A Complete Comparison of Traditional and Digital Animation
Animation has been around for decades and has changed with the times. Probably the biggest change is going from traditional animation to digital animation. Traditionally, scenes were animated by hand-painting each frame, whereas in the digital era, all that is done with computer software, whether it is 2D or 3D visuals.
On their surface, the two look different, but at their heart, both rely on the same artistic foundations, workflows, and creative goals.
It is important for us to understand the similarities between the two, whether you’re a student who’s learning, a professional animator expanding your skills or a business deciding which style fits your project best.
Overview of Traditional and Digital Animation
Traditional Animation
Traditional animation (also known as hand-drawn animation) is created by hand-drawing each frame of the animation on paper or transparent cels (hence why the technique is also called cel animation).Here, backgrounds are painted individually and characters are layered over them. The frames are then photographed in sequence to create the illusion of movement.
Example of Traditional Animation:
Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
In the case of digital animation, computer software is used to replicate hand-drawn techniques (for 2D animation) or create lifelike environments and characters (for 3D animation). Tools like Toon Boom Harmony, Adobe Animate and Blender allow for faster production and easy editing of animation projects.
Examples:
Pixar’s Toy Story series
Modern 2D productions like The Owl House
Core Similarities Between Traditional and Digital Animation
Same Animation Principles
Both of them follow the 12 Principles of Animation which were first developed by Disney animators in the 1930s. Some of the principles include squash and stretch, timing, anticipation and follow-through (we’ll go into more details later). Whether hand-drawn on paper or created using software, all the principles combine to bring the characters to life.
Storytelling and Character Development
Regardless of the type of animation, story is king. For that reason, animators focus heavily on:
● Character development
● World-building
● Emotional arcs (for an emotional connection)
● Clear narrative structure
● Visual storytelling techniques
So, whether the project is making a cel-drawn princess or a 3D-rendered robot, the goal is to make audiences care.
Frame-by-Frame Foundations
No matter if you are making traditional animation or digitally animating the project, most scenes still have to be made frame-by-frame for smooth motion. Computers can help interpolate frames, but the fact that you have to pay meticulous attention to detail remains.
Visual Composition and Design
In both cases, the reliance is on:
● The rule of thirds - for composition
● Perspective – for the creation of depth
● Color theory - to set the tone and mood of the scenes
Collaboration and Roles
Whether computers are involved or not, animation is still a team effort that involves:
● Directors
● Storyboard artists
● Animators
● Voice actors
● Sound designers
● Editors
- and more.
Iterative Creative Process
Cel animation and digital animation both have the same stages of production, even though some processes might be different. They start with the pre-planning and planning stage (conceptualization), then move on to production and end with post-production. The following are some of the common processes you have to go through:
● Storyboarding - for the visualization of the story
● Charater design – to give each character a unique look
● Scriptwriting – to set the story
● Animatics – an animated storyboard used for visualizing the timing, pacing and flow of a scene/sequence before it's fully animated
● Concept art – for establishing the visual style of the show, movie, commercial etc.
● Keyframing/drawing – to create motion and visual effects
● In-betweening - creating intermediate frames between two keyframes for the illusion of smooth motion
● Coloring – adding color to each frame
● Editing – correcting errors, adding motion graphics and more
● Sound design – creating and integrating all the audio elements (music, voiceovers and sound effects) to complement the visuals and enrich the storytelling
● Final rendering – for generating the complete, polished animation sequence
Why Do The Similarities Matter
Know the similarities between traditional animation and digital animation has real-world value:
● For one thing, you know that skill transfer is possible and animators can move between the two techniques more easily.
● It helps debunk myths about either one of the methods. For example, you may have been told that digital animation is “cheating”. Just so we’re clear, digital animation isn’t cheating, but an evolution. It’s a unique animation style by itself.
● The same creative principles apply regardless of the technology used, so there is artistic continuity if you want to use both styles for your project.
Key Differences to Keep in Mind (In Brief)
Now that you’re up to speed on the many similarities between digital and cel animation, it’s time to be aware of their many differences:
Tools and techniques: traditional animation uses physical tools like pencils, paper, light boxes, peg bars and animation discs. To animate digitally, you mostly just need a powerful computer processor and a good software.
