How Animation Works

Animations are interesting because they show us something we already know, but you can add new layers to it. An animation is usually two or more pictures or events that get linked together. When these links occur faster than the mind can process them, the viewer has trouble determining where one image ends and another begins!

This effect is what makes animations so impressive- people have been using this technique for years. In fact, some of the most well known cartoons use this concept frequently.

Animation comes in many forms: quick flashes, normal speed edits, long sequences with different styles, etc. It really does not matter how the animator creates their movie as long as there are no breaks between images. That being said, the style heavily depends on the genre of the film.

There are three major components that make up an animated movie: storyline, script, and production. All three play important roles in the final product.

Storyline - This is probably the least understood part of the whole process. A story is needed to give context to each scene. For example, if a scene features someone walking down a street, your audience needs to understand who these characters are and why they are there before watching the next event.

With an animated movie, everything is happening much too fast for individuals to identify unless they have knowledge of the plot. This sometimes becomes confusing for viewers, leaving them feeling detached from the movie.

Drawing techniques

One of the most fundamental drawing concepts is proportion. Proportion refers to how much space an object takes up in relation to something around it. For example, if you wanted to make a picture of a dog sitting down, you would need to determine what size your dog should be compared to the room it was in.

If his tail were one inch long he wouldn’t quite fit in your screen so that would not work. You would have to find a way to reduce his length so that he could fit. This is called reducing scale or scaling down.

Reducing the size of an object also changes its proportions- making them different. If you made everything twice as big, then the dog would look double the size which isn’t very interesting. He would take up half the screen now! Reducing him by half makes him look normal sized.

That brings us to our next topic: creating movement.

Adobe Flash

In creating animation, or moving pictures that occur more quickly than normal videos, there are three main components: actors, costumes, and sets. Actors are people who play in animated movies or TV shows, such as Ben Stiller as Tony in Thelma and Louise or Jimmy Fallon as Super Mario in the movie Super Mario Brothers.

Actresses typically don’t wear much clothing while acting, so they are often used for establishing characters. For example, when we see The Hulk walking across the street, we get an idea of his personality due to his strong presence and bold style.

Costumes are usually involved with changing appearance, such as when Spider-Man swings from rooftop to rooftop. There is also no sound effect needed for this type of costume, making it very common.

Lastly, look at how directors use sets. Some like to go back and forth between two settings very quickly, which is what happens during an action sequence. Others may have a setting that stays the same for several scenes, giving us time to form an opinion of the character before changing them.

Adobe After Effects

There are two main types of animation: character-based animations, or interactive animations. Character-based animations use pictures or videos of someone to create the animated characters. These are typically referred to as movie anims because you can create a whole scene with them and add sound!

With interactive animations, there is no need for individual characters. You simply pick an object and apply effects to it until it looks like something else! For example, you could take a picture of yourself and then make your face look sad; great way to start off your day.

Both of these types of animations require a program called Photoshop or Aperture (an advanced version of photoshop) or another image editing software to work. This software allows you to manipulate textures, shapes, and colors which you mix into other materials such as photographs or flat surfaces.

The most common place to find texture applications in this field is through pre-made images or sites that have free wallpapers and/or textures! If you would rather make your own textures, you can do so in any of the mentioned programs.

Adobe After Effect is one of the most popular ways to achieve interactive animations. It is not expensive at all, making it accessible to almost anyone. There are many things you can edit, colorize, and rework in AE easily.

Microsoft PowerPoint

With animated slides, instead of creating a new slide for every picture or piece of content, you can include features such as animation, rounded corners, voice-over, and other interactive elements within one slide.

This is called an embedded slideshow. You can also create your own unique animations by designing the individual layers (components) independently and then combining them together.

By now, you have probably noticed some similarities between presentations using these types of slideshows and yours!

The style and function of each element directly relate to the theme and purpose of the presentation. For example, the bullet point text above and the heading in this article are both about how animation works in PowerPoint.

Here, we will go into more detail and learn some fun ways to use animation in your next presentation. But first, let’s look at some examples!

Examples of animation in Powerpoint

There are many different styles of animation that you can add to your powerpoints. Some of the most common ones include:

Slide transitions - These transition from one slide to another. There are several prebuilt ones like fading out and sliding in, rising up, and so forth. Transitions are usually customizable as well.

- These transition from one slide to another. There are several prebuilt ones like fading out and sliding in, rising up, and so forth. Transitions are usually customizable as well.

Key frames

An animation is made up of several, discrete chunks called keyframes. A keyframe is one piece in an animation sequence that comes right after the previous one and before the next one.

At each keyframe, you can add or remove features or components to show the transition between two different states more clearly. For example, as your character gets closer to something, it may be shown hitting it or breaking away due to the limit of how many drawings you have per frame.

There are some general rules about how many keyframes you should use for any given animation. The number depends on the length of the animation and the complexity of the action. Two to three keyframes per second is considered a smooth flow rate. More than five is starting to look very busy.

After the keyframes are set up, you’ll need to pick a software program that will animate the characters for you. Some examples are Adobe After Effects, Flash Pro, Photoshop, or GIMP. These programs all offer similar functionality but with slightly different looks and interface layouts.

Motion paths

An animation is one or more of these things:

A still image followed by another, longer image

An illustration (like a drawing) that contains both static and moving parts

A sequence of images in motion

The first two types are usually referred to as animated GIFs or clip-animations. The third type is called an interactive movie or video because you can not only watch it, but also do something else while watching it. This is very common now for anyone who watches YouTube videos or movies online.

With interactive movies, there are different ways to make the viewer contribute. For example, if there’s a scene with characters talking, they may stop speaking when someone else comes into frame. Or maybe their lips don’t move when they speak so you have to figure out what they say from how they pose and look at each other.

There are many ways to create this effect, but all require some sort of timing.

3D animation

For more advanced use of cartoon styling, you can move away from 2D drawings as characters and instead create three-dimensional (3D) models. These models are sometimes called animated figures or character designs.

In this case, rather than drawing the shapes for the person directly, you pick an already designed model - say, that of Mickey Mouse - and then you modify it to make it look like someone else! This is how most cartoons are made: take something popular, remove some parts, add in your own style, and publish your new design as your own.

There are many ways to do this “modification” process, but one of the most common is what is called *keyframe* editing. A keyframe is defined as any frame where part of the model has been completed, and therefore we can work with only those frames to edit the design.

By picking certain points in time when a leg will be raised or a nose will be wrinkled, for example, we are able to achieve a much higher level of detail than would otherwise be possible.

This is because there are no longer limits on what we can change: we can lengthen or shorten a limb at a given moment, pull down a face feature, or even completely erase a part of the design!

The number of possibilities is almost endless, which is why keyframes have become such a powerful tool in the field of animating cartoon styles.