BASIC ANIMATION

(PRACTICAL FILE)

SUBMITTED BY- Rabia

COURSE- B.SC - Multimedia &
Animation

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 SINGHANIA UNIVERSITY

DATE-_________

CERTIFICATE
THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT THE PROJECT WORK SUBMITTED BY
RABIA, HAVING ENROLLMENT NO. 220755220113 TO THE
SINGHANIA UNIVERSITY DISTRICT, JHUNJHUNU, PACHERI BARI,
RAJASTHAN-333515 IN PARTIAL FULFILMENTOF THE
REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF THE B.SC Spl Multimedia
& Animation HAS BEEN CARRIED OUT UNDER MY
SUPERVISION.

ENDORSED BY

__________________
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 CONTENTS

1. Introduction to digital
animation

2. Pioneers 1960–1980

3. Development 1980-
1990

4. Maturity 1990-2000

5. Conclusion

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6. Bibliography

INTRODUCTION
Technology, our new present and future, is
making human lives easier and more convenient.
With new technological innovations, human
beings have become more dependent on science
and technology. We rely on technology for all
our activities, and have become an integral part
of our lives.
The power of technology is increasing day by
day which in general can also be seen in the field
of animation industry. Due to wide range of
technologies, personal computers and digital
media devices have become accessible to people
including our animators. New technologies may
often offer new opportunities for expression, but
the animator or creator, not the software, must
determine the nature of the work. Digital
animation has become increasingly popular in
recent years as computers have become more
powerful and sophisticated. Digital animation is
used in a wide range of applications, such as
film, television, video games, and advertising.

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  THE BIRTH OF DIGITAL ANIMATION
Digital animation started spreading its roots in
nineteenth century starting from
cinema(movies). Hopefully among the decades
the roots of digital animation were spread vast
among different lands of world therefore be
named as a modernist art – constantly
developing an innovative language of expression
related to other art forms, but equally, changing
the phases of culture and society.
To make the process of animation successful
various devices were required. Time to time new
devices were revealed
example, George Eastman's flexible
photographic paper was used as recording stock
by Etienne Marey in his moving picture camera.

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 George Eastman Etienne
Marey
This camera was later influenced by Thomas
Edison’s development of kinetoscope system.

The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture

exhibition device, designed for films to be
viewed by one person at a time through a
peephole viewer window. The Kinetoscope was
not a movie projector, but it introduced the basic

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approach that would become the standard for all
movie-based projection before the coming of
video: it created the fake image of movement by
bringing across a strip of (with a row of holes)
film bearing (one after the other) images over a
light source with a high-speed shutter. First
described in idea-based terms by U.S. inventor
Thomas Edison in 1888.
 OPTICAL ILLUSION
Optical illusion something that deceives the eye
by appearing to be other than it is in easy
language optical illusion is something that tricks
your eyes and makes you think you see
something that is not really there, or see it
differently from how it really is.
That’s something which was created by Georges
Mèliés in 1904. It was a fantasy film which was
named as Le Voyage à travers l’Impossible,
which employed many of the techniques
developed during the production of his earlier
‘trick films’.
Trick films were short silent films designed to
feature innovative special effects. Mèliés used to
perform as magician so he used his stage his
knowledge of staging and narrative to produce
what became known as ‘trick films’. Some of the
trick films included- THE HOUSE THAT JACK
BUILT, THE HUMAN FLIES, BRAHMIN AND
BUTTERFLY and many more.

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  Photography and sequential images
In earlier times movies were created using
images, Eadweard Muybridge is claimed both by
animation and cinema as the father of the forms.
In history, Eadweard Muybridge carried out his
original experiments in Palo Alto, California,
commissioned by a stable owner to analyses the
movement of a champion racehorse, Muybridge
embarked on a five-year project to study and
capture the horse’s gait photographically.

