Animation and special effects

Animation creates the appearance of movement by showing drawings or graphics in quick succession. Each image changes slightly, and your eye blends them into smooth movement.

Animation techniques

• Hand-drawn (cel) animation: an artist draws every frame, often on clear sheets called cels over a painted background. A short cartoon about a mountain rescue can need thousands of drawings.
• Computer-generated animation: software builds and moves the frames, so a character is set once and adjusted for each frame quicker than redrawing it by hand.
• Stop-motion animation: a physical model is photographed, moved a little, then photographed again. A cardboard rocket whose nose cone rises one millimetre per photo seems to launch when played back quickly.

SFX and VFX

Film and television use special effects often, and they are split into two types. SFX (special effects) are real-world effects made during filming, on set or in a studio. They include props such as a wooden sword, stunts such as a controlled fall, live-action weather made with a snow machine, animatronics that use robotics to move a fairground dragon, prosthetics applied in make-up to add pointed ears, and pyrotechnics that create controlled sparks or fire.

VFX (visual effects) are computer-created and added after filming. They can add a new background, put a dragon on a castle roof, remove a TV aerial from a Victorian street, or turn a cloudy sky into a sunset. Good VFX often go unnoticed because they look like part of the real scene.

CGI (computer-generated imagery) is usually added during post-production, the editing stage after filming, so the actors' filmed footage is combined with computer-made elements later.