We talk about the history of the medium to encourage artists to pay attention and be aware of the trends and shifts in their chosen field of work. This evolution from 2D to CG did not happen overnight, but many 2D and CG artists (not to mention studios) were unprepared for the changes that were coming fast and furious. Reluctant at first to pick up the new tools, many masters of hand-drawn animation were understandably wary of giving up a craft that took years, if not decades, to become proficient at. At the same time, many CG artists were expected to raise the bar as far as the quality of their animation was concerned. Many of these artists were not even trained in animation. The term “digital artist” was almost nonexistent as recently as 20 years ago. The phenomenal growth of the CG industry, due in part to the massive increases in technology and the rapid influx of computer-based talent, contrasts markedly to the snail’s pace of growth in 2D from the days of Steamboat Willie(1928) to The Lion King; this quick growth caught many off guard.
In the very early days of computer animation, people ran around with no idea of what digital artistry was all about. The field was so new that people were being hired with no experience. Worse yet, people were being hired who were unschooled in any aspect of cinema. Many people developing software for computers were not really filmmakers. You know, the “I have a neighbor who has a cousin who drew a picture once, built model airplanes when he was a kid, and now is a whiz on the computer” type of artist. Tom Sito explains the negative effects this had on the quality of CG animation in the early days:
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VISUAL EFFECTS BOOM AT THE BOX OFFICE
◆The Star Warsfirst trilogy franchise made approximately $1 billion domestically.
◆The Batmanfranchise made almost $1 billion domestically.
◆The Jurassic Parkfranchise made almost $800 million domestically.
◆The Back to the Futurefranchise made almost $400 million domestically.
◆E.T. the Extra-Terrestrialmade almost $400 million domestically.
◆The Terminatorfranchise made almost $400 million domestically.
◆The Supermanfranchise made approximately $300 million domestically.
NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN PIN- SCREEN TECHNIQUE:Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker are best known for their invention of a new tech- nique in animation for their first film,Night on Bald Mountain, called the pinscreen (or pinboard) process.
1933
POPEYE THE SAILOR INTRO- DUCED:The Fleischer Brothers introduced Popeye from Elzie Segar’s comic strip in the short film Popeye the Sailor.This short introduced Sammy Lerner’s famous “I’m Popeye the Sailor Man” song.
1933
SAG FORMS:
The Screen Actors Guild was formed in 1933.
1933
The lowly gopher orderly sitting by the Xerox machine reading television manuals overnight became a producer. I think the big danger to the art of animation with the rush to 3D is the loss of technique. The problem we have with our business is everyone is in a rush to believe it’s the computer that is doing it. All the emphasis in schools is on learning Maya and learn- ing Shake, et cetera. The thing is, in a year or two everything is going to change. Suddenly everyone is going to throw all that software out and learn all the new programs, but in the meantime the skill sets of performance animation and acting and cinema are going by the boards. I am seeing films that are done by guys who learn everything in the games industry, and their idea of entertainment is running into a new room! These gamers say to themselves, “Let’s run into this room and see what happens!” That is the extent of their knowledge of performance and cinematic storytelling.
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Troy explains to Angie his feelings about animating in CG. Sketch by Troy Saliba.
OSCAR FOR THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE (DISNEY):
Disney wins the Best Short Subject: Cartoons Academy Award for The Tortoise and the Hare.
1934
MULTI-PLANE CAMERA INVEN- TION:Ub Iwerks creates a revolution- ary multi-plane camera from the remains of a Chevrolet automobile.This camera was capable of filming several separate layers of cels, giving the final frame a truly three-dimensional look.
1934
HAPPY HARMONIESINTRO- DUCED:Happy Harmonieswas a series of animated cartoons distributed by MGM and produced by Harmand and Ising. Produced in Technicolor, these cartoons were similar to Walt Disney’s
Silly Symphonies.
1934
For years in CG animation, the tools were so technical that one artist and one programmer equaled one digital artist, with each having entirely different mindsets and back- grounds. While CG artists tried to figure out how to work with this new medium, 2D artists had to face a “sink or swim” proposition with regard to the mouse and box and leaving behind their pencils.
As the ‘90s went on, 2D continued to embrace new shading approaches to make the characters look more real and three-dimensional, following the technological break- throughs in visual effects and computer-generated movies. CG tools such as CAPS (Computer Animation Production System) were introduced to aid the production of 2D. Roger Rabbit was the character that first used the new tool called CAPS, developed by Ed Catmull and his recruited team of talented computer scientists at the computer graph- ics lab of NYIT. For Roger Rabbit to fit better in the live- action sequences, CAPS was developed to raise the level of
shading on the characters. The initial work of this group was focused on 2D animation, specifically creating tools to assist traditional animators. A system was developed to scan and then paint pencil-drawn artwork. Catmull and Pixar would later evolve this technology into Disney’s Computer Animation Production System (CAPS).12Tom Sito shows us the importance the CAPS system had:
Art direction is the real revolution when it comes to using computers in animation. Now you can art direct shot by shot in CG. When we started The Rescuers Down Underin 1990, they said that the ink-and-paint system gave us the color palette of Pinocchioto the ninth square to the ninth power. That is how many color tones you had. The Rescuerswas the first movie using a computer animated production system (CAPS). They did not use traditional methods like cells or paint on that movie. The Little Mermaidwas one of the last traditional films com- pleted, and color is really basic. Ariel has daytime colors and nighttime colors, and that is it. Actually, the last scene in The Little Mermaidof everyone waving goodbye to the ship was the first CAPS shot. They tried it as an experiment. They colored all of the drawings with the computer for that last shot.