Classical Animation Tutorials

Long before computers, animation was done by drawing or painting one image at a time, or taking pictures of clay or other models and adjusting the models between each picture to capture a sense of motion. Today, this is known as classical animation, or traditional animation. You can create your own classical animations using some paper, a digital camera and any graphics-editing software program that allows you to crop images.

Instructions

1. Bouncing Ball Cartoon Animation

   • 1
     Gather a stack of paper comprised of sheets of the same size and shape. You could cut pieces of ordinary letter-sized paper in half to conserve paper if you wish.
   • 2
     Draw an “X” in two corners of a sheet of paper. You will use these as crop marks to ensure that the pictures are precisely aligned. Draw a large circle near the top of the paper, representing a ball. Draw the ball and the crop marks dark enough that you can see them when you place another sheet of paper on top.
   • 3
     Position a second sheet of paper over the first. Trace the crop marks from the bottom piece of paper. Draw another circle, the same size as the first, about a quarter of the circle’s dimension lower, so they are partially overlapping.
   • 4
     Repeat Step 3 numerous times until the ball reaches the bottom of the paper; then draw each successive ball higher than the preceding one by the same degree until the ball reaches the top of the paper again.
   • 5
     Do a "pencil test" of the animation by holding down one edge of the stack of drawings and flip them. If the ball appears to skip in places, add additional pages with a ball to fill in the gap, or redraw the ball as needed until the animation looks smooth.
   • 6
     Take a picture of each piece of paper in the order it was drawn using your digital camera. Load the pictures on your computer, and then skip to the “Compiling the Images” section below.

   Stop Motion Animation

   • 1
     Position a digital camera on a tripod or place it in a stable position on a sturdy table so it will not move when you take a picture.
   • 2
     Shape a piece of clay into any form such as a person or animal and place it in front of the camera. Take a picture of the clay. Alternatively, you can use dolls or other toys, or cut out shapes using construction paper to make figures for the animation.
   • 3
     Move the clay slightly – for example, move an arm or leg and then take another picture. Move the clay again and take another picture. When you have completed the scene, load the pictures onto your computer.

   Compiling the Images

   • 1
     Crop each image as desired using your digital camera software or a graphic editing application such as Adobe Photoshop, GIMP or Paint.Net.
   • 2
     Inspect each image to ensure that it is cropped to the same dimensions. For cartoon animations drawn on paper, use the pinholes as guides while cropping. Cropping may not be necessary for stop motion animation, but if it is, use a focal point in the background as a guide when cropping so that each picture is cropped the same.
   • 3
     Place all of the images in a folder on your computer. Open a Web browser and drag each image onto the browser. Use the “Forward” and “Back” buttons on the browser to watch your animation.