Digital Animation: Types and Techniques

Animation Techniques: 

  • line drawing
  • cel animation 
  • hand drawn 
  • rotoscoping 
  • live action
  • stop motion
  • clay motion
  • 2d/3d
Line Drawing - hand drawn sketches and moves Fram by frame so shape evolves by every singe line you Draw commonly used contemporary adverts e.g. RedBull take on my by aha  used creating Adobe illustrator, flash and Lightbox 

Cel Animation - celluloid animation many Disney films especially the early ones, were created this way. a cel is a celluloid sheet a transparent sheet onto which characters and scenery are drawn or painted traditionally by hand now digitally e.g. Simpsons, Snow White (took 3 years to produce over 750 artists completed more than 2 million sketches over 250,000 drawings)

Hand Drawn - not common practice today, because it is so time consuming and can be achieved more easily through computer however Hayao Miyazakis film Spirited Away was entirely hand drawn.

Live action - in which non-animated characters interact with animated characters famously space jam (1996) Alvin and chipmunks Mary Poppins (1964)

Stop motion and Claymation - bringing inanimate objects to life, this is achieved meticulously by moving the object incrementally and photographing it. In this way, it seems as if the objects itself is moving when the frames are played sequentially (Wallace and Gromit) (Pingu) (Morph) (Shaun the Sheep) (Chicken Run) 

CGI - computer generated imagery where digital technology ad software  used it generate animated images and graphics refers to static scene and moving characters while computer animation refers only to moving characters/scenes 3D animation is used a lot in blockbuster films to make characters seem more rounded e.g. Toy Story Pixar 

Rendering - process an image from 2d or 3d into a computer programme if not rendered becomes very glitchy

Tweening - helps realism when frames between two key movements are generated in digital animation to give a smooth appearance 

Green Screening - Chroma key a special effects technique for layering two images or videos together the subject is filmed on blue or green screen During post production the background is removed and replaced with CGI

Development vs Run time - the run time of animated pieces is often disproportionate to the length of time it takes to produce in terms of frames for three min animation take 4320 operate drawing or moments 90 min feature 129600 drawings 


What is the technique?

CGI - computer generated imagery where digital technology ad software  used it generate animated images and graphics refers to static scene and moving characters while computer animation refers only to moving characters/scenes 3D animation is used a lot in blockbuster films to make characters seem more rounded e.g. Toy Story Pixar 

- What is a brief history of the technique?

CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) 
evolved from 1950s experimental computer art to dominate modern filmmaking. Starting with John Whitney’s abstract graphics in Vertigo (1958) and the first 3D "computer hand" (1972), it moved from simple wireframes to groundbreaking, fully digital characters in Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) and Jurassic Park (1993), culminating in the first fully CGI feature, Toy Story(1995). 
Key Milestones in CGI History:
  • 1950s-1960s (Origins): John Whitney Sr. used WWII anti-aircraft aiming devices to create motion graphics for film titles.
  • 1970s (Early 3D): Westworld (1973) used 2D pixelation to simulate a robot's POV, while Futureworld (1976) featured the first 3D CGI hand and face.
  • 1980s (Advancements): Tron (1982) used extensive CGI for digital landscapes. Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) introduced the first photorealistic 3D character (a stained-glass knight).
  • 1990s (The CGI Revolution): The Abyss (1989) showcased early water simulation, but Jurassic Park (1993) revolutionized the industry with realistic CGI dinosaurs, making it a staple for effects. Toy Story (1995) proved that fully CGI, feature-length films were commercially viable.
  • 2000s-Present (Photorealism & Integration): The technology evolved to include advanced motion capture (e.g., Lord of the Rings' Gollum, Avatar), enabling seamless blending of digital and live-action elements. 

- How has it evolved over time?

- Provide animation examples that use the technique
- Discuss one of the most famous animations that use this technique
- Advantages and disadvantages of this technique?

Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a simple, language-independent standard for generating dynamic web content, often used for small, legacy, or educational projects
. Its main advantage is ease of setup, as it does not require persistent server processes. However, it suffers from poor performance and high resource consumption due to spawning a new process for every request. 
Advantages of CGI
  • Simple to Implement: Easily integrated into existing server infrastructure and ideal for beginners.
  • Language Flexibility: CGI scripts can be written in various languages (e.g., Python, Perl, C++).
  • No Persistent Processes: Programs do not need to be constantly running in the background, saving idle memory.
  • Isolation: Since each request is a separate process, a crash in one script rarely crashes the entire web server. 
Disadvantages of CGI
  • High Latency/Low Speed: Starting a new process for each request causes significant overhead, making it inefficient for high-traffic sites.
  • Poor Scalability: Struggles under high traffic loads as the server gets overwhelmed with multiple, concurrent process creations.
  • Resource Heavy: Consumes substantial memory and CPU for every request, reducing server performance.
  • Security Risks: Requires careful management to avoid security vulnerabilities, such as those arising from user input in scripts. 

- Reference any links/images/videos 😊









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