Jamie Titera, Professors Brent Adams (Industrial Design/Animation, School of Technology) and Kelli Loosli (Animation, Visual arts)

After researching the topic and after listening to the many voices of experience a few things became readily apparent. Perhaps most important was the perspective of my project. I approached the project with the intent of trying to isolate traditional animation from 3D animation and find out the future of both. After attending the annual SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference in San Antonio, speaking with many people in the industry, and becoming more involved myself it is clear that things are not as black and white as they first appeared to me. Mark Thomas, president, Right Hemisphere, “ I think the distinction (between 2D and 3D) will become more blurred over the next few years as traditional cel animation is mixed seamlessly with 3D props and environments using a new generation of 3D tools. “ This type of combined animation is being seen more and more as the industry combines the two art forms to produce different types of motion pictures with a different look.

DreamWorks Pictures’ Spirit may look like a return to the glory days of two-dimensional animation, but it is not. Computer animation played a prominent role in completing the overall look of the film, which tells the story of horses in the untamed old west. Producer Jeffrey Katzenberg calls the combination “tradigital animation.” Sprit represents a melding together of what is singular, unique and special about 2-D animation – that is what happens when an artist actually creates life by drawing on a piece of paper – and transports it, transposes it, and transplants it into state of the art CG animation,” Katzenberg said. “What we’ve done is taken Spirit as a character and the other acting moments of the movie and put them in a threedimensional world, which is very lifelike, very rich. The camera work and camera move of it is as dynamic as what you see in CG. Literally, the opening shot of the movie by design, by intent, was for us to show our audience that this is not like any traditional animated movie. You start on a traditionally animated eagle, which by the way, in the middle of that shot, goes CG, goes back to 2D, you can’t tell. It’s seamless into a three-dimensional world where you fly down. There’s a little bit of vertigo in there. You couldn’t do in traditional animation.” Co-director Kelly Asbury explained how 2D and 3D were combined to create natural elements like water. “The water in the river scene, the little splashes you see, each of them were done by hand, by an artist on a piece of paper like they would for a traditional animated film,” Asbury said. “The way they were put in the film and combined and the actual flow of the water and the body of the water was computer generated. Those two worlds came together to create what I think is probably the most realistic and elaborate water ever put in an animated feature. Neither technology is up to a point where if it was all computer generated, it wouldn’t have a realistic look. If it was all hand drawn, it wouldn’t. We put those two together to create something that really has a new look.” ¹

Matt Reilly, software engineer, SAIC, Inc, “ I think that the traditional animation we grew up with (without a trace of 3d content) will slowly become a part of history. I think the magic of animation made “purely by hand” will slowly be forgotten. I don’t think that’s a good thing. To disagree with the continual trend of our culture, I think there are some things that a computer cannot do—replacing the look, the fell, the magic of traditional animation is definitely one of them.” Book, an animator says,” I create and love both 2d and 3d animation. In some ways, 2D animation has been dying since the late 40’s/50’s(the true golden age). TV and overseas animation have cheapened it beyond repair. “Traditional” animation died when Disney started digital ink and paint; there’s very little “traditional” about today’s work. The 2D medium has evolved as far as it can. 3D is in its infancy, and it’s driven by technology. People who think they have seen every way 3D can look are fooling themselves. Audiences are getting more sophisticated. WE thought the video games to the 80’s had really sweet graphics… show them to a kid today, and they don’t get it. I worry that the same thing may happen with 2D animation, that it will be perceived as “ primitive” or old.

Robert, an animator with 4K Animation, makes a very insightful comment, “ It’s the storytelling which makes the difference not the style of the animation. 3D gives you just the opportunity of a wider, richer range of styles. 3D isn’t the magic tool for everything. Look at Final Fantasy. Even the best special effects didn’t help the movie be a box office success. I was simply bored by the dialogue and bad characters. And I don’t think it would be much better in 2D.” Steve Evagelatos, director, Natterjack: “ I think one has to remember that 3D, unlike 2D, is two things; first the 3D “look”, and second, and more importantly, the 3D “process”. When 3D animation (as we popularly recognize it now) is on the screen or monitor, it is still 2D, and no more 3D than Gertie the Dinosaur. We like to call it 3D mainly because the movements and lighting “look” 3D, not because of the virtual three-dimensional process involved in creating it. This look is popular now, but just as the “3D look” of airbrushing in magazine illustration eventually waned, so will this, I believe. On the other hand, the 3D “process” (building reusable models with three axis, manipulating their perspective digitally, working in a virtual space, complex movements, textures and effects etc. etc.) has barely been explored creatively. This process will always hold strong potential for those with what once might have been called “traditional” animation skills (composition, drawing, posing, and acting). In the future, I believe the definitions separating “3D” and “2D” will blur increasingly more, as both “3D” and “2D” animators are freed from the limitations that originally defined their crafts. In short, I don’t believe either will win over or succumb to the other, but evolve so as to be equally transformed from what we today think of them as.”

As a summation of what I have learned through my interviews and research I offer the following. It is readily apparent that 3D animation is becoming more and more popular with an expanded versatility and capability that will only increase as creativity and technology continue to mesh together. It must be recognized that this all stems from traditional animation that contains the fundamentals and basis for all animation. Whether it is 2D or 3d animation the purpose is the telling of a story and that will always be the most important aspect of this art form, it is the purpose. As time goes by I think that there will be a broader horizon of 3D capabilities and possibilities in the animation industry and other industries but I think traditional animation will continue especially as it meshes more and more with an interactive 3D horizon. As 3d evolves I think that ultimately it will return to focus on the basic principles of traditional animation that it sprang from.

Reference

1. www.actionadventure.about.com “The Spirit of Adventure”