Most Essential Animation Types/Forms to learn during your Animation Course

The formation of a sequence of images, from hand drawn, painted or formed out of any other artistic method, which changes over a period of time to show an impression of movement is called animation. It can be traced to the Paleolithic period when humans were drawing in the caves. Modern day animation is a very advanced business. Constant revamping of technology and innovation keeps this field buzzing with activity all the time.

Here are some different types of animations you should consider learning during your animation course -

?Experimental Animation

Animators use the colorful post-it squares as pixels, arrange them on a wall and animate them around. This ingenious use of an everyday thing is the USP of Experimental Animation. Food to furniture, anything can be animated.

The hunger and curiosity to do something different drives people to come up with a new type of animation. These don’t work great with big films but work fine with short promotional films.

Traditional Animation

This was the first early technique of animation used by Walt Disney pictures in some of their animation classics. Here animators draw images on a see-through piece of paper fitted on a peg using a colored pencil, each frame one by one. Timing is exceptionally vital in traditional animation, since the frame has to fit the soundtracks exactly, as such the animation process of traditional animation can be prolonged and expensive. You should try finding little time to experience this method at least once in your student life.??

Computer Generated (CG) 2D Animation

CG 2D Animation is widely used in a number of creative industries and is still commonly used even with the rise of 3D Animation. Everything from the cartoon series to video games and full feature films can be done in 2D. The reason for this is that 2D Animation is flexible, cost effective and can be done on a wide range of platforms. This is why 2D is very popular for anything from entertainment and multimedia to broadcast video. Most of the animation courses include 2D Animation in their course but if you find it missing there, demand for it.

Computer Generated (CG) 3D Animation

Computer Generated Images (CGI) that produces the impression of three dimensional spaces with great precision is known as “3D” Animation. It is possibly the most accepted form of animation till date and is used in anything from TV shows, video games to full length feature films.

Computer Generated imagery (CGI), is a somewhat new practice that only came into use during the 1990’s. It involves operations on three dimensional objects and virtual environments with the use of a computer program. 3D has also become the regular visual style for video games because it lets players do much more than a 2D game. Animators first create a 3D polygon mesh with various connected vertices to give it form. The mesh is then rigged by giving it an armature, a skeletal structure that can be manipulated to make the object appear in specific poses. The most popular programs are Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3DS Max, Cinema 4D, Houdini and other 3D software. These are a little expensive but will give good returns if learnt well. You can try Blender 3D as it is a free & open source application and works really well.

Before 3D gained popularity, other types of animation which were close were Stop Motion and Clay Animation, which involved using real-life objects and taking pictures to give the illusion of motion.

Clay Animation

Clay animation is a lot like stop-motion (everything is shot live, frame by frame, in front of or under a camera) and is liked enough to hold water and stand as a different technique altogether. This process is based on the stop motion technique of pause and shoot but clay is used for most of the characters, objects and backdrops.

Stop Motion Animation

Most of us have wondered in awe at a piece of stone that can walk or talk, well anything is possible in animation. Physical static objects are moved around using frame by frame animation, and during the post production it is shown in a flowing movement.?

Stop motion animation has been around ever since the evolution of puppets. There were many movies created using the stop motion method. This technique is based on taking video or still shots in a particular time frame with stepwise movement and then composing it for animation.

Puppetry Animation

Wikipedia gives a very simple definition of Puppet animation or Puppetry. “Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance which involves the manipulation of puppets — inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer.”

There are different kinds of puppets, depending on their complexity and the material used to create them. Puppets can also speak, and can synchronize their voice with the character. India has a long history of puppets. Even in Mahabharata, we get reference of this art, in the present time Rajasthani puppets are more popular. Professor Y.K. Padhye was the first Indian ventriloquist, who introduced this form of puppetry to India in the 1920s.

In southern India, especially in Kerala, a unique form of puppet art is famous called Tholpavakoothu or Tolpava Koothu. It is a traditional art form of shadow puppetry which is based on verses from the Tamil epic Kamba Ramayana. You may not find the regular animation institutes teaching puppetry, however, there are many videos available on YouTube and Vimeo on this diminishing artform.

Paint-On-Glass Animation

Although not very commercially viable, this particular form is very eye-catching. This method needs the handling of slow-drying oil paints on sheets of glass to create the feeling of motion. This is not common as it is a little tricky to do.