The sequences of images that Eadweard

Muybridge produced are often mistaken as
frames taken from a movie. In reality, the
images were produced using photographic
cameras modified by Muybridge, using a custom-
shutter system in order to achieve short
exposures.
 FIRST ANIMATED MOVIE
In the early 1900s, as the technologies and
techniques of cinema became more available and

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reliable the film industry increased their
production. To meet the market requirements
innovations in the production process,
technological refinement and invention added to
the palette of the animator; the medium
developed from simplistic line drawings and
manipulation of objects into the sophisticated
imitations of life.
Celluloid (cel) transparent plastic made in
sheets, formerly used for cinematographic
film.
But soon the use of celluloid or film impacted on
the animation process in a further important
way. Previously, the process of reproducing
images was labor-intensive and difficult to
control in terms of consistency. Animators
exploited the translucency of paper in order to
trace and develop sequences of drawings.
COHL: FANTASMAGORIE (1908) (The first
animated movie)
Between February and May 1908, Cohl
created Fantasmagorie, considered the first
fully animated film ever made.

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Animation and cinema have a preoccupation
with realism, an artistic or literary movement or
style characterized by the representation of
people or things as they actually are.
The interest in what's lifelike and real in any
story is not concerned with the possibility of
photorealistic representation, but also
maintaining the terms and conditions of
imaginary worlds that have been created.
Max Fleischer’s 1915 invention – the rotoscope –
was reminiscent of Leon Battista Alberti’s
‘Frame’ from the fifteenth century. Technical
developments such as these have always played
a significant role in delivering realism in films.
By projecting previously filmed action on frame
one at a time and on to a screen, the movement
could be traced to cel. The resulting movement
is very naturalistic irrespective of the drawing
method.

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The rotoscope create by Max Fleischer was used
in Gulliver travels. Use of the rotoscope brought
naturalistic human movement into the entirely
hand-crafted and hand-animated space. In
Gulliver’s Travels the resulting action
emphasized the fantastic nature of Lilliput and
the traditionally animated Lilliputians.
 THE DISNEY ERA
In 1937, Walt Disney Animation Studios released
its first fully animated feature film, Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs, pioneering a new form of
family entertainment.
The use of 'real' human movement in animation
through rotoscoping has been causing
arguments. Even when the humans are used as
used as subjects in case of creating unnatural
weird scenes the stop frame create an unnatural
movement, which places the action in a
particular theatre based big picture.
Patented by Disney in 1937, the multiplane
rostrum camera allowed the filming of several
layers of still and animated artwork

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simultaneously. Each plane of artwork could be
manipulated independently in three dimensions,
which allowed a greater sense of depth and a
method of developing a far more detailed
environment. The use of planes in the digital era
is commonplace and is an essential tool for
animators, editors and effects designers. Planes
are now also known as layers or tracks, and exist
on an on-screen timeline rather than under a
camera.

 ABSTRACT FILMS
In earlier times when abstracts films were made,
they were mistaken as computer graphics which
one could notice in books where it is said that
Oskar Fischinger produced animation of such an
abstract and stylized nature that it could be
mistaken as computer graphic.
The geometry and color in Fischinger’s
animations were closer to the art of painting
than film. Fischinger's work showed a good
example of a leaning towards the fine arts rather
than commercial films. Fischinger’s painterly
approach to animation attracted Disney to
recruit him to create a sequence for Fantasia
(1940), illustrating the Bach section.

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Experimental pieces such as Night on Bald
Mountain (1933) by Alexander Alexeieff
employed a pin screen to create images, while
Hell Unlimited (1936) by Norman McLaren
demonstrated an early use of multiple media,
which predates digital compositions by half a
century. Both films were also created with
artistic and political motivation.

 MOORE’S LAW
The 1960s saw the arrival of a generation of
machines which may recognize as modern
computers. In the previous decade, a single
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computer would occupy a room, often having to
be assembled on site and requiring the constant
supervision of support staff to maintain it. A
reduction in size following the replacement of
vacuum valves with transistors – then followed
by transistors with integrated circuits – led to a
class of moveable, if not portable, mini
computers: general purpose, affordable
machines (in comparison to a mainframe), which
could be operated by a single person.
Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce at the laboratories
of Texas Instruments in the USA produced the
first integrated circuit – a single component with
the functionality of multiple transistors. The
integrated circuit (IC) solved several problems
related to electronic engineering. The
simplification of the component meant it could
be fabricated more cheaply on an industrial
scale. The use of fewer components also meant
an increase in reliability in the component itself.
Developments such as the incorporation of a
screen added to the computer’s flexibility and
provided the opportunity to experiment with
graphic images for the first time. Examples of
such developments are the first computer game
– Space war – and the first graphic interface –
Sketchpad. Sketchpad was a stylus-based screen
controller devised by Ivan Sutherland in 1963.

