ANIMATION is nothing more than an optical illusion – a way of persuading our eyes into thinking that lots of static pictures are one moving image. Since the media platform for the masses such as YouTube, simple shorts can be attempted by anyone.  However to have it for ‘serious business’ or broadcast entertainment, and for the ROI they are better left to the professionals. Otherwise the cost is even higher such as lost in precious time and reputation of the organisation that is putting up for the world to view. The basic processes and techniques are the same for all animation, and because of the wide range of applications, a good animator are not just one that knows how to operate a software, but needs to feel, think and communicate like an ‘actor’ or ‘actress’ at time!  The right team will bring out the best for you. Let’s look at and learn more about the different types of animation.

Simple animations
Before film was invented, there were early forms of animated pictures. The zoetrope, for example, is a wheel with a number of static pictures around the inside so that they appear to move when the wheel spins. Flipbook animation is very similar, and places pictures on every page of a book so that it creates an optical illusion when the pages are flipped quickly. YOU can try this out! Just for fun of it!   

Traditional animation
Traditional animation is sometimes called hand-drawn animation or cel animation and, for most of the 20th Century, many popular animated films were created this way. It was a lengthy process. Thousands of pictures were drawn entirely by hand on acetate sheets, or cels, with each cel being slightly different from the one before it. Each cel was photographed onto a separate frame of film so that when the filmreel was played, the animation moved. This form of animation could also be combined with live-action video by placing the cels on top of the film. Here is an example we have created. I know What You Did The Night Before Christmas! link
Traditional animation takes a lot of artistic skill and has many different artistic styles. Another  a good example of another style of traditional animation called rotoscoping, which used a live-action recording as a template for animation. The animator than traces this over another layer. The process can be very laborious and needs a steady hand!

Computer Animation
Computer technology revolutionised the animation world. Computer animation includes a very wide range of techniques, but in essence is any animation that is created digitally using a computer. Whilst forms of computer animation have been around since the 1960s, it came into general use in the 1990s when animators began using it alongside traditional animation. It is more controllable and faster than traditional animation and computer animation can be broken down into two main types:

  • Digital 2D Animation can be created using computer programs such as Adobe Animate CC, After Effects, Cel Action and TV Paint. These programs have varying levels of complexity – from simple stick-person animation figures, to entire worlds. At our studio, we mostly prefer Adobe Animate CC (previously called Flash), After Effects and Toon Boom.
  • Cut-out animation, where flat pictures are physically cut out of paper or fabric and animated. However, cut-out animation is also used widely in the 2D animation, where it is more economical to draw and create different parts of the body of a character, for example, and produce the animation by moving different parts to create the illusion.

Digital 3D Animation uses programmes such as Autodesk Maya or Newtek Lightwave to create animation with more depth. Creating a 3D logo or 3D model of a character or a city landscape takes different amount of time and resources for it to work. Hence the level of realism expected, the given budget and time will determine the final result. That’s why clarity of the client’s brief is important and working with the animation team would amount to cost-savings! The animator will use keyframing to set the 3D character’s different poses, just as they would in traditional animation and then render test to get the best result. However, they don’t need to do it on every frame, but just key ones – the computer programs then fill in the movement between the key frames to create a full animation. 

Motion capture Animation is method used to make 3D digital animation as life-like as possible. An actor will be filmed doing actions, speaking, or even acting full scenes, whilst special sensors on their body and face are ‘captured’ by a film camera.  This is then translated into a digital character, which can be controlled by the animator. A highly sophisticated and technically involvement is needed. The cost to produce this type of animation is very steep at present, and unless you have those big budget we can gather the team to meet your need.

Stop-motion is another simple, but time-consuming, form of animation where objects are physically manipulated and filmed frame-by-frame. Stop motion comes in many forms and techniques.  Some of these stop-motion technique requires no specialist equipment, however, some blockbuster big budget movies that goes into millions, do have special equipment and an army of specialist working on the sets. Let us know your needs, you never ask, we’ll never know.

Claymation is the name given to stop-motion that is made with clay or plasticine figures. Plasticine is easily moved and shaped, so the figures can be moved very carefully and precisely. It another highly-laborious skilled work to create a claymation, as a figure is usually moved about twelve times for every second of film. 
 Whilst it is very similar to traditional animation in technique, stop-motion continues to be a popular form of animation, with at least twelve feature-length stop-motions currently in production. Many animators work with stop-motion for artistic reasons, as it is still difficult to recreate stop-motion models digitally.

Working with animation
Animation is such a wide and versatile subject; there are endless routes and possibilities that you can go into. Artistic variations on the discussed styles above are endless.  But animation is always changing and developing, and as we know best, that most important ingredient to keep an animator going isPASSION! Some other important ingredients to keep these arts and community alive are:

  1. The Bright Ideas!
  2. The Compelling Stories
  3. The Imagination
  4. The Audience
  5. The Investors

For more information and discussion, why not contact us now!
Please email your enquiry to : hello@instantreplay.com.sg