Development of Animation

How Does Animation Work?
Animation, the illusion of movement, is possible because of a phenomenon known as 'Persistence of Vision'. The theory is that there is an after image that stays on the retina for one twenty-fifth of a second, meaning any animations or films close to or higher than 25 frames per second will give an almost seamless illusion of movement.

What is Stop Motion?
Stop motion is where the film or animation is made using single still images to convey movement rather than recording real movement. What you would do is take an image of a still object, then move it slightly in some way and take another image. After a while these images would be able to be put in a sequence, giving the illusion of movement, when in reality they are just images of still objects that change slightly each frame. There are many examples of successful animations that use this method. One company that has made many successful stop motion animations is Aardman Animations, responsible for creating Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run and their recent success The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists.

What Different Frame Rates Exist and Why?
There are many different frame rates used for both capturing and displaying films. Currently, the main frame rates for displaying film and TV are 24, 25 and 30 frames per second. However when capturing the film it could be any frame rate, sometimes going into the thousands, allowing the resulting film to be slowed down by massive amounts, but still retaining the fluidity of the motion.