Drawing board (animation)
The drawing board an animator consists of a work surface, which can be locked at any angle inclined to work in a relaxed position. In the middle of this plate is a circular cutout and in this the actual "animation disc", a circular disk either completely made of milky plastic, or made of metal or wood with a rectangular cutout in which the plastic disk is inserted. Above and / or below this cutout are the registration rails ("pegable"), on whose alignment pins the perforated paper is placed. Under the disc there is a lamp like a light table .
The disc can be rotated so that the draftsman can elegantly draw an arc in as many directions as possible in one go, especially for the final drawing ("clean up"). The lamp under the pane is only switched on to trace drawings. The actual animation is performed without backlighting. The drawing paper weighs around 70 g, is not transparent, but only semi-translucent. The animator checks a drawn movement by "flipping": he takes two or more sheets of paper between the fingers of one hand and moves them in a fan shape, looking into the paper fan from above and seeing the movement like in a flip book .
The pegbar or registration rail is used to fix all drawn elements (animation, background, etc.) of a scene in the correct position to one another. The dimensions of your dowel pins or the matching holes are not standardized, but the same within Europe and North America (referred to as the ACME standard). Russian and earlier Eastern Bloc studios use different dimensions.
There are combinations of flat screen and graphics tablet that enable the animator to work fully digitally, while maintaining the good ergonomics of a drawing board.