Traditional 2D animation

Flick book

A flip book or the other name for it is flick book, is a book with numbers of pictures that flip from one image to another, this give the illusion of the images moving like they do on cartoons, but to get this affect the person who is flipping the pages will have to do it rapidly so it looks more believable of the image moving and then it comes to life. The images on the flip book will appear to animate by simulating motion between the pages that are being flipped. Flip book designed more for children so they can enjoy reading or flipping through the pages and even they will be able to create their own flip book. But it’s not just for children flip books can be enjoyed by teenagers and adults as well. It not just hand drawn images that can have this motion on a flip book but photos can also be used which would have to be one after another to make the flip book look good as you flick through them. 

Flip book are not just separate books form other book but can also be in ordinary books or magazine and the person who has the book or magazine will be able to flip through the pages as the drawing are usually on the bottom corner of the book or magazine which allows people to flick through them and give the motion of it moving. Now a day flip book are not only in books or magazines but there is a software which allows people to create flip books on the computer which them will look more like a cartoon. But it’s the same rule where they would have to draw an image on a page and at the end flick through it to see the motion.

Flip books first appeared round September 1868, when it was introduced by John Barnes Linnett, but it was under the name Kineograph which meant moving picture. Flip books were the first form of animation to employ a linear sequence of images rather than a Phenakistoscope which was images in a circular thing which moved and it would make it look like the image was moving.

 John Barnes Linnett was a lithograph printer, Lithograph is a method for printing usein stone or a metal plate with smooth surface this was invented in 1796 by Alois Senefelder. But Pierre-Hubert Desvignes was credited with being the inventor of the flip book. Linnett was the first to patent the invention in 1868 under the name Kineograph, but Linnett of penumonia , which later his wife had sold the patent for the Kineograph to an American.

Cel animation

Cel animation is an important innovation to animation that is out today as it allows some parts of each frame to be repeated from and frame to another frame. An example of this would be a scene that has two characters on the screen, one of them is talking and the other character is standing silently, listening to the other character, since the character is standing not moving is can be displayed in this scene with using only one drawing, on a cel while the other would be multiple drawings on a multiple cels will be used to animate the character that is speaking.

In very early cartoons, which were done way before cel animation was invented, such as a cartoon which was done 1914 which was called Gertie the Dinosaur which was a short film, but every frame which was on that film was all hand drawn and I mean everything, characters, backgrounds, items, objects etc. was all done drawn on a single sheet of paper, so he took photos of them and redrawn them until he had all the frames he wanted to create his short film. But the animation was a bit jittery as the different frames were slightly different one form the other which gave it that jitterey looto it, but later the pre- cel animation was later improved by using different techniques like the slash and tear system which was invented by Raul Barre, the background and the animated obects would be drawn on speared papers. A frame was made by removing all of the blanks  parts of the paper, the objects were drawn before being placed on top of the background and then photo’d, the Cel animation processes was invented by Earl Hurd and John Bray in 1925.

 Earl Hurd was a American animator and film director, he best known for his work Silent, Bobby Bumps animated short series which he created and produced. Him and Bury where the ones who developed Cel animation. John Bury was also an American animator, he produced the second animated film which was in colour called The Debut of Thomas cat which was done in 1920.   

 Rotoscoping

Rotoscoping is an type of animation where the animators would trace over live action film movement which is done frame by frame and the drawing would be carefully drawn so it would fit in with the live action performance, for use in animated films. The original recorded live action film would be projected onto a frosted glass panel and then re drawn by the animator. This technique was called a rotoscoping, but now a days this device which has been replaced by computer and now all animations are done by computers now.

The rotoscope was invented by Max Fleischer who used this device for is series called Out of the Inkwell, which started in 1915, with his brother Dave Fleischer who was dressed in the clown in the show as the live action, the character who known as Koko the Clown.  In 1917 Max got his invention patented to protect it from anyone else taking this device. Max used his device for numbers of different project, these where later cartoons, the most famous one is the dance routine in three of the Betty Boop animation form the early 1930s and the animation called Gulliver’s Travels which was around in 1939. Max’s invention was used mostly used for the cartoon series which had action in called Superman Cartoon , in this series Superman and other characters in the shows had displayed a very realistic movement in the show.    

 Here is an example the image of the left is an movement of a real horse this would be filmed in live action which would have been shot with a camera and the film would be taken to the animator which will them place the which then would place the film frame by frame on the frosted glass and they would draw by tracing it frame by frame until it was completed and they had a full animation, the would trace over the live action horse to get the more realistic movement which them would be used in as they final animation once done and then it would be coloured in etc. until it looking like the image on the right so it would be a cartoon horse with the realistic movement of a real horse.

Drawn on film

Drawn on animation is known in different way it can be called drawn on animation film or direct animation or it can be known as also as animation without camera. Is type of animation is produced by creating the image straight on to a film stock, as to any other types of animation  where the images or items are in the photographed frame by frame without any camera.

For this type of animation there are two different methods to create this type of animation, one starts of on and blank film stock and the other type is with a black film, which is already developed. On the blank film stock this gives animators more to work with as they can draw on, paint, stamp etc. on it as to the black film it’s scratched, etched sanded or punched. The animator can use any tool as he/she wants to create these types of animation.

 Photographic stills. There is a third way to create this type of animation as well, this one is where the animators are in a dark room using unexposed film that is exposed frame by frame, the animators places an object on the fresh stock of film and then they use a small beam to create the images and once that is done it’s sent to the labs to be processed, this is just like a film that is created by camera films.

This type of animation covers any form where one drawing is replaced by another drawing and this would make a sequence. Each drawing is a tiny little bit different from the last drawing, this basically works the same way as a flipbook dose. These animated films are made up of lots of different drawings which are shown on the screen very quickly one after the other. It takes a very long time to film from start to end and needs many different animators to complete the work and to get it the way they want it to be.

Drawn on animation is a traditional animation, which is also known as a classical animation. Cel animation and drawn on animation are one of the oldest and most popular type of animation that is out there.