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Disney, W. (Producer), Hand, D. (Director). (1937). Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs [Motion Picture]. United States: Walt Disney Productions. 

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During the 1920s, animation was slowly picking up as Disney Studios and Warner Bros. experimented with techniques and technology.

Steamboat Willie was the first animation with sound effects added.

Following Disney, companies created character model sheets that were mass produced and circulated around their company. This was to make sure the character always had the same proportions and personality even when being worked on by new animators (Maltin, 1980).

The chosen animation technique was cel process, as it allowed multiple people to work on a single animation and therefore speed up the process. By this time, the roles of colouring, inbetweening and the original sketching were established.

The straight ahead technique (which was the original animation technique from the early 1900s) quickly got shelved as it was both less efficient and more difficult to use to create smooth animations.

Mass production of animations started kicking off. This was partially due to the popularity of Disney’s Silly Symphonies series, which was followed by a Mickey Mouse series.

Colour was added to cartoons. In the early 1930s, the Technicolour’s two colour process (where colours could be used only from the red and green portions of the colour spectrum. This, however, was highly expensive and most companies decided the outcome was not worth the time and money. Walt Disney remained one of the only people who thought colouring would be essential to further his animation career. Technicolour later produced a three colour process which encompassed all the colours on the spectrum. Disney made a three year exclusivity deal with Technicolour, even as everyone said it wasn’t worth it. This turned out to be untrue, as his first coloured animated short (part of the Silly Symphonies Series) won awards and was groundbreaking in animation, not just because of the colour, but because of the way Disney used colour to storytell (Maltin, 1980).

Snow White was the first full length animated film, complete with sound and colour. In its creation, Disney realised simplicity was key: busy or overactive, complicated scenes make the animation exhausting to watch.

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Disney, W. (Producer), & Luske, H., & Sharpsteen, B. (Directors). (1940). Pinocchio [Motion Picture]. United States: Walt Disney Productions. 

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C: 1940 - Propaganda and Cheap Cartoons 

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C: 1940 - Propaganda and Cheap Cartoons 

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Due to World War 2, animation was put on a slight hold as people were conscripted for the military. This didn’t mean that animation ceased: it was mostly focused on war propaganda and silly, cheap cartoons (Bendazzi, 1994).

The biggest film released in this period was likely Pinocchio, which was Disney’s second full length animated film. Unlike Snow White, which was a fairytale and generally happy, Pinocchio presented the problem of being a much darker story. The animators struggled with creating the illusion of depth and size for the whale, Monstro. Disney even scrapped months of work on the original storyline and animation, due to it not meeting the standards needed for success. While Snow White was met with resounding success, the release of Pinocchio was even more so (Maltin, 1980, p. 59). Pinocchio is often used as an example for the 12 principles of animation, in concert with Mickey Mouse.

Bambi and Dumbo were both released during this period, showcasing smoother animation of animals. During this time all films were still animated by hand.

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During this period, some studios focused on producing cartoons, including Paramount Studios, which released the series Casper the Friendly Ghost in 1950, and continued to produce it during the decade (Bendazzi, 1994, p. 139). Casper allowed Paramount Studios to keep developing away from the powerhouse that was Disney.

On the other hand, Disney strayed away from that and started releasing more films, the first of which was Cinderella (1950) (Maltin, 1980, p.  72 - 73). Other films released in the decade include Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1952), Lady and the Tramp (1955) and Sleeping Beauty (1959).

In the first half of the decade, Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp stand out. For Pan, the crew at Disney had difficulty working on creating a feeling of weightlessness when the children flew. This was difficult because the children would be primarily still during these scenes, which is the opposite of what animation is meant to show. For Lady, it was the first animated film from Disney not based on a previously coined story/fairytale. This film showcased Disney’s creative character building and opened an avenue for original stories.

Sleeping Beauty was unique when it was released, as it was the first film made for wide screen, with matching sound mechanics. This film was 6 million dollars in the making, and is seen as the best textured and elaborate Disney film since Pinocchio (Maltin, 1980, p. 74). The change in the style of animation was also apparent in this film, as there was a larger focus on backgrounds and stylized, angular designs for all features. Sleeping Beauty did not do well with critics due to it being “heavy handed” (Maltin, 1980, p. 74), however today it is seen as a masterpiece due to the more sophisticated nature of the film.

