THE PERSISTENCE OF VISION

All film is essentially an optical illusion, a trick of the eye, which is known as 'persistence of vision'. When the human eye sees an image, it retains it for a fraction of a second. If in that tiny space of time, one image can be substituted by another which is slightly different, then there appears to be movement! What you really see when watching a 'movie' is NOT really a 'moving' picture at all but a series of 'still' pictures being shown in rapid succession. At the rate of 24 frames per second, the eye is easily deceived.

Animated film-making is fundamentally different from live-action film-making. The live-action camera captures a scene moving in real-time and freezes it into individual still 'frames' which are then projected onto the screen. In animation, there is no pre-existing motion. The camera captures stills that are either drawn, sculpted or created in a digital environment.

Animation is a complex and immersive art, with science as its backbone. It takes a great deal of practice and dedication for an artist to master it.

ANIMATION BOOM ...OR DOOM?

The media has been touting animation as the 'hottest new career' and the billion dollar figures being flashed around are enticing hordes of people into the industry. Many youngsters are looking at animation as a viable career option but do they really know what they are getting into? Do they have the basic talent needed? Studios complain about the lack of talented animators, institutes are blamed for trying to make a quick buck off students without really training them... the finger pointing goes on. The demand for animators is certainly very high but unless they are trained well enough to meet the demands, the industry will flounder. What is the solution?

AWARENESS.

The best way to tackle any problem is awareness. And that is what this site has set out to do. The Animation A-B-C section will cover various topics that are essential for any budding animator to know. Right from the basics of animation, the skills required, the temperament and attitude that an animator should possess, in short, all that one needs to know about!