 
The bouncing ball animation (below) consists  of these six frames.
 
This animation moves at 10 frames per second.
  Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D  or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an 
illusion of movement.  The effect is an 
optical  illusion of 
motion due to the phenomenon of 
persistence of  vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways. The  most common method of presenting animation is as a motion picture or  video program, although there are other methods.
[edit] Origin of the name
"Animation" derivated from the Latin 
anima, the "animating  principle", the vital force inside every living creature. It is often  used as a translation for the Greek word 
psyche, and related to  the Christian concept of 
soul. "Animation" would be the technique  of giving "soul" to inanimate objects, drawings, etc.
[edit] Early examples
  
  Five images sequence from a vase found in 
Iran    
  An 
Egyptian  burial chamber mural, approximately 4000  years old, showing 
wrestlers in action. Even  though this may appear similar to a series of animation drawings, there  was no way of viewing the images in motion. It does, however, indicate  the artist's intention of depicting motion.
  Early examples of attempts to capture the phenomenon of motion  drawing can be found in 
paleolithic cave  paintings, where animals are depicted with multiple legs in  superimposed positions, clearly attempting to convey the perception of  motion.
A 5,000 year old earthen bowl found in Iran in 
Shahr-i Sokhta has five images of a goat painted along the  sides. This has been claimed to be an example of early animation.
[1]  However, since no equipment existed to show the images in motion, such a  series of images cannot be called animation in a true sense of the  word.
[2]
A Chinese 
zoetrope-type  device had been invented in 180 AD.
[3]  The 
phenakistoscope,  
praxinoscope,  and the common 
flip  book were early popular animation devices invented during the 19th  century.
These devices produced the appearance of movement from sequential  drawings using technological means, but animation did not really develop  much further until the advent of 
cinematography.
There is no single person who can be considered the "creator" of film  animation, as there were several people ẁorking on projects which could  be considered animation at about the same time.
Georges  Méliès was a creator of special-effect films; he was generally one  of the first people to use animation with his technique. He discovered a  technique by accident which was to stop the camera rolling to change  something in the scene, and then continue rolling the film. This idea  was later known as stop-motion animation. Méliès discovered this  technique accidentally when his camera broke down while shooting a bus  driving by. When he had fixed the camera, a hearse happened to be  passing by just as Méliès restarted rolling the film, his end result was  that he had managed to make a bus transform into a hearse. This was  just one of the great contributors to animation in the early years.
The earliest surviving stop-motion advertising film was an English  short by 
Arthur  Melbourne-Cooper called 
Matches: An Appeal (1899). Developed  for the 
Bryant  and May Matchsticks company, it involved stop-motion animation of  wired-together matches writing a patriotic call to action on a  blackboard.
J. Stuart  Blackton was possibly the first American film-maker to use the  techniques of stop-motion and hand-drawn animation. Introduced to  film-making by 
Edison, he pioneered these concepts at the  turn of the 20th century, with his first copyrighted work dated 1900.  Several of his films, among them 
The Enchanted  Drawing (1900) and 
Humorous  Phases of Funny Faces (1906) were film versions of Blackton's  "lightning artist" routine, and utilized modified versions of Méliès'  early stop-motion techniques to make a series of 
blackboard drawings appear to move and reshape  themselves. 'Humorous Phases of Funny Faces' is regularly cited as the  first true animated film, and Blackton is considered the first true 
animator.
Another French artist, 
Émile Cohl,  began drawing cartoon strips and created a film in 1908 called 
Fantasmagorie. The film  largely consisted of a 
stick figure moving  about and encountering all manner of morphing objects, such as a wine  bottle that transforms into a flower. There were also sections of live  action where the animator’s hands would enter the scene. The film was  created by drawing each frame on paper and then shooting each frame onto  
negative film, which gave  the picture a blackboard look. This makes 
Fantasmagorie the first  animated film created using what came to be known as 
traditional (hand-drawn) animation.
Following the successes of Blackton and Cohl, many other artists  began experimenting with animation. One such artist was 
Winsor McCay, a  successful newspaper cartoonist, who created detailed animations that  required a team of artists and painstaking attention for detail. Each  frame was drawn on paper; which invariably required backgrounds and  characters to be redrawn and animated. Among McCay's most noted films  are 
Little Nemo  (1911), 
Gertie  the Dinosaur (1914) and 
The  Sinking of the Lusitania (1918).
The production of animated short films, typically referred to as  "cartoons", became an industry of its own during the 1910s, and cartoon  shorts were produced to be shown in 
movie theaters. The most successful early  animation producer was 
John Randolph  Bray, who, along with 
animator Earl Hurd, patented  the 
cel animation process  which dominated the animation industry for the rest of the decade.