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Towards the beginning of 1960, Walt Disney changed his animation style, going from technicolor to 3D in the 2000's, but from the continuation of the 50's, he had changed from his complimentary rotoscoping and multiplane camera animating and progressed to a technique known as xerography, as a way to save money when creating his, at the time, infamous movie '101 Dalmatians (1961)' to whom was written by Dodie Smith and Bill Peet, directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, Hamilton Luske, and Clyde Geronimi.

During an interview, there was a comment from the son of the IWerks creator ''...My dad of IWerks got to thinking about how we could save some money, and one of the things that occurred to him is that the Xerox process..." (IWerks, Dudley, 2017)

While Xerography started for Disney during the 1960's, the technique was invented way back in 1938 by 'Xerox Corporation', the process of the technique being created by Chester Carlson. Originally, it was known as electrography, the reason being "...It's based on two natural phenomena: that materials of opposite electrical charges attract and that some materials become better conductors of electricity when exposed to light." (1938)

'It was there that the first xerographic copy was made on October 22, 1938. The two men prepared a sulfur coating on a zinc plate, and Kornei printed a notation in India ink on a glass microscopic slide: "10- 22-38 Astoria." They pulled down the shade to darken the room, then rubbed the sulfur surface vigorously with a handkerchief to apply an electrostatic charge. The slide was laid on the surface, and the two pieces were placed under a bright incandescent lamp for a few seconds. The slide was then removed and lycopodium powder was sprinkled on the sulfur surface, then blown off. What was left on the surface was a near-perfect duplicate in powder of the same notation on the glass slide. After repeating the experiment several times to reassure themselves the process worked, the men made permanent copies by transferring the powder images to wax paper and heating the sheets to melt the wax.'

(1938).

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101 Dalmatians was one of the first movies Walt Disney worked on in the beginning of the 1960's aside from other lesser known movies like 'Swiss Family Robinson (1960)' and 'Pollyanna(1960)'. His career in animating began to dull out throughout this era as he was starting to get too busy with live action movies and his infamous theme park 'Disneyland'. Alas, Walt was more determined to stay within the industry than to let his legacy die as this was where he started, and he wanted to keep doing what he was known for, which was animation. The popular dog movie almost never happened due to the lack of budgets after Sleeping Beauty's release that cost $6 million to create and only made $5.3 million gross on its first theatrical run. Fortunately, this movie cost less at a scale of $3.6 million and was 4 minutes longer than the Sleeping Beauty movie.

After the Dalmatian period, the continuation of popular movies came rolling out, including the infamous movie within the same xerography technique 'The Jungle Book (1967)'. While Walt did work on other memorial movies during this time period such as 'The Sword in the Stone' and 'Mary Poppins', the upcoming sensation of The Jungle Book was an upcoming impact for the world.

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During this era, Walt Disney had passed on and his brother, Roy Disney, had taken on the role as owner as he had originally been Walt’s business partner since the beginning.

Although computer animation came during the 1940’s - 1950’s, it was 1971 that the Disney executives decided to introduce the movie 'Aristocrats' (1971) using computer animation in order to gain the interest of their targeted audiences. Aristocrats was the first film made entirely after his death.

Computer animation notably took off by John Whitney in 1958 when he was found to be known as the first person to create the first computer animation in history. Computer 2d animation is when we integrate different frames of height and width to help create the illusion of movement in a flat setting to give the scene its 2d effect.

“The Aristocrats reveals how essential Walt Disney was in shaping the studio’s animated features—and how significant a gap he left. Aristocrats was the first film made entirely after his death. The plot does little more than link a string of vaguely related episodes,” said animation historian Charles Solomon in the Los Angeles Times (April 9, 1987).

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The movie wasn’t an overly realistic plot or overly complicated, it was an accepted and loved film nonetheless. The movie garnered the attention of more animal based characters showing themselves in the light of a human's position, having expressive faces to keep the attention strong and engaged.

