Bringing your own characters to life with your story may sound like an arduous job. But, it isn’t really. If you’ve mastered the art of animation, then your job might just not be as difficult as you hear most people say.
To help you learn extensively about animation, this blog features six of the best animation styles in the world in 2024. These styles are prevalent among marketers, filmmakers, and even those working in the advertising domain.
So, whether you want to try out animation for yourself, or have a story to tell, or want to outsource your video production to a video animation agency, these are the six styles you would want to consider for your next concept.
And, if you’re new to the animation game, then make sure to give it a close read.
3D Animation
The first animation style on this list is probably the most sought after today is 3D animation. In comparison to 2D, 3D animation offers you greater depth, making the experience more immersive, and delightful.
3D animation is an intricate process that involves rigging characters, and each unique movement they’ll perform in the scene. It’s highly mechanical, a person without sound knowledge of animation cannot undertake the job.
Optimization for 3D animation makes the job of the animator a lot easier. You can set keyframes, and use the software to create frames in between.So, you can save yourself the hurdle of creating each frame separately. This is how most animators work on 3D animation.
2D animation
Another popular style among animators is 2D animation. It’s classic, and has been around for most of the history of animation. 2D involves animated characters and objects on a two-dimensional plane.
Normally, you would animate each frame, which means 24 frames are animated per second. But, that’s a time-consuming practice, and could be painstaking for the artist.
Instead, we usually animate 12 frames per second. It doesn’t affect the quality of movement, and the animation is smooth. So, usually you don’t need to animate all 24 frames in a second.
Another cost-effective way to hop on to 2D animation is through digital rigging. Animators or artists will design characters, and use computer software to automate animation for parts of the character. That saves a lot of time.
Among other styles mentioned on this list, 2D animation is perhaps one of the most reasonable choices. 2D animation is also a very popular option among marketers producing explainer videos. See how an animated explainer video company can work up with your team to tell a captivating brand story using just an explainer video.
Traditional Animation
Traditional animation is also known as classical animation or hand-drawn animation. You must have seen this in those adorable Disney movies of the 90s. Hand-drawn animation is also known as cell animation, and even though we’ve the best technology today to animate with greater efficiency, hand-drawn animation stands out as a real classic.
And, when creatives want high-level fluidity in action and character movements, they jump back to the traditional style of animation.
How traditional animation is made?
It starts with separately drawing each animated element on a transparent sheet of paper. These elements are kept on a background setting, which remains still. Background serves as the base layer. Separate images of components that need to be animated are combined together to produce animation.
Motion Capture
Another unique style of animation that is making waves in the animation landscape is motion capture. It works well to add more depth, fluidity and human effect to 3D animated characters and animation. Motion capture is notably used in movies like Avatar, Lord of the Rings, and even the latest games like GTA 5.
The benefit of motion capture software is that it gathers human movements with the help of sensor technology and turns them into digital scenes. Actors or people would wear bodysuits with special sensors, and their movements are then captured via software, and rendered for the video output.
Animators would usually capture these movements into a software like Maya, 3D Max, and Blender.
Stop Motion
Another fascinating style of animation that is even though less prevalent, but equally attractive, and engaging is stop motion animation. Stop animation involves compiling multiple images of still figures, and converting them into a smooth motion.
You’re already familiar with stop motion animation, if you watched the famous film A Nightmare Before Christmas. You can use real people or even clay figures to capture those still shots, and transform them into a fluid action.
It can be anything from mere props to action figures. And, there’s literally no limit to your creativity. The art you can create with stop motion is only bound by your own imagination. So, ideate, and fill your mind with the best stories to tell.
Motion Graphics
Just as you would use traditional animation to animate characters and their movements, investing in motion graphics enables you to animate texts, logos, and basic illustrations for a dynamic visual effect.
Motion graphics work best with logos, post and pre-credits for movies, explainer videos, and even animating objects where using characters in the narrative is not suitable, or even practical. Motion graphics may come in handy to illustrate an abstract concept, and instill ideas with greater ease.
You can use motion graphics to animate both 2D and 3D objects, and logos. Motion graphics often serve as a cost-effective alternative to other styles of animation. They’re smooth, fluid and usually ideal for a quick load time for web pages.
Wrap up
Let’s wrap this one up. Above we gave you six of the most popular animation styles in great detail. We covered them in the very essence of their definition, their possible uses, and how each may compare with the other in terms of cost, appeal, and quality.
Each style is unique in its way, and you can paint your story in an enticing manner. It all depends upon what you’re willing to tell the world.
