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Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as
moving images Moving or Movin' may refer to: Moving of goods * Relocation (personal), the process of leaving one dwelling and settling in another * Relocation of professional sports teams * Relocation (computer science) * Structure relocation Music Album ...
. In
traditional animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation. Proce ...
, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on
film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
. Today, most animations are made with
computer-generated imagery Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The images may ...
(CGI).
Computer animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes (still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refe ...
can be very detailed
3D animation Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...
, while 2D computer animation (which may have the look of traditional animation) can be used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth, or faster
real-time rendering Real-time computer graphics or real-time rendering is the sub-field of computer graphics focused on producing and analyzing images in real time. The term can refer to anything from rendering an application's graphical user interface ( GUI) to ...
s. Other common animation methods apply a
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 or change when the series of frames i ...
technique to two- and three-dimensional objects like paper cutouts,
puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods ...
s, or clay figures. A cartoon is an animated film, usually a
short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
, featuring an exaggerated visual style. The style takes inspiration from
comic strips A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...
, often featuring anthropomorphic animals,
superhero A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...
es, or the adventures of human protagonists. Especially with animals that form a natural predator/prey relationship (e.g. cats and mice, coyotes and birds), the action often centers on
violent Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened o ...
pratfalls such as falls, collisions, and explosions that would be lethal in real life. The illusion of animation—as in motion pictures in general—has traditionally been attributed to the
persistence of vision Persistence of vision traditionally refers to the optical illusion that occurs when visual perception of an object does not cease for some time after the rays of light proceeding from it have ceased to enter the eye. The illusion has also been d ...
and later to the
phi phenomenon The term phi phenomenon is used in a narrow sense for an apparent motion that is observed if two nearby optical stimuli are presented in alternation with a relatively high frequency. In contrast to beta movement, seen at lower frequencies, the st ...
and/or
beta movement The term Beta movement is used for the optical illusion of apparent motion in which the very short projection of one figure and a subsequent very short projection of a more or less similar figure in a different location are experienced as one f ...
, but the exact neurological causes are still uncertain. The illusion of motion caused by a rapid succession of images that minimally differ from each other, with unnoticeable interruptions, is a
stroboscopic effect The stroboscopic effect is a visual phenomenon caused by aliasing that occurs when continuous rotational or other cyclic motion is represented by a series of short or instantaneous samples (as opposed to a continuous view) at a sampling rate clos ...
. While
animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video gam ...
s traditionally used to draw each part of the movements and changes of figures on transparent cels that could be moved over a separate background, computer animation is usually based on programming paths between
key frame In animation and filmmaking, a key frame (or keyframe) is a drawing or shot that defines the starting and ending points of a smooth transition. These are called ''frames'' because their position in time is measured in frames on a strip of film ...
s to maneuver digitally created figures throughout a digitally created environment.
Analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...
mechanical animation media that rely on the rapid display of sequential images include the phénakisticope,
zoetrope A zoetrope is one of several pre-film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion. It was basically a cylindrical variation of the phénak ...
,
flip book A flip book, flipbook, flicker book, or kineograph is a booklet with a series of images that very gradually change from one page to the next, so that when the pages are viewed in quick succession, the images appear to animate by simulating moti ...
,
praxinoscope The praxinoscope was an animation device, the successor to the zoetrope. It was invented in France in 1877 by Charles-Émile Reynaud. Like the zoetrope, it used a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder. The ...
, and film.
Television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
and
video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...
are popular electronic animation media that originally were analog and now operate digitally. For display on computers, technology such as the
animated GIF The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , see pronunciation) is a bitmap In computing, a bitmap is a mapping from some domain (for example, a range of integers) to bits. It is also called a bit array or bitmap index. As a noun, the ...
and
Flash animation Adobe Flash animation or Adobe Flash cartoon (formerly Macromedia Flash animation, Macromedia Flash cartoon, FutureSplash animation, and FutureSplash cartoon) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) p ...
were developed. In addition to
short films A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
,
feature films A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
,
television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...
, animated GIFs, and other media dedicated to the display of moving images, the animation is also prevalent in
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s,
motion graphics Motion graphics (sometimes mograph) are pieces of animation or digital footage which create the illusion of motion or rotation, and are usually combined with audio for use in multimedia projects. Motion graphics are usually displayed via electr ...
,
user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...
s, and
visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action foota ...
. The physical movement of image parts through simple mechanics—for instance moving images in
magic lantern The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a si ...
shows—can also be considered animation. The mechanical manipulation of three-dimensional puppets and objects to emulate living beings has a very long history in
automata An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and More ...
. Electronic automata were popularized by
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
as
animatronics Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy a ...
.


Etymology

The word "animation" stems from the Latin "animātiōn", stem of "animātiō", meaning "a bestowing of life". The primary meaning of the English word is "liveliness" and has been in use much longer than the meaning of "moving image medium".


History


Before cinematography

Hundreds of years before the introduction of true animation, people all over the world enjoyed shows with moving figures that were created and manipulated manually in
puppetry Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a perform ...
,
automata An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and More ...
,
shadow play Shadow play, also known as shadow puppetry, is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment which uses flat articulated cut-out figures (shadow puppets) which are held between a source of light and a translucent screen or scrim. The cut-ou ...
, and the
magic lantern The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a si ...
. The multi-media
phantasmagoria Phantasmagoria (, also fantasmagorie, fantasmagoria) was a form of horror theatre that (among other techniques) used one or more magic lanterns to project frightening images, such as skeletons, demons, and ghosts, onto walls, smoke, or semi- ...
shows that were very popular in European theatres from the late 18th century through the first half of the 19th century, featured lifelike projections of moving ghosts and other frightful imagery in motion. In 1833, the stroboscopic disc (better known as the phénakisticope) introduced the principle of modern animation with sequential images that were shown one by one in quick succession to form an optical illusion of motion pictures. Series of sequential images had occasionally been made over thousands of years, but the stroboscopic disc provided the first method to represent such images in fluent motion and for the first time had artists creating series with a proper systematic breakdown of movements. The stroboscopic animation principle was also applied in the
zoetrope A zoetrope is one of several pre-film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion. It was basically a cylindrical variation of the phénak ...
(1866), the
flip book A flip book, flipbook, flicker book, or kineograph is a booklet with a series of images that very gradually change from one page to the next, so that when the pages are viewed in quick succession, the images appear to animate by simulating moti ...
(1868) and the
praxinoscope The praxinoscope was an animation device, the successor to the zoetrope. It was invented in France in 1877 by Charles-Émile Reynaud. Like the zoetrope, it used a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder. The ...
(1877). A typical 19th-century animation contained about 12 images that were displayed as a continuous loop by spinning a device manually. The flip book often contained more pictures and had a beginning and end, but its animation would not last longer than a few seconds. The first to create much longer sequences seems to have been Charles-Émile Reynaud, who between 1892 and 1900 had much success with his 10- to 15-minute-long '' Pantomimes Lumineuses''.


