Animation techniques

1 Traditional animation
1.1 Full animation
1.2 Limited animation
1.3 Rotoscoping
1.4 Live-Action
2 Stop-Motion
2.1 Clay motion
2.2 Pixilation
2.3 Go-Motion
2.4 Cutout animation
3 Computer animation
3.1 Flash animation
3.2 Motion capture
3.3 3D computer modeling
4 Experimental animation
4.1 Animation with sand
4.2 Pinscreen

Traditional animation
The classic cartoon consists of drawing all the movements of the characters and the different
backgrounds on sheets, and then photographing them and projecting them at a certain
speed to create the illusion of movement. It could be said that the promoters of this
technique were the Disney brothers.

The multiplane camera

The multiplane camera is a machine invented by the Disney family which had the function of
speeding up the animation process and at the same time creating a depth effect. This
process consists of a series of sheets spaced from each other at a certain distance located
in front of a camera. These sheets move at different speeds using cranks to create the
sensation of depth.
Transparent spaces are left in all layers except the last one, so that the lower layers can be
seen from behind. First the speed at which each layer moves is calculated, then they are
photographed.

Disney used this technique for the first time in a short film called The Old Mill.

Elaboration process

Cartoons created traditionally or by multiplane camera follow a production process:

Storyboard: It is a guide, in the form of a comic strip where small representations of the
scene and some of the most important dialogues are shown.
Animation: It consists of making a pre-animation with the storyboard drawings and the audio
tracks, to have an idea of the duration of the animation.
Design: Once the animation is approved, we move on to the character design. In the design,
all the animation characters are drawn with many of their most common poses, to then
facilitate work. On some occasions it is possible to design three-dimensional models.
Timing: At this point the different transparencies for the lips are represented. A table, called
X-Sheet, is created that contains a breakdown of the action, dialogue, and sound, for each
frame of the animation.
Layout: In this process, the distance between the characters is established, where the light
will come from and where the shadows will look. All of this is attached to the animatic, using
the X-Sheet as a guide.
Animation: Once this point is reached, the different planes are placed and photographed or
scanned. Once this process is finished, the animation is mounted and if a shot has gone
wrong, it is repeated again.
Full animation
It is a cartoon creation process that uses a number of 24 frames per second. They are
productions of higher quality and cost.

A clear example of full animation are the Disney animated feature films and many of the
Disney and Warner Bros. animated short films.
Limited animation
It is a cartoon creation process that uses a smaller number of frames per second; instead of
animating at 24 frames per second, double frames are usually used. Abstract backgrounds,
symbolism, and repetition of movements are also often used to create the same effect, so
the drawing becomes more imperfect, but it greatly reduces costs.

A clear example of limited animation is animations for television, such as Hanna-Barbera

productions and Anime.
Rotoscoping
Rotoscoping consists of drawing the outline of each frame of a recording, forming the basis
of a sequence of images of real actions. In this way, a silhouette is generated that moves
realistically and that we can use as a base to animate another character. Max Fleisher was
the pioneer of this technique.

The first animation created with this technique came from its creator, Max Fleixer and his
brother Dave in 1915. Later, the first animated short films of Betty Boo and Popeye were
made with this technique. Years later, Disney joined in using the technique for its first
classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

rotoscoping machine

The rotoscoping machine was invented by Max Fleisher in 1917. It consisted of a

transparent sheet on which images of real movements were projected. The silhouettes of the
images were recreated on the sheet.

This machine provided animated characters with much more realistic movements.
Live-Action
This animation technique consists of combining cartoons with real actions.
Stop-motion (frame-by-frame animation) consists of appearing to move static objects
through a series of images. Its pioneer was the Soviet Ladislaw Starewicz.

Stop-motion animation consists of 24 frames per second, but double frames are used (each
image is two frames). This animation method is very laborious because the characters have
to be remodeled 12 times to generate one second of animation.
clay motion
This technique consists of animating inanimate objects, normally made of plasticine or any
other malleable material, through a series of images of the objects in different positions.

The two great promoters of the technique have been Nick Park and Tim Burton, with
Wallace & Gromit and The Nightmare Before Christmas, respectively.
Pixilation
It is a technique created by the Scotsman Norman McLaren, which consisted of animating
animated beings frame by frame. In 1952, Neighbors premiered a short film in which he used
this technique.
Go-Motion
Go-Motion is an animation technique, created in 1979 by Phil Tipett to animate the AT-ATs
in Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back.

This technique uses sequences of movements programmed in a computer and carried out
by motors to obtain a mechanical repetition of those same movements once the computer
has registered them in its memory.
Cutout animation
It consists of cut out figures, either made of paper or photographs. The bodies of the
characters are built with the cut-outs of their parts. By moving and replacing the parts you
get various poses, bringing the character to life.
computer animation
Flash animation
It is a type of animation created by a computer program, typically Adobe Flash, and often
distributed in the SWF file format.

Flash animation is much easier to produce, but is said to be much more simplistic than
traditional animation. This type of animation has become famous thanks to the great content
of series broadcast over the Internet.

motion capture
Motion capture consists of storing real movements through special suits and then attributing
them to a three-dimensional character.

