Today we’re going back to basics – an attempt to systematize the issue of animation. We will look at animated films in terms of classification into classical animation and computer animation.

Classic animation

• Cartoon, as the name implies animation is created on sheets of paper or carbon paper in the form of a drawing. it is an art form in which sequences of drawings or illustrations are presented in rapid succession to create the illusion of movement. Each image, called an animation frame, is slightly different from the previous one, making the movement appear fluid to the viewer. It can also be created on celluloid.

• Puppet or object-based, the characters and surrounding objects to be used in the animation are real and three-dimensional. The basis of an animated character is a skeleton, most often made of metal, which conveys anatomical properties, and allows faithful and stable rendering of the following phases of movement. On top of the skeleton is built the body form, which determines the structure of the character and its character, and is most often made of materials such as cotton, wood or sponge. Despite the fact that they are less frequently used, we can associate them with many movies from our childhood – such as: “Teddy Bear”, ‘Plastic’, ‘Pik-Pok Penguin’ or ‘Colargol’. Some of them are technically different from today’s incredibly plastic computer animation, but some of them have an atmosphere that is hard to find in currently created cartoons.

• cut-out, the phases of movement are represented using cut-out pieces of paper. Animation is based on the introduction of compositions into individual frames, which correspond to the various phases of movement
• plasticine, is one of the forms of puppet technique, consists of frame -by-frame modification of characters and surroundings made of plastic materials,
• animation of loose materials, animation is performed with flour, salt, sugar, etc. It involves moving these materials to reflect the animation
• pixelization or photo-animation, uses previously photographed objects, human figures or animals that are in various stages of motion,
• rotoscopic animation, uses previously prepared films made with cameras. The image is then transferred frame by frame to a medium, where an animated film is created

• motion capture, this technique is distinguished by the fact that the animation made with it extremely realistically reflects reality. It uses the spatial location of points, which are entered into the appropriate software and used as a reference for the movement of animated characters. The process uses special cameras, motion sensors and software to track the movement of objects. Motion capture is widely used in film production, video games, animation, commercials and other fields where accurate representation of human motion or objects is required. With motion capture, more realistic and natural animations can be achieved, as movements are captured directly from real people or objects,

• combined and special techniques, involves combining the aforementioned techniques to achieve additional original effects.

Digital animation

• Stop-motion animation, is based on frames, which are photographs. They are transformed by modifying the objects or characters on them relative to a still background,
• 2D animation, its basis is computer-generated images in the form of frames. The film made using this technique can be created in two ways – as in the case of stop-motion animation by generating individual frames or using a computer and appropriate programs. In the second option, you only need to outline the first and last frames, and the program will automatically paint the movement of the object from point A to point B,
• 3D animation, is created in a graphics program on the basis of meshes or polygons. It is complex and consists of several stages: modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, lighting and rendering.

he creation of a film using 3D animation requires going through all of the above-mentioned stages. It is therefore a time-consuming technique that also requires a lot of patience.