Stop motion

Stop motion is creating the illusion of movement by taking a series of images in which a charecter is moved slightly each time.

 One types of stop motion is Clay animation. this is were clay models are used as the object that moves. this is my favourite type of stop motion as i find that its easier to be able to move the limbs around

Nick Park is a famous stop motion animator that created Wallace and Gromit.

Rendering

The term Rendering is used to describe the process of creating a image from a 3d scene.

there are two different types of rendering - Biased and Unbiased.

Biased rendering is where you can control the render settings yourself e.g you can change the light or specularity of the image.

Unbiased Rendering is where you do not have the option to change the settings. this method of rendering usually produces much more realistic images as the rendering engine calculates every last little detail.

Example of a image rendered using a Biased engine

Example of a image rendered using a unbiased engine

Key frames

       Key frames in animation represent the starting point, and the ending of of a movement. in certain types of animation, for example flash, a motion tween s created between the first and last points. this does also happen in 3d animation , however only the first and last points are shown. The positions of key frames in the sequence will show the timing of the specific movement, and the distance between frames will determine the speed of the animation/movement.
       Key frames can be copied and pasted to help line up the position of objects n the scene. one effect that i find useful in flash animation is onion skin. when a new frame is added, the onion skin will show a faded copy of the previous frame so that it becomes easier to line up objects.

                                     Example of key frames with a motion tween.