are backgrounds animated?


Technically, everything you list isn't a background in the sense used in
traditional hand-drawn animation. A background is a static image, and anything
moving is on a separate layer. One shot may have several layers. Flower petals
are animated just like characters, for example, on their own layer(s).

I think what you mean are _environment_ shots.

However, this gets more complicated with CGI. The examples you cite of water
droplets are made with CGI; they're not hand-drawn (that's partly how the
camera can tilt so effectively). Similarly, the reflection is made by taking
the hand-drawn animation and placing it on the CGI-based water surface.

The time lapse you show is a trick of reversing the traditional layering. The
foreground layer is made up of environmental objects like trees, while the sky
is a fully animated layer. Someone's drawing those clouds and that sun, every
frame, and it's just being placed on a layer behind the one containing the
trees.

If by "AE" you mean After Effects, the Japanese animation industry generally
uses software that's been built for specifically for the anime industry, like
RETAS Pro. Some are integrated into the workflow, while others are standalone.
But if an effect is being generated on the computer, it's generally classified
as CGI, like the water droplets, regardless of the tool being used.


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