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Later in 1965 Gordon Moore proposed an
observation on the relationship between the unit
cost of producing an integrated circuit, the
number of transistors in that circuit and
development over time, which was published by
Electronics Magazine.
Moore’s observation was made by empirical
study of computational potential of early
mechanical computers from 1930’s to the point
in 1965 when he was working at intel this
observation was termed as a law by professor
carver mead at California institute of technology.

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 Pioneers 1960–1980
The history of digital animation is formed by the
coming together of movies and computing. The
relationship between disciplines has formed the
language and influenced the development of
both. As with the evolution of film language and
technology, computing has often been
progressed by invention of new and interesting
people and specific breakthroughs.
Like the pioneers of cinema technology, the early
computer experimenters were mainly individuals
motivated by personal interest to develop
existing work with new tools. Although much of
the imagery then may seem crude or simplistic
by modern standards, the achievements of the
animators who made the first steps with
computers is made more remarkable when one
considers the unfriendliness of computer
technology, which still used ticker tape as a
standard output.

JOHN WHITNEY Sr was one of the first to use

computers in order to create animation.
Whitney’s foundation in traditional animation,
both commercial and experimental, enabled him
to adapt the computerized targeting mechanism
from an anti-aircraft gun in order to control the
movement of a camera, producing geometric
patterns of light and shade. He collaborated with
Saul Bass, a graphic designer of repute, who

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began building a famous career for film title
sequence design in the mid-1950s.

John whitney Sr saul bass

John Whitney Sr was able to pursue abstract

animation with digital computers when he was
made artist-in-residence at IBM in 1966.

TITLE- Vertigo film promotion

Animator John Whitney Sr The films of geometry,
light and colour produced by John Whitney Sr
were some of the earliest computer animations
made. The production method involved a
significant amount of traditional photochemical
processing – the initial output medium being
monochrome film, which would be optically
printed to create colour, multiple images and
other effects.

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The 1960s was an era of divided public attitudes
to all things scientific. Depiction of computers
reflected the range of sensibilities from
optimism. Science fiction’s predicted image of
screen-orientated computers in cinema and
television did not reflect the state of the
technology at the time. Jean-Luc Godard’s
Alphaville (1965) featured a real mainframe
computer, which was a direct contrast to Stanley
Kubrick’s HAL 9000, in 2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968).
 The illusion of space travel- Stanley
Kubrick was one of the first directors to
successfully deliver the illusion of space
travel on the big screen.

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 STANLEY KUBRIK
Kubrick’s famous perfectionism and
uncompromising directing style was matched by
a screenplay founded on the technical expertise
and scientific knowledge of Arthur C. Clarke
(author of the original novel 2001: A Space
Odyssey). The successful illusion of space travel
and exploration in 2001 was achieved through
design based on Clarke’s best predictions with
reference to the NASA space program, combined
with convincing visual effects by Douglas
Trumbull.

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The countless computer displays, video monitors
and instrument panels were simulations created
by film projectors hidden within each set. The
text and graphics displayed on the screens were
created by photographing physical artwork,
which were then animated using mechanical
techniques based around an Oxberry rostrum
camera.

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 2001: A Space Odyssey
 The Birth of Computer Games
Before the arrival of computer games in arcades
and as consoles, computer technology was
restricted to the work places only. Video games
brought computer technology into the public
domain and the home, and repositioned it as
entertainment. Games consoles established a
route for computers to be used in the home.
Arcade games and consoles changed the
relationship between the public and computer
technology by being embedded inside what was
effectively a toy.

Atari 2600
Atari was one of the first video games consoles
manufacturer, launching a console version of the
video game PONG. Both PONG and Atari have
been influential in the development of video and
digital games.

