What is stop motion animation?

Stop motion animation is an animation technique where physical objects are manipulated between individual frames that are later played back at a high speed to give the illusion of movement, even though the objects themselves are always static. Common objects used in this form of animation include clay, dolls, and sometimes people, but stop motion animation can use almost any object that can be physically manipulated. It is distinct from computer-generated imagery in that stop motion animation displays genuinely real-life textures, which can create impressions currently impossible to do with computer graphic manipulation techniques. Stop motion animation should not be confused with time-lapse animation, where pictures are taken at specific intervals to create the illusion that time is moving faster.