Animation

techniques
 Optical illusions of motion

■ Persistence of vision refers to the optical illusion whereby multiple discrete images blend into a single
image in the human mind and believed to be the explanation for motion perception in cinema and
animated films. Like other illusions of visual perception, it is produced by certain characteristics of the
visual system. Narrowly defined, the theory of persistence of vision is the belief that human
perception of motion (brain centred) is the result of persistence of vision (eye centred). However, this
theory was disaproved by Wertheimer in 1912 yet persists in citations in many classic and modern
film-theory texts. A more plausible theory to explain motion perception are two distinct perceptual
illusions: phi phenomenon and beta movement.
■ The Phi phenomenon refers to an optical illusion in which a sequence of images can trick the brain into
seeing moving images and is caused by a changing static image. The beta movement also refers to a
series of static images on a screen which can trick us into seeing a fluid movement animation,
provided the frame rate is greater than 10-12 individual images a second, and is caused by the
‘apparent’ motion between different lights sources that are switched on and off periodically similarly to
‘chase lighting’.
 Claymation

■ 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.
■ Traditional animation, from cel animation to stop motion, is created by recording each frame,
or still picture, on film or digital media and then playing the recorded frames back in
rapid succession before the viewer. These and other moving images, from zoetrope to
films to video games, create the illusion of motion by playing back at over ten to twelve
frames per second. The techniques involved in creating computer-generated imagery are
conversely generally removed from a frame-by-frame process.
■ Each object or character is sculpted from clay or other such similarly pliable material as
plasticine, usually around a wire skeleton called an armature, and then arranged on the
set, where it is photographed once before being slightly moved by hand to prepare it for
the next shot, and so on until the animator has achieved the desired amount of film.
Upon playback, the mind of the viewer perceives the series of slightly changing, rapidly
succeeding images as motion. A consistent shooting environment is needed to maintain
the illusion of continuity: objects must be consistently placed and lit, and work must
proceed in a calm environment.
 Stop motion

■ Stop motion, an animation technique, is used to physically manipulate an object so that it

appears to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between
individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of
frames is played as a fast sequence. Dolls with movable joints or clay figures are often
used in stop motion for their ease of repositioning. Stop motion animation using
plasticine is called clay animation or "clay-mation". Not all stop motion requires figures or
models; many stop motion films can involve using humans, household appliances and
other things for comedic effect. Stop motion can also use sequential drawing in a similar
manner to traditional animation, such as a flip book. Stop motion using humans is
sometimes referred to as pixilation or pixilate animation.
■ Stop motion animation has a long history in film. It was often used to show objects moving as
if by magic. The first instance of the stop motion technique can be credited to Albert E.
Smith and J. Stuart Blackton for Vitagraph's The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1897), in which
a toy circus of acrobats and animals comes to life.
 Computer
generation

■ Frame rates- In drawn animation, moving characters are often shot "on twos", that is to say, one drawing is
shown for every two frames of film (which usually runs at 24 frames per second), meaning there are
only 12 drawings per second. Even though the image update rate is low, the fluidity is satisfactory for
most subjects. However, when a character is required to perform a quick movement, it is usually
necessary to revert to animating "on ones", as "twos" are too slow to convey the motion adequately. A
blend of the two techniques keeps the eye fooled without unnecessary production cost. Animation for
most "Saturday morning cartoons" is produced as cheaply as possible, and is most often shot on
"threes", or even "fours", i.e. three or four frames per drawing. This translates to only 8 or 6 drawings
per second, respectively.
■ Modern video formats utilize a variety of frame rates. Due to the mains frequency of electric grids, analog
television broadcast was developed with frame rates of 50 Hz or 60 Hz, sometimes with video being
interlaced so more motion information could be sent on the same available broadcast bandwidth, and
sometimes with video being broadcast at 25 or 30 fps with each frame doubled. Film, which was almost
universally shot at 24 frames per second, could not be displayed at its native frame rate, which required
pulldown conversion, often leading to "judder": to convert 24 frames per second into 60 frames per
second, every odd frame is doubled and every even frame is tripled, which creates uneven motion.
■ Frames- The Frame in animation is the image played per second. An example of this is when the user looks
at 2D animation and consider stop frame animation. Everytime that the 'puppet' is manipulated a picture
is taken. Many images will be taken as this will accumulate a sequence of images which make up a
scene. The images will be then taken and uploaded to a computer and then played consecutive order to
create the animation. Each individual photo once assembled on a timeline is called an animation frame .
■ Key frames- within a timeline there are many key frames. They are small inserts where the user can place
a frame. Key frames can also be manipulated to edit footage as well as being used to extend which
will slow down the animation. They can also be used to reduce in order to increase the speed of the
animation. 12 key frames will usually equal to a second of footage.
■ Onion skinning- Onion skinning is a 2D computer graphics term for 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 previous image in the sequence. In
traditional cartoon animation, the individual frames of a movie were initially drawn on thin onionskin
paper over a light source. The animators (mostly inbetweeners) would put the previous and next
drawings exactly beneath the working drawing, so that they could draw the 'in between' to give a
smooth motion. In computer software, this effect is achieved by making frames translucent and
projecting them on top of each other. This effect can also be used to create motion blurs, as seen in
The Matrix when characters dodge bullets.
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Tweening-Tweening is an important process in animation that is used to create an intermediate frame
between two images to create a smoother animation transition between to frames. Depending on the
age of the software used, tweening can be easy or difficult as more modern softwares used to create
animation make tweening easier to apply tools whilst older programmes are more manual and as a
result time consuming.
 Conclusion

In conclusion, animation can be done using several techniques including Claymation,

stop motion, and computer generating. Usually, animation would be drawn on then
moved to look as if the animation is moving. Nowadays, Claymation along with stop
motion is often used. Claymation is when clay is used to sculpt out characters and
created frames using the sculpters to put together and make an animation. However,
the most often used animation is computer generated.