[edit] Techniques
[edit] Traditional animation
Traditional animation (also called cel animation or hand-drawn  animation) was the process used for most animated films of the 20th  century. The individual frames of a traditionally animated film are  photographs of drawings, which are first drawn on paper. To create the  illusion of movement, each drawing differs slightly from the one before  it. The animators' drawings are traced or photocopied onto transparent  acetate sheets called 
cels, which are filled in with paints in assigned colors  or tones on the side opposite the line drawings. The completed  character cels are photographed one-by-one onto motion picture film  against a painted background by a 
rostrum camera.
The traditional cel animation process became obsolete by the  beginning of the 21st century. Today, animators' drawings and the  backgrounds are either scanned into or drawn directly into a computer  system. Various 
software programs are used to  color the drawings and simulate camera movement and effects. The final  animated piece is output to one of several delivery media, including  traditional 
35 mm film and newer media such as 
digital video. The  "look" of traditional cel animation is still preserved, and the 
character animators' work has remained  essentially the same over the past 70 years. Some animation producers  have used the term "tradigital" to describe cel animation which makes  extensive use of computer technology.
Examples of traditionally animated feature films include 
Pinocchio (United States, 1940), 
Animal Farm (United Kingdom,  1954), and 
Akira (Japan, 1988). Traditional animated  films which were produced with the aid of computer technology include 
The Lion King  (US, 1994) 
Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away)  (Japan, 2001), and 
Les Triplettes  de Belleville (2003).
- Full animation refers to the process of producing  high-quality traditionally animated films, which regularly use detailed  drawings and plausible movement. Fully animated films can be done in a  variety of styles, from more realistically animated works such as those  produced by the Walt Disney studio (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Lion King) to the more 'cartoony' styles of  those produced by the Warner Bros. animation studio. Many of the Disney animated  features are examples of full animation, as are non-Disney works  such as The  Secret of NIMH (US, 1982), The Iron Giant  (US, 1999), and Nocturna (Spain, 2007).
- Limited  animation involves the use of less detailed and/or more stylized  drawings and methods of movement. Pioneered by the artists at the  American studio United  Productions of America, limited animation can be used as a method  of stylized artistic expression, as in Gerald McBoing Boing  (US, 1951), Yellow  Submarine (UK, 1968), and much of the anime produced in Japan.  Its primary use, however, has been in producing cost-effective animated  content for media such as television (the work of Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, and other  TV animation studios) and later the Internet (web cartoons). Some recent examples are; Spongebob Squarepants  (USA, 1999–present), The Fairly  OddParents (USA, 2001–present) and Invader Zim (USA,  2001–2002, 2006).
- Rotoscoping  is a technique, patented by Max Fleischer in  1917, where animators trace live-action movement, frame by frame. The source film can be  directly copied from actors' outlines into animated drawings, as in The Lord of the Rings  (US, 1978), or used in a stylized and expressive manner, as in Waking Life (US,  2001) and A Scanner Darkly (US, 2006). Some other  examples are: Fire and Ice (USA, 1983) and  Heavy Metal (1981).
- Live-action/animation  is a technique, when combining hand-drawn characters into live action  shots. One of the earlier uses of it was Koko the Clown  when Koko was drawn over live action footage. Other examples would  include Who Framed Roger  Rabbit? (USA, 1988), Space Jam (USA,  1996) and Osmosis  Jones (USA, 2002).
[edit] Stop motion
Main article: 
Stop motionStop-motion animation is used to describe animation created by  physically manipulating real-world objects and photographing them one  frame of film at a time to create the illusion of movement. There are  many different types of stop-motion animation, usually named after the  type of media used to create the animation. Computer software is widely  available to create this type of animation.
- Puppet animation  typically involves stop-motion puppet figures interacting with each  other in a constructed environment, in contrast to the real-world  interaction in model animation. The puppets generally have an armature inside of them  to keep them still and steady as well as constraining them to move at  particular joints. Examples include The Tale of the  Fox (France, 1937), The  Nightmare Before Christmas (US, 1993), Corpse Bride  (US, 2005), Coraline (US, 2009), the films of Jiří Trnka  and the TV series Robot Chicken  (US, 2005–present). - Puppetoon,  created using techniques developed by George Pal, are  puppet-animated films which typically use a different version of a  puppet for different frames, rather than simply manipulating one  existing puppet. 
 
- Clay  animation, or Plasticine animation often abbreviated as claymation,  uses figures made of clay or a similar malleable material to create  stop-motion animation. The figures may have an armature or wire frame  inside of them, similar to the related puppet animation (below), that  can be manipulated in order to pose the figures. Alternatively, the  figures may be made entirely of clay, such as in the films of Bruce Bickford, where clay  creatures morph into a variety of different shapes. Examples of  clay-animated works include The Gumby Show  (US, 1957–1967) Morph shorts (UK, 1977–2000), Wallace and  Gromit shorts (UK, as of 1989), Jan Švankmajer's  Dimensions  of Dialogue (Czechoslovakia,  1982), The Trap  Door (UK, 1984). Films include Wallace  & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Chicken Run and The Adventures of Mark  Twain.
