Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images that create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion created by the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be achieved in several ways, the most common being as a motion picture or video.
Animation has been about since before the web began, enhancing visual content and, in many cases, animation is used to highlight the interface. Today, animation is not just part of a websites content, it’s a fundamental feature, essential to increasing interaction with the site.
Since CSS3 was rolled out across most major browsers and devices, we have witnessed an important evolution of animation techniques. In addition to endless libraries for JavaScript-driven animations, the panorama before us is truly spectacular; technologies for animated content are branching out across the web thanks to Canvas, SVG, CSS3, WebGL… The latest giant step is the unification of declarative and imperative animations via web animation APIs to merge features from SVG and CSS.
JAPANESE
anime, style of animation popular in Japanese films. Early anime films were intended primarily for the Japanese market and, as such, employed many cultural references unique to Japan. For example, the large eyes of anime characters are commonly perceived in Japan as multifaceted “windows to the soul.” Much of the genre is aimed at children, but anime films are sometimes marked by adult themes and subject matter. Modern anime began in 1956 and found lasting success in 1961 with the establishment of Mushi Productions by Osamu Tezuka, a leading figure in modern manga, the dense, novelistic Japanese comic book style that contributed greatly to the aesthetic of anime. Anime such as Miyazaki Hayao’s Princess Mononoke (1997) are the modern equivalent of the epic folk adventures once filmed by Japanese masters such as Mizoguchi Kenji and Kurosawa Akira. At the turn of the 21st century, anime began to attain wide international popularity with the Pokémon television series and films such as Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2002), winner of an Academy Award for best animated feature film.