Issue Date: Volume: 29 Issue: 11 (Nov 2006)
Bridging the 2D and CG Gap
Animation has been through some major changes during the past 10 years, and some of them blindsided artists. The signs were there, but resistance to change, fear of the machine, and the concept of denial prevented many artists from seeing what was on the horizon.
As in many other fields, the computer has made what is known as a disruptive impact on our art form. Think of the car and the horse, the cellular phone and the pay phone, computer-generated animation and traditional 2D animation. The introduction of the computer has changed an art form that had been, until recently, a pen-and-paper medium. Every animated feature film from the early 1900s to the late 1980s was a traditionally hand-drawn or stop-motion animated film. The tools used to make those films did not significantly change in almost 80 years.
The art of classical film animation has been ever-evolving since its early days. Artists and the studios have strived to raise the bar visually through storytelling since the first crude attempts at putting moving images on the screen. We are talking about classical animation and its evolution into computer-generated feature films—think Steamboat Willie and its progression to The Incredibles.
It is important for an animator to recognize trends in filmmaking, storytelling, and technology in order to increase his or her chances of continued employment. Trends and history reveal how evolution of an art form occurs. Paying close attention to the trends and growth of any field helps predict the future of that industry. Three major shifts are responsible for the progression from pencil to mouse in feature animation: aesthetic, audience, and storytelling.
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