2D versus 3D

Going to talk a bit about 2D animation, 3D animation, and all other kinds.... Not only because it's relevant but because I want to discuss them too. I'll start with 2d, the original type of animation that everybody loved before 3D showed up and distracted them.

2D animation by hand drawing frames can be hard work. It's repetitive and can lead to errors. If each individual frame is drawn then it can be slightly wobbly. Early examples I've seen of the first types of animation include Gerty the Dinosaur by Winsor MacCay and the funny faces one on the blackboard. There is so much detail put into these that I wonder how the artists didn't explode with the amount of work they had to do. Roobarb is also an excellent example. Hand drawn and slightly wobbly, but personal and imaginative and expressive and just... great. Hand drawn animation is more personal. It's created by a fellow being, using their hand and their imagination.

As I love to draw hand drawn 2D appeals to me, but as I'm also rather lazy the constant drawing of frames doesn't.

Since computers strolled onto the scene 2D animation has become alot easier to do and alot more accesible. There are computer programmes to edit hand drawn animations, but there is software to create animations completely on the computer. Programmes like Flash and ToonBoom can take the hard work out of it, meaning not every frame needs to be drawn over and over now. That's alot of extra work gone, making it easier to create, and also meaning animations can be smoother and tweaked to perfection.

However, although I too find computer animation simpler, it's alot less personal. There's less of the artist and animator in the work, so I feel. I'm sure many would disagree saying they've put just as much of themselves into it as any person crazy enough to do the whole thing by hand, but it seems more like a product of technology than of imagination. You could argue that the size of a pencil is just as false in that case as the size of the brush used in the software, but I still see more in hand drawn animations. Roobarb is now done on a computer, and is less loved than it originally was. I had a look at it now and to me it has lost it's charm. So there's definetely something about hand drawn that appeals.

3D animation is completely done on computer software. It's alot more complex to create the characters and settings but seems, from my limited experience, not too difficult to use them for the actual filming of the animation.

3D animation can look astounding, and can be used in a variety of ways from making whole movies to just special effects. Toy Story is a brilliantly made 3D animation. It seems to be taking over the market, certainly where films are concerned, and is seeping into other television shows and such. Childrens shows now include things like Pocoyo, a 3D animation about a little boy in blue and his friends, aswell as the regular 2D cartoons.

For all this though, it seems again to me that this is more technology than the animator themselves. It also seems rather difficult and technical. I'm not a technical person. I would much rather draw frames by hand than create 3D models and settings, even if the results looked better. There's something about drawing that a vast, scary plane with z axes and numerical inputs and long menus just can't compete with. I guess that's my love of art speaking up.

The other types of animations such as paper, pixelation, sand on glass, claymation, and so on can be fun too. They may not be drawing but they are just as creative and more hands on than either 2D or 3D. You get to make little models and jump about and move things! Woohoo!

This appeals to the child in me who still loves to play, and the artist who loves to create. The only down side to these would be that, like hand drawn 2D, they have to be done frame by frame and then put together afterwards to create the final piece. It can be very tedious and there's not alot of room for mistakes.

However excellent animations such as Morph, Wallace and Gromit and Creature Comforts show just what can be achieved by the hard work and effort put in. Huge successes and widely loved, they show that it can be worth it. I have also seen many pixelation animations online that have created a huge desire to do a (really good) one myself. Recently classes at uni, and experiments at home, have shown me how tedious it can get and yet they are still fun to make and finish.

Overall I'd say that in this modern age 3D has a new, shiny appeal that has captured the world's attention with everyone sitting around in cinemas going, "Oooooooh", whereas 2D is much loved and accepted yet taking a back seat at the moment. The other kinds are less easy to do and so seen less, but much admired when they appear.

Personally, I much prefer the tedious but hands on approach. Computer animation, whether 2D or 3D, may be easier and more sparkly to look at but it's less involving and less personal. I love to create, I love to scribble, I love to play and get my hands mucky. Though I do wonder how I'll feel about this opinion once I've arranged and moved and placed and organised and taken photo after photo after photo....