Most millennials have grown up with animated movies such as the Lion King, Tarzan, and the Little Mermaid. In the past these movies and television shows, mostly targeted towards younger generations, were created by hand-drawing each individual frame. However with technological improvements an alternative has provided itself in the form of computer-generated imagery (CGI).
Back in 1937 Disney released Snow white and the seven dwarfs, which was their first feature-length animated film. Since then Disney has released many other immensely successful movies such as Beauty and the beast, Peter Pan, Pinocchio all using the same method of animation. This 2D animating was realized by hand-drawing each frame on an animation cell, which was then compiled into a film. Not only was this time consuming and costly, having to sometimes make revisions required having to completely redraw the parts in question, making iteration incredibly difficult. Precisely that last reason is why currently also Disney has shifted from hand-drawn 2D films, to computer animated 3D ones.
Computer animated movies however, are not new. According to AT&T, the first computer animated video ever created is of a wire-frame square circling the planet and dates back to 1963. It still took a long time until the first feature-length film was made solely using computer animations. This happened in 1995 when Pixar, at that time a newcomer in the industry, created Toy Story. Toy Story was a massive success and proved that not only can computer animated movies be successful, they even have certain advantages over hand-drawn films.
The biggest of those advantages might possibly be iteration. Comparing the traditional and the new methods, CGI is not necessarily more time-efficient or less costly. Every frame still needs to be individually created by the animators, just like with the traditional method. However, with CGI it is much easier to go back and revise some parts. For instance altering the lightning, retiming, or shifting the camera position. All these thing can be relatively easily achieved with computer animation, but with hand-drawing you would have to completely redraw the entire part. Easier iteration in the end leads to higher quality films and that is of course what producers are after.
As we all know, by now Disney has created multiple computer animated films, and with the huge success Disney has had with these films, the question remains if they will ever return to hand-drawing. Disney has given an account saying that there are no plans currently to release a new 2D film. The king of animated films has set its focus on 3D films, with many new and returning titles coming up, such as a third installment of Cars and a sequel to the Incredibles. Therefore it is quite clear that computer animation has caused a big shift in the animation industry and it remains a mystery if we will see hand-drawn films any time soon or if they are a thing of the past all together.
References:
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/60at60/2015/8/1995-first-feature-length-computer-animated-movie-392883
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/19/worlds-first-computer-generated-animation-traced-1963_n_1687475.html
https://www.quora.com/Why-has-Disney-stopped-doing-hand-drawn-animated-film
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/mar/07/disney-hand-drawn-animation
It was actually Pixar who introduced computer generated images to Disney. Before they took a stake in Pixar they were drawing every frame by hand. CGI allows for highly customization even after a frame/scene has been drawn. Like the typewriter it isn’t necessarily a bad thing that the images are now drawn on a computer instead of pen and paper as it is say more flexible.
I totally agree that CGI, or any computer-aided designing methods, have shaped the film industry. Surprisingly it’s not that cost-reducing as we may wishfully think — sometimes it costs even infinitely more as those films always need stunning special effects. Neither does it take less time for the same reason. But anyway together with the iteration, I believe the flexibility has boomed as well. What’s more, the quality of the picture has increased significantly. From the comparison of several films, we can easily find the improvements brought by the computer-based technology. Big players like Disney and DreamWorks may not be producing hand-drawing films every now and then due to multiple reasons, such as the requirements of their films and the different requirements to their current staff. And 3D replacing 2D, IMAX instead of small screens, they are trending and unstoppable. On the other hand, I think (computer-based) hand-drawingings can be found more in short cartoons or not so famous films. Actually some 2D films, e.g. , can be very nice and highly rated. Besides, is usually in 2D. I guess 2D hand-drawing does not vanish, but instead they become 2D computer-aided animations. The film industry simply is trying to pick the best method to present their ideas to us, either in the small screens or the big ones. And that matters the most.
Dear Aaron, thank you for your blog! Based on what you wrote, I honestly do not think either that Disney will go back to 2D films, since 3D computer animations offer advantages. What I do think, is that computer animated 3D will make it easier for other players in the industry to create animations movies. I also think that the computer animated 3D technique will evolve, meaning that it will take less time in the future to make an animation movie.
Hi Aaron,
Thanks for your post! With the technological advancements providing more advantages at a lower cost than hand-drawn movies, I think that many firms will continue to produce computer animated movies. However, having that said, there will still be those few firms that produce hand-drawn films in order to satisfy the needs of niche markets. Consider anime series, although some are made using the computer, the commercial (mainstream) anime is still fundamentally hand-drawn. As the hand-drawn component represents one of its key selling points, I don’t believe that computer-based animation will take over the anime industry any time soon.
– https://washiblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/anime-production-detailed-guide-to-how-anime-is-made-and-the-talent-behind-it/
Hi Aaron, in my opinion hand-drawn films are a thing of the past, for the time consuming and price reasons you mentioned. However, I do believe there will be more 3D computer animated films that will replicate the 2D feel / style. The movie Tangled is a good example of this, where traditional 2-D animation was cemented in the aesthetic. What is your view on this?
Hi Aaron, nice blog! It will be interesting to see where Disney will take their animation movies with new techniques.
@ Ananda, it is indeed very interesting to see how 3d animation will influence the future development of movie making. If it, as you said, will shorten the production time to develop a movie, what would be the consequences? Don’t you think that making it easier to produce a movie, the overall quality of animated movies will decrease. Movies will turn a fast production and easy money making product, while the story and character development are forgotten.On the other hand, one could say that movie producers could focus more on the story, since the visual aspect of movies won’t be that hard to produce.
What do you think will happen?