2D AND 3D ANIMATION

Two Dimensional or 2D Graphics

Short for two-dimensional or 2-D is any graphic with
no appearance of depth (no thickness or height) but
only length and width. It can only be viewed properly
from a straight on viewpoint. They can be created
using a flat coordinate graph, with only the x- and y-
axes

They cannot be physically be held. They exist as

representation of other things. Examples of includes
all a pictures or drawings in a book or on a piece of
paper. Examples of 2D shapes are squares, circles,
triangles, and parallelograms.

Three dimensional or 3D Graphics

Three dimensional or 3D graphics have length, width,
and depth. Depth here refer to thickness or height.
They need a coordinate graph with three axes (x, y,
and z) to create.
Three-dimensional shapes are objects that can be
held in hand. Examples of 3D shapes include cubes,
cylinders, spheres, and pyramids.

Animation
To animate simple means to give life to an inanimate
objects. Animating is moving something that cannot
move on its own. Animation can therefore be:
 i. Method in which pictures are manipulated to
appear as moving images.
ii. The capturing of sequential, static images—
drawings or photos of inanimate objects—and
playing them in rapid succession to mimic real
world motion. ,
iii. Time sequence of visual changes in a picture.
iv. The exploitation and management of still
images to generate the illusion of movement.
v. Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of
images of 2D or 3D artwork in order to create
an illusion of movement

IMPORTANCE OF ANIMATION
Animation is important because it makes us be able to
tell stories and communicate emotions and ideas in a
unique, easy-to-perceive way that both small children
and adults can understand. Animation has helped
connect people throughout the world in a way that
sometimes writing and live-action films cannot.
ADVANTAGES OF ANIMATION
1. Increases learning effectiveness
2. Practicality
3. More appealing
4. Give information to individuals
5. Provides high quality of presentations
6. Flexibility and safety
7. Integrated and interactive
8. Can be used as a wide variety of audience

DISADVANTAGES OF ANIMATION
1. Expensive
2. Requires special hardware
3. Not always compatible
4. Takes time to compile
5. Information overload
6. Limitations of technology

Types of animation techniques

1. Traditional animation
2. Simple animation
3. Computer animation
4. Typography Animation
5. Clay animation
6. Sand Animation
7. Flip book Animation
8. Stop-motion animation

Traditional animation: Traditional animation

involved animators drawing by hand for each and
every frame. If you love the feel of pencils on a paper,
then the traditional approach is very fascinating.
Traditional animation is creating the drawings one by
one on the frame. Example includes : Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs, Peter Pan, and Sleeping Beauty,
Aladdin.
Simple animations: Before film was invented, there
were early forms of animated pictures. The zoetrope,
for example, is a wheel with a number of static
pictures around the inside so that they appear to
move when the wheel spins.
Computer Animation : Computer technology
revolutionized the animation world. Computer
animation includes a very wide range of techniques,
but in essence is any animation that is created
digitally using a computer. Whilst forms of computer
animation have been around since the 1960s, it came
into general use in the 1990s when animators began
using it alongside traditional animation. It is more
controllable and faster than traditional animation and
computer animation can be broken down into two
main types:

Digital 2D animation
Creating animations in the 2 dimensional space with
the help of digital technologies is known as digital 2D
animation. You don’t need to create digital models,
you just need to draw the frames. Create 100s of
drawing and animating them to show some kind of
movement. Using Adobe flash, animators can limit the
number of drawings used, which makes them easier
to create digital 2D animation. Small variations like
changing the color or frame rate can be changed
almost instantly, thus making it easier for the
animators to work on. Digital 2D animation is not used
for artistic purposes as much anymore, due to the lack
of depth, but is still used in advertising and desktop
publishing. It is also the basis of many graphical user
interfaces (GUIs) that you use every day, including
Mac OS and Microsoft Windows.
Digital 3D animation
 3D animation is the process of placing objects and
characters in a 3D space and manipulating them to
create the illusion of motion. 3D animation is done by
building 3D models and maneuvering them in a three-
dimensional setting. Digital 3D animation characters
are much faster to create and they are quite popular
in the movie making industry. Using a computer
software 3D animated images are used to create
many short films, full length movies and even TV
commercials and a career in digital 3D animation is
highly rewarding. Comparing to 2D animation and the
traditional approach, 3D animation models are highly
realistic.

