Expert: Joseph Silver - 10/29/2007

Question
what are the benifits of digital animation over stop frame animation?

Answer
Hi Nick - Probably the biggest benefit I can think of is that digital animation is a lot more flexible. You can make mistakes and go back and fix them before doing a final "render".

Another huge benefit with digial animation is that there is a lot less in-betweening to do. You can set two keyframes and let the computer figure out what keyframes to add in between those keyframes - with stop motion, you need to pose every single keyframe. This can be a time-consuming and imperfect process.

On the other hand, stop frame animation is a technique that can lead to beautiful, organic results that are extremely difficult to recreate with digital animation. And the somewhat imperfect animated look of stop motion is also what gives it character and style. Nowadays, it is common for stop motion animators to incorporate digital techniques and vice-versa. The synthesis of both techniques can lead to stunning results.

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