While Disney was a thriving animation studio on it’s own and known as the most noticeable out of all the other industries, in 1977 the movie ‘Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure’ had emerged, directed by Richard Williams, produced by the Bobbs-Merrill Company and released by 20th Century Fox. It was a crazy filled movie featuring soft tones and vibrant colours throughout the movie.

The movements of the ragdoll characters had also shown to be quite a difficult challenge in implementing the ‘doll like’ attributes it was clearly supposed to show off in being like a sack, as well as trying to drift off from the Disney animation style so as to not accidentally replicate it in total. Unfortunately for Raggedy Ann’s movie, I was unable to find a lot of information regarding their animation style but based on my own perspective, I see them using a variety of pencil animation techniques that vary from thicker and flowy lines.

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Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure '1977'

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Disney’s The Black Cauldron that was released in 1985. It strayed away from the typical tone of Disney films and went for a more “darker and more experimental tone.” (2023). The film is known for nearly having Disney shut down and not making enough money from the box office. “Was the first Disney feature filmed in 70mm widescreen since Sleeping Beauty.” (Kois, 2010). “It boasted 6-track Dolby sound and the first computer animation ever in a Disney film.” (Kois, 2010). The Black Cauldron was set to use new technology such as the zombies would have “appeared in the audience in hologram form.” (Brenda, 2016).  It didn’t occur due to budget and inconvenience. It was also set to have background effects in stop motion but budget also affected this for not occurring. However, despite some technological advancements being removed, The Black Cauldron was the first Disney film to use computers and cg animation. The budget was $40 million dollars and its final domestic growth being $21 million dollars with the first week of release making $4 million dollars.

Towards the end of the 80s, The Little Mermaid by Disney released in 1989. This brought back the return of Disney’s “musical storytelling”. (2023). “Characters were drawn on cels and superimposed on a fixed background image to reduce the number of reproductions necessary to produce an animation”.  (National Museum of American History). It’s considered to be the first of the Disney Renaissance due to lackluster Disney films that came before after Walt Disney’s passing. It was also called the Disney Renaissance because it reflected an aesthetic and industrial growth of the studio. (Pallant, 2013, p.89). With that it saw the return “to the artistic ideologies of the Disney-Formalist period.” (Pallant, 2013, p.89). Xeroxing was used for the Little Mermaid and was the last time that it was used for a Disney film. Xeroxing is an animation technique which allows exact reproductions of an animator's original drawing onto cels rather than tracing them onto ink. (The Walt Disney Family Museum, 2018). The Little Mermaid did also use new and emerging technologies such as computer-generated imagery however the majority of it used Xerography. (Jamieson). Films that were included during the Disney Renaissance were “Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994)”. (Pallant, 2013, p.89). Etc. The opening made $6 million dollars and in total, worldwide it made $84 million dollars.

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THE HOUSE OF MOUSE PROJECT - 'The Black Cauldron'

The one that almost killed Disney animation.

As the 1980s began, Walt Disney Pictures (yes, we've seen a name change) entered the decade under new leadership. For the first time since the death of Roy O. Disney, the studio was controlled by a member of the Disney family, with Walt Disney's son-in-law Ron Miller taking the reins as President. After working closely with his father-in-law prior to his death in 1966, Miller had spent the last two decades producing numerous Disney films including Freaky Friday, Escape to Witch Mountain, Pete's Dragon, and The Fox and the Hound.

Throughout Miller's time as president, he pushed the studio towards innovation by greenlighting groundbreaking projects like computer-animation sci-fi fantasy Tron and Tim Burton's stop-motion animated shorts Vincent and Frankenweenie. Miller also established Touchstone Pictures, which allowed the studio to produce films targeted towards adult audiences, and the Disney Channel, which gave the company access to television like never before. Sadly, Miller is mostly remembered for greenlighting one of the biggest disasters in Disney animation history.

The idea of adapting Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain, a five-volume fantasy series inspired by Welsh mythology, began back in 1971 when the studio first optioned the series for possible future use. After officially obtaining the film rights in 1973, the studio immediately began pre-production work, spearheaded by two members of Walt's Nine Old Men, Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas.

The pair genuinely viewed the property as the potential Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs of the next generation, with the studio even using veteran artist Mel Shaw's concept artwork for the newly-titled The Black Cauldron project in a recruitment flyer to attract new young talent to join the studio. Originally earmarked for a release in 1980, the project spent several years in development to condense the expansive storylines and characters of Alexander's saga.

