Animated world
Friday 16 October 2009
What is animation and how has technology influenced the way films are produced today?
What is animation?
Animation is essentially a series of images, each slightly different from the last, which when played back quickly in succession give the illusion of movement.
In traditional animation techniques the images are drawn, then photographed.
Stop frame animation is when the same effect is created using physical objects like puppets and clay models.
It takes 1500 images to make one minute of film, so animators have to be very patient people!
Flip books
Animation can probably be traced back to the flip book which was invented around 1800. Have you ever tried to make one? It’s easy and fun...
Celluloid film
Things got a little easier for animators in 1913 when celluloid film came to existence. They were then able to place characters in front of different backgrounds by using more than one film at a time.
Disney’s first full length animated feature film which used this technique was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves which came out in 1938!
Computer animation
Nowadays animations can be produced in either 2D or 3D using computers.
2D images such as cartoons are drawn by hand or computer. Computer software then uses mathematical algorithms then fills in the "in-between" frames. This process is called tweening. It can be done by hand but doing it with a computer is obviously much faster!
3D animation 3d animation has to be generated by a computer; they can’t be done with a paper and pencil. The animator creates a computer ‘mesh’ which is a digital skeletal structure which can be moved – this is called rigging. These techniques mean much more detail and subtleties can be added to the film.
Monsters Inc, Toy Story, The Incredibles and Shark Tale are just some of the 3D animated films you might have seen.
The principles
In 1981 two Walt Disney animators wrote a book called “The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation”. The book contained what is known as the ‘12 basic principles of animation’, now widely used by the whole industry. The principles are based around the laws of physics but also deal with more abstract concepts such as emotional timing, character appeal and exaggeration! Read more tips from the animators themselves.
Create your own
Want to create your own piece of animation? Get some tips.
