HA5 Task 2

Animation Techniques 


Traditional Animation

Traditional Animation is a type of animation in which frame is hand-drawn, before Computer Animation it was the dominant form in Animation Films. 

The process of Traditional Animations starts with oral or literal source materials that are converted into animation scripts. 

Storyboards derive from those scripts.
The storyboard has an appearance somewhat similar to a comic book, and it shows the sequence of shots as consecutive sketches that also indicate transitions, camera angles and framing. The images allow the animation team to plan the flow of the plot and the composition of the imagery. The storyboard artists will have regular meetings with the director, and may have to redraw or "re-board" a sequence many times before it meets final approval. 

This is an example that shows a piece of Story Board for the film Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi which was made Hand-drawn, and the following example is a Gif that shows the scene for the film, the actual and final scene that this storyboard was planned for.

3D Animation 

3D Animation is a type of animation made by computer.

It is digitally modeled and manipulated by an animator, The animator usually starts by creating a 3D polygon mesh 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 keyframes 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.^[91] These techniques fall under the category of 3D dynamics.

3D Animation uses different methods to create, methods are: 

Cel-shaded animation

It is used to mimic traditional animation using computer software.

Machinima 

Films created by using screen capturing in video games and virtual words.

Motion Capture

This method is used when actors in live-action films wear special suits that allows computers to copy their movements into CG Characters.  

Photo-realistic animation 

Is used primarily for animation that attempts to resemble real life, using advanced rendering that mimics in detail skin, plants, water, fire, clouds, etc.

The following examples are a simple 3D Animatio Gif and another Gif which shows Motion Capture.