Silent era

When
cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...
eventually broke through in 1895 after animated pictures had been known for decades, the wonder of the realistic details in the new medium was seen as its biggest accomplishment. Animation on film was not commercialized until a few years later by manufacturers of optical toys, with
chromolithography Chromolithography is a method for making multi-colour prints. This type of colour printing stemmed from the process of lithography, and includes all types of lithography that are printed in colour. When chromolithography is used to reproduce ph ...
film loops (often traced from live-action footage) for adapted toy magic lanterns intended for kids to use at home. It would take some more years before animation reached movie theaters. After earlier experiments by movie pioneers
J. Stuart Blackton James Stuart Blackton (January 5, 1875 – August 13, 1941) was a British-American film producer and director of the silent era. One of the pioneers of motion pictures, he founded Vitagraph Studios in 1897. He was one of the first filmmakers to ...
,
Arthur Melbourne-Cooper Arthur Melbourne Cooper (15 April 1874 – 28 November 1961) was a British photographer and early filmmaker best known for his pioneering work in stop-motion animation. He produced over three hundred films between 1896 and 1915, of which an estima ...
,
Segundo de Chomón Segundo Víctor Aurelio Chomón y Ruiz (also Chomont or Chaumont ; 17 October 1871 – 2 May 1929) was a pioneering Spanish film director, cinematographer and screenwriter. He produced many short films in France while working for Pathé, Pat ...
, and
Edwin S. Porter Edwin Stanton Porter (April 21, 1870 – April 30, 1941) was an American film pioneer, most famous as a producer, director, studio manager and cinematographer with the Edison Manufacturing Company and the Famous Players Film Company. Of over ...
(among others), Blackton's ''The Haunted Hotel'' (1907) was the first huge
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 or change when the series of frames i ...
success, baffling audiences by showing objects that apparently moved by themselves in full photographic detail, without signs of any known stage trick.
Émile Cohl Émile Eugène Jean Louis Cohl (; né Courtet; 4 January 1857 – 20 January 1938) was a French caricaturist of the largely forgotten Incoherents, Incoherent Movement, cartoonist, and animator, called "The Father of the Animated Cartoon" and "Th ...
's '' Fantasmagorie'' (1908) is the oldest known example of what became known as traditional (hand-drawn) animation. Other great artistic and very influential short films were created by
Ladislas Starevich Ladislas Starevich (russian: Владисла́в Алекса́ндрович Старе́вич, pl, Władysław Starewicz; August 8, 1882 – February 26, 1965) was a Polish-Russian stop-motion animator notable as the author of the first pu ...
with his puppet animations since 1910 and by
Winsor McCay Zenas Winsor McCay ( – July 26, 1934) was an American cartoonist and animator. He is best known for the comic strip ''Little Nemo'' (1905–14; 1924–26) and the animated film ''Gertie the Dinosaur'' (1914). For contractual reasons, he worke ...
with detailed drawn animation in films such as ''
Little Nemo Little Nemo is a fictional character created by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. He originated in an early comic strip by McCay, ''Dream of the Rarebit Fiend'', before receiving his own spin-off series, ''Little Nemo in Slumberland''. The f ...
'' (1911) and ''
Gertie the Dinosaur ''Gertie the Dinosaur'' is a 1914 animated short film by American cartoonist and animator Winsor McCay. It is the earliest animated film to feature a dinosaur. McCay first used the film before live audiences as an interactive part of his vaude ...
'' (1914). During the 1910s, the production of animated "
cartoons A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...
" became an industry in the US. Successful producer
John Randolph Bray John Randolph Bray (August 25, 1879 – October 10, 1978) was an American animator, cartoonist, and film producer. Early life John Randolph Bray was born in Addison, Michigan on August 25, 1879, to Methodism, Methodist Presbyterian minister Edw ...
and animator
Earl Hurd Earl Hurd (September 14, 1880 – September 28, 1940) was a pioneering American animator and film director. He is noted for creating and producing the silent '' Bobby Bumps'' animated short subject series for early animation producer J.R. Bra ...
, patented the
cel animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation. Proce ...
process that dominated the animation industry for the rest of the century.
Felix the Cat Felix the Cat is a cartoon character created in 1919 by Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer during the silent film era. An anthropomorphic black cat with white eyes, a black body, and a giant grin, he was one of the most recognized cartoon charac ...
, who debuted in 1919, became the first animated superstar.


American golden age

In 1928, ''
Steamboat Willie ''Steamboat Willie'' is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black and white by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Studios and was released by Pat Powers, under the name of Celeb ...
'', featuring
Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...
and
Minnie Mouse Minnie Mouse is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. As the longtime sweetheart of Mickey Mouse, she is an anthropomorphic mouse with white gloves, a bow, polka-dotted dress, white bloomers, and low-heeled shoes occasionally w ...
, popularized film with synchronized sound and put
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
's studio at the forefront of the animation industry. Although Disney Animation's actual output relative to total global animation output has always been very small, the studio has overwhelmingly dominated the "aesthetic norms" of animation ever since. The enormous success of Mickey Mouse is seen as the start of the
golden age of American animation The golden age of American animation was a period in the history of U.S. animation that began with the popularization of sound cartoons in 1928 and gradually ended in the late 1960s, where theatrical animated shorts began losing popularity to the ...
that would last until the 1960s. The United States dominated the world market of animation with a plethora of cel-animated theatrical shorts. Several studios would introduce characters that would become very popular and would have long-lasting careers, including
Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
'
Goofy Goofy is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. He is a tall, Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic dog who typically wears a turtle neck and vest, with pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat originally designed as a rumpled f ...
(1932) and
Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...
(1934), Warner Bros. Cartoons'
Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series ''Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation.
characters like
Porky Pig Porky Pig is an animated character in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his celebrity, star power, and the animators created ma ...
(1935),
Daffy Duck Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon fictional character, character created for Warner Bros. Cartoons, Leon Schlesinger Productions by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. Styled as an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic American black duck, black ...
(1937),
Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' ...
(1938–1940),
Tweety Tweety is a yellow canary in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of animated cartoons. The name "Tweety" is a play on words, as it originally meant "sweetie", along with "tweet" being an English onomatopoeia for th ...
(1941–1942),
Sylvester the Cat Sylvester Pussycat, Sr. is a fictional character, an anthropomorphic tuxedo cat in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons. Most of his appearances have him often chasing Tweety, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper. He appea ...
(1945),
Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner are a duo of cartoon characters from the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of animated cartoons, first appearing in 1949 in the theatrical cartoon short ''Fast and Furry-ous''. In each episode ...
(1949),
Fleischer Studios Fleischer Studios () is an American animation studio founded in 1929 by brothers Max and Dave Fleischer, who ran the pioneering company from its inception until its acquisition by Paramount Pictures, the parent company and the distributor of i ...
/ Paramount Cartoon Studios'
Betty Boop Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick.Pointer (2017) She originally appeared in the ''Talkartoon'' and ''Betty Boop'' film series, which were produced by Fleischer ...
(1930),
Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...
(1941) and
Casper Casper may refer to: People * Casper (given name) * Casper (surname) * Casper (Maya ruler) (422–487?), ruler of the Mayan city of Palenque * Tok Casper, first known king of Maya city-state Quiriguá in Guatemala, ruling beginning in 426 * David ...
(1945),
MGM cartoon studio The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio was an American animation studio operated by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) during the Golden Age of American animation. Active from 1937 until 1957, the studio was responsible for producing animated shorts to ac ...
's
Tom and Jerry ''Tom and Jerry'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series c ...
(1940) and
Droopy Droopy is an animated character from the golden age of American animation. He is an anthropomorphic white Basset Hound with a droopy face; hence his name. He was created in 1943 by Tex Avery for theatrical cartoon shorts produced by the Metro-Go ...
,
Walter Lantz Productions Walter Lantz Productions was an American animation studio. It was in operation from 1928 to 1972 and was the principal supplier of animation for Universal Studios. The studio was originally formed as Universal Cartoon Studios on the initiative o ...
/ Universal Studio Cartoons'
Woody Woodpecker Woody Woodpecker is an animated character that appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz Studio and distributed by Universal Studios between 1940 and 1972. Woody, an anthropomorphic woodpecker, was created in 1940 by Lan ...
(1940),
Terrytoons Terrytoons was an American animation studio in New Rochelle, New York, that produced animated cartoons for theatrical release from 1929 to 1973 (and briefly returned between 1987 and 1996 for television in name only). Terrytoons was founded by ...
/
20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
's
Gandy Goose Gandy Goose is a Terrytoons cartoon character who first appeared in the 1938 short ''Gandy the Goose''. He is frequently paired with Sourpuss, a cat, beginning in the 1939 short ''Hook Link and Sinker''. Sourpuss' first appearance was in the 1939 ...
(1938),
Dinky Duck Dinky Duck is a Terrytoons cartoon character who first appeared in the 1939 animated short ''The Orphan Duck''. Unlike fellow Terrytoons characters Mighty Mouse, silly Gandy Goose and the magpie duo Heckle and Jeckle, Dinky never became popular, ...
(1939),
Mighty Mouse Mighty Mouse is an American animated Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic superhero mouse character created by the Terrytoons studio for 20th Century Fox. The character was originally called Super Mouse, and made his debut in the 1942 short ''Th ...
(1942) and
Heckle and Jeckle Heckle and Jeckle are postwar animated cartoon Character (arts), characters created by Paul Terry (cartoonist), Paul Terry, originally produced at his own Terrytoons animation studio and released through 20th Century Fox. The characters are a pa ...
(1946) and
United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...
'
Pink Panther ''The Pink Panther'' is an American media franchise primarily focusing on a series of comedy-mystery films featuring an inept French police detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseau. The franchise began with the release of the classic film ''The Pink ...
(1963).


