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Global Animation Industry:
Strategies, Trends and
Global A
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Table of Contents
Global Animation Industry ... 16
History and Evolution ... 20
EMERGENCEOFTHEANIMATIONINDUSTRY ... 21
PIONEERSOFTHEINDUSTRY ... 30
FIRSTINDUSTRYCRISIS ... 37
POPULARITYOFFEATUREANIMATION ... 38
Why is Animation Different ... 39
Industry Characteristics ... 41
ANIMATIONINDUSTRYSUPPLYCHAIN ... 43
ROLEOFTECHNOLOGY ... 46
MERCHANDISINGOPPORTUNITIES ... 53
DISTRIBUTIONOFANIMATIONCONTENT ... 55
COMPETITIVELANDSCAPEOFANIMATIONSTUDIOS ... 58
RISKSFACEDBYANIMATIONSTUDIOS ... 62
DEMANDDRIVERSOFTHEINDUSTRY ... 64
Market Opportunity ... 65
Global Animation Studios Distribution and Capabilities ... 69
Animation Segments ... 79 Market Segmentation ... 79 2DANIMATION ... 80 3DANIMATION ... 84 VISUALEFFECTS... 85 WEBANIMATION ... 86
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CORPORATESERVICES ... 86
Computer Games ... 87
CROSSOVERBETWEENGAMESANDMOVIES ... 88
Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) ... 94
PRODUCINGCGIANIMATION ... 102
ADVANTAGESOFPRODUCINGCGIANIMATION ... 103
DISADVANTAGESOFPRODUCINGCGIANIMATION ... 105
INFLUENCEOFCGIONCELANIMATION ... 106
CHALLENGES ... 109
CRITICALSUCCESSFACTORSFORCGIPRODUCTIONS ... 109
Stop Motion ... 110
Motion Capture ... 114
Forecasting Animation Content Demand ... 119
Animation Content demand from TV Channels in Europe ... 119
Animation Content demand from TV Channels in the Us and Canada .. 125
Animation Content demand from TV Channels in Asia ... 132
Animation Content demand from TV Channels in Rest of the World .... 137
Total Animation Content demand from TV Channels Worldwide ... 142
Size of the Global Animation Industry ... 147
Future Developments ... 149
Animation Software Market Landscape ... 153
2D Animation Software Marketplace ... 153
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3D Animation Software Marketplace ... 158
INDUSTRYOVERVIEW ... 160
3DANIMATIONSOFTWAREMARKETSEGMENTS ... 166
FREEANIMATIONSOFTWARES ... 170
PLUG-INSTOPRODUCTS ... 172
Analysis of key players in 3D Animation Software Market ... 175
MARKETSIZE... 179
MARKETSEGMENTS ... 181
Japanese Anime Production Softwares ... 183
PROMINENCEOF2D ... 184
RETAS-SOFTWAREFORANIMEPRODUCTION ... 185
MANGASTUDIO-SOFTWAREFORMANGAPRODUCTION ... 187
Proprietary 3D Softwares of Animation studios ... 188
Collaboration between Animation Studios and Software Firms ... 190
Content Creation ... 192
Content Creation Workflow in 2D Animation ... 192
CONCEPTUALIZATION ... 196
PRE-PRODUCTION ... 196
PRODUCTION ... 196
POST-PRODUCTION ... 197
Content Creation Lead Time Calculation in 2D Animation ... 197
SCANNINGANDFILTERING ... 198
INKANDPAINT... 198
COMPOSITINGANDDOPESHEETPREPARATION ... 199
Digital processing in 2D Animation ... 200
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Content Creation Workflow in 3D Animation ... 202
CONCEPTUALIZATION ... 204
PRE-PRODUCTION ... 205
PRODUCTION ... 205
POST-PRODUCTION ... 206
PARALLELACTIVITIES... 207
Time Line of a Sample 3D production workflow ... 209
Role of Animation Software in the 3D Production Workflow ... 212
Production Management ... 218
GOVERNANCEISSUES ... 218
TASKDIVISIONANDPEOPLEALLOCATIONISSUES... 219
TECHNOLOGYISSUES ... 220
Audience Dynamics ... 223
Marketing Strategies for Animation Studios ... 223
MARKETINGPROGRAM ... 223
PROFILINGANDTARGETINGTHERIGHTAUDIENCE ... 224
Strategies of Successful Animation Films ... 225
LESSONSFROMPASTMISTAKES ... 226
Profile of a 3D Animation Studio: Pixar ... 228
PIXAR‘S TECHNOLOGICALADVANTAGE ... 233
Economics of Animation ... 236
Economics of Animation Copyrights ... 236
DYNAMICSOFCOPYRIGHTS ... 238
Guidelines for Setting up an Animation Studio ... 240
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Specialised Hardware and Software Investments ... 249
Managing an Animation Studio ... 251
Key Issues of Concern ... 251
Formulating the Long Term Strategy ... 254
Animation Content Outsourcing ... 256
Offshore Computer Animation Production ... 256
BUSINESSANDREVENUEMODELS ... 258
Drivers ... 258
Animation Industry in Europe ... 263
Winds of Change ... 264
DEMANDFORTVCONTENT ... 264
FEATUREFILMINDUSTRY ... 265
MARKETINGANDMERCHANDISING ... 266
Collaboration Among European Studios ... 267
Drivers for Success... 268
Trends in Europe ... 269
Germany ... 270
CHANGINGSTRATEGIES ... 271
KEYPLAYERSINTHEINDUSTRY... 271
UK ... 275
INDUSTRYSUCCESS ... 276
KEYPLAYERSINTHEINDUSTRY... 278
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KEYPLAYERSINTHEINDUSTRY... 283
France ... 286
KEYPLAYERSINTHEINDUSTRY... 287
Spain ... 290
KEYPLAYERSINTHEINDUSTRY... 291
Denmark ... 294
KEYPLAYERSINTHEINDUSTRY... 294
Animation Industry in USA ... 296
Market Size ... 297
Challenges ... 298
Key Trends ... 299
Production and Post-Production Market ... 301
MARKETSIZE... 303
KEYTRENDS ... 303
Animation Value Chain ... 308
Asian Animation Industry ... 313
Establishment Of Local Animation Industry ... 316
Early Trends In Animation Outsourcing To Asia ... 317
ANIMATIONOUTSOURCINGINCHINA ... 318
ANIMATIONOUTSOURCINGININDIA ... 318
ANIMATIONOUTSOURCINGINSOUTHKOREA ... 319
ANIMATIONOUTSOURCINGINPHILIPPINES ... 319
ANIMATIONOUTSOURCINGINTAIWAN ... 320
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Local Content Productions ... 321
Trend Towards Co-Productions ... 322
CO-PRODUCTIONSINJAPAN ... 322 CO-PRODUCTIONSINCHINA ... 322 CO-PRODUCTIONSINKOREA ... 323 CO-PRODUCTIONSININDIA ... 323 CO-PRODUCTIONSINTAIWAN ... 324 CO-PRODUCTIONSINPHILIPPINES ... 324
Popularity of Foreign Animation ... 324
Controversies Surrounding Foreign Animation ... 325
PHILIPPINES ... 326
SINGAPORE ... 326
KOREA ... 327
MALAYSIA ... 327
INDONESIA ... 328
Animation in Asian Societies ... 328
Successful Business Models ... 329
Animation Studios In Asia ... 329
Animation Industry in Japan ... 337
Key Trends ... 341
MARKETOVERVIEW ... 346
COLLABORATIONBETWEENJAPANESEANDOVERSEASSTUDIOS... 346