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 DEVELOPMENT 1980-1990
The earliest digital animation elements were
restricted by budget. As computers increased in
speed, availability restrictions fell and the
balance of power tilted towards the film-maker.
The appearance of personal computers also gave
hope for the rest of the general public.
Computing at the level required to deliver
cinema quality imagery was only available to a
few with budgets robust enough to access the
machines and, importantly, technical support to
translate the directors’ ideas into images. Upon
the arrival of personal computers heralded by
Apple’s Macintosh and an icon-based interface
that required little or no technical or computer
training to operate, rudimentary computer-
generated imagery became a possibility for
individuals.
 THE FIRST DIGITAL GAME

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Computer games development was creative and
productive in the 1980s. Competition in arcades
drove innovation in hardware and software, with
game kiosks evolving into mock simulators and
sit-on rides, while games graphics and animation
became more sophisticated and diverse. The low-
power consumption of liquid crystal displays
(LCDs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) also
allowed the games industry to develop portable,
personal devices.
Interactive and accessible games technology
introduced digital technology to a wider public
in a non-threatening way, and increased the
general awareness of computer-generated
imagery and animation from the simplest LCD
screen to fully resolved 3D simulators.
While Nintendo began to miniaturize, Atari
started to develop their vector-based games.
Instead of shifting blocks of pixels around a
screen, a vector-based approach used a
microprocessor to calculate the changes of
mathematically defined space, and displayed the
resulting graphic using a wireframe
representation. Vector games generated a
specific look and feel because they used the
screen as an oscilloscope (monitoring device) rather
than a television screen.
Atari designer Ed Rotberg created a three-
dimensional vector game called as Battlezone.

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Battlezone was a forerunner of the ‘first person
shooter’ (FPS), which involved navigating a tank
on a virtual battlefield while avoiding and
destroying enemy tanks in order to score.
Impressed by effectiveness of virtual games, the
USA government commissioned a modified
version of the game to be used as a training tool
for drivers of Bradley fighting vehicles. Known
as the Bradley Trainer, the vector game was a
cost-effective alternative to simulators that were
exclusively in the hands of bigger institutions
such as Boeing and NASA.
In 1980, Japanese electronic toy manufacturer
Nintendo launched a series of hand-held
electronic games under the brand Game &
Watch. The devices were ancestors of the Game
Boy and used the same technology, LCD screens
and circuitry as digital clocks and watches.
Graphics on LCD and LED hand-held were
graphically crude, low-performing devices. The
graphic elements were fixed in the display and
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animation was achieved by illuminating or
switching between them. The Game & Watch
series was popular enough to last a full decade
and generated more than fifty titles, one of
which was Donkey Kong.

Donkey kong
(Creator- Nintendo)
Three versions of Donkey Kong eventually
appeared in the Game & Watch series and the
arcade versions were rivalled in popularity only
by Pac-Man from the champion industry leader
Atari. Donkey Kong’s success transformed
Nintendo into a major force in the computer
games industry.
Adventure games of the 1980s avoided the
restrictions of relying on technology to produce
imagery, but rather controlled the playback of
pre-rendered media files from a library of video

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and sound. A good example of this is the game
Dragon’s Lair, which was designed by Rick Dyer.

The technological innovation of Laser Disc made

it possible for Dragon’s Lair to incorporate full-
motion video sequences, a move which in turn
required more expertise in the execution of the
animation.
Unfortunately, the game had some inherent
impediments. The focus of the gameplay on a
player’s ability to navigate a pre-determined
path from animation to animation limited the
scope for interactivity. As well, the innovative
hardware made Dragon’s Lair an expensive
game to play. However, thanks to the cinematic
animated sequences and strong design, the
game was a success. This development blurred
the line between games and films, and also
treated players as audiences.

