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Animation Techniques

I've listed here the major animation techniques used today. Each is listed with an example that you can look up. Some of them, especially in the StopMotion section, are general terms, and have as many sub-techniques as there are imaginative people.
GIF animation of clouds

2D Animation Techniques

Classic, hand drawn animation - Disney's Lion King. Cut outs - Monty Python (see also in stop motion and in 3D. This technique crosses all barriers!)

Rotoscope - Waking Life Flip book - Keith Haring has made some famous ones.

Computer Assisted Animation (2D)

This term refers to all types of animation that use a computer somewhere in the process. One could argue that this means ALL ANIMATION today. Mostly we use it to describe the tools that have come to replace pencil, paper and film, for example:

Flash animations - Many TV series are now done in Flash, check out this example. Coloring and layering hand drawn animation using a computer Drawing directly into an animation software with a Pen Tablet

3D Animation Techniques

3D animation- Pixar's Up, Toy Story Stereoscopic 3D - Coraline, Avatar CGI cut out - South Park Motion Capture (an aid tool for 3D animators)- Final Fantasy, Avatar, Gollum in Lord of the Rings.

Morphing (Remember the changing faces in Michel Jackson's Clip Black or White? that's Morphing.)

Stop Motion Techniques

Clay or Plasticine ("claymation")- Nick Park's Wallace and Gromit Real Clay animation (and lot's of other stuff you won't suspect)- Jan Svankmajer's Dimensions of Dialogue

Puppet animation- Tim Burton and Henry Selick's The Nightmare Before Christmas Pixilation - Peter Gabriel's music video "Sledgehammer" Cut outs - Daniel Greave's Flat World is a stunning combination of classic hand drawings with cut outs.

Types of Animation that are done on a light table, shot frame by frame under a camera:

Sand animation - This is sometimes done as a performance art, shown live for an audience, and sometimes it's stop framed into proper film.

Oil colors - Caroline Leaf's The Street, and the frankly-unbelievable Old Man and the Sea by Alexander Petrov.

Plasticine - Ishu Patel's Afterlife

Types of animation named after a software

Some types of animation are named after the software used to create them. Flash animation has come to mean a certain kind of graphic look and feel, which has also spawned the pleading request "Can you make it NOT look like Flash, PLEASE!" There are also:

GIF animations - GIF is a type of file format, used for small, light weight animations with no more than a few frames.

After Effects animation - usually means either cut outs done in After Effects, or animation done with the program's Puppet Tool (which is amazing, BTW).

Blender, Mudbox, and Maya - all names of 3D animation softwares. Pivot stick figure - A freeware for making stick figure animations. So simple, and so popular!

Morphing is a type of animation that uses a software to fill in the gap between two images - MJ's "Black or White" music video.

Explore Different Types of Animation

At the broadest sense, there are 3 types of animation:

2D, 3D and Stop Motion

Any way to manipulate a sequence of images, frame by frame, is considered a Type of Animation. All animations falls into one of these three categories. The boundaries between them are, however, blending with great speed.

For an in-depth discussion of some types and techniques of animation follow these links:

Animation Techniques How does computer animation work? What is Pixilation?

Cut Out Animation Rages Through The Ages

2D animation
The term "2D" refers to animation that is created using two dimensional drawings. Classic hand drawn animation is the main example for this type. Think Disney features, like the recent Princess and the Frog. You might also remember this from Sesame street - a piece by a wonderful animator - Paul Fierlinger:

Computer assisted animation

Flash or AfterEffects cut-out animation is also considered 2D. Many TV series are done in Flash these days.

Flash Cut-out Animation

3D animation
"3D" refers to Computer Generated Images (CGI) that create the illusion of three dimensional space with great accuracy.

Films like Toy Story and Up are 3D - CGI animation.

Computer Generated Image of a model airplane

Computer special effects,

also fall within this category. All the magical creatures and powerful spells in Harry Potter are done this way. We should bear in mind though, that in the end, 3D animation is also just a sequence of flat, two dimensional images projected on the screen. How does computer animation work? Click to find out!

Stereoscopic 3D,
such as in Avatar, is the combination of two slightly different images that create the spatial effect, just like our own eyes do in the real world. It is not a type of animation though, but rather a type of projection, like DVD, or a flip book.

Stop Motion Types of animation

Everything that is shot live, frame by frame, in front or under a camera is called Stop Motion or "Stop Frame" Animation. Clay animations are usually the first thing that comes to mind in this category. The different stop motion types obviously looks very three dimensional, the same way video looks three dimensional, but the term "3D" is reserved for computer animation only. Some physical special effects (big parts of the original Star Wars trilogy) are done in stop motion. Stop-motion has a special and powerful appeal of its own; the reality of the objects on screen enhances our expectations of them. Pixilation is the most direct use of this power - animating real, live humans. These three broad categories are hopelessly intertwined by now, thanks to the aid of computers that we use for, well, everything. It is very common to find animations that are a combination of all three. There is one other qualification that is not formal, that's how I perceive it, personally:

Cartoons vs Animation
The name "cartoon" seems to have stuck to the funnier, wackier side of animation, to Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner. I wouldn't call Pocahontas a "cartoon", it just doesn't sound right. I don't know, maybe it's just me. Anyway, Many types of animation often get their name from the way in which they're made. Here you will find a comprehensive list of Animation Techniques

Generic Terms used as names of Types of Animation: Web Animation

A general name for the types of small animations that illustrate or decorate websites. Usually Gif or Flash, you find these on blogs, in forums, in MySpace, avatars that web surfers use, animated logos, banners that promote just about anything. Well, It MOVES, you know?

Jab Animation
The name of an online animation site where you can upload you photo and insert yourself into a funny pre-existing animation. This seems to be turning into a generic name for this kind of web application.

Cinematic and Animated Story Boards

Also called animatik, animatique, or videoboards, These are rudimentary forms of a movie, which serve as a pre-production toolfor complicated projects.

They are used for planning both live action and animation projects, from commercials to feature films. The more complex the production, the more detailed the animatik will be. Good and detailed planning saves a lot of cash later!

VJ Animations
A visual experience that accompanies the music in clubs, concerts, weddings and so on. Usually abstract graphics that run in loops, but occasionally you can come across more complex creations.

Experimental Animation
There's a new type of animation I've seen a lot lately - Post-It Animation. Animators use the colorful post-it squares as pixels, arrange them on a wall and animate them around. This sort of imaginative use of an ordinary object is the heart of Experimental Animation. You see, you really CAN animate practically anything. Food, furniture, pin screens, beads, chalk marks on black board, people, puppets, mixed techniques, layered images, earth, plastic, wool - ANYTHING! It's usually students who have the time, hunger, curiosity and most importantly - facilities, to play around and invent a new type of animation. These works rarely reach the cinema; most of them are short films of no more than a few minutes. The places to see them are Animation Festivals and on Youtube and Vimeo. There IS support for this type of R&D in the animation world. The National Film Board of Canada is home to some of the most interesting things ever done - and it is a governmental fund! You can watch short animated films on their website. European countries also support the art, especially France. Most of these works are not commercial, but hey Not that long ago, computer animation was "experimental" also.