Analyn Mena
Fundamentals of Media Communication Instructor Gwen Puza March 24, 2011
Mena 1
Once upon a time, animation was painstakingly hand-drawn in multiple stages by sweatshop teams of artists who made no pretensions to realism. The late Walt Disney preferred to generally portray speaking animals and magical figures for the necessity of building sets, costuming actors, and obeying the laws of physics. In those days, work on a major production like “Peter Pan” took years of careful, repetitive craftsmanship. These animations were 2D animations and they still appeal to the younger generations now, but perhaps it is time to move on from that. Or will it? Animation appears to be here to stay as an art form. While there is much advancement in the realm of 3D animation, 2D animation is still being used. It isn 't so much a question of which type of animation is better, but what each type of animation brings to a project. While 2D animations are usually hand drawn and uses multiple images, animation in 3D uses computer generated lines, surfaces and solids to create a three-dimensional look. The final product is an image with more perceived depth than would be obtained in 2D animation. Unlike 3D animation, in 2D animation only one angle or side can be seen at a time, so the image looks flat. The skill sets required to do 3D animation are much more difficult to obtain than those required of 2D animation. It also tends to be more expensive to create 3D images depending on what kind of software package you use and its quality. Both 2D and 3D techniques are now being used in the creation of animated projects. This means that both 2D and 3D animations that have been artistically integrated together will become the norm on many animation projects in the future. Computer animation goes way beyond funny cartoon images. Computer generated animation is used in a host of different situations such as gaming development,
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