But Shaw's concept art was ultimately a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it excited everyone at the studio to the point animators were openly bragging to journalists about the upcoming film. On the other, it made then-producer Miller extremely anxious the project was beyond the current capabilities of the junior animators. As such, in late 1978, the studio postponed the release of The Black Cauldron to Christmas 1984 to give the production and its animators more time to get it right.

When The Black Cauldron officially began production in 1980, Miller enlisted longtime Disney layout artist Joe Hale to serve as co-producer, given the now-President saw his responsibilities increase exponentially. Miller also hired experienced British screenwriter Rosemary Anne Sisson to work her magic on the screenplay. With the assistance of co-directors, Richard Rich and Ted Berman, Hale immediately began making drastic changes to the film. He abandoned the character designs of junior animator Tim Burton, citing Burton's vision as far too dark for Vale's desired aesthetic. By all accounts, Burton was so dejected, he never worked in traditional animation again, moving to stop-motion work instead.

Hale also clashed with John Musker and Ron Clements, who were soon removed from the project and reassigned to the other Disney project currently in development, The Great Mouse Detective. In an attempt to capture the Disney magic of the past, Hale turned to retired Disney animator and member of Walt's Nine Old Men, Milt Kahl to help assist with the character designs of the film's human characters. Working with the film's story team, Hale significantly revised much of the script to focus solely on the first two books of Alexander's series, leading to Sisson departing the project, citing "creative differences."

But the greatest change Hale made came in his approach to the film's villain, the Horned King, which had initially been designed by storyboard artist Vance Gery as a big-bellied, red-bearded Viking. Abandoning Gerry's concept designs, Hale transformed the Horned King into a skeletal creature with glowing red eyes, green, rotting flesh and two gnarled horns, with his role expanding to become the film's main antagonist.

After Miller viewed the initial pre-production work, his confidence in The Black Cauldron grew to the point he believed the film could be a major event release for the studio. As such, it was determined the film would be the first Disney animated title filmed in 70mm widescreen since . The layout department were issued new widescreen charts to use, which were inexplicably designed in the wrong width versus height ratio. The error wasn't discovered for weeks, forcing the team to adjust all the work they had completed at an enormous cost to the film's burgeoning budget.

The animation team employed the use of David W. Spencer's animation photo transfer process (APT) for the very first time on The Black Cauldron, which replaced the Xerox photocopying system Disney has used since the late 1950s. In short, APT allowed the rough animation to be photographed onto high-contrast film, with the resulting negative copied onto plastic cel sheets that transferred the exact lines and colours of the animation, eliminating the need for hand-inking. This allowed the character designs of The Black Cauldron to feature a mix of thin black outlines and softer coloured lines for the first time in decades. Spencer would be awarded a special technical achievement Academy Award in 1986 for his groundbreaking invention.

With the mid-80s bringing the birth of computer animation technology, a process which would soon revolutionise the entire animation industry, The Black Cauldron would stand as the first Disney animated feature film to incorporate computer-generated imagery. After discovering the production crew of The Great Mouse Detective were experimenting with the new technology, Hale insisted his team find a way to incorporate computer animation into their work. While only used sparingly, namely for the animation of bubbles and the titular cauldron itself, Hale's team were able to fulfil his wish.

In a bid to create a gimmick never before seen inside a movie theatre, Miller commissioned the animation and technology team to create a holographic moment during the "Cauldron-born" sequence, which would project the undead spirits in three dimensions inside the cinema. After a successful test screening, Miller was convinced this would make the film a must-see event. There was just one small problem; no cinema in the world could project such a sequence. To see Miller's vision come to life would require Disney outlaying a staggering amount of money to install new projection systems in cinemas across the globe. With the budget already careening out of control, the idea was soon abandoned.

Shortly after, all hell broke loose within the ranks of the Disney corporation. After years of failed takeover attempts from rival studios and corporations, many influential shareholders grew increasingly frustrated with Miller's leadership. In early 1984, just a few months away from the planned Christmas release of The Black Cauldron, Miller was ousted by a coup, led by fellow Disney family member Roy E. Disney, the son of Walt's brother Roy. With Miller gone, Michael Eisner was installed as the new CEO, Chairman of the Board, and head of the animation department, Frank Wells as the new President and COO, and Jeffrey Katzenberg as the new head of Walt Disney Pictures.

