Are you considering having an animation made? Then you have several types of animations to choose from. These animations differ from each other in terms of technique, visual representation and cost. Not sure yet which type is most suitable?

In this article, we will discuss the different types of animations you can choose from and what benefits they can offer.

Traditional animations

Traditionally, animations are drawn by hand. In this type of animation, each frame is drawn out by an artist. Think of the earlier Disney animations of Micky Mouse or Donald Duck. This can be done on paper, but nowadays it is also often done on a computer. This technique used to be very popular, but because it is quite labor-intensive (and there are now more efficient digital alternatives) it is little used today. Especially in marketing, this technique is actually hardly used anymore. In creative projects you do come across the technique more often; Disney, for example, still regularly uses traditional animation. However, most companies opt for more efficient techniques that do not require redrawing every frame. In that case, you quickly end up with 2D and 3D animations. 2D animations are also called explanatory animations.

Explanatory animation / 2D animation

Both 2D animations and 3D animations are created using software. An important advantage of both types of animations is that they are generally a lot easier to make than traditional animations. However, there are also important differences between them. 2D animation has been around a lot longer and also uses slightly older technology. With 2D animation, as the name suggests, two-dimensional images are created. This means that this type of animation feels a bit flatter than 3D animation does. A major advantage of 2D animations is that they take less time to develop, making them generally more cost-efficient than 3D animations. So if you like to have simple, budget-friendly animations created, these animations can be a good option.