Animation - DefinitionAnimation - Definition

The word “animation” is from “animate,” which means to bring to life.

Thus when a multimedia developer wants to bring an image to life, animation is used.

Animation is a graphic representation of drawings to show movement within those drawings.

A series of drawings are linked together and usually photographed by a camera.

The drawings have been slightly changed between individualized frames so when they are played back in rapid succession (24 frames per second) there appears to be seamless movement within the drawings.

Animation is derived from the latin word “anima”,the “animating principle”,the vital force inside every living creature

It is often used as a translation for the greek word “psyche”,and related to the christian concept of soul.

Animation is the technique of giving ”soul” to inanimate objects,drawings.

TYPES OF ANIMATIONS

A model or puppet (shadow puppets were used in early stop motion) is shot a frame at a time, with tiny changes in position being made between each frame

Drawings are made on transparent sheets (celluloid) which may then be laid on top of each other to combine characters and backgrounds

Celanimation1

Stop motion animation

2 Computer animation3

TYPES OF ANIMATIONS

Computers can be used to entirely create the shapes and colours of animated action, working from a series of mathematical codes, or they can be used to enhance hand-drawn characters.

Stop MotionStop Motion

The stop motion technique too uses the phenomenon of optical illusion to create animations.

In this method, real world objects are manipulated physically and then photographed one frame at a time.

Puppet animation, clay animation, cutout animation are some of the types of stop animation.

Computer AnimationComputer Animation

The two basic categories of computer animation are 2D and 3D animation. The 2D animation is created either using '2D vector graphics' or '2D bitmap graphics'. Morphing, tweening, interpolated rotoscoping and onion skinning are the techniques used in 2D animation.

The technique known as 'rigging' is used to create 3D animations. Although many other techniques are used to create a 3D animation, rigging is most commonly used. The digital models made for 3D animation are manipulated with the help of an animator. The mesh is given a digital structure to facilitate easy manipulation.

CGI ANIMATION CGI ANIMATION Computer-Generated Imagery(CGI) is a revolutionised animation.

The first feature film done completely in CGI was “TOY STORY” produced by pixar.

The process of CGI animation is still very tedious and silmilar in that sense to traditional animation and is still adheres to many of the same principles.

A principal difference of CGI animation compared to traditional animation is that drawing is replaced by 3D modelling,almost like a virtual version of stop-motion.

A form of animation that combines the two words can be considered to be computer aided animation.

CGI ANIMATED CGI ANIMATED HUMANS HUMANS

Most CGI films are based on animal characters, Monsters , machines or cartoon like humans.

Animation studios are now trying to develop ways of creating realistic-looking humans.

Films that have attempted CGI animated humans are “Final fantasy:advent children” in 2005 and “The polar express” in 2004. Films like Avatar combine animation with live action to create humanoid creatures

MAKING OWN ANIMATIONMAKING OWN ANIMATION Many different techniques or methods could be used

to create your own animation. One can either use the Traditional technique, computer animation or the stop motion technique.

Traditional Technique

The technique was used for many films that were made in the 20th century.

In this the first step is to make drawings for the sequences to be presented in the animation.

These drawings are photocopied onto acetate sheets.

The side of the sheet which is opposite to the line drawings should be filled with the assigned colors.

These sheets are then photographed on motion picture films using a rostrum camera.

USES OF ANIMATIONThe above mentioned 3 basic types of animation have brought a new era of amazing technology in the field of Internet (Website design and graphics),Film industry and media.In addition,Animation is one of the popular Internet marketing strategies that make visitors stay on your site for long time