OUTSOURCINGTOOTHERCOUNTRIES ... 348
SUCCESSFULBUSINESSMODELS ... 350
CHALLENGES ... 351
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OVERSEASINFLUENCEOFANIME ... 354
Globally Successful Japanese Animes ... 355
THEPOKEMONPHENOMENON ... 356
Japanese Anime Production Models ... 358
PROMINENCEOF2D ... 359
Future Trends ... 361
Animation Studios in Japan ... 362
Animation Industry in Korea ... 367
Emergence of the Industry ... 369
Functioning of Korean Animation Studios ... 373
Changing Business Models ... 374
GOINGBEYONDSUBCONTRACTING ... 375
INVESTMENTSBYINDUSTRIALGROUPS ... 376
CHANGESININDUSTRYSTRUCTURE ... 376
SUCCESSINOTHERCOUNTRIES ... 377
Current State of the Industry ... 377
GOVERNMENTSUPPORT ... 378
COLLABORATIONWITHOVERSEASPARTNERS ... 379
KEYTRENDS ... 380
LOCALCONTENT ... 382
Challenges ... 384
Market Opportunity ... 385
SIZEOFTHEKOREANANIMATIONINDUSTRY ... 385
Future Outlook ... 387
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Animation Studios in Korea ... 391
Animation Industry in Canada ... 397
Industry Drivers ... 398
ANIMATIONFUNDING ... 399
Challenges ... 400
Strategies for Animation Studios in Canada ... 401
Data on Animation Studios in Canada... 402
Animation Industry in Australia ... 411
Competition from Asian Studios ... 411
Challenges ... 412
Government Support ... 413
Strategies for Animation Studios In Australia ... 414
Data on Animation Studios in Australia ... 414
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Figures and Tables
FIGURE 1: EARLY ANIMATIONS ... 25
TABLE 1: ANIMATION MOVIES ADAPTED FROM TELEVISION ... 34
FIGURE 2: EARLY CGI BASED ANIMATIONS ... 48
TABLE 2: LIVE ACTION MOVIES FEATURING CGI CHARACTERS ... 52
FIGURE 3: SIZE OF GLOBAL ANIMATION INDUSTRY ... 67
FIGURE 4: GEOGRAPHICAL BREAK-UP OF THE GLOBAL ANIMATION INDUSTRY ... 68
FIGURE 5: GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMATION STUDIOS IN THE WORLD ... 70
FIGURE 6: BREAK-UP OF ANIMATION STUDIOS BASED ON CAPABILITIES . 71 TABLE 3: LEADING ANIMATION STUDIOS IN THE WORLD ... 72
TABLE 4: ANIMATED FEATURE FILMS FROM PROMINENT STUDIOS ... 75
FIGURE 7: BREAK-UP OF GLOBAL ANIMATION INDUSTRY BASED ON MARKET SEGMENTS... 83
TABLE 5: GAMES BASED ON ANIMATION MOVIES ... 89
TABLE 6: ANIMATION MOVIES BASED ON VIDEO GAMES ... 92
TABLE 7: CGI FEATURE FILMS ... 98
TABLE 8: PROMINENT STOP MOTION ANIMATION MOVIES ... 113
TABLE 9: ANIMATION CONTENT DEMAND FORECAST – TV CHANNELS IN EUROPE ... 121
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FIGURE 8: BREAK-UP OF ANIMATION CONTENT DEMAND BY TV CHANNELS IN EUROPE ... 124 FIGURE 9: CABLE TV WATCHING PATTERN IN THE US ... 126 TABLE 10: ANIMATION CONTENT DEMAND FORECAST – TV CHANNELS IN
THE US AND CANADA ... 128 FIGURE 10: BREAK-UP OF ANIMATION CONTENT DEMAND BY TV
CHANNELS IN THE US AND CANADA... 131 TABLE 11: ANIMATION CONTENT DEMAND FORECAST – TV CHANNELS IN
ASIA ... 133 FIGURE 11: BREAK-UP OF ANIMATION CONTENT DEMAND BY TV
CHANNELS IN ASIA ... 136 TABLE 12: ANIMATION CONTENT DEMAND FORECAST – TV CHANNELS IN
THE REST OF THE WORLD ... 138 FIGURE 12: BREAK-UP OF ANIMATION CONTENT DEMAND BY TV
CHANNELS IN REST OF THE WORLD ... 141 TABLE 13: WORLDWIDE ANIMATION CONTENT DEMAND FORECAST – TV
CHANNELS ... 143 FIGURE 13: BREAK-UP OF ANIMATION CONTENT DEMAND BY TV
CHANNELS WORLDWIDE ... 146 FIGURE 14: GLOBAL ANIMATION INDUSTRY BREAK-UP BASED ON
APPLICATIONS ... 148 TABLE 14: CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMATION SOFTWARES ... 154 TABLE 15: LEADING 2D AND 3D ANIMATION SOFTWARES ... 164
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TABLE 16: KEY PLAYERS AND THEIR PRODUCTS IN 3D ANIMATION
SOFTWARE MARKET ... 167
TABLE 17: FREE ANIMATION SOFTWARES ... 171
TABLE 18: PRICING STRUCTURES OF ANIMATION SOFTWARE PACKAGES ... 173
FIGURE 15: COMMERCIAL 3D ANIMATION SOFTWARE MARKET SIZE ... 180
FIGURE 16: 3D ANIMATION SOFTWARE MARKET BREAK-UP BY SEGMENT ... 182
FIGURE 17: 2D ANIMATION PRODUCTION WORKFLOW ... 195
FIGURE 18: 3D ANIMATION PRODUCTION WORKFLOW ... 203
FIGURE 19: 3D ANIMATION WORKFLOW USING 3D SOFTWARE ... 217
FIGURE 20: PIXAR’S PRODUCTIONS ... 232
TABLE 19: CAPITAL EXPENDITURE FOR SETTING UP AN ANIMATION STUDIO ... 244
TABLE 20: PROFILE OF EMPLOYEES REQUIRED TO MANAGE THE STUDIO ... 247
TABLE 21: ANIMATION STUDIOS IN GERMANY ... 273
TABLE 22: ANIMATION STUDIOS IN THE UK ... 279
TABLE 23: ANIMATION STUDIOS IN ITALY ... 284
TABLE 24: ANIMATION STUDIOS IN FRANCE ... 288
TABLE 25: ANIMATION STUDIOS IN SPAIN ... 292
TABLE 26: ANIMATION STUDIOS IN DENMARK ... 295
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TABLE 28: LEADING ANIMATION TV CHANNELS IN THE US ... 312
TABLE 29: KEY ANIMATION STUDIOS IN ASIA ... 330
TABLE 30: MOST POPULAR JAPANESE ANIMATION MOVIES ... 343
TABLE 31: LEADING ANIMATION STUDIOS IN JAPAN ... 363
TABLE 32: IN-HOUSE CONTENT DEVELOPED BY KOREAN ANIMATION STUDIOS ... 383
FIGURE 21: SIZE OF KOREAN ANIMATION INDUSTRY ... 386
TABLE 33: ANIMATION SCHOOLS IN KOREA ... 389
TABLE 34: KOREA’S LEADING ANIMATION STUDIOS ... 392
TABLE 35: ANIMATION STUDIOS IN CANADA ... 403
FIGURE 22: NUMBER OF ANIMATION STUDIOS IN CANADA ... 407
FIGURE 23: BREAK-UP OF ANIMATION STUDIOS IN CANADA BASED ON SIZE ... 408
FIGURE 24: CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMATION STUDIOS IN CANADA BASED ON CAPABILITIES ... 409
FIGURE 25: BREAK-UP OF ANIMATION STUDIOS IN CANADA BASED ON APPLICATIONS ... 410
TABLE 36: ANIMATION STUDIOS IN AUSTRALIA ... 415
FIGURE 26: NUMBER OF ANIMATION STUDIOS IN AUSTRALIA ... 416
FIGURE 27: BREAK-UP OF ANIMATION STUDIOS IN AUSTRALIA BASED ON SIZE ... 417
FIGURE 28: CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMATION STUDIOS IN AUSTRALIA BASED ON CAPABILITIES ... 418
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FIGURE 29: BREAK-UP OF ANIMATION STUDIOS IN AUSTRALIA BASED ON APPLICATIONS ... 419
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Global Animation Industry
