Animation Techniques

There are four basic techniques used in animation. These are:

• Drawn animation
• Cut-out animation
• Model animation or stop motion animation
• Computer animation or computer generated imagery (CGI)

Drawn animation - What is it?

This covers any form where one drawing is replaced by another in a sequence. Each drawing is slightly different from the one before. It works the way a flip book does. These animated films are made up of thousands of drawings which are shown on screen very quickly one after the other.

	It looks great!
	It takes a very long time to film from start to finish and is expensive needing many animators to complete the work.

TASK FOR STUDENTS

Try out the number crunching exercises below. Estimate the answers first, then work them out on a calculator. If 24 pictures (frames) are shown per second in an animated film, how many frames would be shown in one minute (60 seconds). If a film lasts for approximately 90 minutes (an hour and a half), how many frames would be shown in the film altogether? Each 60 seconds of film measures about 27 metres. If you unrolled a 90 minute long film, how many metres would it measure?

Cut-out animation What is it?

This covers any form of animation where cut-out shapes are moved around or replaced by other cut-outs. Flat objects like buttons, matchsticks and string can also be used in this form of animation. Cut-outs can also be laid on top of drawings.

	It is very quick and easy to do.
	It is difficult to have more than one or two cut-outs moving at the same time. Cut-out animation appears to move in a very stiff and awkward way.

TASK FOR STUDENTS

Can you think of other films or programmes that use cut-out animation?

Model animation or stop motion animation - What is it?

This involves the filming of puppets or any form of three-dimensional models. The materials used could include plasticine, clay or wire - in fact anything that can be bent or formed into another shape. The puppets are positioned and filmed before being moved ever so slightly and filmed again. These shots are put together as a piece of film and will give the impression of the models moving.

Models can be used over and over again and copies made of them to shoot different scenes at the same time so that the filming takes less time. This type of animation needs a lot of time and hard work. The makers of 'James and the Giant Peach' were only able to complete 45 seconds of stop-motion animation a week - 10 seconds a day. This was because each puppet had so many joints that needed moving for each frame - the centipede alone had 72!

What is it? This refers to the drawing of three-dimensional models and sets on the computer. Images can be scanned into the computer using digital photography or made within the computer itself. Human characters can be built from clay whilst sets and furnishings are modelled using design systems similar to architects drawings. These models are scanned into the computer as wire-frame models which are gradually built up into a coloured and textured form which will finally be recorded onto film.The wire-frame model (far left) was made on a computer before being built up into the character (left).

Computers are becoming cheaper and easier to use than traditional animation. The computer animated film 'Toy Story' cost $30 million to make and used 110 animatiors. "The Lion King' using drawn animation cost $45 million to make and used 800 animators.

TASK FOR STUDENTS

Can you think of films or programmes that use computer animation? Animation is often thought of as pure entertainment, but it is used in many other ways. For instance:

• Computer games/CD ROMS Creating characters, backgrounds, and sound effects.
• Internet: Sound and pictures have to be treated as a form of animation in order to send them through telephone lines.
• Advertising: Animation offers a way of capturing people's attention as it can create fantasy situations.
• Science: Many scientific ideas are not possible to film. These concepts are shown through computer-generated animation and allow scientists to visualise what cannot be seen.
• Military simulation: The effects of testing weapons, or military manoeuvres is achieved by simulating the effects on a computer. This is cheaper, safer and faster than doing it for real.
• Transport: Traffic controllers, who look after the traffic light systems for air and road use animated diagrams to show traffic flow and predict traffic problems.
• Doctors use computer-generated 'virtual' images of delicate operations when teaching their students