An Introduction to Animation for Beginners

Images or objects are manipulated to appear as moving images using a dynamic medium called as animation.The images were drawn by hand or photographed and exhibited on film in traditional animation. Nowadays animations are made with computer-generated imagery (CGI).

Computer animation can be very detailed 3D animation, while 2D computer animation is used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth or faster real-time renderings. Stop motion technique can be applied to two and three-dimensional objects like paper cutouts, puppets or clay figures for making animation.

Commonly, the effect of the animation is achieved by the rapid succession of a raging number of images on each other. Most popular animation media are Television and video that are formerly analogue but now they operate digitally. Techniques like Animated GIF and Flash Animation were developed to display animation on Computer. An animation is also heavily used for video games, motion graphics and special effects. In Metro cities like Gurgaon, the animation is high in demand. You can easily find an Animation Company in Gurgaon.

Techniques

Traditional Animation was used for most animated films in the 20th century. The photographs of drawings are the individual frames of a traditionally animated film and are first drawn on paper.To create movement, each drawing differs slightly from the one before it.The animators’ drawings are photocopied onto sheets called cels, which are filled in with paints in different colors opposite the line drawings.The completed cels are then photographed one-by-one against a painted background by a camera onto motion picture film.

Full animation use detailed drawings and plausible movement, having a smooth animation for producing high-quality traditionally animated films. Fully animated films can be made in different styles, from more realistic animated works like those made by the Walt Disney studio to the ‘cartoon’ styles of the Warner Bros.In Fully animated films, Drawings can be held for one frame out of 24 or two frames out of 24 meaning at 24 frames per second with a combination of animation on ones and twos.

Limited animation involves a choppy or “skippy” movement animation or the use of less detailed or more stylized drawings. Fewer drawings per second are used in Limited animation, thereby limiting the fluidity of the animation. This is a more economical technique of animation.

Rotoscoping is a technique in which animators trace live-action movement, frame by frame.Here we can directly copy the source film from actors’ outlines into animated drawings.

Animation that is created by physically manipulating real-world objects and photographing them one frame of film at a time to create the illusion of movement is Stop-motion animation.There are many different types of stop-motion animation, usually named after the medium used to create the animation.Computer software is available to create this type of animation; traditional stop-motion animation is usually more time-consuming but less expensive to produce than current computer animation.

Computer animation includes a large number of techniques, the important factor being that the animation is created digitally on a computer.In 2D animation techniques, the focus is on image manipulation while 3D techniques build virtual worlds in which characters and objects move and interact.3D animation can create images that give a real like feel to the viewer.

2D animation figures are created or edited on the computer using 2D bitmap graphics and 2D vector graphics.The process includes automated computerized versions of traditional animation techniques, interpolated morphing, onion skinning and interpolated rotoscoping.2D animation has many applications which include analogue computer animation, Flash animation, and PowerPoint animation.Still, photographs called Cinemagraphs are in the form of an animated GIF file of which part is animated.Final line advection animation is another technique in 2D animation, that is used to give artists and animators more control over the final animation as everything is done within the same department.

3D animation is digitally modelled and made by an animator.Starting includes creating a 3D polygon mesh to manipulate.A mesh is the one that includes many vertices that are connected by edges and faces, which give the visual appearance of form to a 3D object or 3D environment.Sometimes, an internal digital skeletal structure called an armature is given to the mesh that can be used to control the mesh by weighting the vertices.This process is rigging and is used in conjunction with keyframes to create movement.Other techniques can be applied, simulated fur or hair, mathematical functions,, and effects, fire and water simulations.These techniques fall under the category of 3D dynamics.

One problem unique to animation is that it requires to maintain a film’s consistency from start to finish, even as films grow longer and teams have grown larger. Animators have individual styles but must manage their individuality in a consistent way to whatever style is employed on a particular film.This problem can be solved by having a separate group of visual development artists that develop an overall look and palette for each film before animation process begins. Character designers in the visual development team draw model sheets to show how each character should look like with different expressions, in different positions, and viewed from different angles.

Media and Cinema are Criticising animation since its inception. With its popularity, criticism has arisen in large numbers, especially animated feature-length films.Many concerns of cultural representation and psychological effects on children have come into place around the animation industry, which has remained rather politically unchanged and stagnant since its inception into mainstream culture.

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