I'm Designer: Basic Animation

WHAT IS ANIMATION

Animation is the process of displaying still images in a rapid sequence to create the illusion of movement. These images can be hand drawn, computer generated, or pictures of 3D objects. Though most people associate animation with cartoons, it also has applications in industrial and scientific research. Regardless of the type, the viewer's body plays a main role in why people see continuous movement instead of a series of quickly changing images.

HISTORY ANIMATION

1887 : The start of it all
A man named H.W. Goodwin invented a celluloid film which could hold images. It was made of gum cotton and gum camphor.

1892 : An early moving-picture production
A man in France named Emil Reynaud opened a theatre using an invention called the Praxinoscope. It used turning mirrors to reflect images and produce a 10 to 15 minute "moving picture."

1893 : Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope Using the celluloid film developed by H.W. Goodwin, Edison was able to produce moving film pictures on the wall. The film moved over a series of wheels to produce the pictures.

HOW MANY TYPES OF ANIMATION

Creativity has no limits. There are various types of animation techniques practiced by film makers all over the world. Classical and digital 2D animation, digital 3D Animation, stop-motion, clay animation, cut-out animation, paint-on-glass animation, drawn-on-film animation, and experimental animation are just a few among the many existing forms of animation.

Deciding a suitable animation technique for your project depends on various factors that include budget, look and feel, output quality, aesthetic, stylization, and story requirements.

FLIP BOOK

Is a very primitive way that creates animation purely with pencil, eraser and a stack of drawing pads such as post-it pads. This style can be very experimental and creative as you can draw any thing you can think of.Pros: It is cheap and readily available at all stationary stores. You can make use of your existing drawing skill and you can start almost immediately. This methods gets you to churn out the rough idea you have for animation very easily.

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2. STOP MOTION

Stop motion animation makes use of figurine and physical objects to create animation. You can start with using toys and posable figurine and capture them as photo images. Once photo taking is complete, you use a video editing software to compile these photos into a moving image video. The visual of the animation will look relatively appealing if you are using toys because they look real life.

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3. 2D ANIMATION

Is a digital method of flip book animation where visuals are created by drawing in a software. Drawing skills are preferably required but there are a lot more convenient tools within the software help you draw faster. Animation eventually will look much more smoother because you can adjust the timing of your animation easily. Animation can be created efficiently and there is saving and loading functions which helps you back up your work. Using 2D software, your animation can look much more polished because you can add in more details and visual effects.

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4. 3D ANIMATION

creates animation using three dimensional virtual space and has potential to create realistic and aesthetically stunning visual. 3D software is able to do so because of its calculation which can render images as realistic as real life images.

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