Features before CGI

In 1917, Italian-Argentine director
Quirino Cristiani Quirino Cristiani (July 2, 1896 – August 2, 1984) was an Italian-born Argentine animation director and cartoonist, responsible for the world's first two animated feature films as well as the first animated feature film with sound, even though th ...
made the first feature-length film ''
El Apóstol ''El Apóstol'' (English: ''The Apostle'') is a 1917 lost Argentine animated film using cutout animation. Italian-Argentine immigrants Quirino Cristiani and Federico Valle directed and produced, respectively. Historians consider it the world's fi ...
'' (now
lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
), which became a critical and commercial success. It was followed by Cristiani's ''
Sin dejar rastros ''Sin dejar rastros'' (Spanish: "Without a Trace") is a 1918 lost Argentine animated feature film. It was written and directed by Quirino Cristiani. The film used cutout animation. Plot The plot revolved around the recent incident involving the G ...
'' in 1918, but one day after its premiere, the film was confiscated by the government. After working on it for three years,
Lotte Reiniger Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger (2 June 1899 – 19 June 1981) was a German film director and the foremost pioneer of silhouette animation. Her best known films are ''The Adventures of Prince Achmed'', from 1926, the first feature-length animated fil ...
released the German feature-length
silhouette animation Silhouette animation is animation in which the characters are only visible as black silhouettes. This is usually accomplished by backlighting articulated cardboard cut-outs, though other methods exist. It is partially inspired by, but for a numb ...
''
Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed ''The Adventures of Prince Achmed'' (known as ''Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed'' in German) is a 1926 German animated fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film; two earlier ones were made in Argentina ...
'' in 1926, the oldest extant animated feature. In 1937, Walt Disney Studios premiered their first animated feature, ''
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as Ta ...
'', still one of the highest-grossing traditional animation features .Total prior to 50th anniversary reissue: 1987 and 1993 grosses from North America: The Fleischer studios followed this example in 1939 with ''
Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...
'' with some success. Partly due to foreign markets being cut off by the Second World War, Disney's next features ''
Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan vil ...
'', ''
Fantasia Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...
'' (both 1940) and Fleischer Studios' second animated feature ''
Mr. Bug Goes to Town ''Mr. Bug Goes to Town'' (also known as ''Hoppity Goes to Town'' and ''Bugville'') is a 1941 American animation, animated Technicolor feature film produced by Fleischer Studios, previewed by Paramount Pictures on December 5, 1941, and released in ...
'' (1941–1942) failed at the box office. For decades afterward, Disney would be the only American studio to regularly produce animated features, until
Ralph Bakshi Ralph Bakshi (born October 29, 1938) is an American animator and filmmaker. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions. Between 1972 and 1992, he directed nine theatric ...
became the first to also release more than a handful features. Sullivan-Bluth Studios began to regularly produce animated features starting with ''
An American Tail ''An American Tail'' is a 1986 American Animated film, animated musical film, musical adventure film directed by Don Bluth from a screenplay by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss and a story by David Kirschner, Freudberg and Geiss. The film features t ...
'' in 1986. Although relatively few titles became as successful as Disney's features, other countries developed their own animation industries that produced both short and feature theatrical animations in a wide variety of styles, relatively often including
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 or change when the series of frames i ...
and
cutout animation Cutout animation is a form of stop-motion animation using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or photographs. The props would be cut out and used as puppets for stop motion. The world's ea ...
techniques. Russia's
Soyuzmultfilm Soyuzmultfilm ( rus, Союзмультфи́льм, p=səˌjʉsmʊlʲtˈfʲilʲm , ''Union Cartoon'') (also known as SMF Animation Studio in English, Formerly known as Soyuzdetmultfilm) is a Russian animation studio based in Moscow. Launched in ...
animation studio, founded in 1936, produced 20 films (including shorts) per year on average and reached 1,582 titles in 2018. China, Czechoslovakia / Czech Republic, Italy, France, and Belgium were other countries that more than occasionally released feature films, while Japan became a true powerhouse of animation production, with its own recognizable and influential
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
style of effective
limited animation Limited animation is a process in the overall technique of traditional animation that reuses frames of character animation. Early history The use of budget-cutting and time-saving animation measures in animation dates back to the earliest commerci ...
.


Television

Animation became very popular on television since the 1950s, when television sets started to become common in most developed countries. Cartoons were mainly programmed for children, on convenient time slots, and especially US youth spent many hours watching
Saturday-morning cartoon "Saturday-morning cartoon" is a colloquial term for the original animated series programming that was typically scheduled on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the United States on the "Big Three" television networks. The genre's popularity had a br ...
s. Many classic cartoons found a new life on the small screen and by the end of the 1950s, the production of new animated cartoons started to shift from theatrical releases to TV series.
Hanna-Barbera Productions Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...
was especially prolific and had huge hit series, such as ''
The Flintstones ''The Flintstones'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the activities of the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighb ...
'' (1960–1966) (the first
prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
animated series), ''
Scooby-Doo ''Scooby-Doo'' is an American animation, animated media franchise based on an animated television series launched in 1969 and continued through several derivative List of Scooby-Doo media, media. Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the orig ...
'' (since 1969) and Belgian co-production ''
The Smurfs ''The Smurfs'' (french: Les Schtroumpfs; nl, De Smurfen) is a Belgian comic franchise centered on a fictional colony of small, blue, humanoid creatures who live in mushroom-shaped houses in the forest. ''The Smurfs'' was first created and in ...
'' (1981–1989). The constraints of American television programming and the demand for an enormous quantity resulted in cheaper and quicker
limited animation Limited animation is a process in the overall technique of traditional animation that reuses frames of character animation. Early history The use of budget-cutting and time-saving animation measures in animation dates back to the earliest commerci ...
methods and much more formulaic scripts. Quality dwindled until more daring animation surfaced in the late 1980s and in the early 1990s with hit series such as ''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
'' (since 1989) as part of a "renaissance" of American animation. While US animated series also spawned successes internationally, many other countries produced their own child-oriented programming, relatively often preferring
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 or change when the series of frames i ...
and
puppetry Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a perform ...
over cel animation. Japanese
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
TV series became very successful internationally since the 1960s, and European producers looking for affordable cel animators relatively often started co-productions with Japanese studios, resulting in hit series such as ''
Barbapapa ''Barbapapa'' is a 1970 children's picture book by the French-American couple Annette Tison and Talus Taylor, who lived in Paris, France. Barbapapa is both the title character and the name of his "species". The book was the first of a series of ...
'' (The Netherlands/Japan/France 1973–1977), '' Wickie und die starken Männer/小さなバイキング ビッケ (Vicky the Viking)'' (Austria/Germany/Japan 1974), and ''
The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, ...
'' (Italy/Japan 1989).


Switch from cels to computers

Computer animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes (still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refe ...
was gradually developed since the 1940s. 3D wireframe animation started popping up in the mainstream in the 1970s, with an early (short) appearance in the sci-fi thriller ''
Futureworld ''Futureworld'' is a 1976 American science fiction thriller film directed by Richard T. Heffron and written by Mayo Simon and George Schenck. It is a sequel to the 1973 Michael Crichton film ''Westworld'', and is the second installment in the ...
'' (1976). ''
The Rescuers Down Under ''The Rescuers Down Under'' is a 1990 American animated adventure film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 29th Disney animated feature film and the second movie to be produced during the Disney Ren ...
'' was the first feature film to be completely created digitally without a camera. It was produced in a style that's very similar to traditional cel animation on the
Computer Animation Production System The Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) was a proprietary collection of software, scanning camera systems, servers, networked computer workstations, and custom desks developed by The Walt Disney Company and Pixar in the late 1980s. Although ...
(CAPS), developed by
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
in collaboration with
Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californi ...
in the late 1980s. The so-called 3D style, more often associated with computer animation, has become extremely popular since Pixar's ''
Toy Story ''Toy Story'' is a 1995 American computer-animated comedy film directed by John Lasseter (in his feature directorial debut), produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The first installment in the '' Toy Story ...
'' (1995), the first computer-animated feature in this style. Most of the cel animation studios switched to producing mostly computer animated films around the 1990s, as it proved cheaper and more profitable. Not only the very popular 3D animation style was generated with computers, but also most of the films and series with a more traditional hand-crafted appearance, in which the charming characteristics of cel animation could be emulated with software, while new digital tools helped developing new styles and effects.


Economic status

In 2010, the animation market was estimated to be worth circa US$80 billion. By 2020, the value had increased to an estimated US$270 billion. Animated feature-length films returned the highest
gross margin Gross margin is the difference between revenue and cost of goods sold (COGS), divided by revenue. Gross margin is expressed as a percentage. Generally, it is calculated as the selling price of an item, less the cost of goods sold (e. g. production ...
s (around 52%) of all
film genre A film genre is a stylistic or thematic category for motion pictures based on similarities either in the narrative elements, aesthetic approach, or the emotional response to the film. Drawing heavily from the theories of literary-genre cri ...
s between 2004 and 2013. Animation as an art and industry continues to thrive as of the early 2020s.


