With 3D animation, however, the motion is always smooth (animated on 1’s), except for stylized pieces which intentionally try to look different.Įven when the character is standing still there should always be some sign of life or gentle movement to keep the illusion of life, this is something 2D animation can get away with much more easily than 3D animation. Traditional animators usually work on 2’s which means they draw a new drawing every 2 frames, and thus having one drawing last for 2 frames. The last major difference with 3D animation is the frame rate. That adds some work for the animator, since they need to be aware of the entire character at all times. Even when one hand isn’t visible, it’s still there. With 3D though, the character’s body parts always exist in the shot. It’s drawn on a flat page and there isn’t really more of the character other than what the animator draws.

When the character is viewed from the side, half of its body isn’t shown and thus isn’t drawn. When animating in 2D, the character has to be drawn again every frame. When the modeling and/or animation is complete, the computer will render each frame individually, which can be very time-consuming, depending on the quality of the images needed.Ī 3D animator will spend most of their time looking at curves that represent the movement of different body parts over time.Īnother big difference with 3D animation is that unlike traditional animation, the character’s body parts are always present and should be taken to consideration. Instead of drawn or constructed with clay, characters in 3D animation are digitally modeled in the program, and then fitted with a ‘skeleton’ that allows animators to move the models.Īnimation is done by posing the models on certain key frames, after which the computer will calculate and perform an interpolation between those frames to create movement.

Pencil animation with music