Production speed and cost: Digital animation is often faster and more efficient than the traditional method. It’s mostly because the former requires more time, effort and a different kind of artistic ability. To add to that, it is much easier to make changes and automate some processes when using software to animate.
Distribution: Historically, traditional animation needed physical copies (like film reels) for broadcast, theatrical release or even home releases. The reach was also limited by the availability of physical copies and broadcasting rights. It’s also more expensive as there are printing, shipping and licensing fees involved.
In digital animation, distribution is much easier as there are many streaming platforms (like Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video etc.) which have a global audience. It also costs less to distribute digital productions because they don’t have to be stored in physical form, which also allows for faster releases and updates.
The 12 Core Principles of Animation
No matter what technique you choose to use, both the traditional and digital methods follow the same 12 the principles of animation mentioned below:
1. Squash and Stretch
Squash and stretch is arguably the most fundamental of the animation principles. It gives objects and people in the animation a sense of weight and/or flexibility.
For example, an animated bouncing ball squashes flat and widens when it hits the floor and stretches when it starts to bounce back and rise above the ground.
The motion might seem exaggerated but it has basis in reality as it creates the illusion that the ball is being distorted by an outside force (just like velocity, gravity, acceleration and deceleration affects a bouncing ball in real life).
2. Anticipation
The principle of anticipation is applied when you want to prepare your audience for some sort of action. Think about what people generally do when they are preparing to do something. For example, in a game of baseball, a batter will be focused on the pitcher and tense up his body waiting to swing the bat and hit the ball.
Anticipation isn’t exclusive to sports and it can apply to any situation. Example: a driver waiting for the traffic signal to change or a student waiting for their friend at the school entrance. The animator has to only focus on the object a character is about to lift/pick up or a character waiting for somebody’s/something’s appearance on screen.
3. Staging
Staging is where the animator tales on the role of a film or theatre director. They have to think about the camera angles, what they’re focusing on, where the characters will be and what they’ll be doing. Staging matters a lot regardless of whether the characters are absurd and cartoonish or they are hyper-realistic people. What you want is for the audience to pay attention to the important of the story and prevent distractions from unnecessary details.
4. Straight Ahead Action and Pose-to-Pose
They’re basically two principles in one and address different approaches to drawing. Straight ahead action or animation is where the frames are drawn in order from beginning to end. There’s no real planning ahead and the animators have to figure out the next frame as they go. It gives an organic flow to the scenes and makes them seem fluid. There is room for experimentation. On the downside, there can be inconsistencies in volumes and proportions.
Pose-to-pose is where animators plan out the particular keyframes and poses first and the intervals (in-betweens) are filled in afterwards. Animators get greater control of the volumes and proportions this way. It’s preferred for animating emotional or dramatic scenes. To its detriment, however, if the intervals are not filled in carefully, the scenes can end up feeling mechanical.
Most animators today use both approaches to animating based on the scenes. To add to that, computer animation basically resolves proportion issues caused by the straight-ahead action style. For the pose-to-pose method, they can fill in the missing sequences.
5. Follow-Through and Overlapping Action
Follow-Through and Overlapping Action principles make animations feel more realistic, organic and lifelike. They’re both movement-based principles that give the illusion that characters are abiding by the laws of physics. Follow-through is the continuation of motion after the character has stopped applying force, like when they swing a towel and it continues to move even when the hand has stopped moving. In real life, things don’t just stop when being thrown or swung around. Even certain parts of the body continue to move when the character stops and then pull back towards the center of mass.
Overlapping action demonstrates how parts of the character’s body don’t move at the same rate. For example, when a character moves and then stops, their hair, clothes, accessories etc. will move for just a little longer than their body. It creates a smooth transition between poses instead of all body parts move at the same time and speed, which looks a bit uncanny.
6. Slow In and Slow Out (Or Ease In and Ease Out)
Objects and people in the real world must accelerate when they start to move and decelerate (slow down) before they can come to a stop. The slow in (ease in) and slow out (ease out) principle is based exactly on this concept. So when animating an action, there will be more drawings at the start and end of said action to depict the real-world acceleration and deceleration, making the movements feel smoother.
Example: Take the same bouncing ball example we gave earlier. When animating the ball bouncing, you will add more frames at the highest and lowest parts of the bounce. Combined with the follow-through and squash and stretch principles, the bounce sequence is accentuated and entertaining to watch.