Education, propaganda and commercials

The clarity of animation makes it a powerful tool for instruction, while its total malleability also allows exaggeration that can be employed to convey strong emotions and to thwart reality. It has therefore been widely used for other purposes than mere entertainment. During World War II, animation was widely exploited for propaganda. Many American studios, including Warner Bros. and Disney, lent their talents and their cartoon characters to convey to the public certain war values. Some countries, including China, Japan and the United Kingdom, produced their first feature-length animation for their war efforts. Animation has been very popular in television commercials, both due to its graphic appeal, and the humour it can provide. Some animated characters in commercials have survived for decades, such as
Snap, Crackle and Pop Snap, Crackle and Pop are the cartoon mascots of Rice Krispies, a brand of breakfast cereal marketed by Kellogg's. History The gnome characters were originally designed by illustrator Vernon Grant in the early 1930s. The names are onomatopoeia ...
in advertisements for Kellogg's cereals.
Tex Avery Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, animation director, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of American a ...
was the producer of the first
Raid Raid, RAID or Raids may refer to: Attack * Raid (military), a sudden attack behind the enemy's lines without the intention of holding ground * Corporate raid, a type of hostile takeover in business * Panty raid, a prankish raid by male college ...
"
Kills Bugs Dead Raid is the brand name of a line of insecticide products produced by S. C. Johnson & Son, first launched in 1956. The initial active ingredient was the first synthetic pyrethroid, allethrin. Raid derivatives aimed at particular invertebrate speci ...
" commercials in 1966, which were very successful for the company.


Other media, merchandise and theme parks

Apart from their success in movie theaters and television series, many cartoon characters would also prove extremely lucrative when licensed for all kinds of merchandise and for other media. Animation has traditionally been very closely related to
comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
s. While many comic book characters found their way to the screen (which is often the case in Japan, where many
manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
are adapted into
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
), original animated characters also commonly appear in comic books and magazines. Somewhat similarly, characters and plots for
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s (an interactive animation medium) have been derived from films and vice versa. Some of the original content produced for the screen can be used and marketed in other media. Stories and images can easily be adapted into children's books and other printed media. Songs and music have appeared on records and as streaming media. While very many animation companies commercially exploit their creations outside moving image media,
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
is the best known and most extreme example. Since first being licensed for a children's writing tablet in 1929, their
Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...
mascot has been depicted on an enormous amount of products, as have many other Disney characters. This may have influenced some pejorative use of Mickey's name, but licensed Disney products sell well, and the so-called
Disneyana Disneyana is a term for a wide variety of collectible toys, books, animation cels, theme-park souvenirs, ephemera and other items produced and/or licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Examples range from products featuring virtually every Disney c ...
has many avid collectors, and even a dedicated Disneyana fanclub (since 1984).
Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...
opened in 1955 and features many attractions that were based on Disney's cartoon characters. Its enormous success spawned several other Disney theme parks and resorts. Disney's earnings from the theme parks have relatively often been higher than those from their movies.


Criticism

Criticism of animation has been common in media and cinema since its inception. With its popularity, a large amount of criticism has arisen, especially animated feature-length films. Criticisms regarding cultural representation and psychological effects on children have been raised around the animation industry, which some claim has remained politically unchanged and stagnant since its inception into mainstream culture.


Awards

As with any other form of media, animation has instituted awards for excellence in the field. Many are part of general or regional film award programs, like the China's
Golden Rooster Award The Golden Rooster Awards () are film awards given in mainland China. The awards were originally given annually, beginning in 1981. The name of the award came from the year of the Rooster in 1981. Award recipients receive a statuette in the shap ...
for Best Animation (since 1981). Awards programs dedicated to animation, with many categories, include
ASIFA-Hollywood ASIFA-Hollywood, an American non-profit organization in Los Angeles, California, United States, is a branch member of the "Association Internationale du Film d'Animation" or "ASIFA" (the International Animated Film Association). Its purpose is to ...
's
Annie Awards The Annie Awards are accolades which the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, has presented each year since 1972 to recognize excellence in animation shown in cinema and television. Originally desig ...
, the
Emile Awards The Emile Awards is an annual ceremony celebrating excellence and diversity in the European animation film industry. The awards consist of 18 trophies for outstanding accomplishment in European animation, as well as the Lotte Reiniger Lifetime Ac ...
in Europe and the
Anima Mundi The ''anima mundi'' (Greek: , ) or world soul is, according to several systems of thought, an intrinsic connection between all living beings, which relates to the world in much the same way as the soul is connected to the human body. Although ...
awards in Brazil.


Academy Awards

Apart from
Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
for
Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year ...
(since 1932) and Best Animated Feature (since 2002), animated movies have been nominated and rewarded in other categories, relatively often for
Best Original Song This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
and Best Original Score. ''
Beauty and the Beast ''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' ( ...
'' was the first animated film nominated for
Best Picture This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
, in 1991. '' Up'' (2009) and ''
Toy Story 3 ''Toy Story 3'' is a 2010 American computer-animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the third installment in the ''Toy Story'' series and the sequel to ''Toy Story 2'' (1999). It was d ...
'' (2010) also received Best Picture nominations, after the academy expanded the number of nominees from five to ten.


Production

The creation of non-trivial animation works (i.e., longer than a few seconds) has developed as a form of
filmmaking Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...
, with certain unique aspects. Traits common to both live-action and animated feature-length films are labor intensity and high production costs. The most important difference is that once a film is in the production phase, the
marginal cost In economics, the marginal cost is the change in the total cost that arises when the quantity produced is incremented, the cost of producing additional quantity. In some contexts, it refers to an increment of one unit of output, and in others it r ...
of one more shot is higher for animated films than live-action films. It is relatively easy for a director to ask for one more
take A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production. Film In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each s ...
during
principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...
of a live-action film, but every take on an animated film must be manually rendered by animators (although the task of rendering slightly different takes has been made less tedious by modern computer animation). It is pointless for a studio to pay the salaries of dozens of animators to spend weeks creating a visually dazzling five-minute scene if that scene fails to effectively advance the plot of the film. Thus, animation studios starting with Disney began the practice in the 1930s of maintaining story departments where
storyboard artist A storyboard artist (sometimes called a story artist or visualizer) creates storyboards for advertising agencies and film productions. Work A storyboard artist visualizes stories and sketches frames of the story. Quick pencil drawings and marke ...
s develop every single scene through
storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, i ...
s, then handing the film over to the animators only after the production team is satisfied that all the scenes make sense as a whole. While live-action films are now also storyboarded, they enjoy more latitude to depart from storyboards (i.e., real-time improvisation). Another problem unique to animation is the requirement to maintain a film's consistency from start to finish, even as films have grown longer and teams have grown larger. Animators, like all artists, necessarily have individual styles, but must subordinate their individuality in a consistent way to whatever style is employed on a particular film. Since the early 1980s, teams of about 500 to 600 people, of whom 50 to 70 are animators, typically have created feature-length animated films. It is relatively easy for two or three artists to match their styles; synchronizing those of dozens of artists is more difficult. This problem is usually solved by having a separate group of visual development artists develop an overall look and palette for each film before the animation begins. Character designers on the visual development team draw
model sheet In visual arts, a model sheet, also known as a character board, character sheet, character study or simply a study, is a document used to help standardize the appearance, poses, and gestures of a character in arts such as animation, comics, and v ...
s to show how each character should look like with different facial expressions, posed in different positions, and viewed from different angles. On traditionally animated projects,
maquette A ''maquette'' (French word for scale model, sometimes referred to by the Italian names ''plastico'' or ''modello'') is a scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture. An equivalent term is ''bozzetto'', from the Italian word for "sketc ...
s were often sculpted to further help the animators see how characters would look from different angles. Unlike live-action films, animated films were traditionally developed beyond the synopsis stage through the storyboard format; the storyboard artists would then receive credit for writing the film. In the early 1960s, animation studios began hiring professional screenwriters to write screenplays (while also continuing to use story departments) and screenplays had become commonplace for animated films by the late 1980s.


