Animation is the illusion of motion created by the consecutive display of images of static elements. In film and video production, this refers to techniques by which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually. These frames may be generated by computers, or by photographing a drawn or painted image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model unit (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result with a special animation camera. When the frames are strung together and the resulting film is viewed, there is an illusion of continuous movement due to the phenomenon known as persistence of vision. Generating such a film tends to be very labour intensive and tedious, though the development of computer animation has greatly sped up the process.

Graphics file formats like GIF, MNG, SVG and Flash allow animation to be viewed on a computer or over the Internet.

History

For a more in-depth look at the history of animation, please see the Wikipedia articles "Animated cartoon" and "History of Animation".

The major use of animation has always been for entertainment. However, there is growing use of instructional animation and educational animation to support explanation and learning.

The "classic" form of animation, the "animated cartoon", as developed in the early 1900s and refined by Walt Disney and others, requires up to 24 distinct drawings for one second of animation. This technique is described in detail in the article Traditional animation.

Because animation is very time-consuming and often very expensive to produce, the majority of animation for TV and movies comes from professional animation studios. However, the field of independent animation has existed at least since the 1950s, with animation being produced by independent studios (and sometimes by a single person). Several independent animation producers have gone on to enter the professional animation industry.

Limited animation is a way of increasing production and decreasing costs of animation by using "short cuts" in the animation process. This method was pioneered by UPA and popularized (some say exploited) by Hanna-Barbera, and adapted by other studios as cartoons moved from movie theaters to television.

Famous names in animation

Famous names of the past

Famous names of the present day

Animation studios

Animation Studios, like Movie Studios may be production facilities, or financial entities. In some cases, especially in Anime they have things in common with artists studios where a Master or group of talented individuals oversee the work of lesser artists and crafts persons in realising their vision.

Animation studios of the past

• Bray Productions
• DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
• Filmation
• Fleischer Studios and Famous Studios
• Grantray-Lawrence Animation
• Hanna-Barbera Productions (now Cartoon Network Studios)
• Harman-Ising Productions
• Leon Schesinger Productions/Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. (a/k/a "Termite Terrace", now known as Warner Brothers Animation)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Rankin-Bass
• Soyuzmultfilm
• United Productions of America (UPA)
• Van Beuren Studios
• Walter Lantz Studio
• PannóniaFilm Ltd. - http://www.mediaguide.hu/pannoniafilm/

Animation studios of the present era

Styles and techniques of animation

• Traditional animation
  • Character animation
  • Limited animation
  • Rotoscoping
• Computer animation
  • skeletal animation
  • Per-vertex animation
  • Cel-shaded animation
  • Onion skinning
  • Analog computer animation
  • Motion capture
• Stop-motion animation
  • Cutout animation
  • claymation
  • Pixilation
  • Pinscreen animation
  • Puppetoon
• Drawn on film animation
• Special effects animation

See also

• Animated series
• Anime (Japanese animation)
• List of movie genres

Further Readings

• Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, Disney animation: The Illusion Of Life, Abbeville 1981
• Walters Faber, Helen Walters, Algrant (Ed.), Animation Unlimited: Innovative Short Films Since 1940, HarperCollins Publishers 2004
• Trish Ledoux, Doug Ranney, Fred Patten (Ed.), Complete Anime Guide: Japanese Animation Film Directory and Resource Guide, Tiger Mountain Press 1997
• The Animator's Survival Kit, Richard Williams
• Animation Script to Screen, Shamus Culhane

External links

• Huge Cartoon Character Database
• Anamorphosis 3D and others Animation - The roman walls of Lugo SF.
• Animating Under the Camera
• Experimental Animation Techniques
• Drawn Under-Camera Style Animation
• Media & Techniques in Animation
• Matt World - Web-based animations from animator Matt Greenwood
• Keyframe - the Animation Resource
• The Animation Department of the National Film and Television School UK
• Animation Nation - a forum for professional animators
• Anime Roleplaying
• Chronology of Animation
• Animation links collection
• Zagreb Film
• SAF, Čakovec school of animation
• Animation Directory
• Don Markenstein's Toonopedia
• Big Cartoon Database
• Golden Age of Cartoons
• Hints and tips for the animation hobbyist
• ACME Animation
• Animation World Network
• 28 Principles of Animation
• Animationmeat.com - Notes Model Sheets and Reference material by Professional Animators
• Ture Sjolander: The Artist that invented Computer Animationbs:Animacija