What is Limited Animation?
The last post on Hanna-Barbera got me thinking about limited animation -- a technique they made popular for animated TV cartoons (and pioneered years earlier by UPA). I looked around for a good definition to share, and the best I found was at the trusty Wikipedia:
"Limited animation is a process of making animated cartoons that does not follow a "realistic" approach... [it] creates an image that uses abstract art, symbolism, and limited movement to create the same effect, but at a much lower production cost. The process of limited animation also allows for animation cels to be duplicated, resulting in a lower number of separate frames per second."
I know some people who frown upon limited animation, but it really is just another artistic style -- even if it was (and still is) used most often as a cost-cutting measure. You can achieve some creative, abstract effects with it, and it lives on today as the basis for most Flash animation really (think of how instances, symbols, and tweening are used).
