Online Graphic Design Degree Guide: Animation Resources

What is experienced as motion in viewing animation is in reality an illusion created by stringing together a series of still images. Though there are principles which determine how those images relate to one another, there are still elements of design which can be transferred from still-imagery to animation. Placement of elements within a composition can still be managed to maintain a sense of harmony and order even if they are perceived to be in motion.

Animation as a Worldwide Phenomenon

Even in its earliest forms, animation was occurring on a global scale. Eadward Muybridge had visited the studio of a French physiologist and photographer whose interests in capturing photographic stills of series’ of motion paralleled Muybridge’s own interest. Early forms of drawn animation such as Gertie the Dinosaur took visual cues, such as loose and smooth lines from contemporary comic strips. European tendencies toward abstract figural treatments are evident in the earliest extant feature-length animated film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, made in Germany in 1926, made in the style of cutout puppets. Oskar Fischinger was also active in Germany in the 1920s, experimenting with the animation of different materials on film.

Realism in the realm of animation was promoted early on in American animation through the work on Walt Disney Studios feature films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi, with the studio allowing its artists to study from real-life subjects to ensure accurate detail. This attention to realistic detail was also pursued by Max Fleischer’s studio during their production of Superman. Shorts were often the medium of choice for creating animations which did not adhere to realist principles, deferring to an exaggerated or surreal style in the manner of Warner Brothers’ Merry Melodies, Fleischer’s Popeye and Betty Boop, and Disney’s Silly Symphonies.

Animation’s gravitation to television in the mid-1950s and onward developed a new aesthetic in response to reduced budgets and shorter production timeframes. Animation studios at Warner Brothers, and Hanna-Barbera flattened their characters’ shading and animated them in a more stilted manner, reducing the necessary work for the animators and keeping projects within cost. Disney Studios also adapted to the new sensibilities, deviating away from the realism which had earlier defined its projects for a sharper and more stylized presentation. The 1950s and 1960s also saw the emergence of stop-motion animation as a means of producing television shows,

The style often associated with Japanese animation is derived from the country’s artistic and theatrical heritage. Sharp lines and flattened planes of color are direct descendants from Japanese woodblock prints created from the 17th and 18th centuries while the dramatic poses and heightened emotion, which have come to be characteristic of the style, descend from Japan’s Kabuki and Noh types of theater. Japanese animation has had a profound influence on other countries’ animation style and other parts of countries’ popular culture.

Technical Processes

Keyframe animation is the oldest style of animation, stringing together a series of still images in a sequence which suggests motion is occurring. The zoetrope achieved the illusion of animation by having the still images painted on the inside of a rotating drum with slits directly opposite, so when the drum spun, the permission of light through the slits created an image which seemed to move.

Photography allowed animators to draw individual frames and sequentially arrange them along a filmstrip and run the strip through a projector to achieve traditional animation. The materials used to create the animation can vary widely. Pen-and-ink were used early in animation, with pigmented inks being used with the development of color photography. Another early medium used in keyframe animation was the cutout, requiring the physical manipulation of paper, cardboard, or photographs to produce an animated effect. Cutout animation has been used throughout the history of filmed animation, The Adventures of Prince Achmed  is an example of cutout animation, as are select sketches from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and early episodes of South Park. Avant-garde animators have used a wider variety of media in the production of animation, including wax, sand, and even oil-based paints placed on glass cels, achieving a great array of effects which are unique to each medium used.

Computer-based animation programs have allowed artists to achieve a multitude of effects across both two-dimensional and three-dimensional animation. Advanced rendering software packages create the opportunity for animators to create either a near-perfect facsimile of reality or take a project toward the opposite end of the spectrum, creating highly stylized non-photorealistic renderings. With the algorithms governing the rendering process, artists are also able to control the presentation of the image in ways that are in line with the principles of still photography, including blur and shifts in depth of field and advanced lighting principles.

Additional Resources

• Getting Animated: Genre and Narrative in Animated Films – Helps to introduce children to notions of style and genre in animation
• A History of Animation Timeline – An examination of the precursors to and development of the art of animation
• Implications of the Cel Animation Technique – Explores the possibilities and limitations of the medium
• Principles of Graphic Design – Colorful and informative explanation of the basics
• Flashimation: The Context and Culture of Web Animation – A study of the cultural background of the web animation phenomenon
• Graphic Design Principles Index – Sparse, but informative site about graphic design
• Learning Design Sketching from Animations and Storyboards – Helpful advice on how to use the development of storyboards as an exercise in graphic design

Picture Credit: Gertie, Wikimedia Commons, Petrusbarbygere, 2005