Cartoons were the best of 2-D animation. They were drawings brought to life, appreciated the most by children, the only ones who could appreciate short films of goofy animal characters. Some of these animals are now world renowned, like Disney’s Mickey Mouse, Warner Brothers’ Bugs Bunny and the famous cat and mouse duo, Tom and Jerry. Though seen only on TV and the big screen, they might as well be real Hollywood actors and actresses, champions of 2-D animation, taking it to the top. But the era of 2-D already draws to a close, and a new age has come, that of digital animation.
Digital animation or CGI,is the art of creating moving images with the use of computers. There have been CGI short films produced as independent animation as early as 1976. In 1995, together with Walt Disney, the movie studio Pixar released the first completely computer-generated animated movie Toy Story. Many digital animation films soon followed, each one almost a certified hit with Pixar’s creativity and Disney’s marketing and distribution power. Along with the sequel Toy Story 2, there was Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, the Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille and Wall-E, the best being Finding Nemo, earning a worldwide gross of $864,625,978 and winning four Academy Awards including Best Animated Feature.
Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny and the other giants of 2-D animation have also been rendered 3-dimensionally with digital animation. The next challenge in digital animation is making realistic, humanlike characters, like in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. With each new technological breakthrough, digital animation continues to improve. From simple moving sticks to fully-rendered, lifelike animation.