How Should I Create Animation?

The animation industry is led by giants like Pixar (Disney) and SKG. They employ a number of animators to work magic on the screen. Walt Disney refers to its engineers and imagineers. Previously classical cell animation was done using butter paper and a film projector. Today animation has moved from 2D to 3D.

There are a number of commercially available tools and software to assist a good animator. Most animators will use a drawing tool (Corel Draw) to first create a character. Then this character is imported into a 2D or 3D software development tool i.e. Macromedia Flash, 3D Studio Max, Maya etc.

These tools enable the lifeless character to come alive. Polygons are used to assign movement points to the character. These tools come with readymade environment plug-ins to make the job easier i.e. stones, sky, grass etc. The character and environment is then fused into one using various game engines.