Motion capture is known for its applications in the world of video games, but today it is being
widely used in the world of animation. It could be said that the precursor of this technique
has been the New Zealand producer Weta, which currently has the most control over the
subject.
3D computer modeling
This type of animation simulates three dimensions. It consists of generating, through a
process, a two-dimensional image from a three-dimensional model with the help of a
computer using specific programs.

Elaboration process

To carry out this conversion you must follow a preparation process:

● Modeling: It consists of shaping various objects that will later be used as models.
There are three different forms of modeling; by NURBS, by Surface Subdivision and
by Photogrammetry.
● Lighting: Lighting is the key point of animation. It consists of the creation of lights of
various types; directional in area, volume, with different color or properties...
● Animation: Objects can be animated in two ways: Basic transformations on the three
axes (XYZ), rotation, scale or translation.
● Shape:
○ Through skeletons: A basic structure with all the joints is applied to the object
and to move it you only have to move these.
● Using deformers: They can be deformation boxes, sinusoidal deformation...
● Dynamics: For simulations of clothes, hair...

● Rendering: It consists of the final process of generating the 2D image or animation

from the created scene. This can be compared to taking a photo or in the case of
animation, filming a real-life scene.
Currently, Pixar is the production company that has the most control over this technique
since most of the programs they use for animation have been designed by Apple.
Experimental animation
Experimental animation is any form of free expression of a concept or idea, through
animation techniques that transmit in an unconventional way.

In this animation technique there are no rules of any kind, the artist has freedom in the
methods. Some types of experimental animation are: drawing on film, sand animation, glass
painting animation, and pinscreen animation.
Animation with sand
This animation technique consists of representing images by drawing lines and figures on
top of a transparency projector covered with sand.
Pinscreen
This technique was developed by a Canadian family, Alexandre Alexeieff and his wife Claire
Parker.

The technique consists of a screen full of needles that can move in and out. These needles
generate a relief, which is illuminated from the sides to generate an image with its shadow.

Animation file format

SWF

This is a reduced Flash animation format. Until May 2008 it was a proprietary format of
Adobe, but then its specification was made completely public. Allows you to create
actionscript programming images. Currently, its use is being discouraged to the detriment of
HTML5. Such is the case that browsers like Google Chrome no longer support flash.

One of the characteristics that made the use of this format spread across the Internet is the
small size of the .swf files generated.

Advantages

● It allows you to create animations, videos or even video games.

● Small SWF files.
Disadvantages
● They require having the Adobe Flash Player Plugin installed.
● Currently its use is discouraged.

GIF

It is one of the best-known formats to contain images and animations, especially on the web.
It was created in 1987 by CompuServe to provide a color image format that was more
efficient than the RLE format they were using. They achieved this thanks to the patented
LZW compression algorithm.
It is an image format with lossless compression, this means that when switching to other
lossless compression formats the image quality is not reduced. It has a palette of 256 colors
(8 bits), which means that images that require between 2 and 256 colors do not lose quality,
but images with more than 256 colors do.

Main features
● Palette of 256 colors.
● Lossless compression.
● Allows you to animate images.
● Allows the use of the alpha channel for transparency.
Advantages

● Portability
● Ease of transmission
● Compatibility
● Free (currently, the LZW algorithm patent has expired).
Disadvantages
● Low resolution
● Low quality
● Low precision

GIFV

GIFV is a new format created by Imgur to replace the GIF format. It consists of using and
compressing videos in MP4 format, which are repeated infinitely, to create the animations.

The advantage? The quality of the animations is much higher (it is not limited to 256 colors)
while the size remains reduced (due to MP4 compression). In the following link we can see
an example of an animation that in GIFV format occupies 3.4 MB while in GIF it occupies 50
MB.

Currently it is not a standard, but thanks to the high popularity of Imgur it would not be
strange if it ended up becoming one.

SVG
SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is a specification for describing 2-dimensional vector
graphics based on the XML format. SVG stores lines, curves, gradients, colors and the rest
of the information necessary to create an image and it is the application that is responsible
for building it. This gives us the two main characteristics and advantages of this format:
vector graphics do not lose quality when scaled and, as they are based on the XML format,
they can be easily compressed so that transmissions are faster (with gzip, becoming images
SVGZ).

Allows three types of objects:

Geometric elements: lines, curves and areas delimited by them, edges...

bitmap images
Text
It is supported by most current browsers: Mozila Firefox (v1.5), Opera, Internet Explorer (v9),
Safari (v3.1), Chrome (v0) and Microsoft Edge (W10 build 20059). Although performance
was initially a problem, it has currently been improved, especially in the most recent versions
of these browsers.

Regarding its use as a multimedia source, it allows animations using the ECMAScript or
SMIL languages and the use of mouse and keyboard event handlers, such as onClick() or
onMouseDown(). You can create simple animations like those in Figure 3 or even video
games, like this Tetris

Advantages

● Light
● Supported by most current browsers
● Very useful on responsive websites
● Allows you to represent images, animations and text.
Disadvantages

Performance, because the image must be rasterized (transformed from a vector image to a
bitmap image).

MNG

It is a royalty-free file format for animated images. It is considered an extension of the PNG
image format. Two versions of reduced complexity MNG were created: MNG-LC (low
complexity) and MNG-VLC (very low complexity).
There are very few browsers that support this format: Opera partially supports it, Safari does
not support it, and Mozilla removed MNG support starting with version 1.5a.