Flip for fun

Samidha Gunjal

Daumenkino, the German word for a flip book literally translates to 'thumb cinema'. Inspired by a theory called the persistence of vision - the illusion of motion is brought about by the ability of the human eye to keep seeing an image of an object for a fraction of a second - the flip book which used the medium of paper for animation, made way for the motion picture. So, when we hear of a session aimed at teaching you to make one yourself, we are curious. Although we've been acquainted with animation on software before, this seems to be a bigger challenge considering you have to meticulously devise and draw each step of motion.

We receive a step-by-step instruction manual from Samidha Gunjal, a Pune-based illustrator and animator of Studio Dhamisa who will conduct the workshop. In it, she has illustrated phases of animation by the example of a flower blooming. "People tend to get over ambitious while planning the action drawing. It's important to keep it simple and add details as you get the hang of it," she cautions. So we decide to make our first flip book on the animation of the flower bloom. The process took us about two hours. The most time-consuming part was cutting the paper - it took us 30 minutes. So, if you find pre-cut A6-sized paper, opt for that. While the animation worked, we found some difficulty in flipping the paper, as the sheets often got stuck together. So, we'd prefer slightly thicker sheets of better, smoother quality next time.

On February 24, 11 am to 2 pm
Ar Todi Mill Social, Lower Parel.
Log on to insider.in
Cost Rs 1,500

1. Cut the paper into a stack of 20 to 30 A6 size sheets. Measure the dimensions; 5 in x 4 in. Gunjal advises to use paper of medium thickness i.e 50 gsm, but we opt for 75 gsm.

2. Plan an image sequence and number each page. We have a stack of 20. Make sure you draw on the bottom right and start with a pencil sketch so you can modify it later.

3. Keep track of how each image progresses, so the progression is not drastic. For instance, start with a bud and slowly move on to add more details, so the end result is a large flower.

4. Outline the drawing with markers or any other medium. We would advise you to not use watercolours as the paper is too thin to absorb water and may become limp.

5. Rearrange the images by placing the last one first. And secure the stack with a paper holder, so you can flip the pages easily.

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