7. Arc
Most actions have an arched trajectory in real life, like when an arm moves while walking or an object is thrown. Adding natural arcs to movements creates fluidity and avoids unnatural, erratic animation.
In traditional animation, the animators usually draw the natural arc lightly on paper for reference for easy removal when not needed anymore. The speed and timing of the movement are important in the arc principle because they can sometimes happen so quickly that the motion appears blurred.
The blurred effect is also added intentionally to make it look like someone or something is moving unnaturally fast; a practice known as animation smear. An animator who was an expert at this was Chuck Jones, who created famous characters like Bugs Bunny, the Road Runner and Daffy Duck.
8. Secondary Action
Secondary actions are subtle motions added to the main action within a scene as a complement or support. The subtle motions add dimension to the characters and objects and make them more natural. For example, adding a slight rotation of the elbow in a person’s arms when they walk. It would look odd if everyone in the scene walks with their arms moving in straight arcs.
It could also be when a character is readjusting their clothes or dusting off their pants after falling.
They should not, however, take the audience attention away from the main action.
9. Timing
Timing is the number of frames each action gets allotted to make it appear as though they are following the laws of physics. To get it right, you have to think about the size and weight of the objects or characters in relation to their environment and other objects/people in it. For example, a smaller and lighter ball will move more quickly than a larger, heavier ball.
10. Exaggeration
Exaggeration is the core of animation, because without it, everything would look a little too real and dull. Not to say that exaggeration is unrealistic. At Disney, the animators believe that exaggeration must be true to reality, but be pushed just beyond realism, so the characters pop on screen and add some fun to the scenes.
The best example of exaggeration would be of a ‘jaw drop scene’. Most people would have seen scenes where an animated character’s jaw falls to the ground or table with a loud ‘thud’ to express unbelief or shock. Another example would be of the eyes growing large and almost popping out of the skull. They are real-world reactions, but exaggerated for the sake of comedy or emphasis.
11. Solid Drawing
Solid drawing is where you draw an object or character with volume, weight, light, shadow etc., basically making them feel 3D. It is one of the toughest principles, particularly in traditional animation. It prevents characters from looking too stiff, lifeless, flat or rubbery and combines the principles of squash and stretch and exaggeration in ways that create a sense of volume and weight.
12. Appeal
Finally, we come to Appeal – the most important of the 12 principles of animation. In animation, appeal is the creation of motions and characters that look entertaining, compelling and aesthetically pleasing. It’s basically giving your animations charm and charisma, regardless of whether the character is a villain or a hero or even a side character.
The point is to make the characters interesting enough that viewers will want to know their story and how it progresses.
A brilliant example is Scar from The Lion King (1994). He’s the main villain but still one of the most popular characters in the film. He has his own villainous charm, exaggerated expressions, movements etc., that make him entertaining to watch.
We mentioned that both traditional and digital animation styles follow the 12 principles we just explained, and this is true. The only difference, though, is that the principles have to be painstakingly applied frame-by-frame in traditional animation. In digital, they are either manually created or simulated with algorithms.
At the end of the day, they both depend on the principles to create believable motion, evoke emotion and enhance storytelling.
Conclusion
When it comes to animation (or pretty much every other process in existence), technology can change the tools used, but not the heart behind it. Whether animation is created with pencil and paper or pixels and polygons, both have a role to play and their own charm. They both also thrive on the same timeless principles, compelling storytelling and collaborative artistry.
So, if you merely want to understand animation or are serious about using it in your marketing and advertisements, you should explore both traditional and digital forms, because the magic is in their shared DNA.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Are frame-by-frame techniques still used in digital animation?
Yes. Many digital scenes are still animated frame-by-frame for the sake of control and precision.
Why are the 12 principles of animation important for traditional and digital animation?
The 12 principles of animation are important because they make sure that the characters, objects and anything in the scenes move naturally, convey emotions correctly and engage audiences.
Do animators need different skills for traditional vs digital animation?
Both traditional and digital animation demand different sets of technical skills, although they have the same artistic fundamentals.
What are the similarities in pre-production steps between traditional and digital animation?
In the pre-production stage, both involve storyboarding, animatics and concept art.