- Cutout  animation is a type of stop-motion animation produced by moving  2-dimensional pieces of material such as paper or cloth. Examples  include Terry  Gilliam's animated sequences from Monty  Python's Flying Circus (UK, 1969–1974); Fantastic Planet  (France/Czechoslovakia, 1973) ; Tale of Tales  (Russia, 1979), The pilot episode of the TV series (and sometimes in  episodes) of South  Park (US, 1997). 
- Model  animation refers to stop-motion animation created to interact  with and exist as a part of a live-action world. Intercutting, matte effects, and split  screens are often employed to blend stop-motion characters or objects  with live actors and settings. Examples include the work of Ray Harryhausen,  as seen in films such Jason and the Argonauts  (1961), and the work of Willis O'Brien  on films such as King Kong (1933 film). 
- Object  animation refers to the use of regular inanimate objects in  stop-motion animation, as opposed to specially created items. - Graphic  animation uses non-drawn flat visual graphic material  (photographs, newspaper clippings, magazines, etc.) which are sometimes  manipulated frame-by-frame to create movement. At other times, the  graphics remain stationary, while the stop-motion camera is moved to  create on-screen action.
 
- Pixilation  involves the use of live humans as stop motion characters. This allows  for a number of surreal effects, including disappearances and  reappearances, allowing people to appear to slide across the ground, and  other such effects. Examples of pixilation include The  Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb and Angry Kid shorts.
[edit] Computer animation
Computer animation encompasses a variety of techniques, the unifying  factor being that the animation is created digitally on a computer.
[edit] 2D animation
2D animation figures are created and/or edited  on the computer using 2D 
bitmap graphics or created and edited using  2D 
vector  graphics. This includes automated computerized versions of  traditional animation techniques such as of 
tweening, 
morphing, 
onion skinning  and 
interpolated rotoscoping.
Examples: 
Foster's  Home for Imaginary Friends, 
Danny Phantom,  
Waltz with  Bashir, 
The  Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, 
The Secret of  Kells
[edit] 3D animation
3D animation is digitally  modeled and manipulated by an animator. In order to manipulate a mesh,  it is given a digital skeletal structure that can be used to control the  mesh. This process is called rigging. Various other techniques can be  applied, such as mathematical functions (ex. gravity, particle  simulations), simulated fur or hair, effects such as fire and water and  the use of 
motion  capture to name but a few, these techniques fall under the category  of 3D dynamics. Well-made 
3D animations can be difficult to distinguish from  live action and are commonly used as 
visual effects  for recent movies.
- Photo realistic animation, is used  primarily for animation that attempts to resemble real life. Using  advanced rendering that makes detailed skin, plants, water, fire,  clouds, etc. to mimic real life. Examples include Up (2009, USA), Kung-Fu Panda (2008, USA), Ice Age (2002, USA).
- Cel-shaded  animation, is used to mimic traditional animation using CG  software. Shading looked stark and less blending colors. Examples  include, Skyland  (2007, France), Appleseed  (2007, Japan), The Legend  of Zelda: Wind Waker (2002, Japan)
- Motion capture,  is used when live action actors wear special suits that allow computers  to copy their movements into CG characters. Examples include Polar Express (2004, USA), Beowulf (2007), Disney's A  Christmas Carol (2009 USA), Avatar (2009, USA).
2D animation techniques tend to focus on image manipulation while 3D  techniques usually build virtual worlds in which characters and objects  move and interact. 3D animation can create images that seem real to the  viewer.
[edit] Other animation  techniques
- Drawn on film  animation: a technique where footage is produced by creating the  images directly on film  stock, for example by Norman McLaren, Len Lye and Stan Brakhage.
- Paint-on-glass  animation: a technique for making animated films by  manipulating slow drying oil  paints on sheets of glass,  for example by Aleksandr Petrov.
- Erasure animation: a technique using tradition 2D medium,  photographed over time as the artist manipulates the image. For example,  William  Kentridge is famous for his charcoal erasure films.
- Pinscreen  animation: makes use of a screen filled with movable pins,  which can be moved in or out by pressing an object onto the screen. The  screen is lit from the side so that the pins cast shadows. The technique  has been used to create animated films with a range of textural effects  difficult to achieve with traditional cel animation.
- Sand  animation: sand is moved around on a back- or front-lighted  piece of glass to create each frame for an animated film. This creates  an interesting effect when animated because of the light contrast.
- Flip book:  A flip book (sometimes, especially in British English, called a flick  book) is a book with a series of pictures that vary gradually from one  page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly, the  pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change.  Flip books are often illustrated books for children, but may also be  geared towards adults and employ a series of photographs rather than  drawings. Flip books are not always separate books, but may appear as an  added feature in ordinary books or magazines, often in the page  corners. Software packages and websites are also available that convert  digital video files into custom-made flip books.
[edit] Other  techniques and approaches
[edit] See also