Welcome
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Welcome to the Project. If you would be so kind as to join myself and McKenna Mead on a tour of the history of computer animation?
What is Computer Animation?
Computer animation is a form of media that uses computers to create a series of still images that, when played in sequence at an appropriate speed, creates the illusion of continuous movement. With this form of animation, all pieces of the animated piece are created in the computer, as opposed to modern ‘traditional’ animation where backgrounds and an artist’s hand-done drawings are often scanned into a computer for coloring, cleanup, lighting, and effects work.
In modern animation, the line between 'traditional' and 'digital' has become blurred. It is comparatively very quick and easy to draw the thousands of frames needed for a full-length film on the computer, so most, if not all modern studios use computers as a shortcut. Even modern 'traditional' films created by Disney make heavy use of computer assistance. Given the advantages offered by computers, this is not at all likely to change.
In modern animation, the line between 'traditional' and 'digital' has become blurred. It is comparatively very quick and easy to draw the thousands of frames needed for a full-length film on the computer, so most, if not all modern studios use computers as a shortcut. Even modern 'traditional' films created by Disney make heavy use of computer assistance. Given the advantages offered by computers, this is not at all likely to change.
A Brief History of CG in Disney
The Walt Disney Company has long held a place at the top of the heap when it comes to animation. It pioneered the use of synchronized sound in animated shorts with the creation of Steamboat Willie in 1928 and went on to produce the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, in 1937.
Of course, at this time, computers weren't even on the radar as a film-making tool. That had to wait until 1968, when Russian mathematicians created a computer model of a moving cat that was later converted to film. This is considered the first instance of computer-generated imagery.
Computers were used as an auxiliary film making tool for the next few decades. During the seventies and eighties, it primarily showed up as a way to create special effects for science fiction films including Star Wars: A New Hope, Superman the Movie, Alien, Tron, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn. 1985 saw the first instance of a photorealistic CGI character in Lucasfilm's Young Sherlock Holmes, creating a CGI stained glass knight for ten seconds of screen time.
1985 also saw Disney's first use of computer-generated imagery in a feature film. On July 24th, The Black Cauldron was released, incorporating computer-animated baubles, a boat, and the titular cauldron itself.
A year later, Disney's partner Pixar released its fully-computer-animated short film Luxo Jr., which heralded the first use of shadows in pure CGI film and also became the first CGI film to be nominated for an Academy Award. Pixar only went up from there and would later go on to produce the Toy Story trilogy and all the rest of its full-length CGI movies.
Also in 1986, Disney released The Great Mouse Detective. This used CGI in a much more obvious and pivotal manner than had been used in The Black Cauldron. The climax features a thrilling chase between the lead mouse, Basil of Baker Street, and his arch foe, Professor Ratigan, through the gears and cogs of the clock in Big Ben. The cogs and clock workings were created with wire frame models in a computer that were then transferred to animation cels. This allowed animators to create a visually stunning and complex environment for the final chase scene. The success of The Great Mouse Detective is cited as a revitalizing force for Disney's animation department and led to the production of The Little Mermaid and the Disney Renaissance.
The Little Mermaid, while it did incorporate a few instances of CGI, was the last Disney film to use the fully traditional method of handpainted cel animation. Its successor was The Rescuer's Down Under and was created using the CAPS (Computer Animation Production System) method of animation. While Down Under is a highly underrated film, it did prove that the new system was a viable, beautiful method of producing animated films.
In traditional cel animation, line images are drawn, then transferred onto clear cels with one of a few methods. The reverse side of the cel is then painted with thick, opaque gouache paint. This method is expensive, complex, and highly laborious. With CAPS, the line images are first drawn, then scanned into a computer. A digital artist inks the line drawings and colors them, allowing for an endless array of consistent colors and letting the artist fill entire sections of the image with color with only a single click. The animated characters are then composited over a scanned background. CAPS allowed for deeper, more complex images and allowed for more sophisticated camera techniques.
