6 Fabulous Styles You Need to Know About Cartoon Animation
Referring to the Cambridge Dictionary, the word “animation” carries the meaning of “moving images created from drawing, models that are photographed or created by a computer.”
The moving clips of the picture tell the audiences about a certain story which is interesting for them.
Animation: Humans Great Invention
Every human is born with different gifts.
Human has a limitless brain to invent, make, and create anything. Our world nowadays is decorated with humans’ effort and creativity.
This issue also goes with the technology advances in these decades.
One of the great examples of the advance of technology and humans’ creativity is cartoon animation.
In America, the father of animation was James Stuart Blackton.
The very first animation he made was “The Enchanted Drawing” in 1900.
The advance of technology has brought the animation industry to develop fast.
But before this great invention, you ought to see how long the journey of cartoon animation really is!
Let’s jump to the ancient time of cartoon animation!
Breakthrough Animation Types and Histories
There are at least six common types of animation that exist in this world. Those are:
- Simple Animation
- Traditional Animation
- 2D Animation
- Motion Graphics
- Stop Motion
- 3D Motion
Now, it’s time to break them down…
Simple Animation
Back in the 1800s, the form of animation is just simply formed of animated pictures that created to bring up illusion or Motion.
There are some types of simple animation exist. In this session, we are going to discuss three examples which are Phenakistoscope, Zoetrope, and flipbook.
Phenakistoscope
It was invented in 1832 by Joseph Plateau.
It consists of 2 layers of disks attached on a handle. One small disk consisted of slots around the edge, and the bigger disk consisted of the successive drawings that are connected to one another.
To make the illusion happens, we simply spin the disks in the same direction and look through with a mirror on the spinning disks.
By looking at the mirror, you will see a single moving picture with repeated movements.
Zoetrope
Zoetrope comes as the next generation of Phenakistoscope.
It was invented around 1834 by William George Horner.
This vintage toy can be assumed as an early motion picture projector.
The form of Zoetrope is a drum that contains a set of still images that are different from one another. These images will create an illusion or Motion when we spin the drum.
FlipBook
The new innovation of animated pictures for illusion appeared in 1868.
It is called a flipbook, invented by John Barnes Linnet.
Flipbook appears under its original name of kineograph, a Latin word that carries the meaning of “moving pictures.”
This Shark Dance is an excellent example of the flipbook:
This invention is the first type of illusion maker that uses a linear sequence of images.
Traditional Animation
Traditional animation is also known as cel animation.
This type of animation involves hand drawing characters on a transparent piece of paper that fitted on a peg to create a sequence.
To make traditional animation, it needs great patience for the process that takes a long time.
For a sequence, the creator needs to draw the characters in a quite different form or pose from the previous pictures.
After that, all the drawings were put into a plastic cell, which later photographed picture by picture to create a whole sequence.
One of the old examples of traditional animation was created in 1908 by French caricaturist, Emile Cohl, entitled “Fantasmagorie.”
The advance development of technology has brought creative inventors to create new things.
In early 1914, Winsor McCay produced the first animated film entitled “Gertie the Dinosaur.” In this project, McCay made thousands of different drawings.
2D Animation
The 2D animation shifted when Walt Disney and Roy Disney established Disney Brothers Cartoon Animation in 1923.
At this time, Walt Disney improved the animation production by combining live-action characters with cartoon.
The first animation with sound was “Steamboat Willie.”
In 1930, the first technicolor was invented by Universal studio. This technique worked by putting RGB (Red, Blue, Green) colors on the animation.
The first RGB cartoon was “Woody Woodpecker” in 1941.
Since then, the production of 2D animation grows more advance.
Nowadays, the production requires characters, storyboards, and backgrounds in 2D space.
The production of 2D animations nowadays is done in computer software like Adobe Animate, Photoshop, After Effects, and others.
Motion Graphics
The term motion graphic is related to the advanced development of computer graphics.
Look at a great example of motion graphic below:
Thus, the cel animation is one of the inspirations of motion graphic animation, where the compact of drawings was put on a peg to create a sequence of motion.
There are many inventions and developments on filmstrips and frames motions in the 1920s.
But, around the 1950s, technology, and industrial advance bring a great buzz on filming industries.
John Whitney, known as the father of motion graphics, has a big interest in film, photography, electronic music.
He felt that music is part of aesthetic; therefore, he collaborated with his brother James to apply a pendulum music recorder, which can produce a proper music composition for his animated composition. With his hard-work, John established Motion Graphics Inc.
Stop Motion
Stop motion animation is produced by moving the objects in front of the camera, which exposes one frame on one film.
Look at a great example below:
The creators must move the objects carefully until the objects reach the final destination. This kind of animation is known for its time consuming and complicated method.
The early invention of stop motion animation was 1898, with the very first creation of “The Humpty Dumpty Circus.”
Stop motion animation is used to create the atmosphere of certain animations, and films feel alive.
Other examples of stop motion animation are “Puppetoon” and “Fun in a Bakery Shop.”
3D Animation
We have reached the more complicated yet fascinating history of cartoon animation now — this animation technique created by fully taking and shooting 3D objects.
Before CGI (computer-generated imagery), the 3D animation was done by doing stop-motion or clay-motion.
In 1970 3D animation techniques evolved.
The first CGI technology was used to capture and create realistic human face and hand.
In the live-action movie, this technology was used to create the Star Wars movie.
Later, this technique used to create 3D animation.
3D cartoon technique was first created in 1985 by Pixar Animation Studios, and they released the “Toy Story” cartoon in 1995.
Almost the same with the 2D cartoon animation making process, the process of creating 3D animation is complicated.
There are lots of requirements to create a 3D cartoon animation.
Those are concept and storyboard, 3D modeling, texturing, rigging, animating, lighting, camera setting, rendering, music compositing, editing, and final output.
What are the Importances of Cartoon Animation in Our Life?
Cartoon animation has been one of the popular entertainment in media.
However, in recent times, the existence of cartoon animation is beyond that.
Some business corporations or companies apply cartoon animation to their advertisement tool.
Cartoon animation brings good impacts for companies’ growth for the messages brought by cartoon animation are much easier to understand.
There are many benefits and importances from cartoon animation.
Here are some of them:
1. Increase Customers Rate
Using cartoon animation to explain your business product will engage more viewers and customers for cartoon animation videos is a more interesting form of marketing device.
Thus, it makes your visitors enjoy watching and listening to your creative creations.
2. Improve SEO
In today’s modern technology, the internet has been a very helpful tool to target and engage new customers.
By creating an animated video for your company profile or business, you can simply emphasize hashtags or powerful words to identify your product strongly.
This way can increase your SEO (search engine optimization).
3. Great Way to Save Your Time and Money
You do not need to hire expensive actors or actresses to advertise your product, company, or business.
Animated videos will last longer than other types of advertising videos. Further, the animated video does not expose any races, ages, or specific characters.
What do you think about those 6 fabulous styles of cartoon animation? Did you learn something new today?
Check out Breadnbeyond’s website for more insights about various styles of animation!
Also, feel free to share your opinion in the comment below😊