The demand for animated entertainment has expanded with the increase in broadcasting hours by cable and satellite TV along with the growing popularity of the Internet. Animation generally does not become outdated as quickly as live action programming, allowing an animated program to be enjoyed by each new generation of children and generally providing a longer life cycle for merchandising and licensing of products relating to such programming. Children are the primary target market for animated television programming and feature films. Growth in advertising spending targeted at children and the expansion in the number of television channels dedicated to children‘s programming around the world have contributed to an increase in the demand for animated television programming.
Several major studio releases continue to demonstrate the mass appeal of computer generated (CG) animation to family audiences. DreamWorks‘ Shrek 2, Shrek The Third, The Walt Disney Company (Disney) and Pixar‘s Finding Nemo and The Incredibles each out grossed the more traditional 2D animated releases. This appeal has been worldwide, with foreign box office revenues equaling or exceeding domestic revenues on these films. Moreover, as demonstrated by worldwide success of television shows such as The Simpsons, The Rugrats Movie, South Park,
Spongebob Squarepants and King of the Hill animation content has broad
appeal across traditional gender, demographic and cultural barriers. Key facts
▪ In the past, animation series were aimed at children aged nine and below. TV stations have been producing animation series for teenagers, adults and the whole family.
▪ The rapid advancement of computer technology has made computer animation available to the masses. ▪ The major animation markets
include the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Britain, Korea and Germany.
▪ The emerging animation countries are China and India.
▪ The outsourced computer animation production market is increasingly being tapped by North American film and television program producers. ▪ The major factors behind
outsourcing of animation content to the Asia/Pacific region are the availability lower labor rates. ▪ The bulk of the outsourcing happens
for 2D animation content with some amount of 3D content.
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In the past, animation series were aimed at children aged nine and below. TV stations have been producing animation series for teenagers, adults and the whole family. Animation series like The Simpsons and King
of the Hill have been successfully aired on primetime TV. The major
markets include the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Britain and Germany. Licensing operations for T-shirts, caps and other items have also been a major source of revenue for animation companies. In Japan, several successful computer games have crossed over and have become animated series like Pokemon, Monster Farm, Power Stone and Detective Conan. More broadly speaking, animation is increasingly used in video games, and movies are also increasingly reliant on animation and computer graphic special effects.
Ever since Film was invented around the year 1900 and up until the last decades of the 20th Century, animation has played second fiddle to Live Action. Despite the fact that feature film length animated movies have been produced since the 1930s, Live Action in Movies and TV have been the dominant entertainment media, and animation has made up a small part of the market in terms of both number of productions and turnover. This scenario has, with the development in computer-based animation, changed radically. Options of production and economic potential have developed considerably. Classical animation, computer generated animation, hybrid forms of live action and animation, along with the development of computer games, have turned animated products into a large commodity on the market for audiovisual media entertainment and narrative art. Serving as basis for games production animation has provided the foundation of a turnover, roughly matching that of the entire market for moving pictures. At
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the same time animation combined with the new technology provides opportunity for development of new narrative styles and fictitious universes.
The rapid advancement of computer technology has made computer animation available to the masses, and this new software genre has become one of the fastest growing industries in the current decade. Owing to the increase in computing power and the reduction in computing costs, we are seeing more and more of the global computer animation production output taking place outside of North America. This is a pattern we have seen for the past three years, with the resultant growing importance of the outsourced computer animation production market, which is increasingly being tapped by North American film and television program producers. The major factor behind this shift of computer animation production to the Asia/Pacific region continues to be the availability of low cost, powerful computer animation platforms and much lower labor rates in the Asian and Pacific Rim countries compared to North America and Europe. The bulk of the outsourcing happens for 2D animation content with some amount of 3D content. Today, just about every theatre film, and a great many television programs, use some form of computer animation, and effects in their production. Computer animation has now become just another tool, device, or component available to film and television program producers. With the production budgets coming under increasing scrutiny, film and TV producers are striving to keep production costs down. This, in turn, is putting added pressure on the producers of that computer animation to reduce their production time requirements, and corresponding costs. Hence
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there is a need and an opportunity for an animation service provider offering low cost high quality solutions.