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  CGI AESTHETICS: - The expense of
producing high-quality digital animation
meant that its early development resided in
the domain of industry. This also shaped the
aesthetic language of the animated form.
The hard-edged quality and plasticity of
models, combined with smooth camera
moves, are not simply a result of the
mathematical basis of computers. They are
also derivations from the developments of
imaging technology needed to satisfy
markets, such as automotive engineering or
environmental planning.
The aesthetic of CGI was also driven by early
pressure to incorporate digitally produced
images with traditionally filmed live action. This
gap was beyond even the best facilities in the
early 1980s. Subtleties of light, movement and
both the organic or random nature of the real
world contrasted and revealed the artifice of
CGI. A struggle to attain photorealistic digital
imagery persists in feature films to the present
day.
 CHARACTER ANIMATION
John Whitney Jr and Gary Demos were
responsible for providing technical expertise
and creating the digital sequences, which
required the highest level of realism yet seen
in a feature film.
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 Ron Cobb oversaw the production design of
the film and bridged the gap between
sophisticated computer technology and film-
making. He worked with conventional
materials and was an enthusiastic participant
in the creation of digital imagery, having initial
experience of CGI while designing the
Nostromo flight consoles on Alien.
Cobb’s understanding of traditional film
practice and technique, coupled with a
commitment to digital imaging, enabled him to
design globally to achieve convincing
transitions between live action and digital
environments. Providing drawings for
buildings, props and vehicles, it is notable that
Cobb’s design required a skilled CAD
(computer-aided design) operator to translate
the information into digital form.
(CAD-Computer-assisted animation the use of
digital technology to enhance or manipulate
recorded material).
CAD systems had been established in the fields
of engineering and architecture, and had
evolved from two-dimensional plan drafting tools
into three-dimensional modellers used to
visualize objects, buildings and environments at
a planning stage.
Rod Lord used an engineering computer to
animate sequences depicting a live computer

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display of a building in Max Headroom. The
result was computer assisted animation rather
than computer generated. It was produced on a
system that had been assembled to retro-fit new
technology to established equipment.
While Paintbox and Abacus were becoming more
familiar facilities in graphics departments in the
mid-1980s, digital character animation was still
a distant goal, mainly due to the cost of
equipment.
In spite of computer-generated imagery, the
eponymous character of Max (who was supposed
to be a simulated human in the film) proved to
be beyond the capability and budget of the
production. Max was created using make-up,
latex, prosthetics, high-key lighting and editing
to produce the trademark stutter and repetition.
The high-contrast and vivid video color
emphasized the plasticity of the character, which
mimicked the look of 3D computer modelling.

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 Animator-Rod Lord
Each frame of wireframe artwork in Max
Headroom was displayed on a monochrome
vector screen mounted in the bed of a rostrum
camera then recorded on to film. Colors were
achieved by placing gels over the vector scope –
each color in a frame requiring a new pass or
exposure. The digital/analogue interface
required a large component of human labour.
The scope of what could be achieved by
character animators working at the featurefilm
level was curtailed by the restrictions imposed
by the governing commercial factors.
Limitations on what could be generated in terms
of subtlety of image, lighting and matching
movement meant a persona could only appear by
providing a context within the narrative to
accommodate the look of the character. The

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lighting, camera movement and composition of
the shot would have to be restricted to allow the
addition of the digital elements. The entire
production from the script through to post-
production involved an awareness that digital
animation would be part of the process.
Restrictions were less imposing in broadcast TV,
specifically in music videos. MTV started in 1981
and offered a new audience for independent and
experimental animators. The open form of the
music video allowed animators to use less
expensive technology to create short, character-
based sequences within the context of a music
video.
While Hollywood pursued the goal of ever more
photorealistic effects and animation, those in
television and independent communities had to
content themselves with more modest goals as
the available equipment and expertise were far
less powerful than what was available to film
studios and effects houses.
The music video ‘Money for Nothing’ was
designed and created by Gavin Blair and Ian
Pearson for Dire Straits, and featured a pair of
caricatured workmen denouncing and envying
musicians on MTV. Ironically, the video won
MTV’s best video award.

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 ‘Money for Nothing’
More than a decade of technological
development and music video became the
subject for a prophetic William Gibson novel.
Gibson’s Idoru presented the idea of an entirely
virtual rock star – a hologram – designed by a
corporation visualized with holographic
computer imaging and animated with artificial
intelligence.
Reflecting the eclectic composition of the music,
the Gorillaz visual world is an assembly of live
action, photography, 3D computer imagery and
2D animation, which carries the strong graphic
style from Hewlett’s comic art. The digital