Techniques


Traditional

Traditional animation (also called cel animation or hand-drawn animation) was the process used for most animated films of the 20th century. The individual frames of a traditionally animated film are photographs of drawings, first drawn on paper. To create the illusion of movement, each drawing differs slightly from the one before it. The animators' drawings are traced or photocopied onto transparent acetate sheets called
cel A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Actual celluloid (consisting of cellulose nitrate and camphor) was used during the first half of the 20th century, bu ...
s, which are filled in with paints in assigned colors or tones on the side opposite the line drawings. The completed character cels are photographed one-by-one against a painted background by a
rostrum camera A rostrum camera is a specially designed camera used in television production and filmmaking to animate a still picture or object. It consists of a moving lower platform on which the article to be filmed is placed, while the camera is placed above ...
onto motion picture film. The traditional cel animation process became obsolete by the beginning of the 21st century. Today, animators' drawings and the backgrounds are either scanned into or drawn directly into a computer system. Various software programs are used to color the drawings and simulate camera movement and effects. The final animated piece is output to one of several delivery media, including traditional 35 mm film and newer media with
digital video Digital video is an electronic representation of moving visual images (video) in the form of encoded digital data. This is in contrast to analog video, which represents moving visual images in the form of analog signals. Digital video comprises ...
. The "look" of traditional cel animation is still preserved, and the
character animator Adobe Character Animator is an Emmy Award-winning desktop application software product that combines real-time live motion-capture with a multi-track recording system to control layered 2D puppets based on an illustration drawn in Photoshop or Il ...
s' work has remained essentially the same over the past 70 years. Some animation producers have used the term "tradigital" (a play on the words "traditional" and "digital") to describe cel animation that uses significant computer technology. Examples of traditionally animated feature films include ''
Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan vil ...
'' (United States, 1940), ''
Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' is a beast fable, in the form of satirical allegorical novella, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to crea ...
'' (United Kingdom, 1954), ''
Lucky and Zorba ''Lucky and Zorba'' ( it, La gabbianella e il gatto; literally "The Little Seagull and The Cat") is a 1998 Italian traditional animation film directed by Enzo D'Alò, based on ''The Story of A Seagull and The Cat Who Taught Her To Fly'' by Luis Se ...
'' (Italy, 1998), and '' The Illusionist'' (British-French, 2010). Traditionally animated films produced with the aid of computer technology include ''
The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance, it ...
'' (US, 1994), ''
The Prince of Egypt ''The Prince of Egypt'' is a 1998 American animated musical drama film produced by DreamWorks Animation and released by DreamWorks Pictures. The first feature film from DreamWorks to be traditionally animated, it is an adaptation of the Book ...
'' (US, 1998), '' Akira'' (Japan, 1988), ''
Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Tohokushinsha Film, and Mitsubishi and distribut ...
'' (Japan, 2001), ''
The Triplets of Belleville ''The Triplets of Belleville'' (french: Les Triplettes de Belleville) is a 2003 animated comedy film written and directed by Sylvain Chomet. It was released as ''Belleville Rendez-vous'' in the United Kingdom. The film is Chomet's first feature ...
'' (France, 2003), and ''
The Secret of Kells ''The Secret of Kells'' is a 2009 animated fantasy film about the making of the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript from the 9th Century. The film is an Irish-French-Belgian co-production animated by Cartoon Saloon, which premiered on 8 Fe ...
'' (Irish-French-Belgian, 2009).


Full

Full animation is the process of producing high-quality traditionally animated films that regularly use detailed drawings and plausible movement, having a smooth animation. Fully animated films can be made in a variety of styles, from more realistically animated works like those produced by the Walt Disney studio (''
The Little Mermaid "The Little Mermaid" ( da, Den lille havfrue) is a literary fairy tale written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The story follows the journey of a young mermaid who is willing to give up her life in the sea as a mermaid to gain a h ...
'', ''
Beauty and the Beast ''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' ( ...
'', ''
Aladdin Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of ...
'', ''The Lion King'') to the more 'cartoon' styles of the Warner Bros. animation studio. Many of the
Disney animated features This list of theatrical animated feature films consists of animated films produced or released by Walt Disney Studios (division), The Walt Disney Studios, the film division of The Walt Disney Company.This list does not include films or special ...
are examples of full animation, as are non-Disney works, ''
The Secret of NIMH ''The Secret of NIMH'' is a 1982 American animated fantasy adventure film directed by Don Bluth in his directorial debut and based on Robert C. O'Brien's 1971 children's novel, '' Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH''. The film features the voices ...
'' (US, 1982), ''
The Iron Giant ''The Iron Giant'' is a 1999 American animated science fiction film produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation and directed by Brad Bird in his directorial debut. It is based on the 1968 novel '' The Iron Man'' by Ted Hughes (which was publish ...
'' (US, 1999), and '' Nocturna'' (Spain, 2007). Fully animated films are often animated on "twos", sometimes on "ones", which means that 12 to 24 drawings are required for a single second of film.


Limited

Limited animation Limited animation is a process in the overall technique of traditional animation that reuses frames of character animation. Early history The use of budget-cutting and time-saving animation measures in animation dates back to the earliest commerci ...
involves the use of less detailed or more stylized drawings and methods of movement usually a choppy or "skippy" movement animation. Limited animation uses fewer drawings per second, thereby limiting the fluidity of the animation. This is a more economic technique. Pioneered by the artists at the American studio
United Productions of America United Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an American animation studio active from the 1940s through the 1970s. Beginning with industrial and World War II training films, UPA eventually produced theatrical shorts for Columbia Picture ...
, limited animation can be used as a method of stylized artistic expression, as in ''
Gerald McBoing-Boing ''Gerald McBoing-Boing'' is an animated short film about a little boy who speaks through sound effects instead of spoken words. It was produced by United Productions of America (UPA) and given wide release by Columbia Pictures on November 2, 195 ...
'' (US, 1951), '' Yellow Submarine'' (UK, 1968), and certain
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
produced in Japan. Its primary use, however, has been in producing cost-effective animated content for media for television (the work of Hanna-Barbera,
Filmation Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live-action programming for television from 1963 until 1989. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1962. Filmation's founders and pr ...
, and other TV animation studios) and later the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
(
web cartoon Adobe Flash animation or Adobe Flash cartoon (formerly Macromedia Flash animation, Macromedia Flash cartoon, FutureSplash animation, and FutureSplash cartoon) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) p ...
s).


Rotoscoping

Rotoscoping is a technique patented by
Max Fleischer Max Fleischer (born Majer Fleischer ; July 19, 1883 – September 25, 1972) was an American animator, inventor, film director and producer, and studio founder and owner. Born in Kraków, Fleischer immigrated to the United States where he became ...
in 1917 where animators trace live-action movement, frame by frame. The source film can be directly copied from actors' outlines into animated drawings, as in ''
The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...
'' (US, 1978), or used in a stylized and expressive manner, as in ''
Waking Life ''Waking Life'' is a 2001 American experimental adult animated film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The film explores a wide range of philosophical issues, including the nature of reality, dreams and lucid dreams, consciousness, the ...
'' (US, 2001) and ''
A Scanner Darkly ''A Scanner Darkly'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, published in 1977. The semi-autobiographical story is set in a dystopian Orange County, California, in the then-future of June 1994, and includes an extensive ...
'' (US, 2006). Some other examples are '' Fire and Ice'' (US, 1983), '' Heavy Metal'' (1981), and ''
Aku no Hana is the fifth studio album by the Japanese Rock music, rock band Buck-Tick. It was released on cassette and CD on February 1, 1990, through Victor Entertainment. It peaked at number one on the Oricon charts and is the group's best-selling album ...
'' (Japan, 2013).


Live-action blending

Live-action/animation is a technique combining hand-drawn characters into live action shots or live-action actors into animated shots. One of the earlier uses was in
Koko the Clown Koko the Clown is an animated character created by Max Fleischer. He first appeared as the main protagonist in ''Out of the Inkwell'' (1918-1929), a major animated series of the silent era. Throughout the series, he goes on many adventures with hi ...
when Koko was drawn over live-action footage. Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created a series of ''
Alice Comedies The ''Alice Comedies'' are a series of animated/live-action shorts created by Walt Disney in the 1920s, in which a live action little girl named Alice (originally played by Virginia Davis) and an animated cat named Julius have adventures in an ...
'' (1923–1927), in which a live-action girl enters an animated world. Other examples include ''
Allegro Non Troppo ''Allegro non troppo'' is a 1976 Italian animated film directed by Bruno Bozzetto. Featuring six pieces of classical music, the film is a parody of Walt Disney's 1940 feature film, '' Fantasia'', two of its segments being derived from the earlier ...
'' (Italy, 1976), ''
Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American live-action/animated comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely adapted by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman from Gary K. Wolf's 1 ...
'' (US, 1988), ''
Volere volare ''Volere volare'' (''To Want to Fly'') is a 1991 Italian comedy film co-written, co-directed by and starring Maurizio Nichetti. It is a live-action animated film. The male lead is a man who dubs sound effects for cartoons and who is slowly turning ...
'' (Italy 1991), ''
Space Jam ''Space Jam'' is a 1996 American live-action/animated sports comedy film directed by Joe Pytka, with animation sequences directed by Bruce W. Smith and Tony Cervone, and written by Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick, Timothy Harris, and Herschel We ...
'' (US, 1996) and ''
Osmosis Jones ''Osmosis Jones'' is a 2001 American live-action/animated buddy cop crime action comedy film written by Marc Hyman. Combining live-action sequences directed by the Farrelly brothers and animation directed by Piet Kroon and Tom Sito, the film sta ...
'' (US, 2001).