Animation softwares are developed to help people create their own visual effects. Computer animation became known in the 70s when foreign filmmakers used the computers as an aid for creating sci-fi objects and special effects. The filmmakers of Star Wars, Indiana Jones series, Star Trek, etc. invested large amounts of money on computers and softwares. The computers, mostly graphical workstations, were designed to generate and simulate real-life images. As a result, filmmakers became very much impressed on the performance and the quality of results computers generated in filmmaking. Furthermore, computers produced more impressive art pieces.
The worldwide growth in multi-channel television has fuelled the development of children‘s and other thematic channels that rely heavily on animated output. The success of The Simpsons and other series such as
South Park has demonstrated the adult appetite for animation. Adult
animation now appears on many mainstream channels and on themed comedy channels like the UK‘s Paramount Comedy Channel and Comedy Central in the USA. There have been consistent attempts by broadcasters across the world to find products to match the success of The Simpsons and hence adult animation has been an area of growth. Animation has also proved popular for feature films. Films like The Lion King, Toy Story are among the biggest Box Office successes of all time, grossing more than US$500 million each. They have also earned substantial incomes in the video and DVD sell-through markets. Shrek is one of the fastest selling videos and DVDs of all time. The success of animated feature films is
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underlined by the decision of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences introducing a new ‗animated feature film‘ award for ‗The Oscars‘ this year.
History and Evolution
Of all the uses that computers can be put to, probably, the most interesting, exciting, and challenging to graphic artists is animation. From television commercials to major Hollywood blockbusters, it is used to produce highly distinctive images that can intrigue, impress, and dazzle the viewer. It is one of the brighter things in the world these days. Graphic artists are more interested in visual effects because it is one way of treating projects with distinctiveness and innovativeness. Animation is simply defined as the sequencing of a series of static images to generate the illusion of movement. Most people believe that actual drawings or creation of the individual images is the animation, when in actuality it is the arrangement of those static images that conveys the motion. Animation is any sequence of images that creates the illusion of motion.
Animation is the process of giving the illusion of movement or life to cinematographic drawings, models, or inanimate objects. Animated drawings predate cinema proper. From the 1830s onward, optical toys— such as the phenakistoscope (a revolving disk with figures arranged around the center), zeotrope (an optical toy in which figures on the inside of a revolving cylinder are seen through slits in its circumference), and the Praxinoscope (a device that used reflections of objects to achieve the illusion of movement)—were designed to demonstrate or exploit the physical phenomenon of ―persistence of vision.‖ Such instruments used a
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technique comparable to the modern cartoon film: drawings of successive stages of an action were presented so rapidly that they produced an illusion of movement.
Animation, the art of movement, is a way of making inanimate objects move. This may be materialized by sets of drawings which are photographed in sequence on successive motion picture frames. These photographed drawings when run in film produce smooth flowing and continuous actions. Throughout the years, animators together with producers have thought of several ways to be able to improve its quality and substance. Animation ended into a highly sophisticated art form and motion picture technique, as well as an effective way for communications, as certain techniques and equipment were developed.
EMERGENCE OF THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY
The nineteenth century was full of incredible inventions, particularly for film. In the mid-1800s, two scientists, Dr. Simon Ritter von Stampfer and Dr. Joseph Plateau, independently stumbled upon an amazing discovery. While von Stampfer was in Austria developing his Ritter phenakistiscope, Plateau was in Belgium inventing his stroboscope. Both were the first contraptions used to watch animation. William George Homer made a hybrid of the Plateau-Stampfer inventions in 1834. It became known as the zoetrope, and it relied on this most rudimentary principle of animation, the persistence of vision. The zoetrope is a cylindrical object with slits around the side. A strip of sequential drawings can be placed around the inside of the cylinder. When you spin the zoetrope and look
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through the slits on the outside, the flickering result is animation in its purest form.
A few decades later, British photographer Eadweard Muybridge began his enormous contributions to the beginnings of what would soon be the booming industry of animation. Leland Stanford, then governor of California, had to settle a bet he had made with another politician. The governor surmised that as a horse galloped, at some point all four hooves left the ground. To prove himself correct, he hired San Francisco landscape photographer Eadweard Muybridge. When Stanford explained what he wanted, the eccentric photographer gasped. The idea was radical, and the technology to capture such speed had not been invented. Remember, to take one picture in the 1860s, you had to stay still for tens of seconds. Almost ten years and many experiments, arguments, and dollars later, the bet was settled. On June 19, 1878, Muybridge came to a racetrack in Palo Alto, California and set up a series of 24 cameras connected to tripwires. Each camera would rapidly fire off an exposure as the wires were broken by the passing horse. The resulting images recorded true stages of motion for the first time in history. Muybridge proved that when a horse is in full gallop, at some point the animal is completely off the ground. Not only are all its feet off the ground, but its legs are tucked in underneath its body.
For centuries, masterpieces had been painted showing galloping horses always with one foot on the ground. At this time in history, the idea that all four feet leave the ground seemed absolutely outrageous. Muybridge continued to photograph movements of all sorts of animals and people performing various actions. His photographic studies were turned into
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popular zoetrope strips during the late part of the century. Today animators still use Muybridge‘s work for reference.
The jump from simple still images being flipped to a seamless sequence of images is credited to the Lumiére brothers of France. Although numerous inventions of decades past helped the Frenchmen, they began what is now known as modern film. On December 28, 1895, Louis and Auguste Lumiére sent people screaming from a Parisian theater when they filmed an oncoming train pulling into a station. While watching the arrival of a train at the station, many people in the audience thought the train was going to plow right through the seats. It seems funny to us now, but back then people had never seen anything like this.
James Stuart Blackton created the first animated film, entitled
Humorous Phases of Funny Faces. Fascinated with special effects,
Blackton featured an artist‘s real hands drawing the faces of a man and woman, which begin to interact with one another. He used chalk and cutouts to achieve his illusion of movement. The pivotal pioneer‘s 1906 short was very crude in terms of its animation, but he inspired others, such as Winsor McCay, Sidney Smith, and Gregory La Cava, to produce higher-end shorts using more refined techniques. In particular, McCay would take the idea of combining live action with animation to a new level. In 1914, he amazed audiences with his short, Gertie the Dinosaur, in which he interacted on stage with the prehistoric beast. He decided to use a dinosaur so he could not be accused of tracing photographs. Another one of McCay‘s shorts, Little Nemo, required him to draw more than 4,000 drawings by hand. It was during the production of this short film that McCay figured out a way to register his drawings. In other words, he was the first person to
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align his drawings perfectly in sequential order using hash marks, thus preventing the jiggling that accompanied many early animated shorts. Nevertheless, animators were still drawing each frame of action over and over, including backgrounds and cycles.