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mixture of sound is paralleled by the
multifaceted animation.
As CAD became embedded within the
mainstream, further adaptations were made to
integrate three-dimensional input for disciplines
with a tradition of maquette and model-making
in the prototype or visualization stages of
production. Industrial Light and Magic (ILM)
used a 3D digitizer in Barry Levinson’s Young
Sherlock Holmes (1985) to plot the coordinates
of a maquette to build a 3D character of a
stained-glass knight – an exercise that required
ILM technicians to write translation software in
order to allow animators to use the captured
data.
Rotoscoping was also at the core of the
character’s movement; filmed footage of an
actor was done in profile and elevation to use as
a key for the digital animation. This development
of Max Fleischer’s rotoscope technique evolved
into a fully digital form in the shape of motion
capture. In 1985, the first CGI character
required an actor’s movement to be tracked by
hand before being used to key frame a digital
model. By 2001, the observation and recording
of movement was fully digitized, while the work
of tracking, recording and reapplying was all
carried out by computers. The resulting distance
between the actor and the digital character
shortened considerably, helping with the
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delivery of digital characters as sophisticated as
Gollum in The Lord of the Rings (2001).

Title- The Lord of the Rings

Director-Peter Jackson
The delivery of Gollum as a convincing main
character requires the combined skills of several
specialist disciplines. Texture, lighting, rigging,
match move, compositors and an array of digital
techniques contribute to the performance of
actor Andy Serkis and the character animators.

Title-The Lawnmower Man

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 Director-Brett Leonard
Hollywood’s depiction of cyberspace gave Angel
Studios the opportunity to test the boundaries
between virtual and real worlds, creating digital
characters with human aspects and simulated
humans with digital characteristics. Lawnmower
Man (1992) provides an insight into how
practitioners at the cutting edge of computer
graphics forecast the developing realms of
virtual reality.
In order to utilize computers for animation,
experimenters and pioneers were required to
make a significant investment in educating
themselves about digital technology. Even in
feature-film production where dedicated effects
facilities were using cutting edge technologies,
animators and cinematographers required
partnerships with technicians and programmers
to make effective use of the tools.
Early adopters of machines such as PET,
Spectrum and TRS-80 could now access the
word-processing and accountancy tools, which
had been the preserve of the office environment.
Innovation at the consumer level was less rapid
in the early days. Storage of data was made
possible by recording to audio cassette tape.
Original machines lost their programming when
the power was turned off. And these machines
uniformly required the use of a command-line

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interface – a long way from how computers were
being portrayed in film and television. And then
Macintosh arrived.
PET- an early personal computer designed by
Commodore aimed specifically at the small business user
and domestic markets. The machine used a command-
line interface and was equipped with a monochrome
screen.
Spectrum-launched by Sinclair in 1982, ZX
Spectrum was one of the first color-capable
computers aimed at domestic users. Minimal in
size and designed to work with televisions for
visual display, the computer had mass appeal and
was a favorite with early video gamers.
TRS-80- a consumer-level personal computer sold
through RadioShack (Tandy in the UK) and was
an early beneficiary of VisiCalc – a first
generation spreadsheet application.

MACINTOSH

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The Macintosh was designed as a consumer-
level machine. Utilizing the same functionality as
its predecessor, the Apple II, the Macintosh used
a graphical user interface (GUI) allowing access
to non-computer linguists and setting the
standard for personal computer operating
systems.
Apple Computer Inc had grown from enthusiast
and fan roots, when components and information
were just becoming available outside specialist
labs and companies. The Macintosh maintained
the spirit and ideals of democratizing the
computer as an open facility. From the icon-
driven controls of its user interface to the
ergonomic design of its case, the Macintosh
represented a leap towards greater access to
digital tools.
The distance between digital image-making and
animation was maintained by the polarity of
each discipline. Code writers and programmers
were rarely film-makers and animators, and the
expense of both practices meant
experimentation was an expensive undertaking.
While designers struggled with operators’
manuals and text-based interfaces, a
breakthrough in digitally animated film would
set a precedent for all to aim for. Luxo Jr
introduced traditional animation techniques to a
medium still developing its language.

