Two- dimensional animation mainly deals with drawing and framing and works as the base of 3D animation. 2D animators make frames to define an order that are moved at changing speeds to create an illusion of motion. 3D or three-dimensional animation is deeper and more realistic. The texture, colour, and lighting of the 3D objects are modified through the use of software programs. The fast growing areas for 3D animation are film, advertising, video and gaming etc.  

2D animation uses the traditional animation method that has been in existence since the late 1800s. It is a drawing pattern followed by several slightly different poses one after another for 24 frames a second.

Examples of 2D Animation:

  • Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd.
  • Snow White, The Jungle Book, The Little Mermaid.
  • Family Guy
  • The Simpsons
  • South Park

Traditional Process of 2D Animation:

  • Traditionally the drawing pieces of 2D animation were put together in a special way-
  • Artists used to draw pencil drawings for every frame of film,
  • These images were painted upon clear plastic sheets known as ‘cels’,
  • Each of these hand-drawn and painted cels were photographed one at a time over a hand painted background image,
  • Those images then compiled to run as film at 24 frames a second.

Advanced Process of 2D Animation:

Today most of the 2D animations use computer software programmes to one degree or another, from digitally coloring of the cels to doing every single component in the computer.

3D Animation

3D animation (except stop-motion, a form of 3D animation) is completely done in the computer. Things, which are created in 3D animation programme exist in a 3-axis- X, Y, Z- world. Instead of just a drawing of any object, it can make objects that can actually turn 360 degrees.

Examples of 3D Animation

  • Toy Story
  • Shrek
  • The Incredibles
  • Jurassic Park (the dinosaurs)
  • The Transformers (the robots)

Process of 3D Animation

3D procedure is sequentially categorized into three main sections- modelling, layout and animation, and rendering.

  • Modelling: This is the primary phase in which is the procedure of generating 3D objects within a certain scene is done.
  • Layout and Animation: In this phase describes that the process followed for animating and positioning the objects within a certain scene.
  • Rendering: This describes the result or output of completed computer graphics. The procedure of production is completed by carefully combining the sections mentioned above and also some other sub-sections.

The market is filled with various software used for the creation of 3D Animation.

Advantages of 3D Animation over 2D

  • 3D animation allows one to make things, simply not possible in 2D.
  • 3D models can be treated virtually as a physical object. In 2D animation everything is drawn. In 2D “Moving the camera” means drawing the whole thing from another angle while in 3D it simply means dragging it to another place to see if it is liked better.
  • 3D allows one to form realistic objects. Textures, colours, and lighting are used to create items that look solid, and can even be integrated flawlessly into live video elements.