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A battle that still is being fought today in animation began to unfold in the early 1900s. It became time versus money. The laborious process was becoming too costly for many of the small fledging studios of the time. Imagine having to draw each frame, background, props, and characters together on one sheet of paper. To expedite this costly process, an animator by the name of Earl Hurd began to use celluloid sheets at the JR Bray Studios in 1913. This invention was the turning point in modern animation. Using these clear sheets, Hurd figured he could hold certain static elements while animating the characters on another layer. Hurd‘s cels, as they were called, allowed the animators to work on only the moving elements of the film. Backgrounds and props could be held underneath or over the primary action. This paved the way for what would become known as overlays and underlays. Try to imagine the impact on time and money that the use of cels would have on the industry. The gold rush in animation was beginning. As the Depression trudged on, many studios began offering animated shorts before their features. A sense of escapism began to take hold, especially with the advent of synchronized sound in film.
In 1926 Lotte Reiniger produced the first feature-length animated film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed. In the mid-1920s Otto Messmer created Felix the Cat, which was the first animated character that the general public could easily identify. It was also the most commercially successful cartoon of that time period. The late 1920s saw the beginnings of the Walt Disney studio‘s reign on the world of conventional animation. The animators at Disney studio were instrumental in a number of major technical developments and refinements, including cel animation, the
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(1928), starring Mickey Mouse, was the first animated film to use synchronized sound; furthermore, Mickey went on to become one of the most identifiable animated personalities ever. The Disney studio was the source of the first major advancement of animation.
By 1945 the first modern computer, named ENIAC, was completed. And so the prototypes of all three disciplines were now present. The convergence between computer technology and the other disciplines began slowly in the mid- 20th century. The first computer with a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) was built in the early 1950's in order to display solutions to differential equations. By the early 1960's, Boeing employees Fetter and Bernhart created a computer animation of a plane landing on a runway by plotting 3D drawings onto paper, one at a time, and then photographing them in the traditional manner, using an animation stand. This laborious process gave way to the first interactive graphics system, called Sketchpad. Sketchpad was developed at MIT by Ivan Sutherland and allowed users to interact with simple wireframe elements using a light pen. Artists began using computer technology for artistic expression in the 1960's.
CG films were faced with the severe limitations of hardware at the time. Furthermore, computers useful for these tasks were so expensive that only universities, government agencies and a few large and forward thinking companies could afford them. In the late 1970's Alvy Ray Smith and Ed Catmull calculated that to make a CG animated film at that time would cost one billion dollars. However they also foresaw that given enough time to develop, computer animation would actually become more economical than traditional animation. They based their prediction on Moore's Law, a dictum that computers for a given price will double in
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power about every eighteen months, and, conversely, that prices will drop by half every eighteen months for a given amount of computational power.
WALT DISNEY
Part of being successful in any industry is being able to see down the road a few years. A young creative talent named Walt Disney looked beyond that point. His creation of a mouse, originally named Mortimer, would change the world. In 1928, his tiny studio of a dozen artists released a short film entitled Steamboat Willie, starring a mouse named Mickey. Disney figured out a way to sync up sound with his animation, and he sunk every last dollar into this endeavor. With nothing to lose, he gambled on the fact that his studio had something nobody else had—a cartoon with sound. Disney‘s incredible vision, mimicking the popular Buster Keaton shorts of the time and using sound in an innovative way, made Steamboat Willie a unique success. Walt Disney Studios was propelled to the forefront of animation. Characters such as Donald Duck, Goofy, and Minnie Mouse would become household names in the years to come. Mickey dominated the theaters in the 1930s and 1940s; people would go to the movies to see whether "a Mickey" was playing. Warner Bros. Studios was soon in on the game, and in those years they created hundreds of classic zany shorts. Approaching animation with a different aesthetic look, the studio hired animation directors such as Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, and Tex Avery. These men and their contemporaries would indelibly leave their mark on the world with such hilarious characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Droopy Dog, and Porky Pig.
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The stylistic difference between Disney and Warner Bros. is important to note. While Disney cornered the market on the shorts with sentimental favorites such as Mickey and Minnie, other talents of the time went in the opposite direction. Tex Avery produced numerous cartoons that contained the element of cuteness but had an underlying adult humor and wild action (especially in the shorts produced under him at MGM). Avery truly busted open the principles of animation and played with people's perceptions of physical reality. As animation found a home in the theaters, numerous studios began to compete for commercial success into the 1950s. Although we all grew up watching these six-minute shorts of Bugs and
Daffy, the knowledge of their demise is not common. In those days the
major studios produced these shorts, which were shown preceding features in the movie theaters. As we marched into the 1950s, household names such as Tom and Jerry began to establish themselves. But as their popularity grew, so did their cost. Disney began venturing into feature films, producing classics such as Snow White and Bambi, while other studios continued to make shorts. These six-minute gems came with staggering price tags because of the quality of animation back then. While the backgrounds and props were being held on cels, the characters were still being redrawn over and over. The character animation was so smooth and dynamic that it required each animator to laboriously craft hundreds and hundreds of beautiful drawings. By 1955, the cost of a six-minute Tom and Jerry short was more than $50,000! That‘s without any voices—high even for today‘s standards.
The Disney Studios have been the main source of animation innovation since the very beginning of animated film. The studio's first
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success was with Mickey Mouse as Steam Boat Willie in 1928. Their first full length animated feature, Snow White, debuted in 1937 and has been a classic ever since. The animation of Disney was widely regarded to be the best, and they have had no competition in feature length animated films for a long time. Other huge animated hits included Fantasia (1940), Pinocchio
(1940), Dumbo (1941), Bambi (1942), Song of the South (1946), Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), Robin Hood (1952), Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959), 101 Dalmatians (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963), and The Jungle Book (1967), among
many others. After the death of Walt Disney in 1966, the animation division of Disney languished, and in 1979, several key Disney animators, led by Don Bluth left the company, citing deterioration in the studio's artistic standards. This coincided with a general lack on market interest for family oriented features, Disney's main product theme.
During the 1980's, several management changes reoriented the company, and Disney became a market leader again. Michael Eisner, along with Jeffrey Katzenberg, managed to revitalize the animation division with such animated hits as The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast
(1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1996), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and Fantasia Continued (1997).