A new age of management had arrived, and the trio was determined to lead the Disney studio back to its former glory. At the time, the studio was ranked dead last at the box office among the major studios. Caring very little for animation, Katzenberg immediately focused his attention on Touchstone Pictures, with the studio soon releasing several hugely successful adult-orientated comedies which put the studio back on top. But there was still the problem of what to do with The Black Cauldron, whose release date was growing closer by the day.

In mid-1984, the studio executives gathered to view a now-infamous rough cut test screening of The Black Cauldron at the studio's private theaterette in Burbank, California, with the young animators waiting nervously to see their reaction. Much to their dismay, the response was nothing short of disastrous. Several young children fled the cinema in terror during the climactic "Cauldron-born" finale. Eisner was not enthused. Disney said very little. And Katzenberg was so appalled at what he had seen, he demanded certain frightening scenes be cut. When Hale balked at the idea, Katzenberg marched into the edit bay and began personally editing the film himself.

After a distressed Hale informed Eisner of what Katzenberg was doing to his film, Eisner ordered Katzenberg to stop, though he agreed the film could not be released in its current form, particularly the climax sequence, which Eisner deemed far too intense and frightening for younger audiences. As such, the release of The Black Cauldron was delayed to July 1985 so the film could be reworked, with twelve minutes of footage being cut and existing scenes being rewritten and reanimated. Regardless, the film still received a PG rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, marking the first time in history a Disney animated film would not be rated G.

The Black Cauldron was finally released on July 26, 1985, over five years after production initially began. While many critics praised its animation, most criticised the film's dull narrative and jarringly dark tone, which seemed completely at odds with its intended target audience. The response from the general public was nothing short of a disaster. The film took a middling $21.3 million at the U.S. box office and was quickly labelled a major flop. Just four weeks later, Disney pulled the film from cinemas and threw it deep in their vault where it would remain until a VHS release in 1998.

While the studio initially reported the film's budget to be somewhere around $25 million, it actually cost closer to $44 million, making it the most expensive animated film ever made at that time and one of Disney's most costly mistakes. While many feared this may be the final nail in the coffin of Disney animation (and it sure as hell could have been), Katzenberg took the loss as a sign the animation department had lost sight of the core values and designs of Disney's earlier films.

Resisting the urge to completely shut down the animation department and encouraged by the support of Roy, Katzenberg instead set about remodelling the way the animation studio functioned, pushing his team to develop stories more in line with the Disney classics of the past. This would lead to the eventual rebirth of Disney animation in the late 1980s and early 1990s. So, in a curious twist of fate, Disney's biggest disaster became the catalyst for one of its greatest success stories.

As impressively ambitious as The Black Cauldron was (and still is), it's not hard to see why it ultimately failed. With its darker themes and terrifying sequences, it simply didn't fit the Disney brand. Had the film been released by Touchstone Pictures, as we would see with the equally-twisted The Nightmare Before Christmas in 1993, perhaps it would have stood a better chance of success. By placing it alongside other Disney treasures filled with fairy tales and love stories made The Black Cauldron look positively ghastly by comparison.

On a visual level, there is nothing else like The Black Cauldron in Disney's entire canon. It's a masterwork of animation that was truly ahead of its time. As genuinely unsettling as it may be, the "Cauldron-born" sequence remains one of their most dazzling and terrifying creations to date. Without heading into spoiler territory, the ultimate fate of the Horned King is an indelible image that can still haunt your nightmares. And he stands as one of Disney's most disturbing and horrifying villains ever created.

However, the film falls flat on its face with its dull characters and flat storyline that leaves very little impression. As brilliantly designed as the Horned King may be, he ultimately isn't given all that much to do, with the villain mostly just sitting on his throne and ordering others to enact his bidding. Our hero Taran is petulant and irritable, while our heroine Princess Eilonwy is so disastrously forgettable, she currently stands as the only Disney princess character who hasn't been officially inducted into their Disney Princess line-up. And when your plot centres on a magical pig who can see the future (yes, a magical pig who can see the future), you know you're in trouble.

