Animation is mainly used to produce cartoons, however, it is also used to produce special effects in commercials, live-action movies, video games, and websites

The blending of individual images into one image that seems to move is called persistence of vision The image appears to move because the eye sends signals to the brain faster than the brain can process them. Before the brain has finished processing one image, it receives another. An example of POV is a flip book – multiple drawings, each slightly different from the drawing before, is flipped quickly which gives the illusion of a moving image Flip Book

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A storyboard is a series of sketches that can be used as a guide for making a show Storyboards are used to describe the action and dialogue of a film Storyboards can be simple or very detailed They can be made by hand or on the computer

Stop Motion In stop-motion animation, models are photographed on a set one frame at a time. The frames are played in a sequence to create movement Motion Capture Motion-capture animation is a 3D representation of a live performance Real actors are used There are 3 types of motion capture: Magnetic, Optical, and Electro-mechanical

Stop Motion Gumby and Pokey atch?v=5Ss6pm-ydSg This is Halloween – Nightmare Before Christmas atch?v=DOtEdhKOMgQ Motion Capture Rory McIlroy Motion Capture session for Tiger Woods watch?v=_H8U8BTR93Y

Hand Drawn Animation A series of drawings is photographed Each drawing makes up one frame of the film The position of the character or drawing changes slightly from frame to frame Computer Animation In computer animation, software is used to create an animated scene, cartoon, video game or full length movie 2D or 3D animation software can be used

The three types of motion capture animation are: Magnetic motion – uses sensors placed on an actors body that measures magnetic fields created by a transmitter Optical Motion – uses video cameras to track the motion of light- emitting diodes or reflective markers placed on the joints of an actors body Electro-mechanical – an exoskeleton is worn by an actor being recorded

An exoskeleton is worn by an actor and their movements are recorded Later, animators will add special effects Iron Man Suit Avatar

In hand-drawn animation, animators draw the characters Artists then trace the animator’s drawings onto clear plastic sheets called cels. Color is added to complete the drawings The first animated characters were drawn on thin plastic sheets of celluloid

A key frame shows a beginning or ending point in an action sequence Key frames are drawn using 3D models The computer generates the “in-between” frames need to simulate motion

GIF This was the first successful kind of animation used on the web GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format They are still images that can be animated using software Dynamic HTML Is a term for a collection of technologies used together to create interactive and animated web sites. (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) Some web animations need plug-in’s to be viewed Plug-in’s are small programs designed to play certain media files QuickTime and Windows Media Player are common video plug- in’s

Video Video game development is the most complex form of animation The biggest DIFFERENCE between video game an movie animation is that video games need to be interactive Video games need to respond to commands given by players Video games are created by a team of artists, programmers, and marketing experts Programmers with advanced skills are needed to produce the challenging games that serious video game fans demand