By Alexis Davis

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Animation is the technique of photographing successive drawings or positions of puppets or models to create an illusion of movement when the movie is shown as a sequence. Animation has been around since the late 1800s and it is safe to say that
the entire concept of animation was by far the most innovative forms of expression to have ever come out of the art category.

It is most likely that you are familiar with the images above because you are aware at how long ago animated cartoons were produced and thrived because of the amount of success following the unique take on expression. That is, of course, Mickey Mouse created by the company, Disney. There has been a few animated films before Disney’s time, but the creation of Oswald and Steamboat Willie (Mickey Mouse) has taken the world of animation by storm by a long shot.

However, not all animation looks like the type used above. There are so many varieties that lead to the drastic differences in animation in films, cartoons, games, etc as they come from different creators.

Animation can be split into multiple categories so let’s begin with hand drawn and frame by frame. Frames in animation means a picture or drawing that defines the starting and ending point of any transition to make it look smooth and be pleasing to the eye. Now most animation is frame by frame by default since one needs frames to put sequences together.

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The type of frame by frame animation that people are most familiar with is Rubber Hose. Early cartoons before and around the 2000s utilized this type specifically. The term Rubber Hose refers to how fluid everything in the animation moves ranging from the way inanimate objects bounce around the screen to how the characters seem to have an absence of actual bone structure, making their movements more sporadic but more fluid and expressive. When someone sees this type of animation there is a high chance that they’ll get hit with a wave of nostalgia since these types of cartoons dominated the childhoods of many people. Rubber Hose defined true animation in the early years and set high standards for many other animations yet to come.

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Other frame by frame animation have a modern touch added but it is the same concept. The difference lies in the quality of the animation, anatomy, and the color. As seen in the examples above, I used a scene from the cartoon, OK KO and one of my own animations to present how the lines are cleaner and the colors are more vibrant. Character body and facial expressions have no limits in this category since the look of the animation fully relies on the art skills of the animator/creator and the type of animation program that they utilize.

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Hand drawn/frame by frame animation is by far the most tedious and time consuming type so there has been other animation methods created to make animating easier. Ladies and gentlemen I introduce to you…flash animation. Flash animation is when there are multiple parts of a character such as their arm segments, leg segments, body segments, etc that are put together on separate animation layers and moved individually to create movement in the characters. Personally, flash animation is my least favorite type, but I do love it if it is done correctly like the examples shown above. If done incorrectly, then it will look like an inconsistent, jumbled mess.

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Here comes one of my favorites and that is 3-D animation. This type of animation is no doubt the most complicated and tedious form of creating the illusion of movement. Similar to flash animation, 3-D models rely on the movement of each body part of the character, but the reason it is drastically more complicated than flash animation is because you need to rely on the model’s joints in order to move the limbs accordingly. For each joints there is a pivotal wheel but it has six or more different directions, giving the animator no limits in how they want to each part of the character and how much they want said parts and joints to move. Animators also have deal with glitches in the models that they use. One minor issue with the models or how they react to the background can cause an insane amount of malfunctions. Clipping, when parts or all of the model goes through objects, other models, or themselves mistakenly, is one of the biggest issues that animators encounter and can make 3-D animating next to impossible to execute.

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Animation is not only for cartoons or movies. Animation is extremely essential in video games. Since video games in all shapes, sizes, and mechanics, then it would make sense to ensure that all animation in the game is fitted and smooth enough for the game to function. Game animations come in 3 types and they are action and transition animations, in-game cutscenes, and fully animated cutscenes. Action and transition animations is the movement of the game character as they perform tasks such as walking, jumping, speaking, fighting, etc. These animations have to be focused on a lot more than the others since that will make or break the game. In-game cutscenes are different than fully animated cutscenes in an interesting way. In-game cutscenes occur when the character is going through an important scene, but it is short or not as major in the plot as another scenario would’ve been. It is also important to note that these types of cutscenes are animated in the same style of animation as the animation transitions are made in. Fully animated cutscenes occur when there is an extremely major point in the plot of games and when they need the player’s undivided attention. These forms of cutscenes are animated more fluidly or in another engine entirely and the quality is much higher than what the game itself offered.

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The real reason I believe why animation is the best form of execution for basically anything is because of the impact it can have on people and that’s in any category of animation. Animation can easily cause all existing emotions to be felt in anyone who watches it. Fear, joy, uncertainty, pressure, anxiety, sorrow, anger you name them. I believe it is truly amazing how just a series of images can have such an impact on people and the world as a whole.

If there is something or anything that you need to say, convey, show, express, etc., then I highly recommend you try to pursue animation because I really and truly believe that the impact that you seek will happen if you merely animate it.