Cel Animation

                            Cel Animation

A "Cel" which is short for celluloid is a type of animation style that uses transparent sheets for a typically traditional style animation. The characters are drawn on one of the cel sheets and then others are used to copy the previously drawn animation with slightly different details ( too give the effect of animation of course) The outline of the images are drawn on the front of the cel while colours are painted on black to eliminate brushstrokes. They were normally hand-inked but were "Xerographed" on instead by the 1960's. Although it was highly flammable this type of Animation was still used by Disney up until 1990 when the introduction of computer animation emerged. 

The credited inventor of this style of animation was a man named Earl Hurd an American animator and film director. The year this technique was believed too have been invented was 1914 which was the same year that the idea was patented.

Here is a Animation created using the technique of Cel Animation.

Here is a video of the history of Cel Animation.

Advantages: Enjoyable and maybe satisfying on completion, has a unique style of traditional animation, was innovative at the time.

Disadvantages: Highly flammable, time consuming, lots of correcting small mistakes, costly.

Stop-Motion

                              Stop Motion

What is stop motion and how does it work?

Stop-Motion animation is an animation technique that manipulates the object physically too give it the appearance of motion. The object is moved minimally each time between each picture creating the illusion of movement when all the frames (Pictures) taken are combined as a continuous sequence. Dolls or Clay characters are often used in Stop-Motion due too their ability too move responsively and accurately. When using clay characters the animation style is generally called Clay Animation or "Clay-mation". Stop-animation is not restricted too just dolls and clay characters but can be used on just about anything from plastic bottles and fridge magnets too people and maybe even buildings.. but would require a lot of time and effort.

The inventor of stop motion is a man named J. Stuart Blackton an Anglo-American film producer from Sheffield. He is most notable for creating the first silent film with animated sequences named "the Enchanted Drawing" and has been praised as the father of American Animation.

The first appearance of Stop-motion animation appeared in 1898 when J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith created "The Humpty Dumpty Circus".

Advantages: Innovative and unique, anything can be animated with this method, can be realistic and lifelike.
Disadvantages: Time consuming, difficult to get correct speed and desired animation.