Animation is the simulation of movement through a series of images or frames.

Before computers came into the picture, animation was created using traditional techniques such as hand-drawn animation and stop-motion animation (or model animation). Hand-drawn animation, as the name suggests, involves hand-drawn scenes on paper. Each scene is repeated on the next sheet of paper with a slight change in the scene. All the papers are put together in sequence and the pages are turned very quickly, like a flipbook. The slight changes on the sheets of paper create 2D animation, and this can be filmed into a motion film. This technique is used very often in Disney cartoons and movies. As you can imagine, this is a very time-consuming way to produce animation, as you would need thousands of drawings to create seconds of the film.

Stop-motion animation involves creating models, moving them a little in each frame to mimic movement, and filming this sequence to construct an entire scene. The tedious process of capturing countless snippets has limited the use of this method in favor of more mainstream animation techniques today.

Computer animation is quite similar to stop-motion animation as computer graphics is moved a little in each frame; these frames are then rendered on screen. For computer games, we use computer animation by creating 3D models using tools, such as Maya and 3ds Max. Then, we animate these models to simulate life-like behavior and actions for the game. Animation is needed for all things in order to make them move. Characters need to be animated so that they can look real—they can be in an idle position, walk, run, or execute any other action that needs to be performed in the course of the game.

Motion capture is also another very popular way to animate characters these days. This technology basically uses recorded human actions to create the computer graphic character's behavior. If you have watched the movie Avatar, the blue avatar characters were, in fact, played by human actors and then enhanced to look the way they did using computer graphics. For the filming of the movie, they advanced the motion capture technology into what is now called performance capture. This advancement in technology has empowered film and game makers to capture the details in animation in such a way that can make a CG character stand out.