What is Animation?

By Asher & Kaine

 What is the definition of Animation?

Animation is the process of manipulating an inanimate object or image,

such as a clay model or computer-generated model, to give the
appearance of movement in a linear sequence. This can be used to
either breathe life into characters and other living beings, recreate how
objects move when interacted with or/and simulate how nature moves
such as the pattering of rain on concrete or the gushes of wind on the
leaves of trees. Animation is often used as a way to tell a story through
the linear sequence of movements, whether that’s through an
animated show or playable video game there's almost always a story
behind the animation.
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 Why is Animation important?
“Animation is important because it makes us be able to tell stories and communicate emptions and ideas in a unique, easy-to-perceive
way” –13/3/19  DYLAN GIBSON
Why Animation is Important (stonesoup.com)

It allows people to create whatever they want without the limitations of reality, characters can look however they want, and they can
be whoever they want. Animation allows characters and scenes to feel more personal to the audience, connecting to them on multiple
levels. Animation is also not limited to actor's appearance and capabilities of performance.
But not just that, animations can help children and adults alike learn new things in a fun and engaging way. Kids are greatly
influenced by the things that they take in at a young age and by using animation to teach children things as simple to the alphabet to
topics such as sticking up for your friends.

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 History of Animation
• The Magic lantern is considered the first form of projection animation from 1603 by Christiaan Huygens.
• Thaumatrope was created by John Ayrton in 1824 to demonstrate the persistence of vision, which would go on to be the
inspiration for the creation of more advanced methods of animation. 
• Phenakistoscope was created in 1832 by Joseph Plateau and Simon Von, it was a disk that had pictures drawn on the spin
wheel which when spun and looked at through a mirror would give the illusion of movement. 
• Zoetrope was first created in 1834 by William Horner, then named the Daedalum, it was a drum like spinning contraption
that would spin much like the disked Phenakistoscope but eliminated the need for a mirror because of its clever use
of slits to act like a pseudo shutter.  
• Praxinoscope was first created in 1877 by Charles-Emile Reynaud, it was like a combination of the magic lanturn, Zoetrope
and Phenakistoscope which was able to remove the flaws of its predacessors such as the unstable and shakey sequencing. 
• James Stuart created the first ever animated film on the standard picture film in 1906. Where the first fully animated
movie, Fantasmagoria, using this would follow in 1908.
• The first Claymation was produced in 1908 called "The Sculpters Nightmare" by Wallace McCutcheon, following 8 years
after the invention of plasticine which is still used to today in claymation. 
• Digital Animation was first founded in the early 1960s by John Whitney. 

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 What are the advantages of Animation?

• Animation can be used to create the illusion of fantastical or disturbing events or beings that either don’t exist or/and are
too hard to recreate in the real-world to a realistic standard. Allowing for almost any concept to be possible no
matter how ludicrous it may be.
• Animation also allows for many different types of art styles to be expressed in the form of a moving piece, allowing for
different animations to look vastly different from each other in new and interesting ways. 
• Animation allows for the characters to perform stunts and movements which would have a high chance or would certainly
harm a real actor, allowing for more extravagant feats of movement. 
• Animation can provide a disconnect from the characters depicted on screen, some scenes that would be considered too
violent or too disturbing for the live action shows could be shown in animation as it allows people to clearly see that the
characters and the event are clearly not real. Over exaggerating it with animation can also help people disconnect
from it as it could be obviously too unrealistic.
• Computer animation can be used in tandem with live action animatronics to create a more realistic entity that doesn’t
exist or no longer exists, one of the most famous examples of this is the dinosaurs in the Jurassic park films which used a
mixture of well-designed animatronics and animation to create realistic movements and appearance.
• Computer generated animation can be designed to move and act when instructed to through the use of keys and
buttons far more easily and seemlessly than other methods of animation, along with providing far more control over the
animation with simple button presses. This allows computer generated animations to be created into games.

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 What are the disadvantages of Animation?
Animation is great to watch and engage in, but there are some disadvantages to using this method of media:
 It takes a long time to produce just one episode with flawless transitions
 It can cause lag in games If the computer/console doesn’t have the correct specs to host the game, as well as
lag time on a slow internet connection
Teach ICT - GCSE ICT - pros and cons of animation (teach-ict.com)
 If you were to make a mistake in traditional animation, you would be required to redraw that whole scene
again to correct the mistake which can be extremely taxing.
 It costs a lot to produce it
The Disadvantages of Traditional Animation (synonym.com)

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 Types of Animation Zoetrope

3D STOP-MOTION (or clay animation): where objects are moved and captured frame by frame to create
a moving image. Film examples of this method are: Coraline, The Nightmare Before Christmas and The
Corpse Bride. Show examples are Mio Mao, Pingu and Wallace and Gromit. 
CGI (digital animation): The process of creating digitally generated animated images. You can create
both 2D and 3D animations with computers. Examples of 3D CGI: Big Hero 6, Toy Story, any 3D games
such as Resident Evil and Detroit: Become Human. Examples of 2D CGI: SpongeBob, Old School Disney
films, Anime.
FLIPBOOK AMINATION: One of the traditional techniques, images are drawn onto paper and changed
slightly on each page. The pages are then flipped quickly to create a video like moving picture.
Audio Animatronics and Autonomatronics:  Artificially controlled mechanisms that can take the shape
of things such as robots, animals or humans. They are controlled remotely and can have a range of different
movements to make them look like they are living creatures. These machines are most often seen in
Disneyland within the rides to make them more interactive. They are also used in films and tv shows.
Zoetrope: A circular drum type apparatus that creates the illusion of moving images by watching slightly
changing images through slits in the side of the drum while it rotates. These were used before films were
created and are rarely used now but places like Disneyland have created some for visitors to view.

31 Types of Animation Styles With Examples [Research] (yansmedia.com)