It all begins with a still image. Then another. And another. Before you know it, a fish is swimming, a dragon is flying, or a robot is falling in love with another robot in a post-apocalyptic world. That’s the magic of animation—a world where pictures come to life and tell stories that can make us laugh, cry, or gasp in wonder.
The idea of making still images appear to move is older than you might think. Long before cartoons and Pixar films, people were already experimenting with optical illusions. In ancient times, artists in Egypt and Greece painted sequences of figures in motion on pottery, hinting at early attempts to capture movement. But the real journey of animation began in the 19th century.
One of the earliest breakthroughs was the zoetrope—a spinning cylinder with slits on the side. Inside were images that showed slight changes in movement. When the cylinder spun and you peeked through the slits, the pictures appeared to move. It was like watching a very short movie inside a drum. These clever devices laid the groundwork for what would become cinema and, eventually, animation as we know it.
Fast-forward to the early 1900s, when hand-drawn animation took off. Artists like Winsor McCay created short films by drawing each frame by hand. Imagine drawing thousands of pictures, each slightly different from the last! McCay’s most famous creation, Gertie the Dinosaur (1914), amazed audiences by responding to the animator’s voice and even interacting with real people on stage. It felt like magic—and in many ways, it was.
But animation truly entered the spotlight with one name: Walt Disney. In 1928, Disney introduced a cheerful little mouse named Mickey in Steamboat Willie, one of the first cartoons to feature synchronised sound. Mickey became a star overnight. Soon after, Disney’s team released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937—the world’s first full-length animated feature film. People were stunned. A story told entirely through moving drawings? It was something the world had never seen before.
As decades rolled on, animation evolved. Studios like Warner Bros gave us Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, while Hanna-Barbera created the Flintstones and Scooby-Doo. Each studio brought its own style—some zany, some heartfelt—but all filled with imagination. In Japan, anime emerged as a powerful art form, with shows like Astro Boy and later, Spirited Away, blending stunning visuals with deep storytelling.
Then came the computer revolution. In the 1990s, a little studio called Pixar shook things up with Toy Story, the first feature film made entirely using computer-generated imagery (CGI). Suddenly, animation wasn’t just about hand-drawn frames—it was about digital models, virtual lighting, and high-speed rendering. The result? Smoother movements, richer textures, and endless possibilities.
Today, animation appears everywhere. Not just in movies or TV shows, but in video games, apps, advertisements, and even educational content. With software tools like Blender, Toon Boom, and Adobe Animate, anyone with a computer and patience can create their own animated stories. Stop-motion, 2D, 3D, motion capture—it’s a buffet of styles waiting to be explored.
What makes animation so special isn’t just the technology. It’s the fact that it lets us imagine without limits. You can show a fox reading a newspaper, a planet talking to a satellite, or a broomstick learning to dance. You’re not tied to the rules of physics or reality. The only boundary is your creativity.
But animation also takes hard work. A few seconds of footage might require dozens—or hundreds—of individual frames. Animators must think about how a character blinks, how wind moves through hair, or how an emotion appears on a face. It’s part science, part storytelling, and a whole lot of patience.
And behind every great animation is a team. Writers craft the story, character designers dream up the look, storyboard artists plan each scene, and animators bring it all to life. There are also sound designers, voice actors, editors, and visual effects experts—all working together like a well-rehearsed orchestra.
More recently, animation has been used to tell powerful real-world stories. From short films about climate change to animated documentaries about refugees, the medium has become a tool for change. It can make serious topics accessible, engaging, and emotionally resonant, especially for younger audiences.
So next time you watch an animated film or scroll past a dancing cat on your screen, take a moment to appreciate the craft behind the characters. Animation may be light-hearted and colourful, but it is also a serious art form—a bridge between dream and reality.
Whether it’s a classic Disney film or a student’s first short, every animated story begins with the same idea: What if this could move? And from there, the magic begins.