PIONEERS OF THE INDUSTRY
Before the turn of the century, the French conjurer and filmmaker Georges Melies had demonstrated the possibilities of the stop-motion photography, frame-by-frame technique by which animated films have generally been
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animated film, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces; and a year later, in Paris, Emile Cohl embarked on a series of witty cartoon films. Cohl‘s successors in the silent period included such distinguished animation artists as Robert Lortac, Benjamin Rabier, and Joseph Hemard.
The earliest American animated films were derived from newspaper comic strips, where characters such as Mutt and Jeff, Happy Hooligan, The
Katzenjammer Kids originated. The first American artist to draw for film
was Winsor McCay, with his Gertie the Dinosaur and a series called Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend. The most famous cartoon personality before Walt Disney‘s Mickey Mouse, however, was Felix the Cat, created by the Australian cartoonist Pat Sullivan and animated by Otto Mesmer.
Meanwhile, the Russian Ladislav Starevich used other silent animation methods, such as stop-action techniques, to animate his exquisite little puppets as early as 1911. Lotte Reiniger, a German artist who adapted the ancient techniques of the shadow show, completed the world‘s first full-length animated film, Die Abenteuer des Prinz Achmets (The Adventures of Prince Achmed), in 1926. With the arrival of sound, Walt Disney rapidly achieved preeminence through imaginative use of sound and color with the vitality of his gags largely inspired by early slapstick films. Disney‘s The
Three Little Pigs (1933), with the optimism of its theme song (Who‘s
Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?), came to be a symbol of the era of sound. In 1937 Disney made his full-length animated films such as the extraordinary Fantasia in 1940 and developed techniques that combined animation with live action.
On the other hand, experiments with these hybrid animations also had been under way in the Soviet Union for instance where, in The New
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Gulliver (1935), Aleksander Ptushko combined live actors and cartoon figures in the same scenes. The 1940s and ‗50s saw reactions against the Disney style. Such artists as Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, Tex Avery, Paul Terry, Walter Lantz, and Chuck Jones continued in the same style of animation but added a new anarchic and surreal comedy.
The artists working for United Productions of America (UPA)— most of whom, including Art Babbit and John Hubley, had broken away from Disney—reacted against the detail and naturalism of the Disney style with spare, non-naturalistic drawing inspired by contemporary art and such practitioners as the Romanian-born Saul Steinberg.
In Canada, animator Norman McLaren experimented with stereoscopy (two-dimensional depictions that through perspective appear three-dimensional), synthetic sound, and other techniques, many of which were further developed by the school of animators he built up. Among McLaren‘s colleagues and disciples was George Dunning, who subsequently worked in Great Britain, where the animated cinema was vigorous after 1950. Other notable animators working in Britain included John Halas and Joy Batchelor, who were already considered established during World War II; Peter Foldes; Bob Godfrey, an inspired exponent of low comedy; and Richard Williams, a Canadian whose studio sought to emulate the Disney craft traditions.
In Eastern Europe in the mid-20th century, the most notable animated films were created in Czechoslovakia, where Jiri Trnka developed a singular tradition of animation work with puppets, and Yugoslavia, where the Zagreb Studios produced such distinguished practitioners as Vatroslav
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The Flintstones paved the way nearly 40 years ago, with Top Cat and The Jetsons following closely in its footsteps. They were the first wave of animated primetime shows aimed at adults. The second wave came much later, but made quite a splash.
Around that time, cable was also getting a piece of the primetime animation action. In 1993, MTV: Music Television's Beavis & Butt-head began really pushing the envelope, in terms of taste and content. Then Comedy Central broke even more boundaries with the edgy South Park, and it paid off handsomely. South Park became a ratings and merchandising bonanza for the network. And Comedy Central's distribution took off because of the show. Hence, the programming formula du jour for primetime is animation. The ad agency BBDO has cited animation as one of the hottest programming trends for the coming season. And both cable and broadcast have staked their claims in that genre for primetime, trying to duplicate the success of South Park and The Simpsons.
There has been a sea change in how animation is perceived. Baby boomers grew up with cartoons, and they still think it is fine to watch them -- which was not always the case. Television networks emphasize that adult acceptance of animation as an important contributor to its primetime boom. Cable programmers, in part, turn to animation because of advances in technology: Computer-generated characters are less expensive than traditional animation. Animation also allows programmers more freedom, from being able to bring historical figures back from the past. See Table 1 for a list of Animation Movies adapted from Television.
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TABLE 1: ANIMATION MOVIES ADAPTED FROM TELEVISION
1. The Simpsons Movie
2. The Rugrats Movie
3. Pokemon: The First Movie
4. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
5. Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
6. Beavis and Butt-Head Do America
7. South Park - Bigger, Longer and Uncut
8. Pokemon: The Movie 2000
9. The Wild Thornberrys
10. Rugrats Go Wild
11. Recess: School's Out
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13. The Care Bears Movie
14. Jetsons: The Movie
15. Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie
16. Doug's First Movie
17. Duck Tales: The Movie
18. Pokemon 3: The Movie
19. Hey Arnold! The Movie
20. The Powerpuff Girls Movie
21. The Smurfs and the Magic Flute
22. Digimon: The Movie
23. The Care Bears Movie 2
24. The Chipmunk Adventure
25. Teacher's Pet
26. My Little Pony
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28. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
29. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters
30. Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer
31. Tom & Jerry - The Movie
32. Heathcliff: The Movie
33. The Care Bears Movie 3
34. Pokemon 4Ever
35. GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords
36. Cowboy Bebop
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FIRST INDUSTRY CRISIS
Studios were buckling under the pressure of a new invention called television, and they deemed animation too expensive for it. And so it was decided that animation was on its way out. Remember, in those days nobody had heard of a rerun. By 1957, the last of the big studios had closed the doors of its animation division. MGM had no choice but to follow Disney and Warner Bros.' leads and close down their animation division. By 1960, most animators in Hollywood found themselves out of work or picking up brief work on animated commercials.
HANNA BARBERA
It took two animation directors coming from MGM, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, to not only save the genre but also to reinvent it. Hanna and Barbera knew they could harness their skills to create a cheaper system of animation by utilizing their talent pool. The two men invented the limited animation system, which was based on reusing animation, utilizing strong staging, and creating simple gags. Their first production, entitled The Ruff & Ready Show, was a half-hour show that cost $2,800 to produce. They changed the perception of how animation had to look, feel, and move. Fifty years later, the same principles would become the principles of Web animation. By economizing the artwork, Hanna-Barbera dramatically drove down the cost of production and was able to bring thousands of artists back to their drawing boards. Hanna-Barbera would become known as the "General Motors of animation" for the twentieth century.
