Animation

Animation is the process of creating motion and shape change illusion by means of the rapid display of a sequence of static images that minimally differ from each other. The illusion—as in motion pictures in general is thought to rely on the phi phenomenon. Animators are artists who specialize in the creation of animation.

The bouncing ball animation (below) consists of these six frames.

This animation moves at 10 frames per second.

Animations can be recorded on either analogue media, such as a flip book, motion picture film, video tape, or on digital media, including formats such as animated GIF, Flash animation or digital video. To display it, a digital camera, computer, or projector are used.

Animation creation methods include the traditional animation creation method and those involving stop motion animationof two and three-dimensional objects, such as paper cutouts, puppets and clay figures. Images are displayed in a rapid succession, usually 24, 25, 30, or 60 frames per second.