Animation

    Today's topic is: Animation

Animation is the technique of photographing successive drawings or positions of puppets or models to create an illusion of movement when the movie is shown as a sequence. Gradually changing the shape, size, size, color, position, and angle can give his effect. So before we actually go into animation, let's take a look at the history of animation. 

There are 5 types of animation: Traditional/Cel Animation (every single frame must be hand drawn), 2-D animation (every single frame must be edited, not drawn), 3-D animation (CGI, read here), Motion Graphic (animated logos), and Stop Motion Animation. Sound, Narrative, and Background sound are important for an effective animation.

There are 12 principles of animation: 

1. Squash & Stretch- Shape distortion to put emphasis on movement

2. Anticipation - Reverse movement to anticipate the coming of the next movement

3. Staging - Focus on a character to convey mood or reaction

4. Straight-ahead v.s pose-to-pose action - Drawing scene-to-scene, or drawing beginning and end frames and then drawing in betweens

5. Follow through and Overlapping - The transition between following path of action then suddenly changing direction

6. Slow-in and Slow-out - Smoother start and end of an action by having more frames

7.  Arcs - Movements occur in an arc

8. Secondary Action - Another action starts in the middle of the main action

9. Timing - Planned Actions

10. Exaggeration - More extreme than normal action

11. Solid Drawing- Three dimensional

12. Appeal - Make sure people are interested in the character 

In my opinion, animation is sure a lot of work, but the end result makes up for the hard work! It is interesting how animation evolved to be what it is today! What do you think the future of animation will be? Let us know in the comments!

AFFORDABLE SCHOOLS, A RED VENTURES COMPANY. “5 Types of Animation.” Affordable Schools, 2022, https://affordableschools.net/lists/5-types-of-animation/. Accessed 27 May 2022.