Pick a range of different animations and try and identify how they have been made. Are they digitally created or do they use claymation, live action or a combination of technologies? You may want to do this historically, picking animations that chart its development, or aesthetically by choosing animations that interest you.
Can you identify examples of illustrators being inventive with the technological limitations that have available to them? Can you find examples of illustrators who are pushing the boundaries, finding new ways of working?
The five main ways of animation are:-
Traditional animation – cell
2D animation – vector
3D animation – computer
Motion graphics – information
Stop motion – models – claymation
Traditional animation
Is a technique used where each frame is hand drawn by artists, illustrators or animators. Each frame was drawn and each frame is a little bit different from the previous one, they were then filled with paint in plastic cells, and each one photographed individually, then set up as a sequence.
The example below is the pencil drawings of Snow White for the animation of the same name, you can see the different expressions.
2D animation
Is the art of creating movement in a two dimensional space, usually characters, and backgrounds are drawn, this animation is used with Vectors not pixels.
Bugs bunny was created in a 2D animated way.
3D animation
Software applications are used with digital techniques to build 3D models, generating animated images, this creates both static scenes and dynamic images, through a 3 dimensional space.
Toy story is a good example of where they created 3D animation, and how it really came to life.
Motion graphics
Motion graphics is with text being the major component. It’s animated words or graphic design.
Here is a gif example that shows that the words are animated.
Stop motion
Stop motion is a technique when a camera is stopped and started frame by frame so the models can be moved ever so slightly in between to create a sequence at the end, which is animated.
A good example of this is Wallace and Gromit by Nick Park.
Illustrators being inventive with the technological limitations they have available to them.
Florian Klauer is an art director from Germany, he is an photographer and digital designer/ illustrator, and creates combinations of these medias to come up with some unusual images and is inventive and thinks outside the box.
Illustrators that are pushing the boundaries, finding new ways of working.
Peter Phobia is a New York based illustrator and animator, although born in Germany. His distinctive style and work has named him Advertising, new talent winner in this years world illustration awards. He combines illustration, and digital art work with animation and Gifs, in a strong colour and graphic style, which is distinctive and strong.
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