Expert: Andrew Ransavage - 8/16/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hi. With 2d animation, can I scan in my own art work and animate it from there? What is the difference between 2d and 3d? Thanks much.

ANSWER: Yes you can scan in your art work but to truly animate it you may need to vectorize it. This means you translate the image of the scan into shapes/lines that the animation software can manipulate. There is plenty of vectorization software available..

2D animation refers to flat graphics, traditional cartoons are typically 2D. 3D refers to truly three dimensional computers models. 3D tends to be harder upfront but has more potential as there is simply more data to show. You can still create typical cartoons with 3D but you can also do highly realistic ones as well. South Park is 2D, Jimmy Neutron is 3D... Just a couple examples...

let me know if you have any other questions...
Andrew

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you lots. You mentioned there is plenty of vectorization software out there. Can you mention some examples. Would Photoshop or Illustrator be one of those programs? Any other examples would be great. Do Mac computers work better for 2d and 3d animation? Your suggestions on how to set up to be prepared would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Answer
Look at VectorEye, On2 Flix or Silhouette for Illustrator regarding vectorizstion software.

The PC has much more software available to it for animation. I would be reluctant to use Mac's for his reason or at least until you have a better sense of the area of animation you're interested in...

good luck,
Andrew