More Animation techiques

Live-action/animated film
Techniques
Originally, animation was combined with live action in several ways, sometimes as simply as double-printing two negatives onto the same release print. More sophisticated techniques used optical printers or aerial image animation cameras, which enabled more exact positioning, and better interaction of actors and animated characters. Often, every frame of the live action film was traced by rotoscoping, so that the animator could add his drawing in the exact position.
In the penguin sequence in Mary Poppins, they filmed the live action part first, having the actors sitting in front of a painted background. Then the penguins were added, probably by using cel overlay.
With the rise of digital special effects, combining live-action and animation has become more common. The Star Wars prequels and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, for example, include substantial amounts of animation, though it may not be recognized as such because of the animation's realistic, non-cartoony appearance.


Mary Poppins


Who Framed Roger Rabbit



Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. Originally, pre-recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator. This projection equipment is called a rotoscope, although this device has been replaced by computers in recent years. In the visual effects industry, the term rotoscoping refers to the technique of manually creating a matte for an element on a live-action plate so it may be composited over another background.
Rotoscoping was patented by Max Fleischer in 1917, The source film can be directly copied from actors' outlines into animated drawings. It is used as a basis and inspiration for character animation, as in most Disney films, or used in a stylized and expressive manner, as in Waking Life (US, 2001)
and A Scanner Darkly (US, 2006).


Stop motion
Stop-motion animation, used to describe animation created by physically manipulating real-world objects and photographing them one frame of film at a time to create the illusion of movement.
Clay animation, or Plasticine animation often abbreviated as claymation,
Bruce Bickford, where clay creatures morph into a variety of different shapes. Examples of clay-animated works include Morph shorts (UK, 1977–2000), Wallace and Gromit shorts (UK, 1989—), Jan Švankmajer,

The Trap Door (UK, 1984).


Cutout animation is a type of stop-motion animation produced by moving 2-dimensional pieces of material such as paper or cloth. Examples include Terry Gilliam's animated sequences from Monty Python's Flying Circus (UK, 1969-1974);

Fantastic Planet (France/Czechoslovakia, 1973)
;
Tale of Tales (Russia, 1979), and the pilot episode of the TV series South Park (US, 1997).

Silhouette animation is a monochrome variant of cutout animation in which the characters are backlit and only visible as black silhouettes. Examples include The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Weimar Republic, 1926)
and Princes et princesses (France, 2000).


Graphic animation uses non-drawn flat visual graphic material (photographs, newspaper clippings, magazines, etc.) which are sometimes manipulated frame-by-frame to create movement. At other times, the graphics remain stationary, while the stop-motion camera is moved to create on-screen action.
Model animation refers to stop-motion animation created to interact with and exist as a part of a live-action world. Intercutting, matte effects, and split screens are often employed to blend stop-motion characters or objects with live actors and settings. Examples include the work of Ray Harryhausen, as seen in films such Jason and the Argonauts (1961),

and the work of Willis O'Brien on films such as King Kong (1933 film).


Pixilation involves the use of live humans as stop motion characters. This allows for a number of surreal effects, including disappearances and reappearances, allowing people to appear to slide across the ground, and other such effects. Examples of pixilation include Norman McLaren's Neighbours (Canada, 1952).


Puppet animation typically involves stop-motion puppet figures interacting with each other in a constructed environment, in contrast to the real-world interaction in model animation. The puppets generally have an armature inside of them to keep them still and steady as well as constraining them to move at particular joints. Examples include The Tale of the Fox (France, 1937),
the films of Jiří Trnka, The Nightmare Before Christmas (US, 1993),
and the TV series Robot Chicken (US, 2005–present).


Computer Animation is also referred to as CGI (Computer-generated imagery or computer-generated imaging), especially when used in films. Computer animation is essentially a digital successor to the art of stop motion animation of 3D models and frame-by-frame animation of 2D illustrations.

To trick the eye and brain into thinking they are seeing a smoothly moving object, the pictures should be drawn at around 12 frames per second (fps) or faster (a frame is one complete image). With rates above 70 frames/s no improvement in realism or smoothness is perceivable due to the way the eye and brain process images. At rates below 12 fps most people can detect jerkiness associated with the drawing of new images which detracts from the illusion of realistic movement. Conventional hand-drawn cartoon animation often uses 15 frames/s in order to save on the number of drawings needed, but this is usually accepted because of the stylized nature of cartoons. Because it produces more realistic imagery computer animation demands higher frame rates to reinforce this realism.

The reason no jerkiness is seen at higher speeds is due to “persistence of vision.” From moment to moment, the eye and brain working together actually store whatever you look at for a fraction of a second, and automatically "smooth out" minor jumps. Movie film seen in theatres in the United States runs at 24 frames per second, which is sufficient to create this illusion of continuous movement.

Persistence of vision is the phenomenon of the eye by which even nanoseconds of exposure to an image result in milliseconds of reaction (sight) from the retina to the optic nerves. This is because persistence of vision depends on chemical transmission of nerve responses, and this biochemical hysteresis is much slower than the light transmission.