Section 1: On the History of Animation

Part 1 Hand Drawn (Cel Animation)

Also known as Cel, Hand Drawn animation is when characters are drawn
on Cels and laid over a static background. Cel or Celluloid, is a transparent
material on which hand drawn character or other assets are placed on for
animation. This is a very inefficient way of animating as each movement
needs to be re-drawn and the quality, compared to nowadays tech
creations, is very low. The reason this technique is inefficient is due to
time and cost, to make a Cel movie takes a lot of time due to each
movement and panel needing to be drawn one at a time, and any small
mistake can ruin the entire film. The cost of this is also very expensive as
you need a lot of Cel, materials for drawing and stations, not to mention
highly skilled artists to draw each panel. The technique has been
attributed to Earl Hurd who patented the process in 1914. One company
known for making many Cell films was Disney, who made the majority of
their films before 1990, with this technique. One of which was Disneys
The Little Mermaid which received a lot of help and resources for other
facilities around the Disney Corporation Opening in 1989, the DisneyMGM facility's first projects were to produce an entire Roger
Rabbit cartoon short, Roller Coaster Rabbit, and to contribute ink and
paint support to Mermaid. Another first for recent years was the filming of
live actors and actresses for motion reference material for the animators,
a practice used frequently for many of the Disney animated features
produced under Walt Disney's supervision.[1] This technique is still used
in films today, although with advancements in technology, it is not as
commonly found.
Part 2 Flick Books
Flick books are a very basic way of animating and dont generally have a lot of
detail to them. They are not always very long as longer flick books tend to take
up a lot of space as each frame is layered on top of each other for the viewer to
flick through them. Like Cel Animation, each movement needs to be drawn
separately and so can take a lot of time to create. Due to these issues it isnt a
very popular form of animation, and due to new advances in technology, it is
very outdated. They are generally cheap to make as all that is required is a flickbook and some art supplies, but some of the most basic ones can be made with
items as simple as sticky notes and a pencil. Flick Books are generally only 1
viewer things as they are generally not very large, though a few people can view
them at a time if you crowd around it. A very good example of Flick Book that is
popular and seen even today, is the opening to Wat Disney films, which start
with a flick book of micky mouse in Steamboat Willie.
Part 3 Claymation
Claymation is the art of animating clay figures to create the illusion of
movement. To claymate, you need to design and create statues and figurines of

character and other assets that will be animated. You then move each assets as
needed and take a picture. You will then put all these images together into
editing software and play through them in order. If done properly, this will create
animation like seen in Flick Books and Cel. This kind of animating is very time
consuming and costs quite a lot of money as you need a lot of materials for the
set and assets, not to mention all of these assets and sets will need to be
handmade and changed when needed on set, making it one of the longest time
requiring animation methods currently used today. A very well known animation
in this art style, is Wallace and Gromit. Wallace and Gromit has always been
made using Claymation, from their short films to their full feature length ones,
and, from data put down by the studio when creating these films, we know how
long something in this style can take. Because a second of film constitutes 24 separate
frames, even a short half-hour film like A Close Shave takes a great deal of time to animate.
General quotes on the speed of animation of a Wallace and Gromit film put the filming rate at
typically around 30 frames per day i.e. just over one second of film is photographed for each
day of production. The feature-length The Curse of the Were-Rabbit took 15 months to make. [2]
Part 4 Stop Motion
Stop motion is one of the main parts of Claymation, however, it is also its own style of animation,
too. The art of Stop Motion is to take pictures of every movement in order to link them together to
create movement, similar to the flick book, but using pictures of real life things, rather than drawn
assets. The animation you create using this style can be anything, such as creating less realistic
films using inanimate objects and even actors. Again, like Claymation, it takes a lot of time, as we
can see from the previous quote. Everything beforehand needs to be designed and prepared,
and every small movement needs to be caught, which, for feature length films, can take around
15 months of production time.

Part 5 Computer Generation

Computer Generation is rather self-explanatory in a brief description, but
involves a lot of work. This is where you use computers and other technologies to
generate animated images, also know as Computer Generated Images (CGI).
This includes both static and dynamic images. This can include both 2d and 3d
animation, 3d being more common in this generation of technology. In recent
years, they have also used something called Motion Capture. This is where an
actor will wear a green-screen suit covered with small motion detectors in order
to give animated character Skeletons a more realistic move set. This is seen in
a lot of recent films, and even some older ones, such as Nemo, Toy Story and A
Bugs Life.
It was more difficult for animators during production of A Bug's Life than Toy Story, as
computers ran sluggishly due to the complexity of the character models.[3]
Two technicians obliged by creating a miniature video camera on Lego wheels, which they
dubbed the "Bugcam".Fastened to the end of a stick, the Bugcam could roll through grass and
other terrain and send back an insect's-eye outlook.[3]

Section 2: On Animating Terminology

Part 1: Persistence of Vision

This term refers to a type of optical illusion in which a few images all blend into a single image
when perceived by the human mind. This is used in films in order to create flashing images
without sacrificing the films fps (Frames per Second or Frame Rate) so that they can keep it at a
rate of 16fps, but will still be perceived as around 10fps.
Part 2: Frame Rate
Frame Rate or FPS (Frames Per Second) Is the rate at which single film frames are visible every
second. The higher the frame rate, or fps, the more frames were used in that second. Higher
frame rates require a lot more power to handle as they hold a lot more data. Most movies in this
age use 12 to 24 fps, the latter more common.
Part 3: Key Frames
Key frames are a way of separating certain frames of a video in order to separate it into separate
clips. If you need to remove a certain part of a video, or end/start the video early, then youd
place certain key frames in different places. It also helps film makers know where one scene
starts and where it ends so that they can find their way around the video a lot easier.
Part 4: Onion Skinning

Onion skinning is a 2D computer graphics term for a technique used in

creating animated cartoons and editing movies to see several frames at once. This way, the
animator or editor can make decisions on how to create or change an image based on the
previous image in the sequence. [4]
Part 5: Tweening
Tweening is when two images are edited to give the appearance that the first images
smoothly evolves into the next. Inbetweens are drawings that appear between key frames in
order to create the illusion of movement.

Section 3: Flash Workspace

Section 4: Uses of Flash/Web Animation

Part 1: Banner Ads
You can use Web Animation to make you banner ads animated and interactive.
This means you can make different parts of a banner change when the mouse is
over it, insert a hyperlink into specific parts to bring users to your site, or just
make the banner a lot more catching by adding in interesting animated elements
to catch the eye of viewers.
Part 2: Animated Interface Element
AIEs are when you hover over an element that is hyperlinked, and a small
animation plays to show your mouse is currently hovering over a clickable
element. This is seen on all platform, and in games too.
Part 3: Linear and Interactive Animation
This is animation done by using static images and creating the illusion of
movement by putting the viewers view in a linear motion. And interactive
animation is an animation that is changed and edited in real time.
Part 4: Promotion
Promotion is a good way to put your brand out there and get it noticed and
realised by the public and important audiences. Web animation is a good way of
doing this as it is interesting and eye catching and shows a variety of skills that
your or your company currently has.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid_(1989_film)
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_and_Gromit
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Bug%27s_Life

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_skinning