3D creation process

1. Modeling

Before we can have a functioning scene with

character interactions, we first need to build our 3D
characters. Characters are based on 3D computer
models, and their creation is called 3D modeling. A
basic 3D model is a mesh of points, lines, and curves
arranged in a way to map out an object. A computer
sees models as pure geometric shapes. It’s not until
colors and textures are added that the map starts to
resemble a real object.
 Source: Free3D

Much like humans and animals, a character needs a

controllable skeleton to be able to move. Rigging is
the process of producing that skeleton. Once the
skeleton is formed, the 3D model (also called skin) is
attached to the rig to get the character ready to be
moved around.

2. Layout and Animation

When the 3D characters are all set, it’s time for

character animation — i.e., putting characters in their
respective scenes and animating their movements
with 3D animation software. The first stages of the
animation process are quite rough; movements and
transitions are sharp and unnatural.

Such a rough first draft is produced because

animators first create only the starting and ending
poses of any motion. These poses are known as key
frames. The lighting, camerawork (picking the angles
and depth of a shot), effects, and other details are
added much later to achieve the final, smooth
animation that we see on our screens.
3. Rendering

The last part of the animation production process

is rendering. This is when the animation is finalized
and exported. This step requires great attention to
detail to ensure the final render is perfectly polished.

Here, the main production process ends and is

followed by post-production, where special effects,
music, voice-over, and sound effects are added and
synchronized with the whole animation.

Difference between 2D and 3D animation:

2D Animation 3D Animation
2D animation implies that the object is
3D animation implies that the object
two dimensional.
2D animation comprises of characters or 3D animation comprises of objects in
objects only in height and width. In other height, width, and depth. In other words,
words, in X- axis (horizontal dimension) characters are going to be more a realistic
and Y – axis (vertical dimension). contrast to 2D characters.
2D animation objects are created by
traditional drawing method. Each move
of the character has to be created frame
by frame with hand-drawing, also called In 3D animation, everything is going to be
as a cell-animation method. However, done in available computer software. The
today’s 2D animators make use of development consists of several phases or
software in developing action sequences. steps such as modelling, texturing, lighting,
But creating the first action scene has to rigging, rendering etc.
be created and the tool will generate the
rest of the motion sequences
automatically.

Well, the cost of 3D animation depends on

the money you spent in rendering. You
2D animation comes for a less price have to shell out for each second; which is
compared to 3D animation since you why the 3D animation course demands
only need expert candidates who can more from your pocket. Since the final
draw and sketch aptly. product has to go through several steps, you
got have a skilled professional for expected
outcome.
2D animation is all about frames. 3D animation is all about movements.
It is not suitable for conceptual drawing 3D animation is impeccable for conceptual
as you can only represent in two designing as it results in all the three
dimensions. dimensional views. The software helps the
animators to create a detailed character
 concentrating every possible
2D animation is widely implemented in
3D animation is widely used in gaming,
advertisements, films, cartoon shows,
movies, medical, biotechnology, aerospace
websites, elearning courses, engineering
etc.
etcetera.
Examples: The Jungle Book, The Examples: The Incredibles, Toy Story, and
Simpsons, Snow White Transformers

Animation software
Below is a listing of some popular and widely used
animation and 3D animation programs.
 Blender (Free) - https://www.blender.org/
 3ds Max - https://www.autodesk.com/
 3DPlus (Free) - http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/
 Animation:Master - http://www.hash.com/
 LightWave 3D - https://www.newtek.com/
 Elastic Reality and Avid 3D - http://www.avid.com
 Maya - https://www.autodesk.com/products/maya
 Adobe Animate
-http://www.adobe.com/products/animate.html
 Motion Capture - http://www.metamotion.com/
 Poser - http://poser.smithmicro.com/