Materials (Totally Traditional Animation Table Setup)

by Jack Parry

It can be daunting to start animation. The first step is getting the right materials

My Amazon/Ebay/Alibaba Hack – Traditional Animation System

I have been looking for a way to do traditional animation for years. I have longingly admired the old wooden and bakelite traditional animation tables of old which (besides being very expensive) are also huge and space hungry

Super big and heavy animation tables

So I instead have ended up using computers that are so (ho hum)… lacking severely in the mojo stakes. So recently it dawned upon me that we could hack an animation system on the (kinda) cheap – (you have to remember that the old-school animation tables can cost thousands of dollars, and a single ACME hole punch can cost more than a grand in itself)

So here we go.

To make an animation table we need

  1. A light source
  2. A peg bar
  3. An ACME (ish) hole punch)
  4. An animation ring
  5. An inclined surface (for good drawing and no RSI)
  6. Oh… and you don’t need to buy pre-punched paper, so really there are only 5 points on this 6 point list.

1) The light source

So why go any further than a Huion tracing table. At ~$50 for a big one, you get all the light you need, AND it is dual powered. You can run on battery (so its super portable) or on USB (which gives you JUST a bit more brightness than on battery)

Portable Light Table

2) The peg bar

Honbay has ACME peg bars and all you need is to attach them with masking tape.

ACME Peg Bar

3) The animation hole punch

This is the secret sauce! I found this animation ACMEish hole punch in Japan and yes they are still a couple of hundred bucks but hey – you won’t have to buy prepunched paper and you can make as much as you want with normal printer paper. Is called a Tapping machine, but…. its and ACME hole punch. Whatever.

Stock photo
Japanese “Tapping” machine

4) The animation ring

This isn’t totally necessary as you can just move it around on your lap, but if you like to sit at a table and pretend you have an old-school animation table – then why not use a cheap lazy susan. I found this two for the price of one deal. Use one for your animation table, and the other one in your kitchen cupboard.

5) The inclined surface (Laptop riser)

This is also totally unnecessary, but if you want to have the full – improvised traditional animation table feel, you can use these laptop risers. Most of them aren’t portable, but this particular one, isn’t just portable, but you can raise it up to a comfortable drawing level too.

Universal Foldable Multi-angle Laptop Stand N8 - 17.3 - Silver
Raise-able Lightboard (laptop) stands.

So it isn’t as sexy as a disney lightboard, BUT

  1. you can take it on the train/plane
  2. the whole deal can fit neatly into a backpack
  3. you will never have to buy stupidly overpriced pre-punched animation paper EVER AGAIN.

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