Stop motion

Stop-motion animation 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 or change when the series of frames i ...
is used to describe animation created by physically manipulating real-world objects and photographing them one frame of film at a time to create the illusion of movement. There are many different types of stop-motion animation, usually named after the medium used to create the animation. Computer software is widely available to create this type of animation; traditional stop-motion animation is usually less expensive but more time-consuming to produce than current computer animation. ;
Puppet animation 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 or change when the series of frames i ...
: Typically involves stop-motion puppet figures interacting in a constructed environment, in contrast to real-world interaction in model animation. The puppets generally have an armature inside of them to keep them still and steady to constrain their motion to particular joints. Examples include ''
The Tale of the Fox ''The Tale of the Fox'' (french: Le Roman de Renard, nl, Van den vos Reynaerde, german: Reinecke Fuchs) was stop-motion animation pioneer Ladislas Starevich's first fully animated feature film. The film is based on the tales of Renard the Fox. ...
'' (France, 1937), ''
The Nightmare Before Christmas ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (also known as ''Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas'') is a 1993 American stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy film directed by Henry Selick (in his feature directorial debut) and produced and ...
'' (US, 1993), ''
Corpse Bride ''Corpse Bride'' (also known as ''Tim Burton's Corpse Bride'') is a 2005 stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy film directed by Mike Johnson and Tim Burton with a screenplay by John August, Caroline Thompson and Pamela Pettler based on char ...
'' (US, 2005), ''
Coraline ''Coraline'' () is a dark fantasy horror children's novella by British author Neil Gaiman. Gaiman started writing ''Coraline'' in 1990, and it was published in 2002 by Bloomsbury and HarperCollins. It was awarded the 2003 Hugo Award for Best ...
'' (US, 2009), the films of
Jiří Trnka Jiří Trnka (; 24 February 1912 – 30 December 1969) was a Czechs, Czech puppet-maker, illustrator, motion-picture animator and film director. In addition to his extensive career as an illustrator, especially of children's books, he is ...
and the adult animated sketch-comedy television series ''
Robot Chicken ''Robot Chicken'' is an American adult animated stop motion sketch comedy television series, created and executive produced for Adult Swim by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. The writers, ...
'' (US, 2005–present). :;
Puppetoon Puppetoons is a series of animated puppet films made in Europe (1930s) and in the United States (1940s) by George Pal. They were made using replacement animation: using a series of different hand-carved wooden puppets (or puppet heads or limbs) f ...
: Created using techniques developed by
George Pal George Pal (born György Pál Marczincsak; ; February 1, 1908 – May 2, 1980) was a Hungarian-American animator, film director and producer, principally associated with the fantasy and science-fiction genres. He became an American citizen after ...
, are puppet-animated films that typically use a different version of a puppet for different frames, rather than manipulating one existing puppet. ;
Clay animation Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay. Tra ...
or
Plasticine Plasticine is a putty-like modelling material made from calcium salts, petroleum jelly and aliphatic acids. Though originally a brand name for the British version of the product, it is now applied generically in English as a product categor ...
animation : (Often called ''claymation'', which, however, is a
trademarked A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others. ...
name). It uses figures made of clay or a similar malleable material to create stop-motion animation. The figures may have an armature or wire frame inside, similar to the related puppet animation (below), that can be manipulated to pose the figures. Alternatively, the figures may be made entirely of clay, in the films of Bruce Bickford, where clay creatures morph into a variety of different shapes. Examples of clay-animated works include ''The
Gumby ''Gumby'' is an American clay animation Media franchise, franchise, centered on the titular green clay humanoid character created and modeled by Art Clokey. Gumby stars in two television series, the feature-length ''Gumby: The Movie'', and oth ...
Show'' (US, 1957–1967), ''
Mio Mao Mio or MIO may refer to: shortened form of Mioritic Shepherd dog or Mioritic sheepdog; a Romanian mountain dog. Places * Mio, Michigan, a town in the US Music * ''Mío'', 2011 album by David Bustamante * "Mío", 1992 song by Paulina Rubio Bran ...
'' (Italy, 1974–2005), ''
Morph Morph may refer to: Biology * Morph (zoology), a visual or behavioral difference between organisms of distinct populations in a species * Muller's morphs, a classification scheme for genetic mutations * "-morph", a suffix commonly used in tax ...
'' shorts (UK, 1977–2000), ''
Wallace and Gromit ''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British stop-motion comedy franchise created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and one feature-length film, and has spawned numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The series c ...
'' shorts (UK, as of 1989),
Jan Švankmajer Jan Švankmajer (; born 4 September 1934) is a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several media. He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his stop-motion animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Terr ...
's ''
Dimensions of Dialogue ''Dimensions of Dialogue'' ( cs, Možnosti dialogu) is a 1983 Czechoslovak animated short film directed by Jan Švankmajer. It is 14 minutes long and created with stop motion. Plot The animation is divided into three sections. "Eternal conversatio ...
'' (
Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...
, 1982), ''
The Trap Door ''The Trap Door'' is a British animated television series, originally shown in the United Kingdom in 1986. The plot revolves around the daily lives and the misadventures of a group of monsters living in a castle. These include a blue creatur ...
'' (UK, 1984). Films include '' Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit'', ''
Chicken Run ''Chicken Run'' is a 2000 stop-motion animated comedy film produced by Pathé and Aardman Animations in partnership with DreamWorks Animation. Aardman’s first feature-length film and DreamWorks Animation's fourth film, it was directed by Pe ...
'' and '' The Adventures of Mark Twain''. :;
Strata-cut animation Strata-cut animation, also spelled stratcut or straticut, is a form of clay animation Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or backgrou ...
: Most commonly a form of clay animation in which a long bread-like "loaf" of clay, internally packed tight and loaded with varying imagery, is sliced into thin sheets, with the animation camera taking a frame of the end of the loaf for each cut, eventually revealing the movement of the internal images within. ;
Cutout animation Cutout animation is a form of stop-motion animation using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or photographs. The props would be cut out and used as puppets for stop motion. The world's ea ...
: A type of stop-motion animation produced by moving two-dimensional pieces of material paper or cloth. Examples include
Terry Gilliam Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including ''Time Bandits'' (1981), ''B ...
's animated sequences from ''
Monty Python's Flying Circus ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, who became known ...
'' (UK, 1969–1974); ''
Fantastic Planet ''Fantastic Planet'' (french: La Planète sauvage; cs, Divoká planeta, lit. "The Wild Planet") is a 1973 experimental adult animated science fiction film, directed by René Laloux and written by Laloux and Roland Topor, the latter of whom als ...
'' (France/Czechoslovakia, 1973); '' Tale of Tales'' (Russia, 1979), The pilot episode of the adult television sitcom series (and sometimes in episodes) of ''
South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...
'' (US, 1997) and the music video Live for the moment, from Verona Riots band (produced by Alberto Serrano and Nívola Uyá, Spain 2014). :;
Silhouette animation Silhouette animation is animation in which the characters are only visible as black silhouettes. This is usually accomplished by backlighting articulated cardboard cut-outs, though other methods exist. It is partially inspired by, but for a numb ...
: A variant of cutout animation in which the characters are backlit and only visible as silhouettes. Examples include ''
The Adventures of Prince Achmed ''The Adventures of Prince Achmed'' (known as ''Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed'' in German language, German) is a 1926 German Animation, animated Fairy tale, fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film; ...
'' (
Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...
, 1926) and ''
Princes et Princesses ''Princes et Princesses'' (Princes and Princesses) is a 2000 compilation film by French animator Michel Ocelot. The film consists of six episodes of the 1989 French silhouette animation television series ''Ciné si''. Release Produced in 1999 ...
'' (France, 2000). ;
Model animation Model animation is a form of stop motion animation designed to merge with live-action footage to create the illusion of a real-world fantasy sequence. Techniques Many types of models have been created and developed, and the choice mainly depend ...
: Stop-motion animation created to interact with and exist as a part of a live-action world. Intercutting,
matte Matte may refer to: Art * paint with a non-glossy finish. See diffuse reflection. * a framing element surrounding a painting or watercolor within the outer frame Film * Matte (filmmaking), filmmaking and video production technology * Matte pai ...
effects and split screens are often employed to blend stop-motion characters or objects with live actors and settings. Examples include the work of
Ray Harryhausen Raymond Frederick Harryhausen (June 29, 1920 – May 7, 2013) was an American-British animator and special effects creator who created a form of stop motion model animation known as "Dynamation". His works include the animation for '' Might ...
, as seen in films, '' Jason and the Argonauts'' (1963), and the work of
Willis H. O'Brien Willis Harold O'Brien (March 2, 1886 – November 8, 1962) was an American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer, who according to ASIFA-Hollywood "was responsible for some of the best-known images in cinema history," ...
on films, ''
King Kong King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...
'' (1933). :;
Go motion Go motion is a variation of stop motion animation which incorporates motion blur into each frame involving motion. It was co-developed by Industrial Light & Magic and Phil Tippett. Stop motion animation can create a disorienting, and distinctive st ...
: A variant of model animation that uses various techniques to create
motion blur Motion blur is the apparent streaking of moving objects in a photograph or a sequence of frames, such as a film or animation. It results when the image being recorded changes during the recording of a single exposure, due to rapid movement or lo ...
between frames of film, which is not present in traditional stop motion. The technique was invented by
Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began pro ...
and
Phil Tippett Phil Tippett (born September 27, 1951) is an American movie director and Oscar and Emmy Award-winning visual effects supervisor and producer, who specializes in creature design, stop-motion and computerized character animation. Over his career, ...
to create
special effect Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...
scenes for the film '' Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980). Another example is the dragon named "Vermithrax" from the 1981 film ''
Dragonslayer A dragonslayer is a person or being that slays dragons. Dragonslayers and the creatures they hunt have been popular in traditional stories from around the world: they are a type of story classified as type 300 in the Aarne–Thompson classifica ...
''. ;
Object animation Object animation is a form of stop motion animation that involves the animated movements of any non-drawn objects such as toys, blocks, dolls, and similar items which are not fully malleable, as plasticine (clay) or wax are, and not designed to l ...
: The use of regular inanimate objects in stop-motion animation, as opposed to specially created items. :;
Graphic animation Graphic animation is a variation of stop motion (and possibly more conceptually associated with traditional flat cel animation and paper drawing animation, but still technically qualifying as stop motion) consisting of the animation of photographs ...
: Uses non-drawn flat visual graphic material (photographs, newspaper clippings, magazines, etc.), which are sometimes manipulated frame by frame to create movement. At other times, the graphics remain stationary, while the stop-motion camera is moved to create on-screen action. :;
Brickfilm A brickfilm is a film made using Lego bricks, or other similar plastic construction toys. They are usually created using stop motion animation, computer-generated imagery (CGI) or traditional animation and sometimes include live action films fe ...
: A subgenre of object animation involving using
Lego Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocking ...
or other similar brick toys to make an animation. These have had a recent boost in popularity with the advent of video sharing sites,
YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
and the availability of cheap cameras and
animation software Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes (still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refe ...
. ;
Pixilation Pixilation is a stop motion technique in which live actors are used as a frame-by-frame subject in an animated film, by repeatedly posing while one or more frame is taken and changing pose slightly before the next frame or frames. The actor beco ...
: Involves the use of live humans as stop-motion characters. This allows for a number of surreal effects, including disappearances and reappearances, allowing people to appear to slide across the ground, and other effects. Examples of pixilation include ''
The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb ''The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb'' is a 1993 British Independent film, independent stop-motion/pixilation Adult animation, adult animated Science fantasy, science-fantasy Dystopian fiction, dystopian Adventure genre, adventure horror film d ...
'' and ''
Angry Kid ''Angry Kid'' is a British live-action/ stop-motion adult animated comedy web series created, directed, written, and designed by Darren Walsh (who also provides the voice of the title character) and produced by Aardman Animations for Series 1 ...
'' shorts, and the
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
-winning ''
Neighbours ''Neighbours'' is an Australian television soap opera, which has aired since 18 March 1985. It was created by television executive Reg Watson. The Seven Network commissioned the show following the success of Watson's earlier soap '' Sons an ...
'' by
Norman McLaren William Norman McLaren, LL. D. (11 April 1914 – 27 January 1987) was a Scottish Canadian animator, director and producer known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).Rosenthal, Alan. ''The new documentary in action: a caseb ...
.


