What is animation art? Meaning, history and art styles.

A short history of animation art.

The concept of storytelling has existed for hundreds of years. In fact, storytelling through motion goes all the way back to shadow puppetry around 200 A.D.

Pre-20th century animation art.

In the 1830s, the Phenakistoscope was independently invented by Joseph Plateau and Simon von Stampfer (who called his version the Stroboscope). This device featured a spinning circular disc with a series of sequential drawings. When viewed through slits in the disc while it was in motion, it created the illusion of movement—thanks to the principle of persistence of vision.

A similar device, the Zoetrope, followed the same principle but used a cylindrical design. The term Zoetrope was coined in 1866 by American inventor William Lincoln.

Post-20th century animation art.

The first animated films appeared at the start of the twentieth century. Some of the earliest examples include James Stuart Blackton’s The Enchanted Drawing in 1900 and French caricaturist Émile Cohl’s Fantasmagorie in 1908.

Disney pioneered the traditional form of animation known as ‘cel animation’, which involved hand-drawing onto celluloid paper. In 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first American full-length animated feature.

Modern advances in technology have made it possible to create more detailed and realistic animations. Fast forward to today, 3D and CGI animation are the most common forms.

Editable animation examples from Adobe Express.

What are the main types of animation art styles?

Since the beginning of what we know as animation, various art styles and techniques have been established. Here are some of the main animation art styles you may have heard of:

Traditional.

With traditional animation, each frame is hand drawn and coloured with exceptional attention to detail. Examples include Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi. Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio, is also well known for traditional animation films – including Spirited Away.

2D animation.

2D animation forms part of digital animation. Artists set key frames (images) that define the movement of characters or objects and then use computer technology to generate the images ones in-between. This ensures a smooth animation. This animation art style is evident in popular TV cartoons like Tom & Jerry and early episodes of The Simpsons.

3D animation.

3D animation enhances visual storytelling and brings animation it to a new dimension. Artists use this 3D animation to create three-dimensional worlds and characters, with lifelike movements, textures, lighting and shadows that could not exist within traditional or 2D animation. Think Toy Story, Avatar and Shrek.

Motion graphics.

Motion graphics are a blend of animation and graphic design. It combines various visual elements—such as text and graphics—to tell a story. Examples of this animation art style include film title sequences, TV adverts, music videos and more. Motion graphics are designed to capture the attention of the audience and convey information quickly.

Stop motion.

Stop motion is a unique form of animation that involves moving physical objects in small increments, capturing a photo at each step, and playing the images in rapid succession to create a film. It’s a painstaking process, and takes a lot of patience, as the objects need to be moved frame-by-frame. Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs used stop motion to create a whimsical effect.

Claymation is an example of stop motion that uses clay or plasticine figurines as character models and environments. Aardman productions is famous for its Claymation films, an iconic example of their animation style is Wallace and Gromit.

Rotoscope animation.

Rotoscoping utilises live action footage to create realistic movements. It involves drawing over each frame of film footage to seamlessly merge live action with hand-drawn animation. This creates a unique cinematic experience – the process can then be completed by hand or by using a specialised digital software.

A great example is A-ha’s 1985 music video for the hit Take On Me, which blends pencil-sketch animation with live action through frame-by-frame rotoscoping.

Free animation template ideas.