Look, you have to hand it to Miller, Hale, and their team of young animators who genuinely tried to create something deftly unique from a studio stuck in its ways. And, for the most part, they deliver on that promise. But, as Miller initially feared, their ambition was bigger than their talent. For all its visual splendours, The Black Cauldron seemingly forgets it needs an engaging plot and endearing characters to become the groundbreaking success it ultimately should have been.

Is The Black Cauldron a Disney Classic? In the annals of Disney history, The Black Cauldron certainly stands out for its brash animation and decidedly darker tones. It could have been a Disney Classic, but it's mostly an unfortunate mess.

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THE HOUSE OF MOUSE PROJECT - 'The Black Cauldron'

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The one that almost killed Disney animation. As the 1980s began, Walt Disney Pictures (yes, we've seen a name change) entered the decade under new leadership. For the first time since the death of Roy O.

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John Lasseter’s Toy Story was released in 1995. It ultimately shifted how animations would be created, before it was hand drawn but Toy Story showed what computer generated imagery could do. With it being computer generated, it “set a new benchmark for visual storytelling”. (2013). Along with that, Toy Story “featured major advancements in character and environment modelling. Woody alone utilised 700 motion controls in his face, while cloth, wood, and metallic surfaces displayed unprecedented realism.”  However despite all of this, there were two previous movies that Pixar made which laid the groundwork for Toy Story, they were Luxo Jr and Tin Toy. The success of Pixar’s Toy Story caused a large demand for CG cartoon features. (Cavalier, 2011, p.16). Lasseter proved that “CGI characters could express emotion and humour.” (Cavalier, 2011, p.16). Majority of movies in the early 90s featured CGI backgrounds. (Cavalier, 2011, p.16). Toy Story contains “1700 shots, each modelled, animated, texture-mapped, shaded and lighted with computer graphics running on Silicon Graphics workstation.” (Robertson, 1995). Toy Story was rendered on an 87-dual processor and 30 quad-processor providing 294 processors in total. (Robertson, 1995). The software used to create Toy Story is Renderman which was created by Pixar themselves. It was created in 1988 and its purpose was to make it easier for computers to create realistic images. Toy Story had a budget of $30 million dollars with the opening weekend making $29 million dollars. The domestic box office made $192 million dollars while also the worldwide box office grossed to $365 million dollars.

Henry Selik’s The Nightmare before Christmas was created using traditional frame to frame animation “with the realism of actual three-dimensional sets built and lit as in live-action.”. He filmed it using “black-and-white lighting techniques” with hard light. They also used ultraviolet lights and “animated practical chasers. The lenses they used to shoot usually ranged from 17mm to 12mm and at times used 15mm. “When all else failed, we used motion control to make the camera move out of the way between frames, and then reposition itself properly for each exposure.” (Kozachik, 2021). “More than 227 characters with elaborate articulating metal armature wireframes were custom designed.” (Bossert, 2020). There were seventy-four individual characters, six for Sally, eight Oogie Boogies and a dozen for Jack. Initial release reached to $50 million dollars however it had “eight domestic theatrical runs, and grossed $81.5 million.” (Lang, 2023).

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Cameron, J. Landau, J (Producer). James Cameron (Director). (2009). Avatar [Motion picture]. United States: 20th Century Fox.

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With the first featured film to incorporate special effects being done in 1895 and the first to incorporate CGI in 1973, the 2000’s was when movie producers really pushed and experimented with technological advances and techniques within the creation of films and entertainment. One of the most notable and historically significant movies to be produced using the development of technology was Avatar. The creation of Avatar was an extremely difficult and long process, “James Cameron's Avatar and production began in 2005, with 20th Century Fox pay for the movie.” (Screen Rant, 2023).

