Definition
Animation is multiple pictures put together frame by frame to create motion animated films.
Famous Animators
Thomas Edison, who is most famous for creating the light bulb, is also one the most famous animation creators. Thomas Edison along with Eadweard Muybridge in 1879 created the Zoopraxiscope. The Zoopraxiscope became the more popular known Zoetrope, in which an image would spin around creating the motion of a picture moving. For example: An army marching down the street, in a smooth repetitive motion.
Another famous animator, who is perhaps responsible for the cinema we see today, is Lumiere Brothers. The Lumiere Brothers invented the portable camera and cinematography. Cinematography is movements that being recorded, this is an advanced form of the frame by frame picture taking. The Lumiere Brothers are known for producing the first 3D film as they produced a short film showing a train arriving in a train station from a diagonal angle as oppose to the left to right 2D form used before.
Computer Animated Techniques
Animation is a persistence of vision, which is created by fooling the human eye into thinking that the image is still there when the next image is shown. This means when you see one image it is mentally recorded in the back of your eye for a few seconds once the image is gone and the second image appears your eyes are processing two images together.
Frame by Frame
The are many movements involved in animations some are achieved by using frame by frame pictures of an object formed together to create a scene. For example, in "Clay Animation" if your clay model was to be shown raising his hand a picture will be taken of a model with its arm by its side and for the next picture the clay figures arm will be slightly raised up towards the head and this action will continue to be done until the process is complete. All the pictures will then place together in correct order to show the clay model's arm raising up in the air.
Tweening
Another way animation is completed is by Tweening. Tweening is the process of placing two frames in between the first and second frame making it run smoothly into the second frame. This will give more detail to the animation as it will not look like the object has jumped from one position to another. Tweening is one of the key elements in all forms of animation as it makes the animation run smoother making it look a lot better.
Morphing
Morphing, is another very popular form of animation. Morphing is when one image slowly turns into another image. Many more advanced animations, such as computer animation, use the morphing technique. Cartoons will use this feature to smoothly cut from one scene to the next.
Masking
Masking is used to block specific areas of a layer. Masking will be usually used to block objects that are not being used in that scene, but it is still there and can be revealed in a later scene. Masking doesn't mean to cut off part of an image, it more refers to "covering it up" meaning you can use it over and over again.
