Published: April 8, 2025 | Last Updated: April 11, 2025
Animation is the technique of creating motion through sequential images. It covers everything from pencil drawings and clay figures to vector-based rigs and 3D models. Each style has different strengths, production demands, and distinct aesthetics.
Here, I’ll give you an overview and explanation of various animation styles, a bit of history, and examples.
What Is Traditional Hand-Drawn Animation?
Traditional animation, also called cel animation, involves drawing every frame by hand. Before digital tools, artists inked drawings onto transparent cels and painted them frame by frame. Each movement was planned, sketched, inked, and filmed under a camera.
It’s labor-intensive but gives unmatched flexibility and texture. Animators have full control over every detail, from exaggerated motion to emotional subtlety. Characters were animated using principles like squash-and-stretch and follow-through to enhance expressiveness. Backgrounds were painted like fine art.
Early Disney classics like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are great examples of this approach. Here’s a rare insight into the making of Sleeping Beauty:
Anime and cel animation
Anime continues this legacy. Spirited Away (2001) uses mostly hand-drawn elements, with digital help for camera moves and color grading. Even though it integrates some tech, it stays rooted in analog drawing methods.
Here, you can see how Spirited Away was created (the animation department working on cels is shown at around 3:38):
Television series like The Simpsons began with cel animation, too. Until Season 13, the show was traditionally animated with hand-painted cels, then composited for broadcast. Afterward, it adopted digital ink-and-paint, but animators still draw each pose, maintaining that expressive, analog feel.
Use traditional animation when you want an emotional, handcrafted quality. It’s perfect for character-driven stories, surreal sequences, or any time you wish to have full control over performance and style. But it requires time, skilled artists, and a generous budget.
Understanding 2D Digital Animation: Vector and Puppet-Rigged
Digital 2D animation uses computers to speed up the process. Instead of drawing every frame, animators use rigs and keyframes to guide movement.
Vector-based animation uses mathematically defined shapes. Programs like Adobe Animate allow animators to tween between poses. This means creating key poses—like an arm up or down—and letting the software generate the in-between frames. It’s efficient, especially for repetitive tasks.
Puppet-rigged animation builds digital characters out of separate parts: arms, legs, heads, and joints (similar to what you do in 3D animation). Each piece is linked to a skeletal rig. Moving a rigged limb pulls the whole structure along. This allows for fast, consistent animation.
Shows like Archer and BoJack Horseman use variations of this approach, blending hand-drawn assets with rigged movement.
South Park is a classic example of digital cut-out animation. While the pilot used actual paper cut-outs, the series moved to Maya, a 3D program used to arrange and animate 2D assets. Here’s the unaired pilot:
The intentionally crude style emphasizes satire and speed. Thanks to this approach, animators can turn around an episode in under a week.
This style is perfect for web animation, mobile games, educational content, and TV shows on a tight schedule. It sacrifices some fluidity for repeatability and clarity. This method hits the mark if your project calls for bold, graphic designs or relies on efficiency.
What Is 3D Computer Animation (CGI)?
3D animation is the creation and manipulation of characters and worlds in a virtual 3D environment. 3D artists model characters, rig them with bones and joints, texture their surfaces, and animate them using software like Maya, Blender, Cinema 4D, or Unreal Engine.
In big studios, sculpting, rigging, creating textures, and animating are specialized tasks split among several individuals. The scenes are then rendered into 2D frames.
3D offers real-time camera movement, accurate lighting, and physics simulations. Hair, cloth, and water can be rendered using particle systems and algorithms.
Examples of 3D animation in film
There are tonnes of 3D animated films out there. They differ in style, ranging from realism to stylization. Here are a few critical mentions.
Toy Story (1995) was the first full-length CGI film. Pixar’s breakthrough showed how 3D could replicate depth, light, and texture in a way 2D couldn’t. Since then, 3D animation has become the dominant method for big-budget animated features.
3D doesn’t have to look realistic. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) showed how to merge 3D models with 2D visual language. It broke frame rates, added halftone dots, creative use of shaders, and layered in comic book textures to push the style beyond realism.
CGI is the go-to for animated blockbuster films with complex world-building or action sequences that would be impossible to animate by hand. The tradeoff? Upfront time and cost. Modeling and rendering require advanced tools and a team of specialists. But once the models are built, they can be reused and repurposed for sequels, shorts, or merchandising.
However, you can get started using free tools like Blender and Unreal Engine. It’s quite a steep learning curve, though. Take it from someone who knows.
Stop-Motion Animation and Claymation
Stop-motion animation uses real-world objects photographed frame by frame.
The process is very hands-on and physical: you pose a puppet, snap a photo, adjust the puppet slightly, and then shoot again.
