Animation Technology

Background

Animation started appearing before 1910; it was considered as labour intensive as 100 of drawing have to be made per minute of the film. The first animator to add sound to the movies is Walt Disney; Steamboat Willie in 1928 is the first animation that has sound added to the movie.  While for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, it is the first full length animated feature film.

In the early age of producing animation, most of the animation was hand-drawn. For example, Walt Disney Animation Studio, most of the animation was hand-drawn, such as Lion King, Beauty and the beast, pictures are drawn on paper and each paper was drawn slightly different from the one before and created the effect of illusion movement.  The process of creating an animation is the best animators will sketch a few animation drawings, and leave the gaps in between to a person called an “inbetweener” to finish the drawing in between the gap.

After computers were introduced in this industry, it had become an important aid to create animation. an example of computer animation can be found in Pixar Animation Studio, a company established by Steve Jobs, it is one of the largest studios in the world and is famous for the CGI (Computer-generated imagery) animated feature films. CGI is a high technology which can create a photorealistic image. For example, Toy story (released in 1995) is the first full length feature films created entirely on computers produced by the cooperation of Walt Disney Animation Production and Pixar Animation Studio. Other examples produced by Pixar using CGI will be Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and UP.

Potential Benefits

As the development of technology is progressing day after day, computer is introduced into the animation industry, the traditional animation technology (hand-draw animation) is a very large scale project and the amount of time, labour and equipment involved is very costly. While for the computer animation, the process is much less labor intensive, and generally much cheaper than traditional animation, there is lesser chance of getting error as from stage to stage as computer can have a backup file. Also by using computer it can shorten the production life cycle.

From the business point of view, animation can also help business to promote and advertise their product, as flash animation design can attract customer more than a whole bunch of words or text given out in brochure or plain text website. It can help customers to have a better memory of the products.

From the education point of view, animation cartoons was one of the method to educate children outside the classroom through the media

Legal and Ethical Issues

There are a few legal and ethical issues in animation jobs but not limited to freelance ones.

Intellectual property

Firstly, it is to respect work of others and never copy material of others into your own work at all times. The only exceptions are public domain materials, and make sure they are actually public domain, not self-owned content. Infringement of copyright should always be avoided.

Image content

Secondly, this is another form of intellectual property, but it’s an issue that is always difficult to identify as there are often clashes regarding to the use of materials which look similar to other’s work. It is difficult to interpret the work of yours and others and it can leave a stain on your reputation.

Nondisclosure

Thirdly, many animation studios, especially the big name studios, employ tight security on their productions. Security involves storylines, storyboard materials and any information about the work. In this way, you can hardly get on to their product details and do not try to infringe.

Business ethics

Fourthly, companies are now operating in an environment where there is an increasing focus on business ethics. Quoting an example, if you’re using subcontractors for your animation work, particularly on major projects, you’re ethically obliged to provide fair pay and contractual arrangements.

Security Concerns

The security concerns of the animation industry are more likely to be the importance of computer and network security.

To protect the computer, ActiveX is a code that embeds in the website that allows certain content to function or display on the screen. There are security concerns surrounding ActiveX based on the way it is created. To safeguard the software, IT people have to install the applications and firewalls such as:  

1. Eliminate the possibility of spyware to be secretly installed to your computer system.

2. Aim at going with signed ActiveX controls such as tagging on a signing authority like Verisign.

3. In the form of a trust, large organizations have avoided using ActiveX in their intranet design or websites out of fear of malicious software, including viruses being installed.

Companies have put in additional costs to safeguard security concerns which usually have resulted in extra budget as well as extra I.T. workload. In this way, security concerns can be much preserved.

Social Problems

People take animation as a tool for movie and film production. In itself, this tool could be good or it could be bad. If we make use of animation to produce prostitute and sex-abused movies and films, then it has lots of detrimental consequences to society. On the other hands, the blessings are many and immense. These include:

Creative-expressive animation

The producers encourage and help people to engage with music, theatre, dance and other types for the enjoyment; the expression it brings; and for the learning that can be derived.

Socio-cultural animation

The producers work with people and groups so that they take part in and help to harmonize the community in which they live.

Leisure-time animation

The producer and develop educational games and lessons for pre-school and school children such as playgrounds, toy libraries, activity centres, and sports.

 

Reference

Websites:

1. Steve, J. (作.). (October). Pixar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. PIXAR. 被取回 十月 6, 2011, 從 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar

-          This website is about the history of Pixar Animation Studio, information about examples of animation created by CGI can be found.

2. Catmull, E. (作.). (無日期). Pixar How We Do It. PIXAR. Official site, . 被取回 十月 7, 2011, 從 http://www.pixar.com/howwedoit/index.html

-          This is the official website of Pixar Animation Studio.

3. Disney, W. (作.). (無日期). The Animation Process. Walt Disney Studio Animation. Educational, . 被取回 十月 7, 2011, 從 http://www.justdisney.com/animation/animation.html

-          This website show the steps of producing Traditional animation

4. A Short History of Animation. (無日期).History of animation. Educational, . 被取回 十月 7, 2011, 從 http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow5/may99/History/history.html

-          This site is about the history of animation, how the industry develops from tradition animation to computer animation.

5. Sanders, A.-L. (作.). (無日期). Are You Protected by Copyright? Copyright. copyright protection, . 被取回 十月 7, 2011, 從 http://animation.about.com/od/relatedtopics/a/mediacopyright.htm

-          This site is about the legal and ethical issue. It is about how to protect the animation work that the owner done.

6.      Cv, T. (作.). (無日期). Professional Ethics for Freelance Animation Jobs - CVTips.com. Professional Ethics for Free lance Animation jobs. 被取回 十月 7, 2011, 從 http://www.cvtips.com/career-success/professional-ethics-for-freelance-animation-jobs.html

-          This site show the ethical issue in freelance animation Jobs

Newspaper:

1.  The standard, Zap! Cash handout gives comic fair some extra punch. August 3^rd 2011

-          This newspaper is about the huge influence of Animation and comics to the society, an animation and comic festival was held in Hong Kong.

2. CBC, A. (作.). (無日期). Disney returns to traditional animation - Arts & Entertainment - CBC News. Disney returns to traditional animation. News, . 被取回 十月 7, 2011, 從 http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/film/story/2007/02/10/disney-handdrawn-animation.html

-          From the CBC news (Arts & Entertainment) on February 10, 2007.

Books:

1. 3-D computer animation by JohnVince

-          This book is about the technique for 3-D computer animation. It provides a guide to the animation technique.