2D Computer animation

2D Computer Graphic Animation

History

John Whitney was born and raised in America and is said to be the father of computer animation.  The first examples of 2D computer animation is thought to be between the 50's and 60's.

How it works

To put it simply animation is nothing more than a series of pictures called frames, quickly played along a timeline or reel. 

So why does animation work?

Why don’t we just see a bunch of still pictures?  

The phenomenon that enables humans to perceive animation is called Persistence of Vision, a theory that supposes that an afterimage exists on the retina for one twenty-fifth of a second before escaping the present consciousness, allowing for frames to bleed into one another and create the perception of motion.  It's basically a high tech digital flips book where the pictures move seamlessly and fluently.

Adobe Flash is one of the more popular tools among animators these days.

Although 2D animation has been around for quite some time it is still everywhere you look these days.  Shows like Family Guy and The Simpsons along with a few other thousand cartoons prove that 2D animation is still going to be around for many years to come.

Although some of these cartoons are using some 3D CGI in their shows 2D remains dominant and a world where all 2D animation is replaced with 3D well that's just not going to happen so lets leave it at that.

Here is a long but in depth video on how to draw a character in photoshop