Pencilmation

I have always loved animations and cartoons. The amount of creativity that is built into an animation fascinates me. Early animations required drawing by hand, several images, each depicting a motion step. All images were then run in a sequence at a high speed to animate the set of images. Wikipedia gives an interesting and apt definition for the term animation. Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision. This could be anything from a flip book to a motion picture film. Computers and graphic and animation software have brought in a whole new set of techniques for creating animations. Any person with a creative mind can create animations with little resources. Artistic abilities, i.e. the skill to draw and paint well, are not a constraint anymore.

We often enjoy creative little animations and graphics in forwarded e-mails. Here is one such animation that fascinated me. It is simple, funny, and extremely creative. Many of you might have already see it. What you might not have seen is the sequel to this by the same creator Ross Bollinger.