2/22/19 Brodie Smith

English 9 Block 5

Animation Project

Remember those weekend mornings when you would wake up, grab a bowl of

cereal, then watch your favorite cartoon characters do their silly antics? Have you ever

been watching those cartoons and wonder how they were created? Well it was most likely

made with animation. Animation is the process in which pictures are manipulated to

appear to be in motion. Most types of animation animate with the idea of “a precise

sequence of frames that are played back, giving it the appearance of action and

movement.”(Stop Motion). There are many different types of animation. A few popular

ones are traditional, stop motion, 2D, 3D, and mechanical animation and that’s just

naming a few. These types of animation all use pictures to create motion. In this project

there will be demonstration of most of these types of animation and description of the

animation process as well. It will also go over some popular sub styles of animation. For

instance stop motion has three popular sub styles puppet, clay, and cut out animation. All

this and more will be covered in this project and to effectively know and learn about

these types of animation we need to learn the history of animation itself.

The history of animation dates back to 1832 when the phenakistoscope was

created. The phenakistoscope was a wheel with illustrations on it which spun to create the

illusion of movement. Other creations like this are the zoetrope in 1833 and the
praxinoscope in 1877. In 1872 Eadweard Muybridge took a sequence of photographs of a

horse running and put them into an animated sequence. He did this with humans and

other animals as well. In the early 1900s traditional animation caught on with Walt

Disney’s famous “Steamboat Willie”,Fleischer studios’ “Betty Boop” and many other

animations. “Steamboat Willie is also known for being the first cartoon with

synchronized sound.” (History of Traditional Animation). In 1936 rainbow dance was

created by Len Lye using direct animation and a little rotoscoping which is when you

trace over real images for animation. These animations were mostly general audience

until 1956 when Hanna Barbera and other studios started making kids shows like

“Scooby Doo” using different kinds of animation. Also around this time Disney created

many feature films such as “Bambi” and “Peter Pan” using a lot of traditional animation

techniques. In 1968 Yellow Submarine was commissioned by The Beatles. Animation

continued to progress mostly on paper then in the late 2000s and 2010s a software called

Toon Boom became primarily used to create most of the animations you see today.

Though new types of animation come out throughout history traditional animation is

arguably the most popular. Also although he first type of animation is considered

mechanical animation the first one to be discussed will be traditional animation as it is

the most basic level of animation in the modern world of animation.(“History Of

Traditional Animation)(A Brief History Of Animation)

 Traditional animation also known as cel animation was a popular type of

animation throughout the nineteenth century. It was done on paper and drawn by hand

and used cels in certain places in pictures to create frames. Cels are described as “​a

transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn

animation.​”(“Animation”). Many popular cartoon shows and characters you might’ve

heard of that used cel animation were Mickey Mouse, Betty Boop, Bugs Bunny, Scooby

Doo, and many others. The process is simple. First writers need to think up a plot. Second

a soundtrack must be made for the animation which included voices and music. This step

however varied in some ways as in the case of japanese anime as the sound was made

after the animation. This was also the case for some animation studios such as Fleischer

Studios. Thirdly an animatic is made to show how the full animation will synchronize

with the soundtrack. This allows directors and writers to cut out and amend any scenes

that do not fit. This saves money and time because if it were made as a full animation at

this point timing could be off wasting valuable time and money for the studio. Animatics

are used in other fields as well for this reason. Fourthly the animatic is sent to design

departments to create model sheets. Model sheets show what characters and props should

look like as well as their dimensions. These models are drawn in all different angles so to

ensure that the animators know how to draw what they need to. Background stylists will

do similar work at this time making backgrounds and art directors and color stylists will

determine what color schemes are needed. The timing director will work on what poses,
drawings, and other things will be needed and at what time in the animation. Fifthly

layout of scenes is worked on by the director and cinematographer. Then once this is all

done the director will review it and if it’s good enough he will approve it and the

animating will begin. When animating there are a few separate parts of the proces.

Frames will be drawn by animators on transparent paper, creating cels. Most major action

is made by the key animator, major characters will receive certain groups of animators

that will draw their cels, and aspects like effects if the animation demands it. Then once

that’s finished it goes to the cleanup department which will copy drawings and make

missing frames. After that they go through tests like pencil tests and then they are good to

go. That’s how traditional animation is produced. One popular technique that was and is

still heavily used in traditional animation is called rotoscoping.

Rotoscoping in animation is the act of taking the frames of a live action film and

tracing over them to create animation. It “​is used by animators when they want to trace

live action sequence movements and turn them into drawings​.”​(Traditional Animation

Techniques).​ One of the earliest examples of rotoscoping was when Eadweard

Muybridge had some of his famous film sequences painted on discs and fitted onto a

zoopraxiscope projector. Another famous rotoscope is the rotoscoping of Eadweard

Muybridge's “Horse in Motion”. It has gotten a lot of usage from the early days of

animation to the present day of animation. Rotoscoping has other uses too. For instance it

is used for visual effects for many movie like “star wars” for making the lightsaber by
putting a matte on a stick. A matte is a silhouette used by keying in or out an object to

replace certain objects (or FX) in post like the blade of a lightsaber. It is such a popular

technique that it is featured all around the globe in all different kinds of animations. All

in all rotoscoping has been a staple of animation throughout history and it is still a

popular way to animate today. Rotoscoping is also considered piece of live action

because the original movements were recorded in real life. Live action is used hundreds

of times in animation but do you know the techniques behind it?