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POPULARITY OF FEATURE ANIMATION
In the 1980s, while feature film animation experienced another renaissance period by marrying traditional techniques with dazzling computer technology, television animation suffered. Many studios were turned over to business conglomerates that were looking for cheaper ways to produce Saturday morning cartoons. Legendary animators-turned-producers were pushed out of the studios to make way for business school graduates. The bottom line became the priority to the corporations. Overseas studios, particularly in Asia, began to take outsourced work from American studios for the lowest dollar. Many animators in the United States found themselves out of work, and the quality of television animation suffered tremendously. Sadly, the trend has continued today. While offering corporations a more economical solution, cheaper overseas labor forces have not been as skilled or savvy in using technologies such as Flash.
The growth in computing speed and the fall in computing cost have been key drivers for the animation industry. The computer has become an incredible tool for animation studios. While many studios have taken to 3D programs such as Maya, the animators who work with complex creatures, such as Shrek, possess all the knowledge of their predecessors. Although computers have made life easier for animators in terms of time saved, the principles of movement are more important now than ever. The computer animator who does not understand and appreciate animation from the past will create lifeless work. The people who devoted their lives to this genre and to understanding how to create that illusion of movement live on through today‘s modern exemplary work.
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Why is Animation Different
Of all the uses that computers can be put to, probably, the most interesting, exciting, and challenging to graphic artists is animation. From television commercials to major Hollywood blockbusters, it is used to produce highly distinctive images. Animation doesn‘t just look different; there are some things about the way it is made which mediate its passage through the marketplace, although new technologies are redrafting the rules. By comparison to live action, animation is often:
1. More labor intensive
2. Frequently suited to shorter formats than live action.
3. More suited to international markets because of the possibility of the increased shelf life of animated programs
4. More expensive in the short term (for more traditional types of animation) but with greater potential for returns
The animation market is exploding worldwide. It currently represents 25% of the world audiovisual market, a figure that is only set to increase with the introduction of new delivery systems, changing scheduling patterns, and a proliferation of new media forms. Animation is poised to take advantage of the new media landscape, because the format lends itself to a highly graphic digital environment. This flows through from established cinema to TV and on to commercial applications and sites on the internet. Because not only are more live action features using increasingly sophisticated digital animation technologies, but the visual and digital nature of contemporary animation content is well suited to use in online applications.
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However, animation is a distinct art form, with its own catalogue of production techniques and processes, as well as specific genres, categories and scheduling practices which set it apart from usual drama and comedy programming. Animation also has distinct characteristics in terms of its ability to access global markets because it possesses; a universal visual language which can be easily revoiced; a greatly extended shelf life; both a well established children‘s markets and a burgeoning adult market with no apparent limits on growth in the short to medium term; and a range of different times and formats that it can sell through, having established ‗short-form‘ series as a commercially acceptable format worldwide (in contrast to live action which generally sells only in half hour or hour blocks).
But there are significant hurdles which face animation in the development and early production phase, because animation is highly labor intensive and expensive in the short term, which need to be addressed in order for the long term rewards of animation production to be possible. The animation industry has undergone rapid expansion in and holds tremendous potential for further growth. Multi-channel television, the popularity of computer games, the Internet and the opportunities for cross-platform exploitation have all contributed to this growth. Animated productions are easier to export than live action programmes. It is also simpler to dub animation into different languages. Animation is less likely to date and can hence be exploited for much longer periods than live action – Disney‘s
Snow White still gets theatrical releases in cinemas even though it was
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Industry Characteristics
The industry is known for being highly cyclical, and the prospects of partial work over the year or regular layoffs frustrates artists in both the US and other countries. This has been exacerbated of late with business boom and bust cycles, rapid technological change, and other factors. Globally, the industry saw a strong revival in the 1990s, as Disney recorded a few blockbusters, including The Lion King and the Beauty and the Beast. This led to a boom in investments, which eventually turned into a bubble, before a downturn for studios in the last two to three years. In particular, Disney and Fox closed all of their 2D studios, mainly to focus on 3D animation, where marketing executives saw opportunities for greater profits. 3D in computer graphics terms means that the characters‘ forms and actions are based on algorithms and specifications in the three dimensions of the virtual space. This is also affiliated with great deal of computer power and algorithms to render the precise outlines, colors, textures and other aspects of the form. 2D on the other hand is often based on freeform sketching and drawing, although it is increasingly computer aided. Both 2D and 3D have advantages native to themselves, and lend themselves better to different styles and uses. For instance, a 2D sight gag or slapstick joke can be depicted easily by simply drawing, while in 3D, the artist has to figure out how to render these in algorithms first before the system can depict them.
The relative gross takings of US$ 100 million for Disney‘s 2002 2D release Treasure Planet and US$ 339 million for Finding Nemo suggests that consumers prefer 3D over 2D. This was made more stark by the fact that Finding Nemo cost US$ 94 million, which was less than Treasure
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same conclusions, however, have also been criticized as misguided perceptions, since 2D animations like Disney‘s Lilo and Stitch and Hayao Miyazaki‘s (i.e., Studio Gibli‘s) mostly-2D Spirited Away have been great successes. It is also commonly observed that it is the story and style that has led to a particular film‘s success, and not the technology.
Even though the breed of 3D computer animation companies capable of making feature length films is small in number, it is steadily increasing. These include Pixar, whose first hit was in 1995, Fox‘s Blue Sky Studios, Dreamworks SKG (the producer of Shrek), and now, Disney itself (which is internally orienting its capabilities towards 3D). Competition in 3D can also come from firms that specialize in special computer graphics effects for movies, such as Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), Tippet Studios (which did the effects for the final Matrix movie), and WETA (which did the effects for The Lord of the Rings).
The budget for an animated feature film could be as low as US$15 million and as high as US$100 million or more for an ―A list‖ feature. Further, for TV series, the budget can range from US$250,000 per episode up to US$1.5 million for a show like The Simpsons. The Pixar production model is quite costly, with pictures running at about US$ 100 million per film (although lately, well done 2D animated features could cost as much). At the same time, 3D animated movies have been well received, and have generated far more revenue than 2D animated films (Disney‘s 1994 2D hit,
The Lion King held the record, until Finding Nemo overtook it in 2003). In
animation, the average crew ranges widely, depending on the length of the film. The average Pixar crew has been about 150 or more, working for an
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development, there were 180 employees on the project. Of Pixar‘s crew of 180 on A Bug’s Life, about 40 percent were artists, 40 percent were technical people (consisting of the people who interface artists with the programming code), and 20 percent were managers. These were supported by a crew of film recording technicians, software developers, and the studio‘s animation tools department.
