Animation for Beginners
  Animation is an art. No, wait. Animation is
  a fun art. We can also say that animation is a technique
  whereby you give life to characters or objects, but the truth is,
  animation is much more than that... it’s miracle! When we
  talk about animation, we should start by looking at our eyes.
  Nothing miraculous there? Of course, there is... and the ability
  to generate a sense of animation is part of our ability to see or
  more specifically how we see. Seeing is science!
  Imagine you have a mountain of photographs,
  now imagine that you begin to see them, one by one, as fast as
  possible. Every time you focus on a photo, your eyes capture the
  information and send it to your brain. Your brain in turn,
  converts it into the signal that you see. I see a house, I see a
  boat, I see my uncle!, and so on. You might think that seeing
  just means opening your eyes, but each time you
  “look” at anything it takes a great exchange of
  information between your eyes and your brain, to turn that into
  the image that you receive. This process is not easy to perceive
  because it takes such an extremely small space of time, fractions
  of a second.
  Now, let’s see what happens when you
  take the mountain of photographs and you begin to quickly view
  them one by one. For each image that you place before your eyes,
  your brain begins to make an interpretation of it, however, since
  you keep replacing each image with a new one, if you do this at
  the right speed, your brain is unable to interpret the whole
  picture before it has to start to interpret the next image. When
  the flow of photos is large enough and passes at high speed, your
  brain begins to mix the information from an image with the
  previous and the next, creating the sensation of movement.
  That’s when the magic happens and we can talk about
  animation.
  It is estimated that the human eye is
  capable of distinguishing only around 24 images in a second if
  you try to view them one after another. If the number of images
  is equal or greater than 24, then the eye begins to see that the
  elements begin to acquire motion. Wait a minute. Does this mean
  that a film is nothing but a huge pile of pictures that pass
  before my eyes at breakneck speed? The short answer is yes!
  However, we must bear in mind that a movie is something a little
  more complex, as it is audio-visual content, which means that it
  also includes sound and a lot of technical details that
  we’ll leave pending for later.
  In the world of animation, each image from
  which an animation is composed known as a “frame”, so
  the speed at which a film is projected is measured in frames per
  second (FPS) . The more frames you have in a second of animation,
  the better the illusion of movement will be and the fewer you
  have, the more the sense of flow will erode.
  Currently, we have a wide variety of
  animation techniques with which we can create content like we see
  in film and video. Here are some techniques:
  
    - 2D Animation: This is a technique based on planes
    for the creation of frames that will be part of the animation.
    Hey! wait a moment, what is a plane? When you think of a plane,
    think of it as an uniform surface, similar to a sheet of paper,
    a soccer field, the floor of your house or even think of a
    wall. I know it sounds strange, but a plane is nothing more
    than a flat surface. Now, in slightly more complicated terms, a
    plane is a workspace where you have two dimensions to pan, if
    you wish, you can think of these two dimensions as up-down and
    left-right. These two dimensions are those from which we get
    the term 2D (two dimensions) that people use when talking about
    2D animation. Incidentally, historically it is one of the first
    techniques of animation. If you look at the edges of a sheet of
    paper and focus on the bottom and at the left edge, you’ll
    notice that they are like two straight lines that meet in the
    lower left corner. These two straight lines are those that
    determine the level on which you draw and are technically known
    as axes (in mathematics, often calling them X axis and Y axis).
    In short, when you think of 2D animation, think of a flat
    surface made from the paths created by an artist either on
    paper or whether from a computer program for 2D animation. Two
    good examples of this technique are most TV series you can see
    on Cartoon
    Network as well as all the classics of
    the Walt Disney Company ®. Let’s look at another
    example:
 
- 
      
          Fig #1. Animated Short
        "Cibertito’s Crash". Technique: 2D Animation 
- 3D Animation: This technique is a bit like the one
    above, except that they no longer talk about two dimensions,
    but three. A simple way of thinking is to think in 3D top-down,
    left-right and front and rear. Therefore, we speak of three
    axes, in mathematics, often called the X axis, Y
    axis and Z axis). Unlike 2D art, animation in three
    dimensions can only be done through specialized computer
    programs which are responsible for calculating everything you
    need to generate each frame that makes up an animation. Under
    this technique, the creator is not responsible for illustrating
    figures, but rather to model geometric objects and then
    articulated structures so that they can move through each frame
    of the scene under construction. 3D animation is much more
    complex than 2D because the software focused on the subject
    must perform the calculations for each point in space, which is
    part of each image. These estimates include: colour, lighting
    and texture, among others. All this translates into hundreds of
    thousands of mathematical calculations (sometimes millions!) so
    muuuuuuuch work! Fortunately, the computer does it and not the
    animator. The best examples of 3D animation you can find in
    movies are "Toy Story",
    "Finding
    Nemo" and in shorts such as "Big Buck
    Bunny", who we see in the following scene:
 
- 
      
          Fig #2. Animated Short "Big
        Buck Bunny". Technique: 3D Animation 
- Stop Motion: This technique is based on playing with
    photographs. If you have a digital camera, it is all you need
    to get started. The procedure is very simple, basically it
    involves taking a series of pictures, one after the other, of a
    scene while between each picture making small changes to the
    objects in the scene. Complex? No, not at all... consider a
    simple example! Take a ball or any object you want and place it
    on a table. Place your camera in a fixed position pointing in
    the direction of the table and make sure it can not move
    easily, this point is key for a successful animation effect.
    Note that all the pictures we take, will be captured from the
    same position and from the same angle. Now, take a first shot
    of the ball in its original position, then move it in one
    direction, but only a little and take another photo. Move it a
    little further in the same direction you started with and take
    a picture again. Repeat this procedure several times until the
    last picture is that of the ball on the edge of the table.
    Okay, now look at the screen of your camera and begin to review
    all the photos from first to last stepping to the next photo at
    the same rate. You’ll notice how they seem to show the ball
    moving towards the edge by itself. This is Stop Motion! Two
    very good examples of the technique of stop motion you can find
    in the movies "Corpse Bride"
    and "The
    Nightmare Before Christmas". Now let’s review an
    image from another simple example:
 
- 
      
          Fig #3. Animated Short "El
        Gran Escape". Technique: Stop Motion 
Okay, now that we have a little more clarity
  on the concept of animation, we’ll see what Tupiis!
  Well, our definition is pretty basic, it is free software for the
  design and creation of 2D animation. A project developed by
  animators for animators, and now in this new stage, once again in
  active development.
  Want to learn how to use it? What are we waiting for? Let’s start!