Additional source - Scene from Disney's iconic 'Paperman', which won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for combining traditional animation techniques with newly introduced CGI animation (Toor, 2013, p.1)
Animation has existed for about two centuries, evolving from the early 1800’s to the present day. However, traditional 2D hand-drawn animation is extinguishing while a rise in modern 3D computerized animation is on the rise. This topic is extremely crucial to me as an animator, primarily because it gives me insight into how the animation industry has advanced through the years and what the industry is developing into, but also because it serves as a foundational research for the topic of my creative media essay.
The technical and artistic differences between 2D and 3D animation lies in a grey area. This is because technical and artistic styles are both interrelated in certain ways.
Video 1 – The Future of 2D animation is still alive and applicable in most animated films, however, this video explains why the industry chooses to shift into 3D and CGI animation from the history of Disney (Alison Work, 2016)
Technical Differences:
Two-dimensional animation is an outdated method that was created in a series of hand drawn frames which differ from one another by slight movements (DBS Interactive, 2010, p.1). They were then compiled to depict an illusion of movement through running thousands of photographed images at a standard 24 frames per second (DBS Interactive, 2010, p.1; WizMotions, 2014, para. 5). Video 2 is a logo design of Walt Disney’s opening title credits that gives a short glimpse of 2D animation history that depicts its painstaking frame-by-frame animated illusion at the beginning of its recent films.
Video 2 - Logo: Steamboat Willie [traditional 2D animation example] (Goulou43, 2010)
However, every aspect from the character designs and movements to various lighting and camera angles had to be drawn, which made it difficult and time consuming (WizMotions, 2014, para. 9).
Three-dimensional animation is a modernized form of creating animation using various computer software. The software enables animators or 3D modelers to create textures and adjust lighting and camera angles through a series of stages called the 3D production pipeline (figure 1).
Figure 1 – 3D Production Pipeline by Andy Beane (Beane, 2012, “Working in 3D Animation Preproduction”)
This includes modelling, shading, texturing, lighting, rigging, skinning, animating, rendering, compiling and adding special effects (Hix, 2016, p.1). While conducting a detailed research into the 3D production pipeline for my 3D animation class, I learnt a lot about how the industry functions, and therefore why the current industry chooses to relatively indulge heavily into 3D animation.
Artistic Differences:
On the artistic side of 2D animation, the style is defined only by the x and y axes, thus portraying the height and width aspects in a 2-dimensional “flat image” format (WizMotions, 2014, para.4). Each frame is pencil-drawn and painted or inked on cel sheets by a group of artists – cleanup artists, directors, background artists, concept artists and more - and is later photographed against a plain background (Sanders, 2018, p.1). Nevertheless, modern 2D animation is done digitally by scanning the drawn templates and then inking/painting it using a software or sometimes by designing the entire animation frame-by-frame on a computerized medium (Sanders, 2018, p.1; DBS Interactive, 2010, p.1) (see figure 2).
Figure 2 - Graphics tablet used for designing 2D characters, effects and animation on computerised software (Sanders, 2018, p.1)
3D animation is known for its realistic appearances on characters which makes the animation seem more believable and life-like. It is generated using the x, y and z axes, therefore, entailing a three-dimensional work environment allowing the height, width and depth to be distinguishable (DBS Interactive, 2010, p.1; WizMotions, 2014, para.7). For example, figure 3 shows how a 2D globe can be modeled into a 3D sphere that can be rotated 360 degrees (DBS Interactive, 2010, p.1).
Video 3 – 2D animation process of the show We Bare Bears using digitized media (Cartoon Network, 2016).
Therefore, although 3D computerized animation is on the incline because it is “less labor intensive and much cheaper” (Sanders, 2018, p.1), it uses the ‘pastiche’ tool of intertextuality when it comes to being creative with animations. This is particularly applicable to my creative media essay wherein I am researching the comparative differences between the 2D Jungle Book animated film (1967) and the 3D CGI animated remake in 2016.
Video 4 – Some animated shows till date, such as The Amazing World of Gumball, incorporate both the 2D and 3D techniques of animation to merge intertextuality with originality, creatively (Cartoon Network Africa, 2016).
References:
Alison Work (2016, December 1). The Future of 2D Animation [video file]. Retrieved (2018,
March 6) from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOGwoCjYto8 s
Beane, A. (2012) 3D Animation Essentials [image]. Indianapolis, Indiana: John Wiley & Sons,
Inc. Retrieved (2018, February 22) from https://books.google.ae/books?id=62FrKLO2M3AC&pg=PP46&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false
Cartoon Network (2016, October 8). We Bare Bears | Sketch to Screen - The Animation
Process | Cartoon Network [video file]. Retrieved (2018, March 6) from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cpdAodx0Kk
Cartoon Network Africa (2016, March 21). Animation Process | Imagination Studios | Cartoon
Network. Retrieved (2018, March 6) from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6KcCz4IKGY
DBS Interactive (2010, January 29). What is the Difference Between 2D and 3D Animation.
Retrieved (2018, March 6) from https://www.dbswebsite.com/blog/2010/01/29/what-is-the-difference-between-3d-and-2d-animation/
Goulou43 (2010, May 30). Logo Disney – Steamboat Willie [video file]. Retrieved (2018, March
Hix, B. (2016, June 24). Making Sense of the 3D Production Pipeline. Retrieved (2018, March 6)
Sanders, A. L. (2018, February 20). Learn the Distinctions Between Traditional and Computer
Animation. Retrieved (2018, March 6) from https://www.thoughtco.com/traditional-vs-computer-animation-p2-140527
Toor, A. (2013, February 25). How Disney’s ‘Paperman’ Turned old school school animation
to Oscar Gold [image]. Retrieved (2018, March 6) from
WizMotions (2014, January 7). What is the Difference Between 2D & 3D Video Animation.
Retrieved (2018, March 6) from http://www.wizmotions.com/2204/difference-between-2d-and-3d-animation-videos/
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