If you are asked about a job which is the blend of unlimited ideas, creative skills, and slaying passion, what would come to your mind? Animation? You’re absolutely right! Animation is something, which is all about mythical notions and enthralling thoughts that requires expertise and dedication to bring ideas from mind to motion.
Animation is a great way to connect with the audience influentially and present them with your services. It is an excellent tool that conveys messages without saying a single word. You can use different styles of animation according to your requirements. However, some of the animation styles include explainer videos, typography, whiteboard videos, motion graphics, and much more.
Besides, if you are also an animation enthusiast and want to determine several animation styles, I have mentioned 12 animation styles that you must know. Once you have understood and learned these styles, you can partner with any professional animation studio to get further experience and amaze your clients with your creative ideas and engaging content.
1.Whiteboard Animation
Whiteboard animation is certainly the classic animation style, in which the images are drawn on the whiteboard, and then they are described through voiceovers. These whiteboard images can either be drawn freehand or through any software. Moreover, you can also add some transitions, special effects, and texts to the video to add more glam to it.
Usually, whiteboard animation is used to explain some situation on the screen. People typically choose whiteboard videos to share some story or show any educational video to teach students.
2.Traditional 2D Animation
This is the most basic animation style that is the first step to understand while learning animation. It is also known as classic animation. This animation style involves individual handmade drawings for each frame. Notwithstanding, this classic 2D animation style is involved in making numerous drawings and keeping them into the set of plastic cells. Afterward, these drawings are given colors or else remain black and white, and then they are set into a sequence to animate. Traditional 2D animation is being used by Disney in many shows and entertaining the viewers.
3.3D Animation
When 3D animation was introduced, it was quite radical. However, it enables many animators to create more realistic and vivid animated videos. This type of animation has a more practical implementation in several industries like architecture and medicine. It is usually used to make movies, TV commercials, more interactive advertisements, and other marketing requirements. Yet, 3D animation is not required for simple explainer or educational videos, but you can use 2D animation for such short-length projects. For such projects, 3D animation is not the best option because it consumes much time and cost as compared to 2D animation.
4.Kinetic Typography
The next animation style on the list is kinetic typography, which does not involve any image, but text. In this type, multiple animators share their ideas and meet a common point. Besides, the text moves on the screen. The lyrical, informational, and testimonial videos are good examples of kinetic typography animation. Such videos are generally used to induce emotions into words.
5.Motion Graphics
This kind of animation is similar to that of typography, in which images are involved and move. It is a very simple kind of animation in which you take a graphic design and move it. Other than that, you can add some background music, voiceover, and text to enhance the illustrations. Although a motion graphic video should not be too flashy, thus you should keep it straightforward. Besides, motion graphics are used to share numerous concepts, storytelling, or to present any service.
6.Stop Motion Animation
Stop Motion is one of the oldest animation styles that can be seen in many classic shows and movies. Stop motion is created by taking images of still objects and placing them specifically to sequence them together. Then, the string of these pictures gives the impression of motion. Besides, the stop motion animation delivers a unique aesthetic appearance that can be done affordably and does not require much equipment.
7.Clay Animation
Claymation is another most popular style in animation that is similar to stop motion animation. As its name denotes, this type of animation is designed with plasticine, clay, or plasticine-clay mixture. The small pieces of this clay are molded to give the specific shape of the character or an object. Once the item is prepared, Claymation uses a similar stop motion technique and gives the illusion of movement to the clay object. However, it is the most creative style of animation, a complicated procedure.
8.Flipbook Animation
Another most original animation technique is the flipbook, where every plot element of the plot is drawn on a single page of the notebook. When you finish the drawing on all pages, you quickly turn the pages, and it gives the illusion of the manual animated video. Generally, the flipbook animation is a resonance of zoetrope that demonstrates image movement. It is not a suitable option for marketing because it is in the form of a handbook. However, it is a great thing for manual storytelling and entertainment.
9.Cutout Animation
The cutout is another mode of stop motion animation that is used to shape the still animation by implementing a flat character and paper background. In this style, the flat items are moved under the camera lens. This type of animation is created with the help of software technologies. Cutout animation was firstly introduced in the 18th century in the era of shadowed theatres. It is usually used for storytelling and explainer videos.
10.Sand Animation
Sand animation was invented in 1969, which is typically introduced as a live show for marketing purposes. Fundamentally, sand animation can be used for creating both real and animated shows. Its technique is very simple_ you only need to pour some sand on a glowing surface, and with the help of a hand or finger, you will draw pictures on it. Sand animation is a great option for storytelling.
11.Chuckimation
Chuckimation was introduced in the Action League Now series. This style of animation combines the fragments of real images with the stop motion animation. A unique specification in this style is that these real objects are placed in the frame. Although chuckimation is not a popular animation style, it is good for children’s entertainment because it involves dolls and other toy-like stuff.
12.Mechanical Animation
This type of animation is usually used to show some technical video or sci-fi movies. It is basically used to show the inner mechanism of some machines, which are hard to show in reality. It presents how technical devices are used from the inside out. Most of the mechanical animation is used in 3D motion to visualize all sides.
Final Words
There are plenty of styles that are used in the animation industry, and the number is diverse. Notwithstanding, I have reviewed the 12 most basic animation styles that you should know to get a general overview of the animation technologies. I hope this post provides you with adequate information about multiple animation styles so that you could decide in which type you’ve got your interest.