Computer

Computer animation encompasses a variety of techniques, the unifying factor being that the animation is created digitally on a computer. 2D animation techniques tend to focus on image manipulation while 3D techniques usually build virtual worlds in which characters and objects move and interact. 3D animation can create images that seem real to the viewer.


2D

2D animation figures are created or edited on the computer using 2D
bitmap graphics upright=1, The Smiley, smiley face in the top left corner is a raster image. When enlarged, individual pixels appear as squares. Enlarging further, each pixel can be analyzed, with their colors constructed through combination of the values for ...
and 2D
vector graphics Vector graphics is a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector display a ...
. This includes automated computerized versions of traditional animation techniques,
interpolated In the mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a type of estimation, a method of constructing (finding) new data points based on the range of a discrete set of known data points. In engineering and science, one often has a n ...
morphing Morphing is a special effect in motion pictures and animations that changes (or morphs) one image or shape into another through a seamless transition. Traditionally such a depiction would be achieved through dissolving techniques on film. Since ...
,
onion skinning Onion skinning, in 2D computer graphics, is a technique used in creating animated cartoons and editing movies to see several frames at once. This way, the animator or editor can make decisions on how to create or change an image based on the pr ...
and interpolated rotoscoping. 2D animation has many applications, including analog computer animation,
Flash animation Adobe Flash animation or Adobe Flash cartoon (formerly Macromedia Flash animation, Macromedia Flash cartoon, FutureSplash animation, and FutureSplash cartoon) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) p ...
, and
PowerPoint animation PowerPoint animation is a form of animation which uses Microsoft PowerPoint and similar programs to create a game or movie. The artwork is generally created using PowerPoint's AutoShape features, and then animated slide-by-slide or by using Custom ...
.
Cinemagraph Cinemagraphs are still photographs in which a minor and repeated movement occurs, forming a video clip. They are published as an animated GIF or in other video formats, and can give the illusion that the viewer is watching an animation. A vari ...
s are still photographs in the form of an
animated GIF The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , see pronunciation) is a bitmap In computing, a bitmap is a mapping from some domain (for example, a range of integers) to bits. It is also called a bit array or bitmap index. As a noun, the ...
file of which part is animated. Final line
advection In the field of physics, engineering, and earth sciences, advection is the transport of a substance or quantity by bulk motion of a fluid. The properties of that substance are carried with it. Generally the majority of the advected substance is al ...
animation is a technique used in 2D animation, to give artists and animators more influence and control over the final product as everything is done within the same department. Speaking about using this approach in ''
Paperman ''Paperman'' is a 2012 American black-and-white computer-cel animated romantic comedy short film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Directed by John Kahrs, it blends traditional and computer animation, and features the voices of Kahrs ...
'', John Kahrs said that "Our animators can change things, actually erase away the CG underlayer if they want, and change the profile of the arm."


3D

3D animation is digitally modeled and manipulated by an animator. The 3D model maker usually starts by creating a 3D
polygon mesh In 3D computer graphics and solid modeling, a polygon mesh is a collection of , s and s that defines the shape of a polyhedral object. The faces usually consist of triangles (triangle mesh), quadrilaterals (quads), or other simple convex polyg ...
for the animator to manipulate. A mesh typically includes many vertices that are connected by edges and faces, which give the visual appearance of form to a 3D object or 3D environment. Sometimes, the mesh is given an internal digital skeletal structure called an armature that can be used to control the mesh by weighting the vertices. This process is called rigging and can be used in conjunction with
key frame In animation and filmmaking, a key frame (or keyframe) is a drawing or shot that defines the starting and ending points of a smooth transition. These are called ''frames'' because their position in time is measured in frames on a strip of film ...
s to create movement. Other techniques can be applied, mathematical functions (e.g., gravity, particle simulations), simulated fur or hair, and effects, fire and water simulations. These techniques fall under the category of 3D dynamics.


=Terms

= *
Cel-shaded animation Cel shading or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3-D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a shade gradient or tints and shades. A cel shader is often used to mimic th ...
is used to mimic traditional animation using computer software. The shading looks stark, with less blending of colors. Examples include ''
Skyland ''Skyland'' (full French title: "Skyland, Le Nouveau Monde", or "Skyland, The New World"), is a CGI animated series developed in France in partnership with Canada and Luxembourg for television channels France 2 in France, Teletoon in Canada, Nic ...
'' (2007, France), ''
The Iron Giant ''The Iron Giant'' is a 1999 American animated science fiction film produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation and directed by Brad Bird in his directorial debut. It is based on the 1968 novel '' The Iron Man'' by Ted Hughes (which was publish ...
'' (1999, United States), ''
Futurama ''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years a ...
'' (1999, United States) ''
Appleseed Ex Machina ''Appleseed Ex Machina'', also known as in the original version, is a 2007 Japanese animated CG science fiction film and is the sequel to the 2004 ''Appleseed'' film, similarly directed by Shinji Aramaki, and was produced by Hong Kong director ...
'' (2007, Japan), '' The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker'' (2002, Japan), '' The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild'' (2017, Japan) *
Machinima Machinima, originally machinema () is the use of real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation. The word "machinima" is a portmanteau of the words ''ma ...
– Films created by screen capturing in video games and virtual worlds. The term originated from the software introduction in the 1980s
demoscene The demoscene is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off programming, visual ...
, as well as the 1990s recordings of the
first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...
video game '' Quake''. *
Motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...
is used when live-action actors wear special suits that allow computers to copy their movements into CG characters. Examples include ''
Polar Express ''The Polar Express'' is a children's book written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg and published by Houghton Mifflin in 1985. The book is now widely considered to be a classic Christmas story for young children. It was praised for its detai ...
'' (2004, US), ''
Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...
'' (2007, US), ''
A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ''A Christmas C ...
'' (2009, US), ''
The Adventures of Tintin ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (french: Les Aventures de Tintin ) is a series of 24 bande dessinée#Formats, ''bande dessinée'' albums created by Belgians, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one ...
'' (2011, US) '' kochadiiyan'' (2014, India) *
Computer animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes (still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refe ...
is used primarily for animation that attempts to resemble real life, using advanced rendering that mimics in detail skin, plants, water, fire, clouds, etc. Examples include '' Up'' (2009, US), ''
How to Train Your Dragon ''How to Train Your Dragon'' (abbreviated ''HTTYD'') is an American media franchise from DreamWorks Animation and loosely based on the eponymous series of children's books by British author Cressida Cowell. It consists of three feature films: ' ...
'' (2010, US) *
Physically based animation Physically based animation is an area of interest within computer graphics concerned with the simulation of physically plausible behaviors at interactive rates. Advances in physically based animation are often motivated by the need to include compl ...
is animation using
computer simulation Computer simulation is the process of mathematical modelling, performed on a computer, which is designed to predict the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be dete ...
s.