There are three main subtypes:
Claymation uses malleable materials like Plasticine. Characters are reshaped between frames, creating expressive motion. It’s used in Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run—films where texture and charm matter more than polish. And, of course, in my favorite version of Carpenter’s horror The Thing called Thingu – a horror-spoof of the cute Pingu series:
Puppet stop-motion uses models with internal armatures. Faces can be swapped out or reshaped using 3D-printed parts. Laika Studios perfected this in Coraline, ParaNorman, and Kubo and the Two Strings.
Cut-out animation involves flat pieces of paper or fabric. It’s similar to puppet animation but with a 2D look. As I said earlier, the original South Park pilot was made this way, using construction paper.
Why stop-motion is still cool
Stop-motion has a unique tactile feel. Since it’s lit and filmed in-camera, the lighting is always realistic. Depending on how it’s used, that texture can add a dreamy or eerie tone. It’s excellent for stylized storytelling, visual metaphors, and world-building grounded in texture.
However, it’s time-consuming. A second of animation might require 24 photos, each with slight changes. Mistakes mean reshooting entire sequences. That said, stop-motion remains a favorite for artists who love hands-on crafting and stylized visuals.
Motion Graphics: Animation for Design and Information
Motion graphics is animation applied to text, shapes, charts, and logos. It’s not about characters—it’s about visual rhythm and information design.
Common use cases include:
- Opening titles and credit sequences
- Infographics and explainer videos
- UI animations and app demos
- Music lyric videos and branding
See how to create your own Motion Graphics Templates in Adobe After Effects.
Examples from movies
All Marvel movies from the MCU use a stylish title sequence with minimalist silhouettes and typography. The design sets the tone for the whole film.
Fight Club overlays animated product descriptions in a flat, corporate style, mocking consumer culture visually.
Motion graphics uses standard tools like After Effects, Apple Motion, and DaVinci Resolve. Using keyframes, animators control transformations like position, scale, and rotation over time. Most work is short-form and synchronized to audio or voiceover.
Use motion graphics when your goal is to explain, impress, or brand, not to tell a traditional story. This form thrives in marketing, education, and interface design.
What Is Experimental Animation?
Experimental animation ignores conventions and focuses on raw visual expression. It might be abstract, glitchy, musical, or painterly. The goal is usually emotion, exploration, or concept—not story.
Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void (2009) pushes animation into psychedelic space. The film uses digital hallucinations, floating POVs, and intense light effects to simulate altered consciousness.
Loving Vincent (2017) was made from over 65,000 oil paintings. Each frame was hand-painted in Van Gogh’s style and then sequenced into a feature-length rotoscope. The brushstrokes never stop moving, giving the film a constantly shifting, textured surface.
Earlier pioneers like Oskar Fischinger and Len Lye created non-narrative films where abstract shapes danced to classical music. Their work laid the foundation for music videos, VJ loops, and animated installation art.
Experimental animation can also involve analog materials like sand, ink on glass, or scratched film. The point is to push the form itself, not necessarily to communicate in conventional ways.
It’s rarely commercial. But when you want to shake people out of their expectations—or visualize something that can’t be explained—this is the form that lets you do it.
Hybrid Animation: Blending Live Action with Animation
Hybrid animation combines animated elements with live-action footage. This can mean cartoon characters composited into real scenes or CGI creatures sharing the frame with actors.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) is a classic case. The film composited hand-drawn characters into noir-style live-action. Animators used shadows, light direction, and perspective to make the cartoons feel grounded.
Space Jam (1996) followed suit, integrating 2D Looney Tunes into real basketball arenas. While technically simpler than Roger Rabbit, it leaned more on spectacle and nostalgia.
Modern films use CGI to insert characters seamlessly. Gollum in The Lord of the Rings was animated using motion capture and blended into the live-action world through lighting and compositing.
The dinosaurs in Jurassic Park did the same years earlier, setting the standard for photorealistic integration.
Hybrid animation works well in comedy, fantasy, or meta-narratives. It emphasizes the medium’s artificiality in a fun way. But it requires tight coordination between VFX, cinematography, and performance. Without planning, the seams will show.
Summing Up
Animation isn’t one technique—it’s a spectrum of tools and styles. Each choice affects tone, workflow, and audience perception.
- Traditional animation gives you warmth and control. Great for timeless stories or artistic visions.
- 2D digital is fast and scalable. Best for web, TV, or projects with a tight timeline.
- 3D CGI offers realism or spectacle. Ideal for immersive worlds or action-driven stories.
- Stop-motion adds tactile charm. A great pick when physical craft matters.
- Motion graphics communicate ideas fast. Use them in branding, UX, or data storytelling.
- Experimental forms break the mold. Perfect for art films or bold music visuals.
- Hybrid animation bridges fantasy and realism. Useful for surreal comedy or visual contrast.
Understanding the strengths and challenges of each style helps you make better creative calls. You can even mix methods—many modern projects do. A 3D film might include 2D flashbacks. A live-action series might use animated dream sequences. When used intentionally, the technique becomes part of the story.
Animation isn’t about tools. It’s about creating movement with purpose. Pick the style that fits your story, and use it to build a world worth watching.
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