Live action is film using pictures from real life to create motion. Basically it’s the

process of animation but done with consecutively taken images. Like animation it has

been a popular form of media since film and pictures were invented. Sometimes

photorealistic animation and computer animation can be classified as live action. This is

the case of Disney’s remake of “The Lion King” which uses computer animation to make

animals seem like they’re talking. Sometimes live action and animation are even

combined. For instance the film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” combined traditional

animation with live action by putting animation cels onto live action frames and for one

part of the movie green screening actors into a cartoon world. Though according to some

sources live action doesn’t include any animation at all, in the art community live action

films with some animation are still live action. That is how live action links to animation.

Another type of film in which frames are taken in real life is called stop motion.
 Stop motion animation is animation by manipulating objects slightly in between

photos to create different frames of an animation. The main idea of the process is “to

create animated videos, you must piece together individual still images that are captured

from webcams or camcorders,” (Stop Motion). The first use of this was in 1897 in the

film, “The Humpty Dumpty Circus” by Stuart Blackton to bring a miniature toy circus to

life. Toys are a popular device used to articulate and move in animation. Another

animation I would recommend that is a great example of stop motion is “A Town Called

Panic”. There are a few types of stop motion. Cutout animation is a type of animation in

which you use characters and objects made of cut out drawings or pieces of paper and

move them slightly frame to frame to create motion. One cartoon that uses this is the

infamous show called “Southpark” which is a great example of cutout animation.

(Although it is now digitally animated). Another form of stop motion animation is puppet

animation. Puppet animation is a form of stop motion of instead of using objects it uses

puppets. These puppets are posed frame to frame and stay posed due to metal wires inside

them making them easy to pose and sturdy as well. Some instances in which puppet

animation is used is in the movie “Coraline” and some of the “Wallace and Gromit”

movies. Though “Coraline” mainly uses a different type of stop motion animation,

claymation. Claymation is stop motion animation in which you use clay to mold almost

everything in an animation. Animators often use clay for the same reason they use

puppets, they’re easy to pose and they’re sturdy and can stand on their own for the most
part. The aforementioned movie “Wallace and Gromit” uses claymation to portray its

story and uses it very well. Claymation is also a popular type of animation on youtube as

well due to its simplicity and low difficulty. While there are many other types and forms

of stop motion these are the big three that others branch off of. Stop motion is a really big

genre and I would need to do a whole other project to cover it all. Later in the twenty first

century a type of animation was developed. It worked with both stop motion and

traditional animation on computers. It is called three dimensional animation.

3D animation is the process of using computers to animate 3D models. It is

normally like stop motion where you put a figure into a pose, take a frame, then change

the pose a little, and take another frame. 3D animation uses CGI or computer generated

imagery to create the moving images. Modern computer animation uses 3D graphics

rather than 2D graphics. Though traditional animation techniques are used to create

anything that is 2D. Computer animation cuts costs from the movie making process as

well. It eliminates the need for miniatures to be made for effect shots and eliminates the

need for extras with 3D models. 3D animation on the other hand requires models to be

made for each character, object, and set but this is only a minor setback for 3D animators.

After modeling is complete the 3D animators must render the frames of the animation.

This process varies from animator to animator. A similar type of animation like 3D

animation is 2D animation.
 2D animation is another type of computer animation. It is very similar to 3D

animation with its techniques and process but it’s in the 2D perspective. With 2D

animation figures are created on the computer and move around using 2D bitmap

graphics or 2D vector graphics. Also it uses a lot of automated techniques that you would

see in traditional animation. Some of these techniques are onion skinning which is

drawing over previous frames, morphing which is manipulating character rigs, and

rotoscoping. Some examples of 2D animation are flash animation, analog animation, and

powerpoint animation. 2D animation is also used in gifs which are pictures that are partly

animated. A largely used technique in 2D animation is final line advection animation.

This gives everyone involved in a 2D animation more control over the final product

because everyone working on the film is in the same department. This lets animators

tweak frames later with more ease. 2D animation is one of the most popular types of

computer animation. Another type of animation that takes all of these types of animation

and can use them in real time is mechanical animation.

Mechanical animation is very different from other types of animation because the

viewer isn’t looking at a screen but rather an animatronic. Mechanical animation uses

mechatronics to create animatronics that move and look like real creatures. Audio

animatronics can not walk but the can sing and sometimes dance or accomplish other

movements. The same goes for animatronics who do the task automatically over and

over. Other Types of mechanical animation include linear animation generators which is
when images are put on the walls of a tunnel and the viewer goes through the tunnel to

create the illusion of animation. Another popular type of mechanical animation is

chuckimation in which people “chuck” or throw character props onto the screen to create

the illusion of falling or flying. Another popular type is called hydrotechnics which use

water, fire, fog, and lasers to create spectacular displays. Mechanical animation is a very

unique type of animation and has a lot of different ways to do it. Overall it is a very

important type of animation due to its uses in the real world.

Animation was a popular form of entertainment in the twentieth century and still is

in the twenty first century. It has given careers to many people and today can be a stable

job. There are many variations of animation and animators are still pioneering styles and

substyles of animation. Overall animation can be considered one of the greatest

inventions of the nineteenth to twenty first century.

Sources:

“Animation” Wikipedia ​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation​ 5/15/19

“History of traditional animation” traditionalanimation.com

http://history.traditionalanimation.com/​ 2014

Will Murphy “A Brief History Of Animation”

youtube​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbpLpxi9rJY​ 11/1/16
“Traditional animation Techniques” Toon

Boom.​https://learn.toonboom.com/modules/animation-techniques/topic/traditional-animation

“Stop Motion” Video Studio

Pro​https://www.videostudiopro.com/en/pages/stop-motion-animation/​ 2019

“What is 3D animation compared to 2D animation” Bloop

https://www.bloopanimation.com/what-is-3d-animation/