Animation Techniques

Animation is used in all types of film without us even knowing, animation has evolved from old obvious lighting effects and characters, to now where you cant even tell animation apart from the real acting. In this blog I will be discussing the different types of animation and what they do, I will then include the different uses of this specific type of animation and give examples of when they are used in the animation world, the different types of animation techniques are;

Hand-cel Animation:
Hand-cel animation is a technique where each frame is drawn by hand; it used to be very popular until the development of computer animation. The first hand-cel animations were in the form of giant story boards that would be recorded scene by scene and put together. In the early days of animation there was no sound but once that had been discovered animators also has to record sounds and synchronise it to the animation. There was a lot of cartoons in the 30's that used this technique like Popeye the Sailor Man. It was a very long process drawing every frame and especially for full-length features like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Cut out
Cut out animation is where you cut out pictures of props, IE, animals, people and houses, and take a photo from above them move the prop where you want it, you can use all types of materials for this; paper, card, fabric. this type on animation was the earlier of its type because it was so simple and easy to use, but it was very time consuming. an example of where cut out animation is used is in South Park, they use this type of animation because they want to use the cartoon effect that they get, the main reason is because they were fiercely in competition with family guy etc, so they wanted a different look, the way that they preform this type of animation is to film a real life scene then 'cutout' that scene and replace this with the cartoon version.

Claymation:
Claymation is a form of stop motion animation in which each animated object is usually made from plasticine clay or other malleable substances. Like cel animation and stop motion each frame is recording digitally then put together to form an animation. This technique was and still is very popular today because it gives the animation such a unique look. Famous films like Wallace and Gromit were made using this technique, much like modern kids show Bob the Builder. This technique isn't only used for children's productions though as it was used to make Adult Swims Robot Chicken (which is very inappropriate for children). 

Rotoscoping:
Rotoscoping is an animation technique where animators trace over the footage of live-action or animated films frame by frame. The name rotoscoping came from the projection equipment (rotoscope) they originally used to re-draw over the scenes; however now computers have replaced the need for one. Max Fleischer invented this technique 1915 using it in his series Out of the Inkwell. The technique has since been developed and has been used to create such well known features like Looney Tunes, Flash Gordon and the music video for Aha's Take on Me.

The technique was invented by American animator Max Fleischer, as he used this technique around 1915 in his series 'Out of the Inkwell'. He has patented this technique around 1917 and used it in number of his later cartoons.
The Fleischer studio's most effective use of rotoscoping was in their series of Superman cartoons .

Flick Book:

A flip book is a book that contains a number of pictures that gradually change from page to page so that when the pages are turned at a fast pace the pictures appear to animate. The flip book is a very old form of animation as it first appeared in 1868; it relies on the persistence of vision to create the illusion of continuous motion. They played a very important role in the development of animation but now they are regarded as the simplest form of animation.

Stop Frame:
Stop frame is an animation technique used to make an object appear as if it's moved on its own. It works by taking photographs of frames in which the object has been moved slightly each time creating the illusion of movement when it's all been put together. Claymation is linked very closely to stop frame because they take pictures of the objects being morphed slightly each time; however other objects can be used in stop frame like dolls, humans or everyday objects. The first stop frame production was created in 1902 and was titled Fun in a Bakery Shop. After that stop frames were very common and the technique has been used ever since. One of the most recent stop frame films was Fantastic Mr Fox which became a huge success.

Flash Animation

Flash Animation is best known for its cartoons animations where, the main use is for people to draw and create pieces of art, but on a computer rather than on paper etc. it is mainly used for younger children to mess around with and used different colors and make pictures. The most common use for Flash animation is in kids TV programs because children are easy amused and if they saw a scene that have people talking they would be very interested, but if they saw some animated characters on the TV then they would find that more entertaining and watch it. Also because they are limited in the audience that will be interested in their TV shows then they wont have to spend much money on high tech equipment unlike the producers of avatar.


CGI
CGI stands for (computer generated imagery) this is the most common use of animation as it is the most advanced and is the best technology wise. it is used in art, printed media, video games and mainly films. CGI can be used in 2D images or even 3D graphics used for creating scenes or special effects. CGI is uses in almost every new film that comes out, the best thing out about CGI is most people don't even notice when it involved in films or TV programs, the best example would be, in Pirates of the Caribbean, Davey Jones, there are three stages to get his character to look how he does on screen, firstly they put loads of cameras/sensors all over his body that can track his every movement, the second step is to put that scene into an animated look, they then add in all of the detail and make the picture look realistic and add effects to give him a real life look.