Types of Animation

The animation techniques used today can be divided into four basic types: Hand-drawn animation, stop-motion animation, computer animation, and motion-capture animation
Hand-Drawn Animation
This type of animation involves photographing a series of drawings. Each drawing makes up one frame of the film. In each drawing, the position of the character or object changes very slightly. This technique is called cel animation.  In cel animation, the animated characters were drawn on thin plastic sheets of celluloid. In this animation process, animators draw the characters and artists trace the drawing onto the celluloid sheets. Many popular cartoon and feature films used cel animation technique. 

Walt Disney produced the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, using cel animation. Although techniques have improved over the years, many of these original techniques are used in other kinds of animation.




Stop-Motion Animation
Models are used in stop-motion animation.  They are photographed on a set one frame at time. Movement is created when the photographs are played back in sequence. Modeling clay was used to create the first stop-motion models. The process used was to pose the model, photograph the model, and then adjust the model slightly for the next photograph. Today, models have a rubber skin over a moveable metal frame. Models are also, created entirely on the computer.

A model you may be quite familiar with is the Pillsbury Doughboy. He was created using stop-motion animation.
Watch this Pillsbury Doughboy Christmas Commercial.