In traditional cel animation, line images are drawn, then transferred onto clear cels with one of a few methods. The reverse side of the cel is then painted with thick, opaque gouache paint. This method is expensive, complex, and highly laborious. With CAPS, the line images are first drawn, then scanned into a computer. A digital artist inks the line drawings and colors them, allowing for an endless array of consistent colors and letting the artist fill entire sections of the image with color with only a single click. The animated characters are then composited over a scanned background. CAPS allowed for deeper, more complex images and allowed for more sophisticated camera techniques.
Through the nineties, CGI became more and more common. Scenes requiring a great number of moving characters, like the stampede from The Lion King and the charge of an army of Hun warriors in Mulan, were now easier to create. Backgrounds could become more complex and interesting- Beauty and the Beast made an incredible use of a 3-D camera during its ballroom scene, and Tarzan later became famous for its completely CGI backgrounds. Character design, which in hand-drawn animation by necessity needed to be simplified, could now become more elaborate. 1992's Aladdin boasted two CGI characters, the tiger-headed Cave of Wonders and the beautifully patterned Magic Carpet.
Of special note is Disney's Dinosaur. Released in 2000, it used computer-generated characters on live-action backgrounds, much as had been used in 1993's Jurassic Park (a pinnacle of achievement for computer-generated imagery in and of itself). The result was a film that viewers could almost convince themselves had been created by sending a camera crew alongside the dinosaur characters. Sadly, this was the only film using this method that Disney released, and the company immediately returned to the Tarzan-style method of hand-animated characters on computer-generated backgrounds (used to brilliant effect in Treasure Planet), or the more Renaissance method of incorporating CGI characters and objects into an otherwise 'tradigital' film (seen in the CG spaceships of Lilo and Stitch).
During the rocky period between 1999 and 2006, when Pixar and Disney very nearly came to part ways over ownership and distribution conflicts, Disney turned its eye towards fully CGI films. Between 2005 and 2008, the company produced Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons, and Bolt. In particular, Chicken Little was an attempt by Disney that it could produce successful CGI films on its own, without Pixar. The film wound up performing only middlingly well, selling adequately but receiving rather poor reviews from critics who complained that Disney put more focus on the CGI than the story, and helped spur the decision to have Disney purchase the Pixar company.
After the purchase, Disney announced its return to traditional (or rather, tradigital) animation after a string of CG films, with plans to alternate between CG and traditional films on a yearly basis. This has brought audiences the two newest additions to the fairy tale line, The Princess and the Frog (tradigital) and Tangled (CG), and Disney's latest release, a tradigitally-animated Winnie the Pooh. Like Bolt before it, Tangled made extensive use of a process that crossed photorealism with a stylistic impression that gave the film a distinct look, along with special software that gave the backgrounds a more painterly feel.
However, after the production of The Little Matchgirl in 2006, Disney had closed down its traditional animation department in favor of pure CGI animation. To create Princess and the Frog, the studio had to be reopened and updated with new animation software and technology to replace the outdated CAPS system. To replace it, Disney animators turned to the new Toon Boom Animation software and Adobe programs, including Photoshop for creating backgrounds and AfterEffects to add special effects. Toon Boom had been used in Disney filmmaking since the end of the 90s, starting with 1997's Hercules and going on down the line, and is still in use today.
What will the future of Disney animation hold? November 2012 is slated for the release of Disney's next CG film Wreck-It Ralph, a movie about an arcade game villain bent on proving he can be a good guy, while 2013 promises us the next tradigital film, King of the Elves. Beyond that, no one really knows...
What will the future of Disney animation hold? November 2012 is slated for the release of Disney's next CG film Wreck-It Ralph, a movie about an arcade game villain bent on proving he can be a good guy, while 2013 promises us the next tradigital film, King of the Elves. Beyond that, no one really knows...
For any who may have been wondering: Puck and Owen appear here courtesy of Disney's Gargoyles, which was animated using cel animation with computerized coloring and a few toon-shaded CGI elements such as vehicles.