How do you animate?

Animation
Animation is a film technique; a quick display of a series of pictures, drawings or photos. It is an optical illusion of a motion that can be presented in many ways, either in the form of cartoons, films or videos.

Equipment/materials
It requires no special technical knowledge or fancy expensive equipment to create animation. All you have to use is:

• a webcam or camcorder
• a laptop or computer

Additionally, you are going to use the following materials to make e.g. figures and landscapes:

• cardboard, clay or wax

You can also use other materials such as puppets or other objects to animate with.

Technique
The technique you normally use is called 'stop motion' - the same technique which is used to make the cartoons 'Cirkeline', 'Bennys Badekar' and 'South Park'. The technique works by taking a picture of an object, the object is moved, you take a new picture etc. - you continue until you have a film sequence.

The process behind an animated film
The process behind an animated film looks like this:

• Idea, task formulation, research
• Synopsis
• Storyboard
• Character design
• Background
• Animation/filming
• Showing