The following information was delivered during my 'Animation 101' talk to Evergreen School - you can check out more information about that talk on this blog post here, (including my nerves on the day), and if you’d like to learn more about my talks and educational services check out my booklet here. I offer a whole range of talks from careers and business, to animating in Canva yourself.
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So what are the different types of animation? I generally break it down into 4 categories:
2D Rigged/Hand-drawn (also known as tradigital because it has elements of traditional and digital animation)
CGI (3D computer generated)
Stop Motion (aka Stop Frame)
Visual Effects
Let’s start with 2D. I lump motion graphics into this type because most motion graphics rely on rigs.
Rigging animation is kind of like making a 2D puppet, with joints and moveable limbs - you can see an example of a rig here from the fantastic TV rigger Joseph Bettridge.
This kind of animation is usually used for television due to being able to reuse a lot of the animation, and it’s these techniques that allow your investment in Alchemy Studios to go so far. We use these techniques to deliver the best educational animation on the market.
The next type is 3D or CGI animation. This technique was popularised by Pixar animation and has now launched into new heights with work getting so realistic - it’s basically indistinguishable from reality!
It’s made in much the same way, but instead of 2D puppets they are 3D - as well as there being a lot more processes in the pipeline such as surface painting. This is basically painting the textures that will appear on the character or scene.
I also put work in Blender or Unreal engine in this category. Unreal is a game engine that can be used for animation too, (find out more here), and Blender is 3D free animation software for everyone, and really easy to get started with, compared to software like Maya - check out a fellow alchemist Cat Egan’s Blender work here.
The next category is stop-motion. This is few and far between these days but was massively popular in the 70s and 80s. Think Postman Pat and Thomas the Tank Engine. Fun fact: even South Park’s pilot episode was stop motion cut-out pieces of paper that cultivated it’s iconic style.
The technique for this type is usually animated in a ‘straight ahead’ way, which means animators just make a tiny movement, take a picture and repeat that process over and over thousands of times until they have a finished animation. However, the animators need to plan their scene - it’s not as easy to redo as some other methods, which makes it expensive. But it’s beautiful - we really love stop motion - but then again I am a little biased...
The final type of animation is VFX or Visual effects. There has been lots of debate over the years whether this is considered animation or not. It usually includes some live action (or filmed) elements that the animators then impose animation on. It can lead to some breath-taking results. But for example the tails in the Avatar films needed to be hand animated, (which means someone had to move the rig in the software), to create the seamless quality, so I consider it animation even if a lot of elements draw from or include non-animated assets.
I hope this has been helpful and you have more of an idea about the different types of animation. If this information was useful, don’t forget to share it and if you are interested in all things animation sign up to my newsletter, for up to date industry news and info.
If you have seen some animation you like and would like to ask us how we can go about making it for you and get an idea of cost, feel free to book in a 1:1 or message us at hello@wearealchemystudios.com
Ciao!
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