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 Title-Luxo Jr
Animator-John Lasseter
In a little over two minutes, Luxo Jr stunned a
community of computer graphics developers.
Designers were delirious to find out what plug-in
or add-on Lasseter used to produce such an
evocative and empathic film. The answer was
simple: animation.
When John Lasseter delivered his two-minute
short, Luxo Jr (1986), a community of CGI artists
was stunned by the animation. It was like
nothing seen before in digital animation, and it
caused a clamour to find out what the
breakthrough technology was that could deliver
such subtle and organic movement in
characters.
The pioneering step that Luxo Jr represents is
the application of traditional animation
principles to the digital form. Lasseter’s unique
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position had allowed a close integration of the
skills he learned as an animator at Disney with
the technical expertise gained while at Industrial
Light and Magic. The consequent animation in
Luxo Jr was a hybrid of the best qualities from
traditional practice and digital animation:
naturalistic and expressive, combined with
accurate mechanical representation and
photorealism. Luxo Jr stood against the
dominant look of CGI in the 1980s, when
audiences were used to flying logos, wireframe
simulations and chrome in everything else. John
Lasseter showed the CGI world a glimpse of the
future of digital animation by employing the
lessons of the past.
 PHOTOREALISM
The end of the 1980s saw further development
in the area of photorealism. As computer
graphics equipment offered incentives for
software writers to improve specific areas of
simulation and image creation.
Even with infinite resources there are limits on
what computers can generate. Modelling and
rendering are separate issues even within the
3D environment, with embellishment often
added with tools such as Flame, Paintbox or
Adobe Photoshop.
What has helped the drive for photorealism is
the digitization of surrounding media, allowing

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the easy transfer of material between ancillary
disciplines.

Maturity 1990-2000
The 1990s was a period of stabilization and
fulfilment for many of the underlying
technologies in digital animation and video
production. Computer graphics became an
accepted and expected component of video
production at industrial levels, with even modest
corporate productions featuring digital graphics
and animation. With equipment becoming more
affordable, colleges and academic institutions
developed media courses to meet the needs of
the growing industry. Fine artists also discovered
the computer’s ability to manipulate and adapt
traditionally crafted material or produce work in
a virtual space. At a domestic level, technology
began to inhabit all areas of modern life. The
public relationship with computers and computer
technology changed with the arrival of the World
Wide Web and personal computers. Games
technology had given the public a first taste of
interactivity with digital technology. PCs and
access to the Internet allowed the home user to
communicate on a global basis and use the
technology available to create rather than simply
consume.
The World Wide Web and computer games are
important examples of how general users and the

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masses benefit from the rapid innovation of
technology.
For many animators the Web has proved to be
the missing piece of the puzzle: exhibition. From
amateur to professional, the goal for any
animator is to present their finished work to an
audience – something that had previously been
limited and restrictive. Web-based exhibition
provides a far reaching, alternative route to a
global audience – as bandwidth increases and
codes become more efficient, there is less
compromise over the quality of the final piece.
For both commercial and non-commercial
animation, a generation of Web users and
consumers is a viable first choice for displaying
work.

In 1991, Alex Seropian and Jason Jones founded

Bungie Software Products Corporation while they
were students at the University of Chicago.
Publishing games primarily for the Apple
Macintosh, they developed the Marathon series,
a first-person shooter (FPS) considered to be
ahead of its time by many of the game’s
cognoscenti.

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Marathon series-a benchmark for the FPS genre
of games. It was a series that shared many
aspects of film-making, with considerable
attention to detail in the creation of
environmental graphics, sound, effects and
character design. It had a strong narrative
structure and a realistic feel.
Doom (1993) by id Software is recognized as an
early success in the FPS genre and is
representative of improved 3D technology. The
production of Tomb Raider (1996) at Core
Design Ltd had a far greater level of design in
terms of plot, character and general gameplay.
Perhaps coming at a later stage in the timeline
of games technology meant that cinematic
values influenced the design of the location,
central character and the supporting cast. A
strong narrative plot requires problem-solving
skills and strategy, as well as action. Tomb
Raider has been likened to Raiders of the Lost
Ark (1981) and edged the game world closer to
film.

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 Title- Tomb Raider
Creator-Eidos Interactive Limited

An ability to depict larger and more complex

environments with a wider range of movement
on the part of the user led game production to
mimic film practice in generating specialist
disciplines of set design, cinematography and
scriptwriting as well as greater consideration for
the design of character movement.
The demands within feature-film production
drove the development of digital imaging and
animation technology. With the increased use of
CGI in Hollywood and digital animation
becoming more common on broadcast television,
film directors pushed for more challenging
results from visual effects departments.

