How Technology Evolutions changed Animation

One of the good things we enjoyed in the good old days was those funny hand-drawn animations shown on TV stations. They made our toddler ages fun and interesting. However, animation has scaled, and now better.

Just as other sectors and industries, the film industry has experienced a lot of evolution. Specifically, the animation movie industry has advanced superficially. We all know that if you want to grab online users’ attention, one of the best ways to do that is by making a catchy anime video.

Until the 1980s, animations were made using traditional methods and skills. It was quite an enormous work because all frames have to be manually created.

The early days of animation

The first animations were more of manual efforts; the pictures and scenes were hand-drawn and animated by hand. Surprisingly, as local as those animations appeared, they caught our attention and had many of us sit down for long hours watching them on TVs.

In simple fact, the early/ancient animation films involved less of computer-aided technologies. However, everything has taken a new turn; the evolution of trailblazing technologies have birthed stunning animations done with cutting-edge computer-aided technologies. Now, anime movies are offered in 3D formats.

Modern technologies used in animation

It wasn’t so easy to accept the use of computer techs to make anime movies. This was because the creators at the time thought that using computers will strip them of their jobs. However, overtime, they started seeing the need for computer-aided technologies, and that was when the animation industry started taking a new shape.

  • Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
  • After effects / virtual effects
  • Live character animations
  • And more

These are some key technologies that changed how animations are made; they also helped to improve the image quality, resolution, and presentation of anime movies or games.

The first time technology was used for animation

Toy Story, produced by Pixar and Disney, was the first-ever animation movie that was made with modern technologies. It was, of course, a future length movie that paved the way for other interesting anime movies such as Shrek. The success stories of these animations (Toy Story and Shrek) made computer-generated (CG) animations to become the industry’s standard.

With computer-generated animations being the industry’s standard, the tools, and technologies needed to create animations changed. Obviously, quite a lot of technologies and systems are required to make a stunning animation; this resulted in the need for animation studios and data centers. These animation studios are equipped with innovative software solutions for making fascinating animes/animations. Also, the studios are typically named CG, meaning Computer-Generated Studios.

In CG studios, there are quite a lot of technologies you will find inside; this includes 3D animation technologies and other powerful techs. HP, Cisco, and Dell design most of the computerized hardware systems and techs used in CG studios.

How technology improved animations

The advent of solutions for the animation industry through technology birthed virtual and 3D animations, which obviously have more fascinating graphics and appearance than other forms of animation.

Also, using the right technology software and systems, a professional creator can make unimaginable scenes and portray a producer’s vision in various distinctive ways. For example, explaining the movie – Life of Pi, a tiger was used as one of the main characters of the movie. This tiger wasn’t a real one; however, with the help of software solutions provided through technology, the creators were able to create a closely lifelike tiger for the purpose of the movie.

Furthermore, each new animation movie that is produced tends to debut several new technologies that are being used by the industry to keep its audience entertained and enchanted. As far as the animation industry is concerned, the phrase, “the best is yet to come,” definitely applies here.

What kind of tech is more helpful for animation studios?

Well, different computer animation studios use different technologies to create animations. Also, computer animation studios stay abreast and adapt to cutting-edge technologies available for the industry to stay ahead of the competition.

Taking Pixar, for example, this studio says that it make use of RenderMan is its core technology for rendering animations movies. Quite a lot of top technologists in the industry have attested that “RenderMan remains the benchmark for all rendering technology.” – GEORGE LUCAS

RenderMan technology is an award-winning tech that has been proved to be perfect for visual effects and 3D animations. This technology is being revised regularly to meet with the ever-increasing challenges being faced by computer animation studios, especially in regards to 3D animation. It is seen as the best and most useful technology for animation studios.

Furthermore, this tech boasts of a state-of-the-art ray tracing design that helps to save up memory and space while increasing speed and efficiency. RenderMan was used for the following blockbuster movies: Toy Story, The Abyss, Onward, Jurassic Park, Terminator II, etc.

As successful as Pixar Movies is, we can’t forget LucasFilm, another great company that creates good animations. LucasFilm Animation made the world-famous Star Wars animation movie. Star Wars was really good, and it sold across the universe. However, there are no many movies from this studio (the LucasFilm Animations Studio), but it is still one of the studios to reference to when discussing computer-generated animations.

What more?

Technology has touched every aspect of human life and how we do things. The animation industry, through technology, has entered the cinemas. Now, people can actually pay to see anime movies in the cinemas, unlike the olden days, when we only watch cartoons and anime movies on select TV stations.

This tech evolution that changed the animation industry isn’t strange; it was predictable. More technologies are being applied by animations studios to come up with better movies than we’ve ever seen. Thanks to the several new technologies, even as full-grown adults, we now anticipate some animation movies to watch and follow up on the series.

Summarily, it is not only the animation film world is experiencing drastic change through technology. Other movie industries are also adapting to new technologies to create more realistic scenes and fascinating graphics.