The Different Kinds of Animation

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The animation is a very broad field and sometimes, animation students can’t seem to decide what kind of animation, they want to be skilled in. Here are some of the most common forms of animation and their most common applications.

1. WHITEBOARD ANIMATION.
   Just like the name implies, the animation is created on a whiteboard. This kind of animation also referred to as Video Scribing is highly dependent on sketching.  Images are drawn and redrawn on a whiteboard and are captured on a camera before footages are then transferred to a movie making software like iMovie, final cut pro or  Adobe After Effects and a final output is produced. White board animation makes use of the time-lapse effect or in some cases stop motion. GoAnimate, VideoScribe are just a few software dedicated to the art of whiteboard animation. Whiteboard animation is used mainly in web infomercials and for educational purposes, it is however been used also for commercials. A lot of videos on YouTube has some elements of whiteboard animation.

2. STOP MOTION ANIMATION AND CLAYMATION
   This is literally the 3D dimension of whiteboard animation. In place of drawing in whiteboard animation, models are molded, crafted, caved or created with everyday materials. Some materials like cars, trunks and even characters can be adopted from kid’s toys and film props. Strings are used to create action all cut on a camera and then footages are transferred to a compositing software like Adobe After Effects. Stop motion is used mainly in short films, some commercials and even in feature films. The film paranormal is a stop-motion film costing over $60 Million dollars to make. Puppet animation, cutout animation, silhouette animation, brickfilm, pixilation all fall under this kind of animation.

3. LIVE ACTION ANIMATION
   Just like the name implies, Live action animation involves the use of live action footage to create animation on characters created in the computer. Most of this kind of animation is used as a form of visual effects in films  such as in the montage of films that were adapted from comics or in the motion capture technology where real-life actions of a human is transposed on a computer-generated model like in the case of the award-winning film Avatar, Hulk and a host of others.

4. 2D ANIMATION
   This is often known as traditional animation as it is the oldest of all the forms of animation. It has been extensively used for cartoons and is still being used even for commercials till date. Some of the animation forms already mentioned such as whiteboard might still be grouped under 2-dimensional animation, as it is an animation that only gives an illusion of depth.

5. 3D ANIMATION
   This is the most robust kind of animation. It is a computer generated three-dimensional animation which has now become the most preferred for films and animated blockbusters. It is also what a lot of animation institutes focus on. Every year in America, at least two 3D animated films rank amongst the highest grossing films of the year, examples are toy story, frozen. Making these films is very time consuming and expensive.