How is animation made to bring drawings to life?
The Flicker Trick
How is animation made to bring drawings to life?
Here's a wonderful trick your eyes fall for every single time you watch a cartoon. The drawings aren't really moving. They're sitting perfectly still, one after another, faster than you can blink — and somehow a duck waddles, a hero leaps, a teacup dances. So how does a stack of frozen pictures learn to wiggle? Let's find out.
The secret hides in your own brain. When you see a flash of a picture, your brain holds onto it for a tiny fraction of a second before letting go. So if a new, slightly-different picture appears before the old one fades, your brain smears them together into one smooth motion. It's not the drawings moving. It's your brain connecting the dots.
