Motion created frame-by-frame without live-action photography — stop-motion, drawn animation, or CGI. One minute equals 1440 individual images.
When you work frame by frame instead of shooting live-action, you enter a different realm of temporality. Animated film — whether stop-motion, classic 2D animation, or digital 3D rendering — operates on a fundamental principle: you need 24 individual frames per second, meaning 1440 frames per minute. This is non-negotiable. Unlike live-action, where the camera records continuously, with animation, you consciously create each frame — position a character minimally, take a photo, and repeat this thousands of times. The illusion of movement only emerges in the projector or on the monitor.
The practical consequence is brutal: one minute of animation takes between four and eight weeks of production time, depending on complexity and style. With stop-motion using puppets and practical sets, you have to manage every micro-movement — arm position, facial expression, lighting situation must remain constant, otherwise it flickers. In 2D cel animation, you create keyframes (the main poses) and have the in-betweens tweened. With CGI, the computer renders your scenes — but the pre-production (modeling, rigging, shading) often costs more time than the actual rendering. All three techniques share the same temporal pleasure and madness: you don't think in takes and cuts, but in frame numbers and exposure sequences.
In editing, animated film is treated differently from live-action. You have raw material that is already self-contained — no wider coverage that you assemble later. Your cuts are fixed before the animation starts. This is also an advantage: there are no surprises during shooting. On the other hand, every problem in pre-production is expensive. A faulty animatic (the storyboard-like rough cut of stills and sound) will cost weeks of rework.
Animated film and live-action are constantly merging today — VFX shots in real films are also animation, only that they are composited with real elements. However, classic animated film remains its own discipline: pure craftsmanship or computing power, not light that you simply rearrange. It requires patience, planning, and a pixel-perfect understanding that time here consists of discrete, unchangeable images.