by Miss Hillary

Animation has come a LONG way in the last 100 years. While most animated movies today use digital tools to make characters come to life, it used to be done entirely by hand. Animators would draw each and every frame of a character’s movement on clear celluloid sheets which would be layered over backgrounds. Then the individual scene would be photographed by a special camera and strung together with the other individual pictures, creating a film strip. When played at full speed, the pictures would look as if they were really moving. While many modern animated films use entirely digital animation, some, like The Princess and the Frog, have returned to hand-drawn animation.

Just like other artists, animators would use models to get their characters to look just right. Isn’t it strange to think that classic characters like Snow White, Captain Hook, and Tinkerbell were based on real people? Check out these real life models for classic Disney characters!

Maybe you’re more of a digital animation fan. In this video, you can see the many different steps to creating just a few seconds of film in the movie Tangled.

Animation is something that we tend to take for granted in our world. Next time you watch an animated movie or cartoon, think about the hundreds of animators and the hundreds of hours they spend making your favorite characters come to life.