Animation Is Getting More Popular Today Essay

, Research Paper

Animation is getting more popular today

Animation, motion pictures created by recording a series of still

images-of drawings, objects, or people in various positions of incremental

movement. When played back no longer appear individually as static images but combine to produce the illusion of unbroken motion. The term animation applies to creations on film, video, or computers, and even to motion toys, which usually consist of a series of drawings or photographs on paper that are viewed with a mechanical device or by flipping through a hand-held sequence of images. For example, a pad of paper can be used to create an animated ?flipbook? of drawings. The term cartoon is sometimes used to describe short animated works(under 10 mins) that are humorous in nature.

There are many ways to create animation, depending on whether the materials used are flat. (such as drawings, paintings, or cut-out pieces of paper) or dimensional(eg: clay, puppets, household objects, or even people). In each case, an animator must keep in mind the basic principle of frames per second. Because sound film runs at twenty-four frames per second, a film animator must make twenty-four images for each second of animation that he or she wishes to create. A common time-saving practice is to film animation on twos or on threes, meaning that the animator actually uses one image for two or three frames of film in a row, rather than using each image only once.

After choosing an idea for a film, an animator must think about a concept in terms of individual actions. For instance, if an animator decides on an action that will take 3 seconds of animation to complete, the animator will have to create images to fill 72 frames of film. Filmed on twos, 36 drawings, showing progressive changes in the movement, will be needed to create the 3-second action. The ability to think in terms of incremental movement is essential to the animation process. An animator must do a lot of planning, or pre-production work, before an animation is recorded. Depending on the size and budget of the production, the animator may work with a team of character designers, model builders, background artists, inspirational sketch artists, colorists, and other professionals who influence the look of the work. An individual, or independent, animator usually takes on all these roles.

If an animator is using drawings, one of the most common animation techniques, he or she will first create a series of rough sketches that often will be filmed in a pencil test to determine whether the desired motion has been achieved. If the pencil test is satisfactory, images are refined by removing excess lines. Computer animation uses computers to automate many animation processes, such as shading and coloring. Although computers were once shunned by studios and animators who prided themselves on handmade craftsmanship, recent projects, such as the motion picture Toy Story(1995), demonstrate that new technologies have gained greater acceptance in the industry. As in traditional animation, computer animators benefit drawing skills and an understanding of incremental movement and timing. Toy Story(1995), which Lasseter directed. The release of Toy Story by Disney signalled that three-dimensional animation techniques, previously used only to enhance parts of films, had been fully embraced by the commercial animation industry. It?s unlikely, however, that other techniques will fade completely. As in the past, independent animators will continue to create innovative personal expressions using a variety of approaches, developing new methods and expanding the definition of animation as an art form.

Animation has been a part of cinema history from the time the first motion pictures were made in the late 1800s. Some early live-action films, known as trick films, used the animation technique of stop action, whereby the camera is stopped and an object is removed or added to a shot before filming is resumed. Although dimensional animation techniques were used in the early years of filming, American motion-picture studios soon determined that flat animation was best suited for the assembly-line techniques they had adopted to make the filmmaking process more efficient. Most early animators used other time-saving methods. With the slash-and-tear system, for example, an artist would draw moving images on one sheet of paper and tear away the excess paper surrounding the images. The remaining portion of the sheet of paper would then be overlaid on another sheet of paper that contained static elements, which appeared through torn areas. So far, animation is getting more important and more popular today; with the high technology like automation, computer? to improve their effects.