The increasing impact of digital animation

technology in cinema is the 1993 award for
Scientific and Engineering Achievement given by
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts to Pixar’s
Render-Man. The software helped Jurassic Park
(1993) gain the Oscar for Best Visual Effects in

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the same year. In 2001, the Render-Man team
were awarded a full Oscar themselves.
Rendering is the final stage in producing three-
dimensional digital artwork. Although further
adjustment and compositing may be applied, the
render stage of the 3D process translates objects
and movement designed by the modeller and
animator into the completed simulation.

Once models have been built, rigged and

animated, the rendering software applies color,
tone, texture, lighting and blur to complete the
image. The process is applied to stylized, as well
as photorealistic, imagery. The recognition of
the importance of the software signified the
appreciation of how digital tools had now found
their place in feature-film and animation
production.

Title-Beauty and the Beast

Director-Gary Trousdale

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 Although famous for the traditional approach to
animated features, Disney Studios has also been
the site of invention and adoption of new
technologies. Beauty and the Beast was one of
the first major productions to use Pixar’s
Render-Man software to complete its digital
sequences.
Disney’s use of digital technology also found
expression on screen when computers were used
to create a camera move in Beauty and the Beast
(1991) – the first use of digital animation in a
Disney feature. The sweeping camera move with
a constantly shifting perspective during the
ballroom sequence was a composition of
traditionally drawn elements for the dancing
characters with digitally animated scenery,
including a chandelier. This produced a final
sequence that would have proved exhaustive,
perhaps impossible, using traditional drawn
techniques.
 First CGI animated feature
the heritage of The Walt Disney Company that
the word ‘animation’ is synonymous with the
brand. To generations brought up on classic
Disney titles, the image most associated with the
term animation was that of Mickey Mouse. The
appearance of Toy Story (1995) signaled a
change in the cultural dominance of that
association.

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Toy Story was the first of a series of productions
that would be made in a collaborative agreement
between Pixar and Disney. However, it is the
realization of the central characters that makes
Toy Story successful: Buzz and Woody are fully
formed individuals. By following the conventions
of traditional animation, the medium becomes
transparent. Toy Story is the result of John
Lasseter’s vision, unique skill set and fortunate
synchronicity.

 Digital worlds and digital actors

By the end of the century digital animation
technology had been adopted in animation and
special effects studios as standard industry tools;
thinking of digital solutions for cinematic

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challenges was now part of mainstream cinema
production.
The Matrix (1999) or the creation of entirely
digital cast members in Star Wars: Episode I –
The Phantom Menace (1999).

Digital technology had reached a maturity in

power and performance. More importantly, the
tools were in the hands of film-makers,
animators and affiliated artists who brought the
skills and understanding to harness that power.
They were able to deliver photorealistic
animation and special effects depicted
environment, action and characters that were
seamlessly integrated with the live action.

The arrival of digital technology allowed the

scope to create Lucas’s vision on a grand scale.
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace saw
George Lucas’s return to the director’s chair
with an intent to unleash the full might of ILM to
realize the epic vision of Star Wars.

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 Title-Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom
Menace
Director-George Lucas

From the many innovations and advances in The

Phantom Menace the realization of a virtual
actor is the most significant from a digital
animation perspective. As well as demonstrating
to the industry what could be achieved, the
audience expectation of all future effects would
be measured against this film.
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 CONCLUSION

As in the early days of cinema, the novelty of

new technology and the spectacle of tricks and
effects are not enough to sustain the medium.
The familiarization with computer technology
and the gamut of digital animation and CGI
mean that audiences demand more than effect
and innovation. Animation must refocus on
content and meaning, reviving the key values of
film-making and the fundamentals of animation.
Digital tools have not only changed the way
animation is made; they have also transformed
attitudes towards animation. The impact of
computer technology has forced the rapid
evolution of animation in a multitude of ways.

The next generation of digital animation tools

will inevitably be faster, easier to use and more
potent. This will then re-establish the balance in
animation practice between technical
understanding and creative contribution,
therefore increasing accessibility to a wider
number of potential animators and giving
greater reach to current practitioners.

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 BIBLOGRAPY
 Basic animation (digital animation)- Andrew
Chong
 Pictures- google

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