6 Different types of Animation

Flip book Animation

A flip book animation is a book with a series of images that vary gradually from one page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly, the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change. Flip books are often illustrated books for children, but may also be geared towards adults and employ a series of photographs rather than drawings. Flip books can also appear as an added feature in ordinary books or magazines, often in the page corners. I think that flip books are quite quirky as you don’t really see many. However on Instagram there is an account called The Flippist Flip Books, who designs different types of flip books for different occasions such as engagements, which I think is really sweet.

Stop Motion Animation

Stop motion animation is a animation that is captured one frame at a time, which physical objects that are moved between frames. When you play back the sequence of images rapidly, it creates the illusion of movement. Stop motion is very similar to 2D animation, except your using physical objects instead of drawings. The basic process of animation involves taking a photograph of your object or characters, moving them slightly, and taking another photograph. When you play it back the objects or characters appear to move on their own. This is probably one of my favourite types of animation as it can be super easy and it also looks really good in films like Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride.

Hand Drawn Animation

Hand drawn animation is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation was made. The first movie using this process was Walt Disney’s Snow White and the seven dwarfs, which is one of my favourite films and used over 2 million drawings through the whole film, which is amazing.

Computer Animation

Computer animation is the art of creating moving images using computers. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) includes both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to the moving images. Modern computer animation usually uses 3D computer graphics, although 2D computer graphics are still used for stylistic, low bandwidth, and faster real-time renderings. Sometimes, the target of the animation is the computer itself, but sometimes film as well. The first CGI movie was called ‘The Adventure of Andrè and Wally B’, which was only about 2 minutes long.

Motion Graphics

Motion graphics is the art of creatively moving graphic elements or texts, usually for commercial or promotional purposes. It usually involves animating images, texts or video clips using key framing that are combined to make a smooth motion between frames. Motion graphics are usually displayed via electronic media technology, but may also be displayed via manual powered technology (e.g. thaumatrope, phenakistoscope, flipbook).

Rotoscoping Animation

Rotoscoping is a technique made by Max Fleischer in 1917. The source film can be directly copied from actors’ outlines into animated drawings, like The Lord of the Rings (1978). In the visual effects industry, rotoscoping is the technique of manually creating a matte for an element on a live-action plate so it may be composited over another background. This device was eventually replaced by computers.