This is just a brief overview of the various techniques of animation. We will keep adding details and examples for each of the techniques over time.

TRADITIONAL / CEL ANIMATION

Traditional animation, also known as cel animation, was the process used for most animated films of the 20th century. The individual frames of a traditionally animated film are photographs of drawings, which are first drawn on paper. To create the illusion of movement, each drawing differs slightly from the one before it. The animators' drawings are traced or photocopied onto transparent acetate sheets called cels, (from where the phrase 'cel animation' has been dervied) which are filled in with paints in assigned colors or tones on the side opposite the line drawings. The completed character cels are photographed one-by-one onto motion picture film against a painted background by a rostrum camera.

This process became obsolete by the beginning of the 21st century. Today, animators' drawings and the backgrounds are either scanned into or drawn directly into a computer system. Various software programs are used to color the drawings and simulate camera movement and effects. The final animated piece is output to one of several delivery mediums, including traditional 35 mm film and newer media such as digital video.

Full animation refers to the process of producing high-quality traditionally animated films, which regularly use detailed drawings and plausible movement. Films produced by Walt Disney studios are full animation films.

Limited animation involves the use of less detailed and/or more stylized drawings and methods of movement. Pioneered by the artists at the American studio United Productions of America, limited animation can be used as a method of stylized artistic expression. The Hannah Barbera cartoons are examples of limited animation.

Rotoscoping is a technique, patented by Max Fleischer in 1917, where animators trace live-action movement, frame by frame. The source film can be directly copyed from actors' outlines into animated drawings, as in The Lord of the Rings (US, 1978), used as a basis and inspiration for character animation, as in most Disney films, or used in a stylized and expressive manner, as in Waking Life (US, 2001) and A Scanner Darkly (film) (US, 2006).

STOP MOTION

Clay Animation
In this technique figures made of clay or a similar malleable material are used to create stop-motion animation. The figures may have an armature or wire frame inside of them, similar to the related puppet animation (below), that can be manipulated in order to pose the figures. Alternatively, the figures may be made entirely of clay, such as in the films of Bruce Bickford, where clay creatures morph into a variety of different shapes.
Examples of Clay Animation - Most of the Aardman Studios films including the Wallace and Grommit series and Chicken Run

Cutout Animation
This is a type of stop-motion animation produced by moving 2-dimensional pieces of material such as paper or cloth on a flat surface or in a digital environment.
Example of Cutout Animation - South Park and Nickelodeon's popular kid's programme -Blue's Clues

Silhouette Animation
This is a monochrome variant of cutout animation in which the characters are only visible as black silhouettes.
Example of Silhouette Animation - The Adventures of Prince Achmed by Lotte Reiniger

Graphic Animation
This style uses non-drawn flat visual graphic material (photographs, newspaper clippings, magazines, etc.) which are sometimes manipulated frame-by-frame to create movement. At other times, the graphics remain stationary, while the stop-motion camera is moved to create on-screen action.

Model Animation
This technique has stop-motion animation created to interact with and exist as a part of a live-action world. Intercutting, matte effects, and split screens are often employed to blend stop-motion characters or objects with live actors and settings.
Examples of Model Animation - Ray Harryhausen's Jason and the Argonauts and the King Kong films

Object Animation
This style refers to the use of regular inanimate objects in stop-motion animation, as opposed to specially created items.
Example of Object Animation - Ishu Patel's Beadgame

Pixillation
This is a specialized technique for animating people. The camera records occasional frames of some natural or real-time event, but because of the intermittent filming, the effect of the resulting film is that of an unnatural movement somewhat like in an old silent movie. A stationary camera records a stationary posed subject, shooting on twos. Between exposures, the character moves to a new position. The process is low, tiring and requires a great amount of patience. Because the subject in pixillation is usually a living person, complete control of the pose is difficult. Trial and error rules pixillation.
Example of Pixillation - Norman McLaren's Oscar-winning film Neighbours

Puppet Animation
tThis kind of animation typically involves stop-motion puppet figures interacting with each other in a constructed environment, in contrast to the real-world interaction in model animation. The puppets generally have an armature inside of them to keep them still and steady as well as constraining them to move at particular joints.
Examples of Puppet Animation - Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride

EXPERIMENTAL ANIMATION

Drawn on Film Animation
A technique where footage is produced by creating the images directly on film stock, for example by Norman McLaren and Len Lye.

Sand Animation
Sand is moved around on a backlighted or frontlighted piece of glass to create each frame for an animated film. This creates an interesting effect when animated because of the light contrast

Paint on Glass Animation
A technique for making animated films by manipulating slow drying oil paints on sheets of glass.

Pinscreen animation
Thistechnique makes use of a screen filled with movable pins, which can be moved in or out by pressing an object onto the screen. The screen is lit from the side so that the pins cast shadows. The technique has been used to create animated films with a range of textural effects difficult to achieve with traditional cel animation.

COMPUTER ANIMATION

2D - Analog computer animation

2D - Flash Animation

3D Animation

MOTION CAPTURE
Also known as MOCAP, it is the creation of a 3D representation of a live performance. We will have a detailed section on Motion Capture soon which will cover topics like-
- What is Motion Capture
- Systems used for Motion Capture
- The hardware and Software
- Studios in India specializing in Motion Capture
- Implications and Controversies - is Motion Capture truly Animation or not?