ANIMATION INDUSTRY SUPPLY CHAIN
The development and production of CG animated programming, together with the exploitation of related proprietary rights, generally involves: (i) the creation or acquisition of programming properties and their development; (ii) funding; (iii) production; (iv) distribution, both domestically and internationally; (v) merchandising and licensing of certain rights with respect to the use of proprietary characters and properties; and (vi) building a library of proprietary programming.
Creation or Acquisition and Development: Studios create or acquire
proprietary animation properties that are unique characters with broad appeal. Creation of proprietary programming is a high risk high return business.
Funding: The production of programming involves a substantial
amount of risk, particularly because costs of programming are payable when incurred, while revenues from programming, if any, are received at a later time and depend in part on the ultimate success of the programming. Such risks are managed securing funding to cover the production costs of its programming prior to beginning production. The
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funding for production costs comes in primarily through one or more of the following sources: distributors, television networks, or cable operators for audiovisual exploitation of the program; government incentive programs; and licensors of merchandising and home video rights. Third party providers of production funding are frequently entitled to receive a portion of the profits of the production as compensation for assuming some of the financial risks associated therewith. Such participation often includes rights to share in revenues generated by the commercial exploitation of related or ancillary applications, which diminishes the realizable value of studios but also mitigates the financial risk associated with production.
Production: Once a storyline is chosen, the studio selects a story editor
to supervise the preparation of each episode‘s script. The studio then develops computer models of characters, sets and props. Voices are recorded and the recordings are analyzed and timed so that the animation can be synchronized to the voice track. Key frames are then set up, depicting the characters and settings for a particular scene. The episode director then allocates scenes to computer animators who animate the assigned scene. Upon completion of the animation for an episode, a postproduction process occurs which includes creating sound effects, adding the musical score and inserting any special visual effects. Distribution: Studios typically uses third parties to distribute and
broadcast its programs. After the initial network, cable licensing or first run syndication period (generally two to three years), the program would be available for further commercial exploitation on cable. Fees
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receipts. The governance of animation production (i.e., where decisions on the supply chain) is dictated by the institutions which control whether content is produced and how it is distributed. Increasingly, these two aspects are connected. In the US, the distribution of animation is essentially controlled by the large TV channels such as the Fox Network, the specialized channels such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, the larger distributor/studios or other content providers such as Disney. It is only when a production studio gets large and well-known enough that it can effectively dictate its own future. Since most animation series are carried by TV studios, and since these studios may be in the broadcasting rather than production business, they rely heavily on contracting with creative talent of outside production studios.
Merchandising and Licensing: Control of merchandising and licensing
rights provides the studios with an opportunity to earn revenue from the sale of products bearing or utilizing the likenesses of the studio‘s proprietary characters and properties.
Building a library of proprietary properties: Once complete and
delivered, the copyrights form part of the studio‘s continually growing library. The company can re-license them at no additional cost. Additionally, the Company can take characters from these shows and produce spinoffs that will generate further revenue beyond the original production.
Specialized animation channels usually keep some internal pre-production and postpre-production operations, and sometimes even hold onto the production internally. That is, they have their own creative talent, either
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for developing animation in-house, or for spotting or identifying concepts in the conceptualization and preproduction phase, which are then ―outsourced‖ to animation studios. Post-production is often done in-house as well since it is really a follow-up stage that ensures that production meets the preproduction specifications.
Unlike animation, the film industry has outsourced their computer graphics (CG) effects for the most part. This is partly because of the flexibly specialized nature of film production, which allows outsourcing, and partly because of the fact that the film industry has traditionally been dependent only on physical assets such as actors and locations. Increasingly, however, computer graphics effects are becoming more and more useful in film, blurring the line between film and CG or CGI animation. Nowhere was this more evident than in the Lord of the Rings trilogy: All three movies used CG effects extensively for the main battle scenes, redefining the notion of what assets are needed for epic scenes or to define a movie.
ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY
Though the initial development of interactive computer systems and computer animation and imaging technology occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, before the advent of microcomputers in the mid-1970s, virtually none of the computer animations produced were done so with artistic or entertainment-related intentions. The early computers and corresponding graphics technology were fairly expensive, limited by hardware, and quite difficult to operate, requiring significant programming expertise. Almost all
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generally associated with the military, manufacturing, or the applied sciences.
Government agencies started using computer animation in the 1970s to create simulators for training and war games. This was followed in the 1980s in the commercial sector through adoptions of computer animation enhancements to computer aided design (CAD) and modeling (CAM) software, by adding new levels of realism through 3D modeling and utilization of special effects such as computer generation of surface textures over wire-frame models, rotation techniques, refinements in shading and lighting effects. While early adaptations required large dedicated mainframes, the rapid advancement of computer technology has made computer animation available to the masses, and this new software genre has become one of the fastest growing industries in the current decade – even though it is by many measures still in its infancy. In the early days, dedicated proprietary systems, often based on both hardware and software, were the rule of the day. In the mid to late 1980s the arrival of the workstation and the first professional off the shelf graphics animation software spelled the beginning of the end for the top tier of computer graphics (CG) production companies.
In 1974 Rene Jodion and Peter Foldes produced and animated
Hunger/La Faim using a computer animation system that relied on object
shape modification and line interpolation techniques. It was among the earliest computer-generated animations to be considered successful. It was also the first computer animation to be nominated for an Academy Award.
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Thanks to advancing technology and the subsequent lower capital equipment costs, coupled with the explosive growth of the workstation fueled the growth of today‘s larger studios. These studios rely on proprietary software to maintain competitive advantage. Today‘s smaller studios are taking advantage of the current wave of technological advance, the collapse of workstation price performance and the ascendancy of increasingly powerful Windows NT personal computers. Off the shelf animation software that maximizes work-group output while minimizing much of the need for staff programming is gaining in popularity.
New technology has had a significant impact on the growth of animation. The production of high quality animation has always been time consuming and labor intensive, but computer technology has enabled considerable savings in time and costs even for traditional drawn animation. It has also had a significant impact on production techniques, enabling the development of ever more realistic-looking 3D animation. This has helped to promote the popularity of the medium. Computer animation has also enabled the development of ever more complex and realistic ―special effects‖ for television programmes and feature films. For example, several science programmes use animated sequences to illustrate the workings of internal organs for the human body.
The Internet has also demonstrated its potential as a distribution platform for animation. Presently it is difficult to deliver high quality live action pictures to all but the highest bandwidth subscribers, but certain types of animation lend themselves well to the Internet. Software programmes like Flash and Shockwave have been of considerable assistance to the growth of online animated programming. In the past, 2D technology
