Gone are the days when early cartoonists and animators tried to make movies with hand-drawn sketches and graphics. The great Walt Disney used to draw most of his early works by hand. His work is a pinnacle and inspiration for modern animators and graphic designers all over the world.
Contemporary animated films are a zenith in the modern film industry. Viewers have never before experienced top-notch graphics, animation, and CGI visualization.
Technological developments in the field of IT and design have opened up a wealth of possibilities for today’s animators. It has become much easier for graphic and animation artists to be ambitious in their endeavors because the technology of our time is so permissive, with new and radical advances being made every day.
Animation has come a long and arduous way since its inception, and modern animated creations are so completely realistic that you could reach out and touch them.
The advent of cutting-edge computers and computer applications, over the years, have been revolutionary and should be credited with the success of the animation industry today.
Technological advancements in the animation industry are a never-ending process and are expected to grow by leaps and bounds, even surpassing the current trend of ‘bigger and better’.
Take CGI for example, computer generated imagery goes beyond the established laws of physics. Animators can make their animated characters perform impossible, sometimes outlandish, feats using advanced CGI.
The current state of CGI is the result of innovations in the way we solve computer algorithms and improvements in the compactness of integrated circuits, along with the development of various software.
CGI is not only efficient but also profitable. It’s a cheaper alternative to any other form of animation, not to mention the need to build expensive sets and miniature sets. Of course, it has its own weaknesses. CGI animators have yet to capture complex human movement and emotion.
No matter how realistic an animated human being may appear, they will still have limited movement and reactions. Paul Ekman, an American psychologist, has classified human emotions into 6 types, universally present in all people in the world. The 6 emotions that he recognized were happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, anger and disgust. He added a seventh emotion, later, that of contempt.
Animators haven’t been able to capture all of the emotions mentioned above yet, but with the kind of technological metamorphosis happening every day, this may soon be a reality.
So what does the future hold for animation and animators?
Well, it’s a never-ending process and the future looks bright for animation and animators. On the one hand, photorealistic rendering in animation is being used more and more.
The death of Paul Walker was devastating to fans of The Fast & The Furious franchise and the film fraternity in general. What was most frustrating was the fact that he died in the middle of filming Furious 7.
But that didn’t stop the filming from being filmed, rather the entire film was completed with the help of photorealistic rendering, in which a digital stuntman or virtual actor, complete with the look and likeness of Paul Walker, was used, along with with Walker’s brother. to end the movie.
This technology, largely unavailable a decade or so ago, would have rendered the film unusable and probably archived it. The premature death of the leading actor would have caused the cancellation of all filming. In extreme cases, where millions would have been spent and canceling would not be an option, the studio would likely spend millions more to reshoot with a new cast, hoping to save the film.
The day is not far off when making movies will be a much cheaper proposition, since it will be much easier to replace actors with their digital likeness. Imagine being able to digitally resurrect an actor who has been long dead or is unavailable for a particular shoot due to a scheduling conflict.
The animation sciences will continue to evolve and grow in a magnitude that can exceed the current scenario. Human ingenuity is limitless. As long as we have dreamers, there will be a constant stream of advanced technologies, taking animation to a new level.
