Animation: From Cels to Pixels

Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. This facility makes it the most versatile and explicit means of communication yet devised for quick mass appreciation. - Walt Disney

Animation is a technique whereby moving images can be created by displaying many discrete images in rapid succession. This is in contrast to traditional cinema and video, where continuous motion is broken into discrete images for later playback.

This report focuses on the history and theory of modern animation, starting with filmed animations in the early 20th Century.

It will investigate the development of three major fields of animation – traditional cel based animation, stop-motion animation and finally, computer animation. For each it will outline milestones in their development, the theory behind each technique and give examples.

Links to each section of this document are shown in the navigation bar on the left-hand side of the screen.