Avatar was not filmed the way in which movies are typically done, having a backdrop setup and the actors dressed in their roles, but instead was filmed in a jungle gym with all the actors wearing motion capture equipment, which tracked and captured body language each actor portrayed. Technology would then translate these motions into the computer system, where models of the final characters would be digitally added. James Cameron and his team also created a virtual camera which was hooked to Motion Builder, showing the filmographers what the virtual environment would look like in the final movie in real time. “From the skeleton, you now can drive a computer generated character and that image is then pumped out to me at the camera. When somebody is standing in front of the camera, I don’t see them, I see their character” (Daily Celebrity, 2018). James Cameron had created an entire virtual camera in order to perfectly visualize what the final movie was going to look like and took a massive step into the direction in which technology could aid the ultimate steps towards the future of CGI, animation creation and how these films/series would be made in the future. When creating the models for the Na’vi male and female characters, they were first sketched on paper to get a feel for the characters, and then digitally modelled using Z-Brush, meanwhile vehicles were modelled with Maya, XSI and 3ds Max.

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Disney, W. (Producer), Nathan Greno, Byron Howard (Director). (2010). Tangled [Motion Picture]. United States: Walt Disney Productions. 

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Within the late 2005, Disney had made the switch from 2D to 3D animation with their first 3D movie being Chicken Little. However, within 2010, Disney released one of their most notable and advanced movies within the CGI realm, being Tangled. Tangled had to use one the most complex and smartest team of CGI creators in order to correctly make Tangled without anything breaking as well as creating the beautiful movie that it was. One of the hardest things to animate within CGI models is the hair, “its complexity and the need to simulate individual strands or follicles. It requires attention to detail and advanced simulation techniques to achieve realistic results.” (Manobal, 2023).

Tangled really experimented with what they could achieve with hair in CGI technology, making Rapunzel's hair 70 feet long and running into issues of her hair glitching, fazing, breaking through objects due to the collision and physics added to every single strand of hair she had. “We were looking at our story and we kept going back to these geniuses, these technical geniuses that we work with, we kept going ‘ugh we’re gonna have to get it wet and ugh were going to have to use it like a bullwhip and it’s going to have to be used this way and that way and whatever’ and luckily again we work with these really smart, intelligent people that were able to figure out how to do all this stuff.” (Walts Disney Animation Studios, 2010).

When analyzing the strands for Rapunzel's 3D model, each strand is a unique bone within her model which all compile together to make the movement of their hair as smooth as possible. In order for their team to achieve this, each strand of hair was worked on individually and slowly were compiled together and added to the animated mix in order to complete the hair movement without issues of missing key strands or having strands moving the wrong way. “Hair is the thing in CG that they tell you is impossible. It’s like don’t do anything with hair because there’s you know it’s very very complicated they say you know they can be complicated, they say they can part the Red sea, they can make mountains come crashing down, they can blow stuff up, that’s all fine, but hair is deadly.” (Walts Disney Animation Studios, 2010).

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Lerdwichagul, L (Producer). Kevin Lerdwichagul, Matthew Peckham (Director). (2019). Meta Runner [Motion picture]. Australia: Glitch Productions.

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Towards the end of 2019, independent animation began a massive uproar, having more independent creators and artists creating industry quality animations, ranging from series to whole movies. Beginning the path of what would now be known as the most successful and industry changing company of animation, Meta Runner was the first independent series to have many eyes on the YouTube platform for its development and massive step up in animation.

The first animated series to appear on YouTube and be viewed by thousands was a series started with two brothers, Luke and Kevin, and dreams of making a 15 minute story, which then developed into 3 long series over the course of 5 years. With the technological advancements for animations becoming prominent and accessible to all creators interested in the industry with a passion, these brothers were able to set up a group up to 10 people in order to create their series, using industry standard software such as Autodesk MAYA and Unreal Engine 4 to create their models and movements.

Glitch Productions had also worked with motion capture devices to capture the fundamental actions of their characters movements, then adding extra movements and secondary actions to the other pieces of the characters manually with animators. “The animation style we go with is we motion capture the main movements and then we get our animators to animate the hands and the face. So basically with motion capture we have a base of animation that we can actually get our animators to sort of tweak and define but a lot of the animation is actually already done through the acting.” (Screen Australia, 2020).

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(October 22, 1938) "Invention of Xerography". https://www.aps.org/archives/publications/apsnews/200310/history.cfm

Armand Niculescu (2010). The making of Avatar - some juicy details. https://www.media-division.com/the-making-of-avatar-some-juicy-details/

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