Unit 11: Animation for Digital Media: HA5

Stop motion animation

Stop motion animation is the name of an animation style that manipulates real world objects and capturing images of them one frame at a time to create the illusion of movement.

The smaller the increments of movement and in turn higher frequency of images taken makes for smoother animation and frame rate.

Stop motion animation is very similar to hand drawn or keyframe animation in that every frame needs to be captured, But, By a camera. Stop motion animation gives creators more freedom in the amount of frames they can use as many enjoy the quirks a low frame rate brings to stop motion animation. Stop motion makes objects move as if by magic and uses suspension of disbelief quite heavily in its execution.

Wallace and Gromit uses stop motion and Claymation (Clay Animation) to achieve its results. Wallace and Gromit are often regarded as British icons due to the animation being produced and widely consumed in the UK, Due to each second of film using 24 frames producing Wallace and Gromit films takes a very long time.

Hand Drawn Animation

Traditional animation, also referred to as classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation, is the oldest and historically the most popular form of animation. In a traditionally-animated cartoon, each frame is drawn by hand. Many animators, even those working in the industry today, choose to use the traditional drawn method. Others use computer programmes that simulate the traditional method such as photo-shop. The technique was the dominant form of animation until computer animation hit its peak. While the animation is being done, the background artists will paint the sets (Backgrounds) in which the drawn images or sequences will take place. These backgrounds are generally done in acrylic paint, although many were painted with watercolor or oil paint and some still are.

During production the animator will draw many various images of the characters and then take pictures of them on a video camera when all the images have been taken the sequence is created and enough frames are played at a fast enough frame rate to trick the human eye.