Some of our warmest childhood memories belong to lazy Sunday mornings spent on watching cartoons on TV. Whether it was the iconic tales of “Tom and Jerry” or “The Jungle Book”, animated pictures have always fascinated us. It’s perhaps this enthusiasm and curiosity that has led to evolution of animation industry.
If you delve deeper, you’ll find animation techniques to be as old as storytelling and it still continues to captivate both home and business audience. Animation is an art-in-motion, something that humans actually discovered as early as the Paleolithic age.
The history of animation technology showcasing moving objects and images has changed over the years. We are living in the world when computer and internet technology helps in creating terrific animated videos.
The Era of 3D Animation
3D animation brought revolution in the animation industry marking its first appearance in 1972 by Ed Catmull, who later founded the biggest 3D animation studios of all time. 3D animation technology had a huge impact on business, entertainment and education sector because of its unique traits which made people remember things more as compared to regular programs. On one hand it was creative and unique in its implementation and technique while on other hand it could develop characters and stories that were not attainable using cinematography.
History: Early Roots of 3D Animation
The word ‘Animation’ is translated from a French word that means – “soul”. This is why the animation production process is actually ensoulment of characters. The meaning of 3D animation is the use of digital or real 3-dimensional objects and animating or moving them.
Phenakistoscope was the first ever real animation device discovered by Joseph Plateau in 1832. This device could create a fluid illusion of an animation.
Earlier, the animation films used to be crude as they were made with the devices that were extremely primitive. One of the first such system was Theatre Optique invented by Emile Reynaud. It was patented in 1888. The series of animated films created using this system included popular animated movies of that time – “Pauvre Pierrot” and “Autour d’une cabine”. Each of his films contained 300-700 frames that lasted for 10-15 minutes.
In early 1920s, hand-drawn animation was created using Cel Animation. Cel was a transparent sheet composed of cellulose nitrate and camphor. These sheets were used to create hand-drawn objects. The characters were drawn on these sheets and then superimposed on common background images, reducing the number of frames and total production time. “Colonel Heeza Liar” was the first animated cartoon series created using this animation technique by John Bray Studios.
“Gertie, The Dinosaur” was another popular animated film produced during that time by Winsor McCay. The film used techniques such as registration marks, keyframe, and animation loops. It is known to be the oldest cartoon film.
After Gertie, a young animator raised to fame with the first animated movie with sound in the year 1928. He was none other than Walt Disney who made ‘Steamboat Willie’ and later own changed the entire animation industry. This movie also marked the debut of the lovable Mickey Mouse.
The Computer Revolution: Introduction of Motion Graphic
The first few films were really basic and nevertheless changed the way animation was done. “Hummingbird” was the first computer-animated movie that was released in 1967. It used 30000 images and 25 motion sequences and was created by computer.
Types of 3D Animation
The stop-motion technique was successful which later on gave birth to CGI animation techniques. CGI revolutionized cinema and entertainment industry and has been in use since then.
Stop-Motion/Claymation
Stop-motion/Claymation was the first type of 3D animation. In this process, the animator poses an object and captures pictures, changes the pose/setting and then captures the pictures again. Collaboratively, these pictures when stringed together makes a 3D animation. “Wallace and Gromit” is a renowned stop-motion animation produced by Nick Park. Its first premiere was in the year 1990.
Creating this type of animation is time-consuming and demands a lot of effort to pose objects and capture pictures. This is why many 3D animation studios take less effort on stop-motion projects.
CGI
With ever-passing time, men unleashed new realms of knowledge and computer-generated imagery (CGI) was adopted in 3D animation production. Computers played an important role in such type of production. Today’s 3D animation studios use more developed tools and software to create 3D animated content.
These tools aid the animation artists to create more creative animation in less span of time. New features have been added to the industry such as concept design, character design, environment design, and hyper-realistic character design.
What is great about 3D animation?
The videos created using 3D animations have magical powers to spellbound people and engage them in a story. These animated videos showcase the viewers with course of events and characters that are only attainable within 3d animation.
It also provides context in which memorable content can be displayed in front of the people. The audience for 3D animation is increasing day-by-day with children not being the only audience. Adults and youngsters are also watching animated movies and series more often.
Not only this, brands are using 3D animation to bring some life to their display advertisements and commercials on the television leaving an everlasting impression in the viewer’s mind. CGI technique is used in movies to provide special effects and bring life to the real characters as well.
Trends in 3D Animation Industry
Technology is advancing with each passing day. The creativity levels possessed by modern-day artists require more tools and software to produce awesome animated content mesmerizing the viewers. The animated characters are facilitating the reading exercises for the children not interested in reading stories or texts. In this way, the children can enjoy reading and learn more.
Virtual Reality (VR) is gaining popularity. More animation studies are bringing virtual reality to 3D animation. It has moved 3D animation to next level. Playing 3D games has now become possible in a virtual environment. All thanks to virtual reality mixed with 3D animation.
Peppy Production is one of the emerging 3D animation studios that has showcased astounding work in the field of animation and video production. The studio has of team of experienced professionals who are super-skilled in creating a masterpiece with all the knowledge and experience they have. It offers video production services such as explainer videos, 3D animation videos, 2D animation videos, corporate and event videos. Some of the recent 3D animation videos crafted by Peppy Production are:
3d animation for B2B company from Peppy Production on Vimeo.
Micromax Product Launch Xolo from Peppy Production on Vimeo.
The Bottom Line
3D animation has evolved significantly over the years. As human mind is expanding in all horizons, new techniques in 3D animation have started coming up. It is deep, attractive and unique. 3D animation is one of the biggest inventions of man. It has given a new definition to entertainment, gaming, learning and education. Today, we can find ourselves playing the games on a virtual environment, feeling the senses while watching movies and enjoy storytelling a lot more, all thanks to innovations made in the field of animation.