Mechanical

*
Animatronics Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy a ...
is the use of
mechatronics Mechatronics engineering also called mechatronics, is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that focuses on the integration of mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering systems, and also includes a combination of robotics, electronics, ...
to create machines that seem animate rather than robotic. **
Audio-Animatronics Audio-Animatronics (also known as simply Animatronics, and sometimes shortened to AAs) is the registered trademark for a form of robotics animation created by Walt Disney Imagineering for shows and attractions at Disney theme parks, and subsequent ...
and Autonomatronics is a form of
robotics Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrat ...
animation, combined with 3-D animation, created by
Walt Disney Imagineering Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc., commonly referred to as Imagineering, is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construction of Disney theme parks and attra ...
for shows and attractions at Disney theme parks move and make noise (generally a recorded speech or song). They are fixed to whatever supports them. They can sit and stand, and they cannot walk. An Audio-Animatron is different from an android-type robot in that it uses prerecorded movements and sounds, rather than responding to external stimuli. In 2009, Disney created an interactive version of the technology called Autonomatronics. ** Linear Animation Generator is a form of animation by using static picture frames installed in a tunnel or a shaft. The animation illusion is created by putting the viewer in a linear motion, parallel to the installed picture frames. The concept and the technical solution were invented in 2007 by Mihai Girlovan in Romania. * Chuckimation is a type of animation created by the makers of the television series '' Action League Now!'' in which characters/props are thrown, or chucked from off camera or wiggled around to simulate talking by unseen hands. * The
magic lantern The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a si ...
used mechanical slides to project moving images, probably since
Christiaan Huygens Christiaan Huygens, Lord of Zeelhem, ( , , ; also spelled Huyghens; la, Hugenius; 14 April 1629 – 8 July 1695) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor, who is regarded as one of the greatest scientists of ...
invented this early image projector in 1659.


Other

* Hydrotechnics: a technique that includes lights, water, fire, fog, and lasers, with high-definition projections on mist screens. *
Drawn on film animation Drawn-on-film animation, also known as direct animation or animation without camera, is an animation technique where footage is produced by creating the images directly on film stock, as opposed to any other form of animation where the images or ...
: a technique where footage is produced by creating the images directly on
film stock Film stock is an analog medium that is used for recording motion pictures or animation. It is recorded on by a movie camera, developed, edited, and projected onto a screen using a movie projector. It is a strip or sheet of transparent p ...
; for example, by
Norman McLaren William Norman McLaren, LL. D. (11 April 1914 – 27 January 1987) was a Scottish Canadian animator, director and producer known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).Rosenthal, Alan. ''The new documentary in action: a caseb ...
,
Len Lye Leonard Charles Huia Lye (; 5 July 1901 – 15 May 1980) was a New Zealand artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. His films are held in archives including the New Zealand Film Archive, British Film Institute, Mu ...
and
Stan Brakhage James Stanley Brakhage ( ; January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003) was an American filmmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film. Over the course of five decades, Brakhage created a large ...
. *
Paint-on-glass animation Paint-on-glass animation is a technique for making animated films by manipulating slow-drying oil paints on sheets of glass. Gouache mixed with glycerine is sometimes used instead. The best-known practitioner of the technique is Russian animator A ...
: a technique for making animated films by manipulating slow drying
oil paint Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varn ...
s on sheets of glass, for example by Aleksandr Petrov. * Erasure animation: a technique using traditional 2D media, photographed over time as the artist manipulates the image. For example,
William Kentridge William Kentridge (born 28 April 1955) is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films, especially noted for a sequence of hand-drawn animated films he produced during the 1990s. The latter are constructed by ...
is famous for his
charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...
erasure films, and
Piotr Dumała Piotr Dumała (born 9 July 1956 in Warsaw) is a Polish film director and animator. He is noted for his animation technique. While training to be a sculptor, he discovered that scratching images into painted plaster could be a beautiful way to cr ...
for his auteur technique of animating scratches on plaster. *
Pinscreen animation Pinscreen animation makes use of a screen filled with movable pins, which can be moved in or out by pressing an object onto the screen. The screen is lit from the side so that the pins cast shadows. The technique has been used to create animated ...
: makes use of a screen filled with movable pins that can be moved in or out by pressing an object onto the screen. The screen is lit from the side so that the pins cast shadows. The technique has been used to create animated films with a range of textural effects difficult to achieve with traditional cel animation. *
Sand animation Sand animation is the manipulation of sand to create animation. In performance art an artist creates a series of images using sand, a process which is achieved by applying sand to a surface and then rendering images by drawing lines and figures ...
: sand is moved around on a back- or front-
light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 tera ...
ed piece of glass to create each frame for an animated film. This creates an interesting effect when animated because of the light contrast. *
Flip book A flip book, flipbook, flicker book, or kineograph is a booklet with a series of images that very gradually change from one page to the next, so that when the pages are viewed in quick succession, the images appear to animate by simulating moti ...
: a flip book (sometimes, especially in British English, called a flick book) is a book with a series of pictures that vary gradually from one page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly, the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change. Flip books are often illustrated books for children, they also are geared towards adults and employ a series of photographs rather than drawings. Flip books are not always separate books, they appear as an added feature in ordinary books or magazines, often in the page corners. Software packages and websites are also available that convert digital video files into custom-made flip books. *
Character animation Character animation is a specialized area of the animation process, which involves bringing animated s to life. The role of a character animator is analogous to that of a film or stage actor and character animators are often said to be "actors wit ...
*
Multi-sketch Multi-sketch is an animation method of story-telling where a sequence of hand-drawn sketches are created simultaneously while narrating it with voice. To achieve this a Tablet PC A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobil ...
ing *
Special effect Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...
s animation


See also

*
Twelve basic principles of animation Disney's twelve basic principles of animation were introduced by the Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas (animator), Frank Thomas in their 1981 book ''The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation''. The principles are based on the work of ...
* Animated war film * Animation department *
Animated series An animated series is a set of animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can have either ...
*
Architectural animation Architectural animation is a short architectural movie created on a computer. A computer-generated building is created along with landscaping and sometimes moving people and vehicles. Unlike an architectural rendering, which is a single image from ...
* Avar *
Independent animation The term independent animation refers to animated shorts and feature films produced outside a major national animation industry. A good portion of the work is viewed in animation festivals and private screen rooms along with schools that produce ...
*
International Animation Day October 28, the International Animation Day (IAD) was an international observance proclaimed in 2002 by the ASIFA as the main global event to celebrate the art of animation. This day commemorates the first public performance of Charles-Émile ...
*
International Animated Film Association The International Animated Film Association (French: ''Association Internationale du Film d'Animation'', ASIFA) is an international non-profit organization founded in 1960 in Annecy, France, by the best known animation artists of the time such a ...
*
International Tournée of Animation The ''International Tournée of Animation'' was an annual touring program of animated films that started in 1965 as The First Festival of Animated Film with each selected and assembled from films from many countries around the world and which exist ...
*
List of film-related topics The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to film: ''Film'' refers to motion pictures as individual projects and to the field in general. The name came from the fact that photographic film (also called filmstock) ha ...
*
Motion graphic design Motion graphic design, also known as motion design, is a subset of graphic design in that it uses graphic design principles in a filmmaking or video production context (or other temporally evolving visual media) through the use of animation or ...
* Society for Animation Studies *
Wire-frame model A wire-frame model, also wireframe model, is a visual representation of a three-dimensional (3D) physical object used in 3D computer graphics. It is created by specifying each edge of the physical object where two mathematically continuous ...


References


Citations


Sources


Journal articles

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Books

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Online sources

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External links


The making of an 8-minute cartoon short

"Animando"
a 12-minute film demonstrating 10 different animation techniques (and teaching how to use them). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Animation Cartooning Articles containing video clips Film and video technology