Animation

Animation is the optical illusion of motion created by the consecutive display of images of static elements. In film and video production, this refers to techniques by which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually. These frames may be generated by computers, or by photographing a drawn or painted image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model unit (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result with a special animation camera. When the frames are strung together and the resulting film is viewed, there is an illusion of continuous movement due to the phenomenon known as persistence of vision. Generating such a film tends to be very labour intensive and tedious, though the development of computer animation has greatly sped up the process.

Graphics file formats like GIF, MNG, SVG and Flash (SWF) allow animation to be viewed on a computer or over the Internet.

Animation techniques

Traditional animation began with each frame being painted and then filmed. Cel animation, developed by Bray and Hurd in the 1910s, sped up the process by using transparent overlays so that characters could be moved without the need to repaint the background for every frame. More recently, styles of animation based on painting and drawing have evolved, such as the minimalist Simpsons cartoons, or the roughly sketched The Snowman.

Computer animation has advanced rapidly, to the current stage where movies can be created with characters so life-like as to approach indistinguishability from live-action actors. This involved a move from 2D to 3D, the difference being that in 2D animation the effect of perspective is created artistically, but in 3D objects are modeled in an internal 3D representation within the computer, and are then 'lit' and 'shot' from chosen angles, just as in real life, before being 'rendered' to a 2D bitmapped frame. Predictions that famous dead actors might even be 'brought back to life' to play in new movies before long have led to speculation about the moral and copyright issues involved. The use of computer animation as a way of achieving the otherwise impossible in conventionally shot movies has led to the term "computer generated imagery" being used, though the term has become hard to distinguish from computer animation as it is now used in referring to 3D movies that are entirely animated.

Computer animation involves modelling, motion generation, followed by the addition of surfaces, and finally rendering. Surfaces are programmed to stretch and bend automatically in response to movements of a 'wire frame model', and the final rendering converts such movements to a bitmap image. It is the recent developments in rendering complex surfaces like fur and clothing textures that have enabled stunningly life-like environments and character models, including surfaces that even ripple, fold and blow in the wind, with every fibre or hair individually calculated for rendering.

On the other hand, life-like motion can be created by a skilled artist using the simplest of models. A computer is nothing more than a very expensive and complicated drawing tool, as a pencil is a drawing tool. Even if a complex physics-simulating program were created complete enough to exactly mimic the real world, without an animator to guide the imagery produced, the end result may not be emotionally affecting. This is because a significant part of the craft of animation concerns the artistic choices that an animator makes, and of which a computer is incapable.

History

The major use of animation has always been for entertainment. However, there is growing use of instructional animation and educational animation to support explanation and learning. Animation is also celebrated as an artform (sometimes it receives government funding; this was especially common in Eastern Europe in the Communist era), and is showcased in many film festivals worldwide.

The "classic" form of animation, the "animated cartoon", as developed in the early 1900s and refined by Ub Iwerks, Walt Disney and others, requires up to 24 distinct drawings for one second of animation. This technique is described in detail in the article Traditional animation.

Because animation is very time-consuming and often very expensive to produce, the majority of animation for TV and movies comes from professional animation studios. However, the field of independent animation has existed at least since the 1910s (ex. the pioneering stop-motion animator Ladislas Starevich in the Russian Empire), with animation being produced by independent studios (and sometimes by a single person). Several independent animation producers have gone on to enter the professional animation industry. Bill Plympton is one of the most well-known independent animators today. Today, with the rise of inexpensive animation programs like Macromedia Flash and free distribution channels such as Newgrounds and deviantART, being an independent animator and getting your work seen by (potentially) millions of people is much easier than it used to be.

Limited animation is a way of increasing production and decreasing costs of animation by using "short cuts" in the animation process. This method was pioneered by UPA and popularized by Hanna-Barbera, and adapted by other studios as cartoons moved from movie theaters to television.

Animation studios

Animation studios, like movie studios, may be production facilities or financial entities. In some cases, especially in Anime, they have things in common with artists studios where a Master or group of talented individuals oversee the work of lesser artists and crafts persons in realizing their vision.

Styles and techniques of animation

{| style="width:20%" valign="top"|
*Traditional animation
**Character animation
**Limited animation
**Rotoscoping| style="width:20%" valign="top"|
*Computer animation
**Multi-sketching
**Skeletal animation
**Morph target animation
**Cel-shaded animation
**Onion skinning
**Analog computer animation
**Motion capture
**Tradigital animation
**PowerPoint animation| style="width:20%" valign="top"|
*Stop-motion animation
**Cutout animation
**Clay animation
**Pixilation
**Puppetoon| style="width:20%" valign="top"|
*Pinscreen animation
*Drawn on film animation
*Special effects animation