Traditional animation techniques
​
The traditional approach is very fascinating for pencil lovers. The animation is drawn by hand for every frame, and each drawing is a little bit different from the previous one.
All the drawings are fed into plastic cells, filled with paint in the desired colors, and are then photographed one-by-one into an animated sequence on a painted background image.
Storyboards
The storyboarding process was originally developed at Walt Disney Productions in the early 1930s, and it’s usually the first step in making traditional animation. A storyboard is a collection of hand drawings and words that tell a story, similar to large comic strips. The drawings are displayed in a certain sequence, so the viewer can pre-visualize the animation.
This process is often repeated many times before reaching the final desired outcome. It helps the animators to set plans for the animation plot and defines the composition of the imagery.
Stop motion
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion when the series of frames is played back as a slow sequence. Objects with movable joints or clay figures are often used in stop motion for their ease of repositioning. Stop-motion animation using plasticine figures is called clay animation or "clay-mation". Not all stop motion, however, requires figures or models: stop-motion films can also be made using humans, household appliances, and other objects, usually for comedic effect. Stop motion using humans is sometimes referred to as pixilation.
Computer animation
is the process used for digitally generating animated images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to 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.
Computer animation is essentially a digital successor to stop motion techniques, but using 3D models, and traditional animation techniques using frame-by-frame animation of 2D illustrations. Computer-generated animations are more controllable than other, more physically based processes, like constructing miniatures for effects shots, or hiring extras for crowd scenes, because it allows the creation of images that would not be feasible using any other technology. It can also allow a single graphic artist to produce such content without the use of actors, expensive set pieces, or props. To create the illusion of movement, an image is displayed on the computer monitor and repeatedly replaced by a new image that is similar to it but advanced slightly in time (usually at a rate of 24, 25, or 30 frames/second). This technique is identical to how the illusion of movement is achieved with television and motion pictures.
