What is classic animation?
Traditional, classic, cel or frame-by-frame animation is the oldest type of animation techniques. It involves hand drawing of each frame by the animator for the creation of animation sequence. Each drawing is produced with slight changes to the previous frame so that the quick screening of those frames creates a natural feel of the image’s movement.
The process of drawing is simplified to a certain extent by using transparent paper so that the animator can copy the major portion of the previous frame’s image and introduce only a slight alteration to visualize the change that takes place with the sequence.
An excursion into history
The first animated products were created seven millennia ago, in 5000 BC, with the help of primitive art forms such as a series of goat leaping depictions on a pottery bowl. In its contemporary style, classical animation emerged in the late 19th century with the invention of a device that projected the animated images onto the screen.
The first animated recording was made in 1900 by J. Stuart Blackton, while the first animated film saw the world in 1908. Since then, animation underwent a series of transformations, but the old-school techniques of drawing characters and images by hand and sequencing frames for animated movie production are still alive and practiced in animation studios.
