Before computer animation, how were cartoon movies made?

frame by frame. You either went to pixillation or for stop motion. Both are based on the same principle and both required each frame to be shot on film. read more

They also used layers, much like the way they are used today. Except they used transparent foil sheets to draw on, so every character was a layer on its own, while background was another layer (there were background artists in the production, who only made background pictures). This method is called pixillation. read more

The algorithms were programmed on the BESM-4 computer. The computer then printed hundreds of frames to be later converted to film. An accompanying scientific paper describes the foundation of the employed physics simulation techniques that nowadays are commonly applied to animation films and computer games. read more

In honor of the opening of Watch Me Move, an exhibit celebrating animated films that starts today at the Detroit Institute of Arts, here is How Animated Cartoons are Made, a 1919 short produced by the Bray Studios and starring animator Wallace Carlson. read more